Admiral Pressman joins Enterprise for a cloak and dagger mission.
I enjoyed this episode for how it explores the themes of duty and loyalty and the exchanges between Riker, Picard and Pressman.
The plot is mostly character-driven by Riker and Pressman and unfolds in a pretty compelling way. It does slightly shoehorn some new history into Riker's backstory for the sake of the story and themes, but it still works thanks to the actors performances. It also focuses on a treaty the federation signed up to with some dubious strategic thinking, however as this is Trek, honouring the terms of a peace treaty is far more important than the short-sightedness of chasing a military advantage. I don't take television seriously enough to have any problems with the plausibility of this happening in reality.
Jonathan Frakes and Terry O'Quinn are strong in their depiction of crewmen with a dark shared history, particularly O'Quinn who injects fantastic energy and charisma into all scenes. When Picard shares stage the charisma levels go through the roof as Patrick Stewart's presence seems to add a reassuring quality that whatever happened to Pegasus won't be permitted to jeopardise Enterprise.
I enjoyed this episode for how it explores the themes of duty and loyalty and the exchanges between Riker, Picard and Pressman.
The plot is mostly character-driven by Riker and Pressman and unfolds in a pretty compelling way. It does slightly shoehorn some new history into Riker's backstory for the sake of the story and themes, but it still works thanks to the actors performances. It also focuses on a treaty the federation signed up to with some dubious strategic thinking, however as this is Trek, honouring the terms of a peace treaty is far more important than the short-sightedness of chasing a military advantage. I don't take television seriously enough to have any problems with the plausibility of this happening in reality.
Jonathan Frakes and Terry O'Quinn are strong in their depiction of crewmen with a dark shared history, particularly O'Quinn who injects fantastic energy and charisma into all scenes. When Picard shares stage the charisma levels go through the roof as Patrick Stewart's presence seems to add a reassuring quality that whatever happened to Pegasus won't be permitted to jeopardise Enterprise.