Cheap Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 136: Chain of Command, Part I (Video) (LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole, Timothy Bond, David Carson, Chip Chalmers, Richard Compton, Robert Iscove) Price

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Customer Reviews of Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 136: Chain of Command, Part I

edge of your seat nail-biter
The Federation discovers a dubious plot by the Cardassians as they have several troop movements and rotations and nefarious dealings with other races. They have strong suspicions that they are developing a Metagenic weapon. Metagenic weapons are the epitome of biological warfare. When dropped onto a planet, they seek out, feed on and destroy anything with DNA - so all things with life are killed and gone. After a few weeks, the metagenic agent becomes inert, allowing those who deployed it to take over the planet - no hostile animal life, no people, just buildings and technology to take as they choose. <
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>Picard wrote the book on the types of emissions coming from the secret Cardassian base. Dr. Crusher is an expert on identifying and destroying metagenic organisms and Worf is a big guy, able to take one two Cardassians with one head-butt. <
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>Picard, Crusher and Worf train for days, without the crew's knowledge. By Federation order, Captain Jellico (Ronny Cox) captains the Enterprise. Starfleet probably has their counterpart to "Navy Seals," but instead they send some of the top officers from their flagship by themselves to take on such a task - a bit corny if you ask me. <
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>Jellico is a micromanager and worse, he doesn't explain to his new crew why he adds shift rotations or has to have certain things a certain way. He wants Picard's fish removed from the Ready Room - Picard is still onboard, but Jellico believes his fate is sealed, since it's unlikely Picard will survive his mission, even if he is successful in finding and destroying the weapon. <
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>Jellico makes the crew jumpy and annoyed - but other than Data, they are less than professional in their response. Geordi is a bit whiny - "but we'll have to work all around the clock!" They may be a research vessel, but they're also armed to the teeth for their various encounters... on occasion, their research vessel becomes a warship, but Geordi doesn't seem to remember that from previous battles or from his Starfleet Academy training. <
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>Counselor Troi tries to help Jellico see the error of his ways and he turns the tables on her - telling her since she's the expert, it's up to her to keep morale up, because he doesn't have the time to "have a honeymoon" with the crew... and then he tells her that she isn't dressed professionally (I must say, I had been thinking this for years!) and needs to wear a standard uniform... thus forever setting the course in which she wears professional attire on all shows. Hallelujah. Even still, Jellico is a jerk of the highest order. <
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>He expects everyone to obey without knowledge or questions and puts everyone in perplexing situations and makes the crew generally disdainful and uneasy around him. Jellico was chosen because he supposedly has so much experience with Cardassians, but his experience would appear more book knowledge than from real dealings - because as Troi is able to detect, he is far from sure of himself. <
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>As Jellico, Riker & Troi try to do a dance with Cardassians at the border, Picard's team of 3 (including himself) acquire a Ferengi transport to the Cardassian world supposedly storing the Metagenic weapon. They have to repel down caves and fend off giant alien bats. They find the supposed area where the weapon is held and suddenly they find themselves surrounded by Cardassians. It's a trap! <
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>Worf & Crusher are able to escape, but Picard is caught and brought to Gul Madred (superbly acted by David Warner). All Federation citizens know that to be interrogated by the Cardassians is a euphemism for torture and a cruel death. Picard steeles himself, preparing to be beaten & interrogated for Federation secrets when Madred explains that there never was a Metagenic weapon, but made it appear they did so they could capture Picard. But why? Is this a personal grudge? What does Gul Madred want from Picard? <
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>Will Jellico continue as captain of the Enterprise? Will their be a war with the Cardassian Empire after years of an uneasy peace? Will Jellico, obviously disgusted with Riker, have Riker demoted or transferred? Talk about a crazy shake-up! <
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>This episode has a million nuggets of awesome packed into every minute... but you won't know what happens until you see part II!

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Great Episode And Sad Showing For The Enterprise Crew
This two-parter was a terrific season-ending ST-TNG episode, featuring a duel with the Cardassians, Captain Picard in jeopardy and a new commander for the Star Ship Enterprise.

And the Enterprise crew really let us down. Rather than exhibiting military professionalism and backing to the hilt their new commander -- Capt. Jellico, magnificently portrayed by Ronny Cox -- they fought him every step of the way. The story had a strong emotional pull on the viewers, thus the obvious course was to sympathize with the crew's irritation at their new boss, whose personality was far different from that of Capt. Picard. However, that crew was placed on that ship to carry out orders issued by their captain, to the letter and spirit of his or her desires. Possibly their long association with Capt. Picard had made them too buddy-buddy with him, somewhat slack in their militarism, and weak in adapting to a personnel/command change.

Here's a new (though experienced) commander placed in charge of a crew whose former commander had been drafted for a special mission. Capt. Jellico too had a special mission, a head-to-head negotiation with hostile Cardassians. Rather than being completely free to concentrate on that mission, Capt. Jellico had to deal with the distractions of crew sensitivity and grudging cooperation, which extended to Executive Officer Riker's outright insubordination (for which he was quite properly relieved!). And Jellico was eminently appropriate in ordering Deanna to dress more professionally, rather than prancing around in her skin-tight slack-suit.

At first glance, combined with the history of being emotionally connected to the Enterprise crew, it could have been perceived that Capt. Jellico was being harsh and/or unfair -- but further thought, coupled with an understanding of how a military chain of command functions, illuminates only the fact that Riker, Deanna and the others truly reflected poorly upon Capt. Picard, who should have nurtured in them the ability to conform professionally to whatever martial situations they encountered. Instead, they acted like a bunch of whiny teenagers.

Capt. Jellico, upon his departure, told the crew it had been a privilege to serve with them. Later, however, I bet he subtly, quietly passed the word in his professional circle that the Enterprise command crew was a gaggle of spoiled brats, and working with any of them on a future assignment should probably be avoided. I believe that is what I would have done.

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Picard the Commando & Captain Jelico of the Enterprise
In anticipation of a Cardassian attempt to take over one of the disputed star systems on the border with the Federation, Starfleet not only removed Jean-Luc Picard from command of the Enterprise, they send him on a commando raid with Dr. Crusher and Worf. These two changes form the dominant threads of this two-part episode. Picard's replacement, Captain Edward Jelico of the USS Cairo, has been selected because he experience dealing with the Cardassians, having negotiated the current armistice (which is about to blow up in his face). Jelico seems aware of the awkward situation created by this sudden transfer, but then he proceeds to rub absolutely everybody on the Enterprise the wrong way by changing the ship's routines, from the number of shifts the crew works to what Troi gets to wear on the bridge. Meanwhile, Picard and his team practice for their mission, which is to confirm that the Cardassians are working with metagenic, a sort of biological neutron bomb that is genetically engineered to destroy all forms of DNA on a planet and then die off themselves, leaving the planet's infrastructure intact for the occupational force. However, when the team travels to Seltrice Three where the Cardassians are testing the theta band subspace carriers wave system necessarily to delivery the metagenics to their chosen target, they learn the lab does not exist. The rumors were just a trap to get the Cardassians what they really wanted: Jean-Luc Picard.

"Chain of Command, Part 1" certainly tosses the Enterprise upside down. Ronny Cox as Jelico not only does a marvelous job of aggravating Riker and the others, he also manages to convince you he knows what he is doing every step of the way despite your inclination to lean towards the status quo. This could be a cartoon character, but not in Cox's hands. The weakness of the episode is the contrivance by which only Jean-Luc Picard in the entire Federation knows enough about theta band emissions that he is sent off to do grunt work on some back planet. However, this is certainly one time where the payoff is worth the problems with the set-up. When the episode ends with Gul Madred looking forward to breaking Picard, you know the conclusion of this episode is going to be something special.