Summary: Picard learns the hard way that business and romance don't mix.
Jean-Luc Picard is "a very private man". We don't see him connect to other people on a personal level very often. So it's a welcome change to have the captain meet and fall for a woman for once.
As an added bonus, his love-interest (Cmd. Daren) is written pretty well and we can buy him falling in love with her: She's brilliant, cultured, witty, outspoken and physically attractive enough. Plus Picard and her actually have common interests besides working on a starship - something Hollywood frequently ignores when matching up characters. The actual "falling in love"-moment is done very well, with Picard talking about his experience during "The Inner Light". Both the writing and acting are good and help to sell that scene.
When they get together, it's TNG's format which instantly raises alarm-bells with the audience: We know that the laws of a weekly TV-show won't allow Picard to fall for a guest-star character and stay with her. So right from their first kiss, we wonder how the writers will break up the newly formed relationship. And it's here where the plot falls apart.
After a false lead involving Picard's awkward treatment of her in public, the story goes for the obvious choice: Placing Picard in a position where he has to put his love-interest in a dangerous situation. It's done in such a rushed way that you can almost feel the writer's desperation to have everything "back to normal" by the end of the episode.
And it just doesn't ring true. Picard has put his senior officers into countless life-threatening situations before. Including Dr. Crusher who he clearly has feelings for. He never asked her or anyone else to apply for a transfer. Plus: How realistic is it for the head of stellar cartography to be part of a dangerous away mission like the one in the show (or in fact any dangerous away mission)? She struck me more as the brainy type, someone who'd run experiments in a laboratory. Not someone who'd routinely run around on dangerous planets or who'd get sent into a firefight.
To me, it would've been much more interesting if the writers had actually dared to keep Daren on the show for a couple of episodes. It would've broken the "reset everything for the next show"-routine and would have been a nice opportunity to explore the Picard-character as a private man.
As it is, the title of the show doesn't have any real meaning: What lesson did Picard learn? It's pretty standard knowledge that mixing business and romance can be tricky (although other characters like Riker don't seem to have a problem with it at all). And the way they both agree to end their relationship isn't earth-shattering either: Nobody really gets hurt and come next episode, the Daren-character is completely forgotten. So there are no real lessons or consequences here.
6/10
Jean-Luc Picard is "a very private man". We don't see him connect to other people on a personal level very often. So it's a welcome change to have the captain meet and fall for a woman for once.
As an added bonus, his love-interest (Cmd. Daren) is written pretty well and we can buy him falling in love with her: She's brilliant, cultured, witty, outspoken and physically attractive enough. Plus Picard and her actually have common interests besides working on a starship - something Hollywood frequently ignores when matching up characters. The actual "falling in love"-moment is done very well, with Picard talking about his experience during "The Inner Light". Both the writing and acting are good and help to sell that scene.
When they get together, it's TNG's format which instantly raises alarm-bells with the audience: We know that the laws of a weekly TV-show won't allow Picard to fall for a guest-star character and stay with her. So right from their first kiss, we wonder how the writers will break up the newly formed relationship. And it's here where the plot falls apart.
After a false lead involving Picard's awkward treatment of her in public, the story goes for the obvious choice: Placing Picard in a position where he has to put his love-interest in a dangerous situation. It's done in such a rushed way that you can almost feel the writer's desperation to have everything "back to normal" by the end of the episode.
And it just doesn't ring true. Picard has put his senior officers into countless life-threatening situations before. Including Dr. Crusher who he clearly has feelings for. He never asked her or anyone else to apply for a transfer. Plus: How realistic is it for the head of stellar cartography to be part of a dangerous away mission like the one in the show (or in fact any dangerous away mission)? She struck me more as the brainy type, someone who'd run experiments in a laboratory. Not someone who'd routinely run around on dangerous planets or who'd get sent into a firefight.
To me, it would've been much more interesting if the writers had actually dared to keep Daren on the show for a couple of episodes. It would've broken the "reset everything for the next show"-routine and would have been a nice opportunity to explore the Picard-character as a private man.
As it is, the title of the show doesn't have any real meaning: What lesson did Picard learn? It's pretty standard knowledge that mixing business and romance can be tricky (although other characters like Riker don't seem to have a problem with it at all). And the way they both agree to end their relationship isn't earth-shattering either: Nobody really gets hurt and come next episode, the Daren-character is completely forgotten. So there are no real lessons or consequences here.
6/10