UNIFICATION


Shades of "Redemption" part one!

As in "Redemption", "Unification" part one presents us with reams and reams
of plot exposition, and very little dramatic action en route to the
predictable cliffhanger - where a well-known actor steps out of the shadows
to utter a melodramatic phrase.  And the words "To Be Continued" flash on
our screens.

Okay, so, um, where's the beef, people?

Let's look at what we've got:  Spock is on Romulus, a possible defection.  All
well and good.  The driving force behind the episode is therefore the
question, "What's he up to?"  Unfortunately, the episode spends forty-five
minutes (plus commercials) telling us very, very little about what he IS up to.

So what do we know?  Well, Pardek is a "peacenik" - considered a radical 
within the Romulan Empire - so it's a good guess that Spock is there to achieve
some sort of peace between the Romulans and... someone.  But this was revealed
in the episode's only meaty dramatic scene - the one between Picard and Sarek -
and a brief subsequent exchange between Picard and Data.  What does the rest
of the episode buy us?  Not much.

Picard-and-Data-go-to-Romulus was basically inconsequential, with some humor
and virtually nothing else.  Very straight, simple stuff.  The only thing of
interest here is how *different* the pair look disguised as Romulans (and
Brent Spiner sounds NOTHING like you'd expect a Romulan to sound).

Ditto for the Riker-and-company-visit-the-junkyard bit.  They find that some
key elements are missing, and that a mysterious - and very powerful - ship may
be responsible.  Unfortunately, that ship is destroyed, leading them to a dead
end.  So what's the point?  Well, the humor here worked much better than the
Picard/Data stuff did, but otherwise I fail to see what we got out of it.  Lots
of plot exposition, maybe.

The centerpiece of the episode, and for my money the only truly great scene
in the episode, was the one featuring Picard and Sarek.  Mark Leonard truly
outdid himself here, finely walking the line between logic and insanity.
He and Patrick Stewart really work well together, I think.  It's a shame we
won't get to see them do so again.  This was a joy to behold.

The only other point I feel is worth noting is the intriguing (intentional?) 
homages by this episode to "Balance Of Terror" and "The Enterprise Incident".
We see homage to the former when the Enterprise shuts down its engines to lie 
silently in wait in a field of debris for the enemy vessel to show itself, and 
we see homage to the latter in the question of Spock's "defection" to the 
Romulans and the disguise of the Enterprise's captain to infiltrate Romulan 
society.  Fascinating, captain.

On the whole, part one of "Unification" suffered from the same downfall that
part one of "Redemption" did: It all seemed like setup for the cliffhanger, and
there just wasn't enough meat there to really keep me engaged in the plot,
though the high humor density was diverting (if only partly successful).
Hopefully the conclusion will be better, and tie together all the seemingly
pointless sequences in this episode.  But I hope even more fervently that
it won't overreach itself like "Redemption II" did.

Grade: C

SEASON FIVE AT A GLANCE:
Redemption II: B-
Darmok: A+
Ensign Ro: C
Silicon Avatar: C-
Disaster: B-
The Game: B-
Unification (part one): C
---
Total Points: 18
Season Average: 2.571  ( B- )
(Fall of 0.096 from previous episode.)