WHY WE LIKE IT: Captain Vadic. Worf!
WHY WE DON'T: Don't paternity tests exist in the future?
REVIEW: Just who is Jack Crusher? It's not as interesting a question as the show thinks it is, or at least, not at this point (let's just say that they're going to extend the mystery quite a lot over the next half dozen episodes). A flashback to when Fenris Rangers sold him out to the "Marked Woman" shows us a rebel doctor who helps people in spite of all the rules and who knows how things work enough to bribe the right people and so on. It's given him a reputation as a con man - therefore putting in question whether he really IS Beverly's son early on - but not a big enough fish for bounty hunters of the Shrike's calibre. Riker is immediately convinced he's Picard's son, but the Admiral doesn't want to face it. One clue is Jack's unusually heartfelt "It was nice meeting you" as he thinks they will all die; another is his use of "mon ami" as if respecting his heritage (in a way Picard hardly ever does, but how's a wayward son to know?). This doesn't just point to him being Picard's son, but also puts the lie to his rejection of that father.
But all things Jack kind of evaporate when you consider the introduction of Amanda Plummer as Marked Woman, AKA Captain Vadic of the Shrike, a massive, toothy ship with all the weapons you can imagine and so you probably can't until it's too late. Of all the nostalgia moves this season gets up to, this one I can readily accept. The TOS crew went out with Christopher Plummer as a particularly entertaining villain. TNG's is about to go out on that actor's daughter playing just as fun an antagonist. What a performance! As amusing as it is creepy, I just love it. Vadic may just turn out to be one of the best and most memorable villains in the canon. And her ship is pretty cool too, such as when it throws the disabled medical ship at the Titan with its tractor beam. Hey, Titan's no slouch despite it being an "exploratory ship" commanded by someone Vadic claims has a problematic psych profile. Seven needs to rouse Shaw to action - leading to a cool arrival for the Titan - but once there, he stays. He argues for giving Jack up, but he gives Picard and Riker every chance, and when Picard decides to stand and fight (or hide in the nebula, I guess), he sighs a lot, but lets it happen. I think he WANTS to do the right thing, but finds the responsibility of caring for 500 souls overwhelming. Of course, there is the question of whether Picard should be making this call at all. Jack is more than ready to give himself up to save his mother and the ship. Picard, on the other hand, makes his decision based on Beverly giving him a guilty look that tells him Jack is indeed his son. And that's what he gives Shaw as a reason to put everyone else in danger. And Shaw seems to respond to that as if, yeah, I guess we can't give him up. Oh, because it's personal to one particular person? Whatever happened to duty and sacrifice?
I question it, but the show knows what it's doing (possibly) because there's such a contrast to Raffi's storyline. She failed to stop a terrorist attack and according to her handler, Starfleet wants her to back down. She doesn't believe for a second that the Romulan rebel who stands accused was responsible for the weapon theft and decides to keep investigating. She goes to her ex-husband who still has criminal connections (so I'm not sure if he should lord her life style over her all that much) and he gives her a choice: He can put in a word with their estranged son (estranged from HER), or he can lead her to the weapons broker she seeks (Sneed, one of your uglier Ferengi, who has abominably small lobes). She chooses duty and sacrifice over family in a way Picard couldn't. This converges with her addiction backstory because, as Jae implies, for her, duty, obsession, addiction, are all connected. Sneed even makes her take drugs to "prove" she isn't Starfleet, but it's a clever ploy to essentially poison her with a truth serum. She's ready to go all the way to keep people safe. The show never really addresses this contrast however. Neither character is in the wrong, though both get pushback from their allies. In this case, Raffi is saved by Worf, her secret handler (that "warrior" business in the first episode was an early clue), who hasn't lost it, not at all. He slashes through all the gangsters and decapitates Sneed. Well... there go the answers. But Worf!
LESSON: Who's to say accents are genetic?
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: It's all fairly interesting, but Captain Vadic raises the episode's watchability considerably.
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