Star Trek: The Next Generation 6.11

Chain of Command - Part 2

Gul Madred interrogates Captain Picard. He uses drugs and other means to extract what he can from Picard but that isn't enough. He continues to torture Picard in other ways. At one point he flips a switch and four lights come on. Gul Madred asks Picard how many lights he sees. Picard says that he sees four lights. Madred insists that there are five lights. Picard insists that he only sees four.

The Cardassian representatives with whom Captain Jellicoe is negotiating, reveals that they have captured Captain Picard. Commander Riker wants to mount a rescue mission but Captain Jellicoe says no. Captain Jellicoe forces Commander Riker to step down from his role as first officer for disagreeing with him.

Doctor Crusher and Lieutenant Worf make their way back to the Enterprise. Jellicoe figures out what the Cardassians are up to with some help from Data and Geordi. Commander Riker and Lieutenant Commander La Forge pilot a shuttle on a mission that catches the Cardassians unaware.

The Cardassians are forced to withdraw without attacking the Federation base on Minos Korva, as they intended. They also return Captain Picard.

Thoughts

David Warner played the part of Gul Madred. The thing I think of when I think of David Warner is Tron (1982) but he's been in plenty of other things I have seen. He was also in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). He played different characters in both of those films. I'm almost certain that I saw Star Trek VI and I may have seen Star Trek V, but if I did then it was most likely over 25 years ago.

On some level I wasn't sure what to make of the four lights that were supposed to be five lights. My guess as I watched the episode was that this was Gul Madred's way trying to of break Picard. The fact that he couldn't get Picard to say that there were five lights meant that he lost.

I thought that the way that the Enterprise pulled a victory out of nothing and nowhere very much felt like it wasn't earned. I understand that there was only so much time in this episode but I wanted more than what I got. They use mines that they manage to attach to Cardassian ships undetected, which seems a little ridiculous in and of itself, then they remotely detonate a mine when it has already been stated that there is heavy interference in the area.

I was expecting something a little more dramatic in the torture scenes with Picard. I wasn't expecting something more graphic but something a little more decisive in the end.

I like this episode but it isn't everything that I wanted it to be. I was a little disappointed that Captain Jellicoe got to be such a numbskull for most of the story and then got to be a hero of sorts in the end. I think what I really wanted was to see both Jellicoe and Gul Madred taken down a notch.