THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS PART 2 OVERVIEW: Well, it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't too great either. I found it to be a big letdown from part one. To elaborate: RIKER: The Riker plotline, involving his indecision over whether or not he should accept his own command and his struggle with Shelby, was basically thrown out the window. The conclusion of this thread was a waste of the potential the set-up in part one showed: Riker not only doesn't make a decision about his future, but he says it's "no one else's business" (or something like that). This, of course, is fecal matter. It's OUR business, because we're watching the show and we have a right to know! The writer(s) managed to write their way out of their trap (unsuccessfully, I think) by simply avoiding it altogether, which is a colossal cop-out. The fact that the ship he was offered - the Melbourne (right?) - was destroyed in the battle with the Borg is irrelevant. Not only are we told that the fleet will be rebuilt within a year (40 ships within a year?? Holy cow! They must have amazingly efficient shipyards in the Federation!), but one would think that the officer who led his ship to victory against a foe which, to all appearances, was about to decimate the capital of the Federation would have his pick of any damn ship in the fleet he wanted, regardless of *who* was commanding it right now. Okay, maybe that's a *bit* unrealistic, but not much. Riker probably has the best chance any officer in Starfleet could ever have for career advancement, and as a viewer, I expect to be informed why he decides to stay on the Enteprise if he does (or, rather, when he does). Did anyone else find Riker's assumption of command contrived? I thought his encounter with Guinan was about as subtle as a mack truck, though it had a couple nice lines and a nice bit of irony in that Riker *didn't* "let Picard go". Indeed, in part because he didn't, they were able to beat the Borg. Still, meetings about who's going to be Riker's first officer and maudlin remorse scenes about Picard we can do without. We're mature individuals; we know what Picard meant to him; it was more than amply shown in part one. That time would have been better spent covering up minor plot deficiencies and developing characters. I also felt it was clear from the outset that Shelby would be appointed first officer, because she was most qualified, especially since it amounted to basically a field appointment only (and that was clear even before Picard was rescued, I think). I didn't find her decision to simply leave the Enterprise especially believable. It might have been improved if she had had some important reassignment on Earth by her superiors which basically took the choice of how to pursue her ambitions out of her hands. THE BORG: Well, the doomsday weapon didn't work, which I guess was no big surprise, overall, though it was kind of anticlimactic. The resolution of the Borg problem was fairly well handled, but it was basically a science fiction puzzle. Characterization seemed to fall by the wayside to get all of the plot into 50 minutes. Everyone acted in character, yes, but we didn't really gain any new insights into any of the characters that we hadn't known by the end of part one, nor did any of the characters (except, perhaps, Shelby, and her not especially smoothly or plausibly) develop any. But anyway, I didn't have any real problems with the steps taken to beat the Borg. None of them seemed flagrantly, or even very, unbelievable. It worked for me. I was a bit disappointed in that the ultimate solution to the Borg came from Picard and Data. I would rather have seen Riker make a larger contribution to the solution since, as I observed about part one, the story was basically his from the beginning. Putting more of the credit for the solution on the other characters I think diluted the dramatic effectiveness of the Riker plotline even more. It may have been a bit more realistic (though not necessarily), but it was in my opinion crippling to the dramatic effectiveness of the story. On the other hand, the tension was generally handled pretty well, though not as well as in part one, due to the weak characterization. The first several minutes were nicely tension-filled in themselves, though the change in pacing after the Borg's escape diffused this a bit. SHORT TAKES - GOOD BITS: The cinematography was well-done. I especially remember the scene where Data and Worf's shuttlecraft leaves the Enterprise with the view of the Enterprise in the background, from a decidedly unusual angle. Also, the top-view shot of Locutius being operated upon early on provided some variety that is all too often not seen in modern TV and film. Also, the handling of Locutius' viewing of the Enterprise's attack was very effective, largely thanks to Patrick Stewart's acting, but also thanks to some clever filming. The Admiral's comment about how Picard would never help the enemy was nice, because, of course, he did, however, unwillingly. It's good that the creators are realizing that the human spirit can be overcome. It's realistic, and it made for good drama. And it took substantial outside help (from Data) for Picard to finally start breaking his chains. Even so, it seems from the ending and the next-week teaser that he's going to be a bit in recovering from his ordeal. Picard seems to be the character most likely to develop as a result of this story, strangely enough, since it began, as I said, as a Riker story. Best line of the episode: When asked how much he remembers of being a Borg, Picard says "All of it." It showed, too. Well done. What the heck were those things around Mars that the Borg ship shot down? Missiles? Well, whatever, but they and the reference to planetary defense systems was also a nice injection of intelligent planning, both by Starfleet and by the writers. Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Locutius, from his conversations with Riker to his mannerisms, were excellent. But then, what else would one expect? I guess we know now why they didn't beam anti-matter on board the Borg ship: >From the looks of the "anti-matter spread" the saucer section fired, anti- matter isn't quite as powerful as we'd originally been led to believe. Ah, well. SHORT TAKES - BAD BITS: The use of stock footage of Borg falling over when Data and Worf shot them was extremely distracting. The music was some of the strongest TNG has ever seen, but I found it still quite forgettable. Only the mournful wail at the very end of the episode as Picard looked out over Earth remains in my mind. I think what TNG needs is to develop some distinctive character or situational themes, as many TV shows have or had, and use them more often (hopefully avoiding the overkill that sometimes occurred in TOS, though) to lend some continuity and overall flavor to the instrumental aspect of the show. A few trumpet fanfares now and then, for instance, could lend the show some added color. There were some bits I found extremely implausible, the first one being when Locutius was being operated on early in the episode and his skin was turned white. How in the world did they do that? No explanations are given and the scene defied common sense. The fact that when the entire Borg ship went into "regeneration" mode, it suddenly decided to self destruct seemed rather silly. No attempt at even a theory is given for why it would do this. Of course, it saves the writers from having to come up with things Starfleet can do with a huge, disabled Borg starship... Also, Picard suddenly snapping out of his Borgification after the Borg ship's destruction was not only implausible, but seemed to contradict all that had been said about the change before. By all rights, he should have just disintegrated, or whatever Borg cut off from their guiding subspace frequencies do. No explanations or theories are presented. Even a "Picard's indominable human will overcomes the might of the machine" explanation, though extremely lame, would have been a step up. The shots of the decimated Federation fleet were nice, but too brief. It almost seemed like they cost too much to produce for long periods of time. It seemed like their budget was showing, for a change. The Borg proved to be remarkably stupid by not running from the Enterprise when it separated and started attacking. The Borg had nothing to gain from the fight; why bother? Also, are their sensors really so poor that they can't detect a shuttlecraft moving inside their defense field? Unlikely. CONCLUSION: This was a decent little adventure story, but not really any more. The first part, however, WAS more, a lot more, and that's why this episode was such a let-down for me. It didn't follow up adequately on any of the character development issues from the first part, which were what interested me the most in the first place - I just saw the Borg as a sort of plot device, and didn't have as tight a plot, since there were many little holes. It wasn't a disaster, but it was still a disappointment.