Star Trek 243: Chain of Command, Part I

243. Chain of Command, Part I

FORMULA: The Enterprise Incident + Ensign Ro

WHY WE LIKE IT: Jellico is a real hardass.

WHY WE DON'T: Senior staff on a black ops mission? Why??

REVIEW: The start of one of Trek's very best two-parters has a great premise - what if the Enterprise was handed over to another captain, one with a very different style? Edward Jellico, as played by Ronnie Cox, the delicious bastard Dick Jones in Robocop, is a harsh taskmaster, doesn't like explaining himself, is a stickler for decorum, and has his own catch phrase: "Get it done." In a sense, he's a conservative to Picard's liberal, and the crew doesn't like to be brusqued this way.

Well, too bad, because I like him a lot! He's a great psychologist (in the Kirk mold) and knows exactly how to deal with the Cardassians (first look at their much improved DS9 uniforms). He's well prepared, no-nonsense, and has a quick mind. You know what? Not only is it true that Troi should be wearing a damn uniform, it suits her very well, thank you! Riker is, frankly, unprofessional and insubordinate. I'm not saying that's out of character for him, but he's nevertheless in the wrong here.

There are some flaws in this episode, of course, from the minor (Tormin V looks just like the "masterpiece society", which was kinda meant to be unique) to the slightly repulsive (Crusher pleasuring a Ferengi), to the major plot hole (is it really smart to send three senior officers on a special ops mission? The justification is pretty slim, and the mission isn't a lot more than crawling through the usual caves), but seeing as this leads into one whopper of an episode and has all those great Jellico scenes, they're easy to overlook.

LESSON: Always put your best foot forward... except in the bear trap.

REWATCHABILITY - High: You don't want to miss the next one, so you don't want to miss how they got there.