WHY WE LIKE IT: The changelings are back!
WHY WE DON'T: Picard vs. Riker.
REVIEW: The emotional heart of this episode is Picard accepting that Jack is his son, and coming to terms with the decision Beverly took out of his hands. As a mirror, we get a flashback to the birth of Riker's first child (tragic in hindsight), and the 17-second turbolift ride between the Titan's bridge and its sickbay during that difficult birth. In the present day, Jack will be in dire medical straights too, and Picard will take that exact ride (which I do believe director Jonathan Frakes timed at exactly 17 seconds, door to door) and "become a father". But a lot happens before that. Notably, Picard confronts Beverly about her hiding a son from him, and it's rather well written (I find there are a lot of great lines in this one, both in the drama department, and in the comedy/punch the air stuff of the Raffi/Worf subplot). Her contention is that Picard was always going to be the target of attacks and that Jack would become collateral damage (in fact, she's convinced that's what's happening now), that she could protect her child, but not his. She does say she encouraged him to meet his father when he came of age, but he decided not to (the next episode will have more on this). There's also a thin explanation for his accent, take it for what it is. Oh, and there's also the first instance of Jack hallucinating veins or roots. Listen close and the voice says "Connect the branches. Find me." Whatever that means, at this point.
Meanwhile, the Titan and the Shrike play a cat and mouse game in a nebula that may not be a nebula if the former's science officer is to be believed. The Shrike keeps finding the Titan though, and demonstrates a Portal weapon that keeps it from running away, and eventually turns its own torpedoed against it. In one particular attack, Captain Shaw is severely wounded and leaves Riker in command - in his very rude way, he accuses him of having put them in this position, so has to get them out of it - but he also gives Jack the clue as to how the Shrike might be following the ship. But like Shaw, the Titan is rather adverse to Jack (its doctor is shown to be less competent than Beverly - feels manufactured - but doesn't want their help, all the security guards block his way), so he gets Seven out of confined quarters to help. They do find a gas leak and a sabotaged computer that puts them on the trail of a changeling aboard, but not before that same saboteur (on second viewing, you can see him spying on Picard and Riker before they ever board the Titan, and generally being sinister or a jerk) explodes a bomb that prevents the ship from going to warp and forcing a confrontation with the Shrike. Throughout the whole ordeal, Riker and his "Number One" Picard are at odds in a way I find most unpleasant. Not because there can't be a conflict between two TNG crew members, but rather because their styles and attitudes have been reversed. One of my favorite things about Riker is that he's a maverick space battle strategist, often improvising some crazy maneuver. Not to say Picard has never done this (the Picard Maneuver, for example), but it's a hallmark of Riker throughout TNG and its movies. Furthermore, if there's one thing we remember Picard for, it's diplomacy. So having Picard as the war hawk consistently advising attack against an overpowered foe while Riker meekly tries to hide and run away, feels wrong. Picard is especially unreasonable given that Riker KNOWS this ship much better than he does, and indeed, it all goes to hell because Riker listened to him. I'm reminded of that ugly moment in First Contact where he calls Worf a coward, when here he accuses Will of being fearful of loss, throwing his son's death in his face. None of this feels particularly in character andv I really don't like it.
To discuss the changelings' return, we should first look at the Raffi/Worf storyline (which includes, if I must protest, one of those nostalgic callbacks I find so hack in this series, to the Berlioz piece in First Contact). Raffi discovers her handler was Worf all along, and that this is a kinder, gentler, more integrated Worf (he references the Rozhenkos in his family line, for example). A Worf who drinks chamomile tea, who meditates and is "working on himself". He's just as funny as before, but because he's flipping expectations, hers and ours. He seems to dismiss Raffi - "You have served me well" - but he's actually making her his equal partner, servant no longer. They will become one of the best things about this series, greatly redeeming Raffi in my eyes. This good cop/bad cop combo grabs the guy who paid off the Ferengi, and though he looks a heck of a lot like a young Jeffrey Combs, he's actually a grown-up Thomas Dekker (if there was ever a Star Trek name...) who I mention because he played one of Picard's children in the Nexus (Generations). Are they gonna bring back Jason Vigo from Bloodlines too?! Anyway, this terrorist seems to be suffering from withdrawal, but it turns out he's a changeling too, and really really needs to get to his bucket (though a later episode seems to imply that these changelings can keep their shape... maybe it's merely, "longer"). The new, much more organic effect for their true form is exposed, though one can hope the Great Link still looks golden, and these ones have been away from the Link too long. Worf knew this could happen, apparently, because Odo let him know a faction left the Link because they didn't agree to stop the war, but that must have been long ago. I guess they joined with Vadic (going by later revelations and trying to make the timeline work), but I'm getting ahead of myself (though if one is paying attention, the sparks given off when it's killed by a phaser are the same we saw from Vadic's men). Anyway, between Picard, Seven and the changelings (and the suggestion that Worf is equally a DS9 character), this season is really giving us a sequel to the entire ERA (TNG-DS9-VOY), and I'm there for it.
LESSON: Beheadings are on Wednesdays, but Worf makes exceptions on any given Monday.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: Great dialog and love the villains' reveal, but I don't buy the Picard-Riker conflict.
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