FAMILY


Now *this* was a good episode!

There's really not much bad I can say about it.  Okay, Worf's mother was
a little too stereotypical and overacted, but then again she was largely
there for comic relief.  Okay, Picard's decision to return to the
Enterprise had somewhat vague motivations, but one could just as easily argue
that he knew where he belonged all along, and he just wanted some moral
support and understanding, to get back in touch with things and make sure
he was still cared about.

But anyway, to look at each of the storylines individually:

PICARD:
This was, of course, mainly Picard's story.  Having been largely shoved
aside as a character in "The Best Of Both Worlds", and yet being the
character who would feel the effects of that story most strongly and
quickly, he had to be focused upon quickly.  And they did it well.

His discussion with his nephew when he first arrived well illustrated how
detached he was from everything, how tired he was.  From there, his
gradual opening up, first to his sister-in-law, then to his friend,
and then to his brother, was efficiently and effectively handled.  Unlike
many TNG episode, there was no wasted time, no useless scenes.

His brother Robert is a perfect example of the sort of thing I hope does
NOT go away when we enter the 24th century:  His resentment of Picard, his
stubbornness, his anger, these are all qualities which TNG all too often
seems to ignore in its portrayal of the Enterprise's "big happy family",
and yet they are essential not only to realistic and interesting character
interaction, but to human motivation.  I think few would doubt that the
Picard family land is anything but a marvelous achievement, and yet it seems
at least partly true that Robert worked at it for so long to show that
Picard's way of life isn't the only way, or even the best way.

At any rate, a character who's this stubborn, who's crass, envious and
basically in many ways the antithesis of Picard is a welcome one on this
show.

The fight scene at the end and its denoument was handled well.  It's clear
that while Robert does not "like" Picard, he does respect him, and he cares
for him, in his own way.  He also realizes that Picard is not perfect,
something which was obviously quite a blow to Picard as well (he wasn't
just traumatized over the fact that he COULDN'T do anything against the
Borg, but that he SHOULD have been able to).  By the end of the story they
seem to have come to some sort of uneasy truce, no doubt partly due to
the fact that Picard is leaving soon.

All the loose ends were tied up, with, of course, the provision that Picard
would be dealing with his trama for some time to come, and the whole was
dramatically and emotionally satisfying, at least for this viewer.

WORF:
There's less to say about this storyline, since it was obviously intended at
least in part for comic relief.  Even this, which is usually something the
TNG writers don't have a clue how to handle, was well-done.  Ya gotta love
Worf's dad Sergei shouting to Picard that he has blueprints of the
Enterprise as the doors close on him!

The only drawback I saw to this story was when Sergei confronted LaForge. I
had the distinct impression that he had some bad news or something regarding
Worf, when it was ultimately revealed that he was "merely" concerned about
Worf's feeling about being cast out of Klingon society and was asking
Geordi about this (or that's how I read it, anyway).  A little more
foreshadowing seemed to have built up than was warranted or necessary.
Instead of Sergei saying "I'd like to talk to you...about my son", I think
a line like "I'd like to ASK you something about Worf", and maybe even a
piece of dialogue where he actually asks the question, would have better
served the purposes of the thread.

Well, okay, if one wants to pick more nits, I felt the scene between
Guinan and Worf's parents began abruptly, but it rapidly settled down into
something worthwhile.

At any rate, while Worf's parents were somewhat cliched, and honesty of
the characters did seem to me to come through when they weren't being
hammed up for yuks.  Both were clearly quite serious and good people when
it came to important matters.  Once again, there wasn't any wasted space
in dealing with them, and since the thread was mostly a low-tension one,
no big deal needed to be made of the final confrontation between Worf and
them regarding the main matters at hand.

WESLEY:
This was of course the least (time-wise) of the three plot threads, and that
of course is because there wasn't much to do with it.  Once again, we were
given a no-muss, no-fuss plot with, what, three scenes total?  Considering
it all paid off in the clever monologue from Jack Crusher (having been
well set-up beforehand), there's not too much else to say.  I think anyone
who saw the episode and has a knowledge of Wesley's background (maybe just
the former) can appreciate the final scene.

Of course, one wonders just why they're dealing with this now when Wesley
is supposed to be leaving the show soon... or has that turned out to be a
false rumor?


The episode seems to basically have been a collection of smaller plots someone
had been turning over in his head, and they all turned out fairly well, I
thought.  Fine acting, a good script, excellent characterization (which
more than makes up for last week's episode, I think!), decent direction,
and a good closing scene.  (I wouldn't be surprised if Robert's son goes
into the wine-making business, though.  If nothing else, it would be a nice
twist.)

If only they'd hire someone who knows how to compose interesting music!  Once
again, the incidental score was entirely forgettable.

On a scale of 1-to-10, I'd give this one a solid 9.  It's one of the better
ones they've turned out.