Riker and Picard are shown to have decades’ worth of mutual respect and friendship, and suddenly it disappears in a matter of minutes over their mutual poor decision making. They are decorated Starfleet officers who know how to operate under stress. Here, they are painted as impulsive, unprofessional children. The writing seemed to serve the action rather than the characters.
It doesn’t get any better in sick bay either, when Beverly starts inserting herself into treating injured officers, despite not being a member of Starfleet anymore and without the permission of the Titan’s chief medical officer. How would Beverly have reacted if a stranger had come on board the Enterprise and started using sick bay equipment and talking down to her about treatment?
None of the original “Next Generation” crew members come off well in this episode.
That is, except for Worf.
Worf, acting on a tip from Odo in the Great Link, has been — secretly, apparently — working for Starfleet to expose an incoming changeling attack. Changelings are a fun callback for “Trek,” a sleek way to bridge the universes of “Deep Space Nine” — where Michael Dorn did much of his best work as Worf — and “The Next Generation.” (Odo was played wonderfully on “Deep Space Nine” by René Auberjonois, who died in 2019. Worf and Odo were ideal friends on the station — both outsiders who preferred structure above all else. It’s no surprise they remained close even after Odo returned to the Great Link.)
“I have learned of late to access calm as much as fire,” Worf tells Raffi. (Later in the episode, Worf murders a captured changeling, and in a previous episode, he beheaded someone, so maybe he’s accessing the wrong internal channels.)
It’s unclear how Raffi got wrapped up in this, or why she is the right person to be an intelligence agent. She frequently shows herself to be hasty, much as Worf used to be. During the interrogation, Raffi repeatedly threatens violence — again, much as Worf used to do — and perhaps that’s the aim of the writers in pairing the two of them.
The reintroduction of the changelings and seeing Beverly and Picard reunite made the episode worth watching for me — but the Titan is now sinking in space, and I’m concerned the story line will sink with it.
Sopan Deb
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