1:[5,#b],6:[2,#i]@1“Chain of Command, Part I”@2Next Generation episode #136
Production No.: 236
Aired: Week of December 14, 1992
Stardate: 46357.4
Directed by Robert Scheerer
Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
Story by Frank Abatemarco
GUEST CAST
Captain Edward Jellico: Ronny Cox
Vice-Admiral Alynna Nechayev: Natalija Nogulich
Gul Lemec: John Durbin
DaiMon Solok: Lou Wagner
Gul Madred: David Warner
Computer Voice: Majel Barrett
Shipboard routine is jolted with the sudden reassignment of Picard, Crusher, and Worf for a classified mission and the arrival of Captain Edward Jellico. Riker and La Forge in particular have a tough time getting used to the gruff Jellico, who is as hard on his crew as he is with the Cardassians he must negotiate with during a time of heightened tensions.
Meanwhile, the reassigned trio train and obtain transport for a secret search-and-destroy raid on the otherwise deserted Celtris III, where Starfleet fears the Cardassians are developing ­ genetically engineered viruses that can wipe out all life in their path.
At a meeting intended to ease tensions, Jellico enrages Gul Lemec and his party with ploys at intimidation until the Cardassians reveal that they know of Picard’s secret mission and walk out.
Meanwhile, the raiders discover that they’ve walked into a trap when they find nothing and realize the metagenics story is a hoax. Worf and Crusher are forced to escape without Picard, who is captured in the ambush and faces a Cardassian interrogator who promises to reward Picard’s silence with death.
____________________
Aside from setting up a terrific battle of wills in its conclusion, this story also introduced the news of the Cardassians’ Bajoran withdrawal to set up the events of DS9’s pilot, airing less than a month later. In fact, Ron Moore revealed that the two-parter was meant to be a crossover (with the Solok scene written word-for-word for DS9 resident Ferengi Quark) until someone realized it would air before DS9 was out!
Moore said he took most interest in developing Jellico ­ whose name Abatemarco had lifted from the British fleet commander at World War I’s Battle of Jutland. To make Jellico a mix of personable as well as irritating and “just different” qualities, Moore added aspects such as displaying his son’s art and ditching Livingston, the ready-room fish (though it played more harshly than intended). A scene cut to save time, similar to one revealing his early warmth shown Riker, had Jellico tell Geordi that he’d played rugby at the Academy with the chief engineer’s former captain Zimbata from the U.S.S. Victory (“Elementary, Dear Data”, “Identity Crisis”). But again, the man who’d helped negotiate the Cardassian-UFP armistice only two years earlier (“The Wounded”) also carried a “captain on the bridge” formality and ordered “Get it done,” his own catchline contrasting Picard’s “Make it so.”
Another contrast with Picard, Jellico’s request that Troi wear a standard uniform while on duty, made good a goal that Moore had wanted to try and Sirtis was all too happy to oblige. With the disliked cheerleader-like “skant” uniform from the pilot a dim memory, she began here to alternate the standard uniform with her other outfits in future episodes.
Ronny Cox, who these days puts more time into his first love as a burgeoning country singer than acting, once played nice guys on the short-lived Apple’s Way and Cop Rock series and the movie Deliverance but may be best known for his stern types: Eddie Murphy’s boss in the Beverly Hills Cop films and the villainous executives in Robocop and Total Recall. Often combining his music with guest-starring roles ­ such as an L.A. Law segment with fellow country songster Pam Tillis ­ he offers here a unique mix of qualities that, despite a first glance, lived up to Moore’s intent.
Actor Wagner later appeared as another Ferengi, Krax, in the first-season DS9 segment “The Nagus,” while Durbin, as had castmate Marc Alaimo, emerged from under the alien masks of “Lonely Among Us” to play a Cardassian. Nogulich’s admiral would surface again in “Descent” and throughout various crises (“Journey’s End”, “Preemptive Strike”, and DS9’s “The Maquis, Part II’ and “The Search, Part II”), while ­ like Selar and Barclay ­ another past crew member would return by mention only: tactical officer McDowell (“The Next Phase”). There’s also a glimpse into Starfleet training when Jellico is able to reassign a third of Geordi’s engineers to security.
For trivia’s sake: Riker graduated eighth in his Starfleet class of 2357 (as seen in “Conundrum”) and has been decorated five times, while Picard is the first on TNG to get a serial number, SP-937-215, and be seen in a ship command-transfer ceremony; his marathon running is also recalled (“The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2”). The formal name of Cardassia for the aliens’ homeworld is introduced, although “Cardassian Union” is used instead of “Cardassian Empire” here for the only time on either TNG (“Ensign Ro”) or DS9. Their hand weapon debuted here, described by Sternbach as a “copper-colored banana” and firing a purple beam, while their would-be metagenic weapon harkens back to the 1980’s “clean” neutron bombs once hailed for killing armies while leaving infrastructure intact.
Seen before: the black commando fatigues (“The Outcast”), the shuttle Feynman shown as the original model from stock footage of being launched (“Unnatural Selection”), and the Torman IV matte painting, originally the Genome Colony (“The Masterpiece Society”).
~1:[5,#b],6:[2,#i]@1“Chain of Command, Part II”@2Next Generation episode #137
Production No.: 237
Aired: Week of December 14, 1992
Stardate: 46360.8
Directed by Les Landau
Written by Frank Abatemarco
GUEST CAST
Captain Edward Jellico: Ronny Cox
Gul Lemec: John Durbin
Gul Madred: David Warner
Jil Orra: Heather Lauren Olson
Computer Voice: Majel Barrett
Captured after the failed Celtris III raid, Picard tells all he knows about Starfleet motives in the area under effects of a truth drug. But his captor, Gul Madred, isn’t satisfied and presses on with horrendous torture, both physical and psychological, to break the captain’s will.
Meanwhile, after retrieving Worf and Dr. Crusher, new Enterprise captain Jellico refuses Riker’s request for a rescue mission of Picard until they learn he is still alive. The new captain relieves Riker of duty after he opposes Jellico’s trade admission to the raid for Picard’s release. Then Jellico, over his senior staff’s objections ­ orders a first strike readied on the theory that the Celtris III matter portends a Cardassian invasion.
Meanwhile, despite his beatings and captivity, Picard eventually holds his own in his battles of will with Gul Madred, his interrogator, and even wins a few, to the Cardassians’ chagrin.
Aboard ship, Jellico swallows his pride to ask Riker to lead a mine-laying mission to stave of war, and uses the mines to bargain for Picard’s release when the outraged Cardassians realize what has happened.
Having never succumbed to his captor, a weary Picard is returned and his command restored.
____________________
Abatemarco had dug into the research books on everything from Amnesty International to the psychology of torturers, their methods, and their survivors for what he hoped would be a grander opus than the rushed “Man of the People”. As the scope of the project swelled (the episode was designed as a money-saver, and a bigger final confrontation between opposing ships had to be scrapped, Moore said), Piller and Berman suggested a two-parter, and Amnesty supporter Patrick Stewart threw his support into it ­ later to grow concerned when the inevitable rewrites came across and pleasing that its intensity not be diluted.
Of course it wasn’t and the story ­ the first of two to be expanded to a two-parter this season ­ became a tour de force for Stewart in what many believed to be his most intense and focused acting on the series to date, if not in his career. (A method actor, Stewart, was at his insistance, nude during the one interrogation scene but performed that scene on a closed set.) “There’s just nothing better than putting Patrick Stewart alone in a room with one other good actor and really letting him go for an hour,” noted Piller, who took out a full-page ad in Variety to back an unsuccessful Emmy nomination for the actor. “It is not possible that there are five better male actors in this town than Patrick Stewart!” Taylor agreed. “It’s probably his finest performance ­ he literally threw himself, physically and mentally, into that.”
Warner, of course, included among his long career guest-starring roles in both the fifth and sixth Trek features ­ where his roles as the human St. John Talbot and the ill-fated Klingon Chancellor Gorkon combined here to make him another one of the few who have played multiple races in the Trek universe.
For the one-on-one scenes between Madred and Picard, designer Richard James provided a sparse interrogation-room set that was almost theatrical in its stark simplicity, with pools of light and tight lighting designed to provide the focus needed. He had originally planned a grand staircase for its entrance with a floating ceiling piece from which the captor would lord it over the captive, a la Man of La Mancha, but budget cuts dropped that back to the massive doors shown and the simple manacles, often reused (“Lower Decks”, DS9).
We are also given the up-by-the-military-bootstrap history of the Cardassians, see that Riker’s cabin is Deck 9/Room 0912, and discover that the equivalent of today’s Geneva accords on war is the Milky Way’s “Seldonis IV Convention” ­ called the “Selonis” convention by Riker, thanks to a script typo. An unaired reference gives the Minos Korva colony a population of two million, while we do hear that Picard’s mother’s maiden name is “Gessard” and that the family sang after Sunday dinner ­ a nice touch setting up the captain’s occasional lapses into song (“Family”, “Final Mission”).
Picard’s old archaeology professor, Richard Galen, comes calling with a rare gift and a tempting offer: an archaeological hunt on a theory that, if proven true, would have galaxy-wide impact.
Galen is bitter and leaves the starship when Picard turns him down, but he regrets his tone only hours later as he lies dying, mortally wounded after his ship is raided.
Puzzled over what Galen was up to, Picard retraces their stops at empty or long-dead planets until the answer is realized: the “clues” he’d collected are from prehistoric DNA samples which fit into an overall pattern ­ but for what?
The missing pieces that would provide the answer arrive as a surprise: Cardassians and Klingons who are chasing Galen’s work too. When Picard convinces them all that they all must pool their clues or fail, they find that the patterns link up to indicate star systems. The last DNA clue site is decoded but, due to a suspected double-cross, the Cardassians are fed the wrong destination and they take the bait.
At the site, the Enterprise crew discovers not only the last DNA needed and the nonplussed Cardassians, but a cloaked Romulan ship. While the others squabble, Picard and Crusher quietly add the sample and trigger the message: words from a long-dead race that had seeded the codes as a legacy across the various races’ home planets ­ not a weapon or energy source, but a tie of commonality for the old foes to ponder.
____________________
Dubbed the most “Roddenberryesque” of TNG episodes by the staff, this background fan’s delight pays homage to the unified view of life that the Great Bird infused his universe with. But writer Ron Moore wryly said that the episode might as well have taken its name from the year-and-a-half pursuit of a workable script from Menosky’s original premise, concocted way back during the infamous Mexican staff retreat from Season 5. That idea, more in the manic comic mood of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, was constantly being rewritten, disapproved as “too cartoony” and shelved ­ until the desperation point of the season set in and premises became scarce. Jeri Taylor joked that she got yet another try at the show by letting Menosky take a crack at a draft while her boss was trying to lure the former staffer to work on DS9 during one of his infrequent visits; in one of Piller’s biggest about-faces, she recalled, he was so excited about the revised story he wanted to make it the season’s cliffhanger!
Inspired by Carl Sagan’s “Contact” story about a clue to the nature of the universe being discovered in an long calculation of pi, Moore said Menosky suggested using the gene code and DNA as message conduit. What finally sold Berman and Piller on the idea was the addition of the emotional stakes for Picard with his mentor’s death: the original story opened with a Vulcan scientist not personally tied to anyone who sends a distress call that he’s been surrounded by Klingon, Romulan, and Ferengi ships. “Riker beams over into this cramped little tiny shuttle, where everyone’s yelling and trying to find things and the guy’s dead,” Moore recalled. “And then they zip away, and we’re off and running with Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It would have been a lot more comedic.”
Frakes, in his second TNG outing behind the camera this year and sixth overall, strikes the right balance between mystery and science and keeps all of Trek’s familiar aliens recognizable yet individualistic. It was a historic tale he drew: the first time that Star Trek’s humanoids, Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians appear together in the same scene, much less the same episode. (The budget-trimmed Ferengi and the written-out Vulcan would have made the party even bigger.) The Yridians, of course, were introduced in the guise of Jaglom Shrek just this season (“Birthright, Part I”); the wasplike ship debuting here was designed by Rick Sternbach and built by John Goodson, moonlighting from his ILM job. Among the other new looks are a sampling tube that connects directly to the tricorder and the first-ever view of a Cardassian female (in command, no less) and their transporter beam: free-form amber sparkles and arcs.
More than ever, we learn why archaeology is important to Picard (“Contagion”, “Qpid”, “Rascals”, “Chain of Command, Part II”, “Gambit”, “Bloodlines”) and hear again his regrets about his father (“Tapestry”, “Bloodlines”), while Beverly is seen right at home in Picard’s quarters for their morning tea (“Qpid,” “Perfect Mate”, “Lessons”, “The Chase”, “Attached”). At this point, seventeen aboard the Enterprise are said to come from non-UFP worlds; a short, funny scene cut for time would have established Bolius IX (“Allegiance”) as one of them, with barber Mott (“Ensign Ro”, “Unification I”, but spelled with two t’s here) among those whose DNA is sampled by Beverly. As hinted at previously (“Starship Mine”), we learn that the ship’s constant and rapid use of high warp drive is not usual. Galen mentions both the Satarran (“Conundrum”) and, though its connection to DS9 is unspecified, a “Deep Space 4,” the first record of a sister station; he indicates it on a map as somewhere beyond the Romulan Empire on the edge of explored space.
As a nod to really long-term Star Trek background fans, Moore said he’d considered but intentionally didn’t specify that the DNA-coding aliens here were the Preservers, the unseen race from 1969’s “The Paradise Syndrome” said to be seeding humanoids around the galaxy, so as to keep the suspense. “But this could be them and be internally consistent,” he added. At least Salome Jens is no galactic stranger; she later turned up as one of Odo’s shapeshifter species on DS9’s “The Search.”
~1:[3,#b],4:[2,#i]@1“Cost of Living”@2Next Generation episode #120
Production No.: 220
Aired: Week of April 20, 1992
Stardate: 45733.6
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Written by Peter Allan Fields
GUEST CAST
Lwaxana Troi: Majel Barrett
Alexander: Brian Bonsall
Campio: Tony Jay
Mr. Homm: Carel Struyken
Young Man: David Oliver
Juggler: Albie Selznick
Erko: Patrick Cronin
Young Woman: Tracey D’Arcy
Poet: George Edie
First Learner: Christopher Halste
After the Enterprise helps destroy a rogue asteroid, Troi’s mother Lwaxana beams aboard and makes a surprise announcement: she is getting married ­ to a man she has never met!
As if worrying about her mother wasn’t enough, Troi must also help Worf deal with his increasingly rebellious young son, Alexander. Matters worsen when Lwaxana persuades the young Klingon to join her in a holodeck mud bath amid a colony of artists and freethinkers, frustrating both Worf and Deanna.
Lwaxana reveals she will forgo the traditional nude Betazoid wedding at the request of her fiance, Campio ­ whom she is shocked to find is stuffy and old.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of ship’s systems are beginning to fail. The problem is eventually traced to metallic parasites the ship picked up after destroying the asteroid they were feeding on. In a race against time, Data barely gets the ship back to the creatures’ home field and beams them away before life support breaks down, leaving him the only crew member conscious.
Disaster is soon averted, and Lwaxana is free to proceed with her wedding plans. But to her fiance’s surprise, and her daughter’s delight, Lwaxana turns up at the ceremony wearing basic Betazoid ­ that is, in the buff ­ sending Campio running for home. Deanna then coaxes Worf to join her mother and Alexander for one last visit to the mud bath.
____________________
After coming on staff to fill the slot that Herb Wright’s departure opened up, Peter Allan Fields created his second Lwaxana Troi tale in two years ­ one that truly revealed the character’s “Auntie Mame” roots by pairing her up with a “corruptible” Alexander, confounding Worf and Troi alike. In fact, Michael Piller revealed that for a time the staff had toyed with the idea of a Troi-Worf relationship and had been building little moments into scripts to support that if it happened: their mutual concern with Alexander, for one, and Worf making Deanna the boy’s guardian if he died during surgery in “Ethics”).
Tony Jay’s role here as the elderly and distant Campio was not nearly as powerful as Paracelsus, the tunnel-dwelling villian he played in Beauty and the Beast. And only in a show like TNG could Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi talk to Majel Barrett as the voice of the Enterprise computer; that moment happens outside the holodeck before her first visit with the “little warrior.”
The Wind Dancer balloon effect was simple to create, Legato explained. After filming a bowling ball without holes as if it were bouncing around, the face of a made-up clown was shot on a camera following in sync with the ball’s white highlight spot, and the two images were mated.
