The Enterprise remains at Earth for repairs following its encounter with the Borg. Captain Picard uses the opportunity to visit his old family home in France, and the estranged brother he hasn't seen in more than a decade. Meanwhile, Worf's adoptive parents come aboard the ship for a visit, and Beverly Crusher discovers a message recorded long ago by her husband Jack to give to their son Wesley.
This episode essentially turns "The Best of Both Worlds" into a trilogy, directly following the story of the season opener. But that wasn't the original plan. After finishing the first episode of the new season, the production went on to film two other episodes. But things just weren't sitting well with show runner Michael Piller. He went to producer Rick Berman and argued that for a show that prided itself on realistic storytelling, they'd done a very unrealistic thing: having Picard essentially be "raped" by the Borg and then being just fine by the next episode. Yes, the series was episodic by nature, but this felt like a case where an exception was warranted.
Berman agreed, but with a condition: the writers would need to come up with some kind of sci-fi plot to take place on the Enterprise as Picard went to visit his family. Piller accepted the condition, and went to work with his writers to come up with something. They concocted and rejected a number of ideas, including one that ultimately became the basis of the later episode "Remember Me," but everything clashed too much with the introspective Picard storyline. So finally, Berman relented, and let the writers do the only episode of the entire series with no sci-fi Macguffin. The hour was fleshed out with additional family related stories for Worf and the Crushers, and thus was born the most character-driven episode of the series. The episode was shepherded through production and rearranged to run right after the season premiere, holding the other two intervening episodes for later.
As you would expect in an episode whose story comes entirely from the characters themselves, continuity abounds. In addition to Picard's pivotal encounter with the Borg, the episode also references Worf's holodeck workout routine, his love of prune juice, and his discommendation from last season. The events of the episode "Pen Pals" are mentioned too. (It's not quite a continuity slam dunk, though. Riker expresses surprise that Worf would not want to see his parents, when he himself was even less happy about seeing his own father in a previous episode. I guess he came around.)
Even more important are the new things we learn about the characters in this hour. We meet the human parents Worf has mentioned before. (It seems very fitting somehow that if humans were to raise a Klingon, they'd be Russian.) Chief O'Brien gets both a first AND middle name (Miles Edward). We meet Picard's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew -- and, in the case of that nephew, see that Jean-Luc has come a long way since the days of the stiff captain who couldn't relate to children.
Each of the three story lines has great moments. I'll start with what to me is the weakest, the story of the recording left by Jack Crusher for his son Wesley. Gates McFadden is excellent in the scene where she finds the message. You can sense her grief and loss, not raw or recent, but still there in a way that I think explains why she never remarried after nearly two decades. The subtext comes through strongly: Jack was her one true love. Unfortunately, the recording itself doesn't pay off as well in my mind. There's really nothing Jack of the past can say to give closure to young Wesley, of course... but playing that honestly can't help but leave the storyline feeling incomplete.
The Worf storyline is wonderful. The love of his parents is deeply touching, as they find a way to tell their closed-off son that he doesn't have to bear his embarrassment and dishonor alone. The scene between his parents and Guinan is particularly great. The "home is where the heart is" sentiment isn't especially profound, but it is expressed in a different way that plays the emotion well.
Then there's the Picard storyline. The story of two brothers, estranged and opposite, is a familiar narrative construct, but the way this story is put together leaves interesting room for interpretation. Jeremy Kemp gives a nuanced performance as Robert Picard that makes me wonder just how much he knows about Jean-Luc's circumstances before his arrival. I can easily imagine events not depicted within the episode, Robert hearing that the brother he hasn't seen in over a decade wants to visit, and wondering "why now?" The way Robert goads Picard throughout the episode seems more than the mean-spirited ribbbing of an older brother; it feels like he knows there's a truth that needs to be exposed, and that taunting is the only way Robert knows how to bring it out. When it does come out, Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Picard's anguish is profound.
Other observations:
- At the start of the episode, Troi becomes the voice of Michael Piller arguing to Rick Berman. She says the very words that must have been said in the real-life argument over having this episode: that there's no way Picard could achieve complete recovery from his ordeal so quickly.
- This is the one episode of the entire series in which Brent Spiner does not appear. That said, an exploration of Data's family was soon to follow in the episode "Brothers" (which had already been filmed at the time this episode went before the cameras).
- There are also no scenes set on the bridge in this episode.
- We've seen Worf's quarters before this episode, and the wacky sculpture he keeps by his door. In this episode, it turns out it's not a sculpture at all, but a chair!
- Another great moment for guest star Jeremy Kemp is the goodbye hug between Robert and Jean-Luc. So much is said without words.
- It's great that the last moment of this episode is not aboard the ship, but with Picard's family on Earth, and about young Rene's ambitions to become a starship captain. That said, it's very sad to know the fate of these characters. In the movie Star Trek: Generations, we would learn that the entire family we met here was killed in a fire. And worse, it seems of trivial importance to that movie's narrative (or maybe it's just that the movie itself is rather weak).
Although this episode is a quiet one, it's also a strong one. I give it an A-.
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