S6E10 & S6E11 - Chain of Command

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dnaphil
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S6E10 & S6E11 - Chain of Command

Post by dnaphil »

I selected this episode for its continued world-building of the Cardassians as well as it's a great story.

We see further development of the Cardassians and their issues with the borders between them and the Federation. This will provide background when we get to DS9.

There is a lot that goes on in these two episodes.

First, we meet Adm. Nechayev. She will be a reoccurring minor character here and in early DS9. She is not the most likable Admiral in Starfleet and is a problem for Picard as she is his commanding officer.

But if Nechayev was a problem. Hold on because we meet Captain Jellico. The writers do nothing to make this character likable and honestly, within minutes everyone dislikes him. He even puts Troi into a normal uniform. The nerve.

Making him unlikeable was intentional and plays great in the overall story. Overall he winds up figuring out what is going on and rescuing Picard, but he makes no friends along the way. By the time he leaves everyone but Data has disdain for him.

The story has two solid, intertwined arcs. Jellico is in tense negotiations with the Cardassians over broader disputes, while Picard is lured into a trap in order to capture and interrogate him.

The interrogrator Gul Madred is exceptional. Calm, cruel, exacting. Patrick Stewart's acting in this is top notch.

This episode also coined the phrase, "There are four lights!".

The last scene of the episode is one of the deepest, where Picard confesses to Troi that at the end, he did see five lights.
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RobAbrazado
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Re: S6E10 & S6E11 - Chain of Command

Post by RobAbrazado »

This episode, specifically Picard's experiences with a Cardassian interrogator, is nothing short of iconic. As Phil noted, tremendous performance by Patrick Stewart. There's really not a lot I can say about that -- haunting scenes of both torture and defiance.

Jellico is another one of those characters that I think is divisive in the fandom. I do totally get why he is unlikeable to the crew of the Enterprise, but at the same time, I'm not sure I completely dislike him as a viewer. He is confident and no-nonsense, and seen from his perspective, he's got a huge job to do and huge shoes to fill, and he knows the kind of crew and situation he's being thrust into, so I get why he wants to come in and immediately (and unequivocally) establish his command role. I don't...enjoy his way of thinking? But I understand his methods and motivations.
dnaphil wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:47 pm He even puts Troi into a normal uniform. The nerve.
I actually wanted to touch on this, because this is part of the overdue Troi arc that I enjoy, despite it coming so late in the series. Back when we discussed "Disaster," I mentioned that Troi's experience in command was the start of good things for her, and I think Jellico's influence was another part of that progress. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that even after Jellico leaves the Enterprise, Troi (for the rest of the show) continues to wear a standard uniform. I think that's pretty big! This arc culminates, to me, in a later episode that I'm not sure we'll get to in Watch Club, but again (like with the "Family"/"Rascals" casting), I'll try to remember to come back to this when we get there. :)

Two other things I wanted to call out. One, in any discussion of this episode, I think it always bears mentioning that the whole Picard torture experience -- down to the "four lights" and the psychological fallout at the end -- is lifted straight out of George Orwell's 1984. No spoilers, but the end of that book casts a pretty severe light on Picard's experiences here and on the Cardassians, or maybe just specifically Gul Madred, I don't know. But this was one of those hints to me that the Cardassians were going to be something special as adversaries to the Federation. We'll probably get to this more in DS9, but it's long been my belief that what the Cardassians actually became were what earlier writers had wanted the Romulans to be.

The second thing, similarly a kind of metatextual referencing, was that Jellico was played by Ronny Cox, who definitely has been in a ton of stuff, but to a young me watching TNG, he was most notably the super-sinister corporate lord Dick Jones in RoboCop. I don't know if the casting choice there was meant to pull in that cultural baggage, but whether or not it was intentional, it 100% worked on me; my brain pinged him as untrustworthy as soon as I laid eyes on him. And that may actually be why I don't ultimately find Jellico that objectionable. To me, he did his job and did it well, and he didn't earn the shitty "first" impression I had of him just because of one of the actor's previous roles. :) It's just funny to me how the brain works sometimes, particularly mine with the consumption of media.
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Jared Rascher
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Re: S6E10 & S6E11 - Chain of Command

Post by Jared Rascher »

Another thing that you can start to see with the Cardassians is how the writers were starting to hint at some real-world history. The Cardassians had an economy that crashed, and to "save" their society, they became a fascist society that enslaved and victimized another culture to help revitalize their own.

While it's a common well to return to, for a Star Trek historical reference, it was actually pretty subtle.

I generally like Troi's contribution way better after she started wearing a regular uniform, but I think it's more of a "meta" thing, because I think that was the visual cue that the writers were actually being a little more conscious of what to do with her character.

Rob missed the watch party where I pointed out that Jellico had to kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake.

The Cardassians and the Romulans seem to occupy a similar space in Star Trek, but there is something creepier about the Cardassians, because I think we saw more of their detached machinations, while we have more statements about what Romulans are like, versus seeing them do something, for example, as vicious as Picard's interrogation.
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