“The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”
Written by Michael Piller
Directed by Cliff Bole
Season 4, Episode 1
Original air date: September 24, 1990
Star date: 44001.4
Mission summary
RIKER: Mr. Worf… Fire.
Mr. Worf fires… And not a heck of a lot happens. That’s embarrassing, but it can happen to anyone. In fact, they don’t even scratch the Borg cube, but Enterprise sustains damage from the massive power drain; Locutus’ knowledge of Picard’s former ship and crew has prepared the Borg to deal with them. Deeming the crippled Enterprise unworthy of further attention, the Borg vessel resumes its course for Sector 001 — Earth.
As the Starfleet armada gathers at Wolf 359 for a showdown with the Borg, Admiral Hanson debriefs Enterprise on their scuffle with the Borg, pronounces Picard a “casualty of war,” and gives Riker a field commission to captain. The crew hurries through repairs and tries to come up with new tools to use against the Borg. Meanwhile, Locutus receives some upgrades of his own, including a Swiss Army attachment for his right hand. A single tear drifts down his cheek, a hint that Picard is still in there somewhere, and all too aware of what is being done to him.
A quick, scrambled message from Hanson at Wolf 359 tells Captain Riker that the battle is not going well. He takes care of a little housekeeping — selecting Commander Shelby to serve as his first officer — then solicits suggestions on how to defeat the Borg when they arrive at the battlefield. For the moment, all they have are phasers that automatically cycle their frequencies to prevent the Borg from adapting to them.
Riker’s having trouble adapting to Picard’s absence, until Guinan makes a rare appearance in the captain’s ready room to deliver her keen insight, whether he wants to hear it or not.
GUINAN: You’re going have to do something you don’t want to do. You have to let go of Picard.
RIKER: Maybe you haven’t heard. I tried to kill him yesterday.
GUINAN: You tried to kill whatever that is on the Borg ship. Not Picard. Picard is still here with us in this room. If he had died, it would be easier. But he didn’t. They took him from us a piece at a time. Did he ever tell you why we’re so close?
RIKER: No.
GUINAN: Well, then let me just our relationship is beyond friendship, beyond family. And I will let him go. And you must do the same. There can only be one captain.
RIKER: It’s not that simple. This was his crew. He wrote the book on this ship.
GUINAN: And the Borg know everything he knows. It’s time to throw that book away. You must let him go, Riker. It’s the only way to beat him. The only way to save him. And that is now your chair. Captain.
Riker sits at Picard’s desk, but he can’t enjoy the executive chair for long because they’ve arrived at Wolf 359… And it’s a graveyard. Every ship that engaged the Borg there has been destroyed. Enterprise is on her own.
Fortunately, Riker is ready to take decisive action. They pick up the Borg’s trail and pursue it to Earth and implement a plan that hopefully Locutus won’t be able to anticipate. It isn’t long before they implement a two-phase attack: They separate the saucer section and attack with the drive section. Though Locutus, familiar with this abandoned attack plan, initially ignores the saucer, it launches what looks like harmless fireworks (an antimatter spread) to mask an approaching shuttle, with Data and Word aboard. Undetected, they slip past the Borg’s electromagnetic field and beam onto the cube, where they re-kidnap their Borgified captain. They beam back to the shuttle, slip out of range of the field, and are transported back to Enterprise just as the Borg destroy their shuttle.
The Borg bug out again, on their way to Earth, leaving their new spokesman behind. Dr. Crusher assesses the modifications to his body, but Riker hopes that Picard can tell them as much about the Borg as he’s told them about Enterprise. He doesn’t seem willing to cooperate though.
PICARD: A futile maneuver. Incorrect strategy, Number One. To risk your ship and crew to retrieve only one man. Picard would never have approved. You underestimate us if you believe this abduction is any concern. There is no need for apprehension. I intend no harm. No harm. I will continue, aboard this ship, to speak for the Borg, while they continue without further diversion to Sector zero zero one, where they will force your unconditional surrender.
Data detects signals passing between Locutus and the Borg ship, his link to their collective. They’re reluctant to block the signals to sever his connection, worried that it will kill him instantly, so Data suggests another approach: He will try to connect to the Borg operating system using his positronic brain.
The Borg ship forges ahead toward Earth, a seemingly unstoppable force, while Data successfully hacks into their systems. He determines that their consciousness is divided into subsystems that correspond to functions such as defense and navigation. If he can get root access to one of them, he can send a new command to them, such as “deactivate your weapons.”
Troi realizes that Captain Picard is regaining some mental control, as the Borg try and fail to disconnect him from the collective. Data fails to subvert that connection to gain access to their high level systems, but Picard reaches out and makes contact, with one simple word: “Sleep.” Data correctly identifies this not as a wish, but a suggestion, and works on accessing the Borg regeneration subcommands.
Riker is prepared to ram the ship into the Borg cube as a last ditch effort to save Earth, but Data comes through at the last minute and the Borg disengages its assault. They’ve gone to sleep, and the malfunction prompts a feedback loop that results in the cube blowing itself up.
Free of his link to the Borg, Picard slowly starts to return to himself.
CRUSHER: Life signs are stable. The DNA around the microcircuit fibre implants is returning to normal.
TROI: How do you feel?
PICARD: Almost human. With just a bit of a headache.
CRUSHER: We’ll get you to Sickbay. We won’t have any trouble getting these implants out now.
RIKER: How much do you remember?
PICARD: Everything. Including some brilliantly unorthodox strategy from a former first officer of mine.
The assimilation of Earth was averted, but there are still a lot of pieces to pick up. Shelby departs Enterprise to head up a task force to rebuild the fleet. Riker finally lets everyone know that whether or not he takes his own command is no one’s business but his own. And Enterprise is due for a refit at Earth Station McKinley.
Alone in his ready room, Picard becomes caught up in recollections of his traumatic ordeal. Clearly troubled, he stares out the window… Some of his wounds will take more than bandages to heal.
Analysis
“The Best of Both Worlds” is a tough act to follow, particularly after several months of speculation, anticipation, and hype. On its own, Part II doesn’t quite hold up, but how could it, really? After practically writing themselves into a corner at the end of season 3, the fourth season picks up right where they left off—but the immediate conclusion to the cliffhanger is rather disappointing. They fire on the Borg, and Picard, but nothing happens.
The preceding episode was grounded in Riker’s angst over his career and his conflict with the ambitious Shelby, but now circumstances force them to play nice, and they actually work well together. There is so much going on in this episode, and time is so short, the crew’s responses to the almost certain loss of their captain is limited to brief, glum expressions. There isn’t even any debate that they should try to launch another rescue, though that’s essentially what they end up doing.
The episode is overtly about moving on, as expressed through Guinan’s recommendation to Riker that he “let go.” The message seems to be that he has to give up on Picard, only he does the opposite by recovering the captain. Is this the first time Guinan has been wrong about something? Or is she applying some clever reverse psychology that she learned in bartending school?
She may have just been trying to give Riker the motivation and the encouragement to act on his own, without second guessing himself or trying to live up to the captain’s high standards. Note that she boldly sits in Picard’s chair, perhaps to show that it’s no big deal, or to symbolically answer Riker’s question to the empty seat a moment before: “What would you do?” As the person arguably closest to Picard (for vague, mysterious, and slightly suggestive reasons!), and the person he goes to for advice, it’s as if she’s speaking for him.
Perhaps by telling Riker to let go, she’s offering some career advice as well, suggesting that Riker is holding on to Enterprise and his relationships there too much? Well, he doesn’t listen to that either.
The idea of giving up their captain for dead really needs more time for each of the characters to struggle with, but the relentless pacing affords few moments for them to reflect on the death of their own. Besides, it turns out that they need to use Picard to win the day, and it’s clear they never really have given up the hope that they can get him back, mind and body.
However, Riker does undergo a remarkable transformation following Guinan’s pep talk. He sits in Picard’s chair in his ready room—only for a few seconds—but when he stands up, he straightens his uniform shirt like Picard would and walks onto that Bridge with a plan. In fact, Jonathan Frakes seems to make a point of performing this famed “Picard maneuver” repeatedly thereafter, whether the shirt needs a decisive tug or not.
I really love the idea that they’re fighting the “life experience” of Picard, which makes the Borg far more terrifying than they were before. Hearing Locutus address Riker as “Number One” in such a calculated, unfriendly way is chilling. Similarly, his persuasive arguments for assimilation are creepy: “Why do you resist? We only wish to raise quality of life for all species.” It’s a testament to Patrick Stewart’s acting ability that he managed to convey all of Picard’s haunting despair only in his eyes while maintaining an emotionless face.
But overall, this episode was a little less satisfying to me this time around because it is so rushed, with so much packed in, that there’s very little characterization and a high amount of technobabble. It takes shortcuts in logic or plot points, such as the adapted phasers, and they’re often forced to explain why their plan is working (or not) while they’re implementing it to make sure we buy it. The episode feels rather handwavey to me (or at least hand-attachment-wavey, as it were), but I was relieved that this rather convenient and surprisingly simple hack into the Borg BIOS can really only be done once, by utilizing their advantage of Locutus’ unique link to the collective. Plus, you can bet the Borg will be adapting to that little trick.
Putting the Borg to sleep so they blow their own ship up feels anticlimactic, which is just about how I would sum up this episode. Viewed together with the first part, I think it might feel more balanced and fulfilling, but really, the two episodes need to be viewed with the following episode, “Family,” for full impact.
Torie/Eugene’s Rating: Warp 5 (on a scale of 1-6)
Thread Alert: You just have to admire the strategic placement of the remnants of Picard’s Borg getup here, which it appears it was necessary to remove for a neural interface. It almost seems like they look for ways to show as much of Patrick Stewart’s skin as they can get away with, even pasty white with tubes sticking out of him. One wonders why we don’t see more Locutus cosplayers in this outfit…
Best Line: TROI: How do you feel?
PICARD: Almost human. With just a bit of a headache.
Trivia/Other Notes: Returning from the summer hiatus, writer Michael Piller had no idea how to resolve the previous episode’s cliffhanger, and the solution to defeating Locutus and saving Picard didn’t occur to him until two days before filming.
Information about this episode was tightly controlled, with specially-marked scripts to prevent them leaking to the public and production crew told not to talk about it with anyone, not even their families. In the absence of true spoilers, rumors and fake script pages made the rounds among fans, including one that claimed Picard’s assimilation was another trick of Q’s.
At the beginning of filming, LeVar Burton was in the hospital for an emergency surgery, so he filmed his scenes alone and was shown mostly in close-ups.
This was the first episode in which all the visual composites and special effects were done digitally, aside from filming with models. The transporter effect was also modified to remove the blue tinge.
A deleted scene shows Troi helping Riker deal with his promotion and his attempt to kill Picard. It includes a shot of Riker looking out the window of the ready room that mirrors the final shot of Picard.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 26 – “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I.”
Next episode: Season 4, Episode 2 – “Family.”
Yeah, this episode is a bit of a letdown from the first part, but it almost had to be. The ending is a little too pat and that’s Piller’s fault, but he also deserves the blame. He wasn’t sure if he was coming back and wrote the ending of Part I with the idea that it could very well be somebody else’s problem. And yes, it really does need to be viewed as a piece with the next episode (and a little bit with the episode after that, which carries on the themes from “Families”). Probably the best thing about this whole sequence is that Picard carries all of this with him for the rest of the series and into the movies. That sort of continuity is very rare in TNG.
Riker’s brevet promotion here just exacerbates the whole Riker problem. He’s actually been made captain and after Wolf 359 there must be a lot of vacancies, no matter how many ships got damaged beyond repair. But that’s more of a matter for the next time.
The laugh out loud line was when Dr. Crusher thought that Captain Picard’s “Sleep” meant he was exhausted.
Agree with the review here. A wonderful episode, that just barely fails to live up to Part I. While there are some plot holes and contrivances, the biggest would be that the Borg, especially after taking Picard- would most certainly have destroyed the Enterprise before leaving for Sector 001. Why not? Picard’s knowledge would lead the Borg to know that the Enterprise might, at some point, cause some further problems to the Borg. Better to get it out of the way now.
I agree with DemetriosX, this episode does not resolve Riker’s career crisis from episode one. This exacerbates Riker’s career crisis from episode one.
Not only in real life would Riker not have the luxury of refusing or declining transfer or promotion, we know even in the STU this is also so. This is at the very center of Admiral Kirk’s existential crisis in ST:TMP. In later films, the Enterprise is decommissioned out from under him not once, but twice and in the second occasion he and his senior crew are forced into retirement. Later, we’ll see that Picard is “ordered and required” to surrender command of the Enterprise to Jellico, no options. By the time of the TNG films, where D is destroyed and the crew is transferred intact to E, the situation is getting positively ridiculous.
He has already been promoted to the brevet rank of captain, and while I realize that ITRW field promotions are sometimes temporary in times of war (I’m looking at you, Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer), the circumstances here don’t suggest that. Starfleet has been decimated and is in need of new commanders.
It seems to me that there are two big problems with the whole ship-and-crew-together-forever scenario.
First, it seems like you could plausibly keep the Dream Crew together, but not on the same ship. WTF kind of commission does Picard have that he has this ship for life?? But if you had Picard moving from ship to ship every couple of seasons, with some kind of clearly-defined Mission For The Season, and much of the crew getting decommissioned/turned-out-on-shore in between and him getting them jobs again, that’s plausible. Or at least would’ve been, two hundred years ago; I suppose modern navies don’t work that way either…
But when you insist on having the Enterprise be as much a character as Data, then you’ve got a problem. Because it’s believable that somebody could work the personnel department to get the crew all together, or to keep the ship, but not both really.
But this is also a problem with travel being so fast. The Enterprise is never really going anywhere that far away; they only ever seem to have a particular destination for a couple weeks, then it’s on to the next one. That’s great for syndication but makes it hard for there to be a season arc with stops along the way, the sort of thing that would make a season-or-two-long commission more plausible. But, I guess the ship’s mission is pretty much “go faff about in space somewhere and see what happens, further details to follow” so maybe I’m just thinking too hard.
Second, so long as Starfleet really is a meritocracy, you can’t have Riker be both SOOPER-AWESUM and keep him an XO. But obviously giving him questionable decision-making or some kind of mark against him wouldn’t be a good plan either. I think this works best if Starfleet ship appointments are actually really political, and Riker keeps getting passed over because of bad political connections or a lack of influence. Of course, that would spoil GR’s ideal-world world-building, but at least it’d be totally believable, and he seemed okay with slamming the admiralty as corrupt and incompetent… I mean, you want to promote him, geez, even make him a captain acting as an XO on this ship because there aren’t enough ships available for him to get one of his own…
@2 Scott
The laugh out loud line was when Dr. Crusher thought that Captain Picard’s “Sleep” meant he was exhausted.
Is that because we now know what he really meant? On my first viewing, I probably didn’t get it right away either. But her immediate reaction and line delivery are definitely off. I was more annoyed that Data bothered to stop to explain what he thought Picard meant, rather than just going ahead and acting on it or, you know, multitasking, especially considering they were already nearly out of time.
the Borg, especially after taking Picard- would most certainly have destroyed the Enterprise before leaving for Sector 001
Yep. The Borg do some strange things which just so happen to be convenient to the plot. If you could make the case that Picard is somehow sparing them, then maybe that makes sense. But no, this is just sloppy.
@4 DeepThought
I think this works best if Starfleet ship appointments are actually really political, and Riker keeps getting passed over because of bad political connections or a lack of influence.
So… Merging Star Trek with the Patrick O’Brien novels?
@Eugene #5
Well, given the chronology the Horatio Hornblower novels were probably a stronger influence on Gene Roddenberry. But there’s undoubtedly a lot of influence from that genre from somewhere.
My bigger point is that there are certain world-building problems which have been solved better already by other people, and which here kind of go unsolved entirely. I think those solutions are perfectly serviceable and would have added nicely to the series, over and above just solving the problems.
Also, incidentally, even with replicators and post-scarcity and all that, I don’t really see any possible way Starfleet could fail to have an excess of talent vs. ships. So there’d pretty much have to be some kind of process for allocating them, and setting aside political influence or whatever, I cannot imagine any such process wherein Riker would have greatness thrust upon him without even having to ask the Captain for a letter of recommendation or something.
@5 Eugene
Maybe it was just due to be my extreme nerdishness, but I found it really obvious that Picard was telling Data to put the Borg to sleep. And, while it certainly is convenient that the Enterprise is spared, alas, this had to be.
@Eugene Myers
I found the most jarring thing to be that Riker asked Shelby to take an away team to make sure the Borg were “asleep.” What was the purpose of that? A time waster that risked the Borg might recover. Bad strategy.
—after destroying the whole fleet–why didn’t that cube—just blow the enterprise away too?–stupid—
Sure, this isn’t a masterpiece of a conclusion, but I remember really enjoying it when I was a teenager, and watching it together with part one makes for a more satisfying cinematic experience than just about any of the actual TNG films.
Just a thought on the question of why the Borg didn’t destroy the Enterprise after taking Picard.
Could the Borg have not yet fully understood our social and command structure and believed that the Enterprise crew might willingly assimilate after seeing Picard alive and (from the Borg point of view) a better lifeform?
I would agree that watching both episodes back to back (not to mention “Family”) is probably a lot more enjoyable than watching them in isolation. Aside from the plot holes (which, lets face it, are always an issue with ST), there’s an argument to be made that these episodes finally put TNG on the map.
I wound up with a similar waiting window between parts I and II, and agree with all the previous comments. This is quite good, but can’t possibly live up to the first one. The response to the cliffhanger is really disappointing, and the resolution at the end is just too pat.
The things that bothered me most had to do with Shelby. As has been stated, Riker’s career issue is not resolved. In fact, it’s more ludicrous, now that a huge chunk of the fleet is gone and they are probably desperate for battle-ready captains. Second, Shelby demonstrates mere competence. It’s not like she comes up with the final gambit, and the fact that Riker doesn’t share his plan with her seems to indicate that their trust issues are precisely why she’d make a terrible first officer to him. Third, it’s an enormous slap in the face that he doesn’t promote one of his own–namely, Data or Worf–to that position, given his first-hand experience of their commitment and ingenuity, and their long history and trust together, particularly at a moment when they all need to work together basically telepathically to save time without too many explanations. So Data wouldn’t have a grudge, fine, but wouldn’t Worf consider his rejection dishonorable? And why are Dr. Crusher and Troi at the “who I pick for my flag football team” meeting?
As Eugene said, too much of the episode is technobabble, and not enough energy is devoted to the character issues. No one really deals with Picard’s loss, and Riker’s inability to get past it–despite the random interjection by Guinan–is what ultimately saves them.
How is it the Borg don’t have a firewall?? And going into sleep mode sets off self-destruct? They have some serious infrastructure problems… And I had the same thought as Lemnoc, I couldn’t BELIEVE Riker beamed over an away team to poke the sleeping hornet’s nest. Unfit for command!
The best we can say about this episode is that it sets up Picard’s PTSD, which becomes central to his character and his decision-making from this point forward. He will never be the same person he was, and it will take a lot of effort and sorrow to even be functional again. I’m generally not a fan, however, of episodes where the highlight is torturing a character in some way.
Grudging Warp 5. It’s more of a 4.5 to me.
Torie said :” I’m generally not a fan, however, of episodes where the highlight is torturing a character in some way.”
Then I take it you’re really looking forward to “Chains Of Command”? ( wink )
You guys done reviewing these?
@15. I doubt it. Torie and Eugene are merely posting sporadically right now. Other things such as the holidays, school and book writing are taking up a lot of time right now.
Check back periodically for updates!
@ 15 Tiny
We’re not done! I was just knee-deep in final exams and had no time. My last exam was Friday so I’m going to try to get these going again. Eugene’s working on his new book so it will be sporadic but we’re planning to continue in what way we’re able.
Sorry about the delay!
@15 Tiny
What Torie said!
If we were going to quit now, I would have left you hanging on part 1 of “The Best of Both Worlds”…
But I’m really looking forward to season 4 and continuing to discuss the episodes here. I’ll try to post as frequently as I can, but the paying work will probably take priority for the next couple of months :-/
I hope you’ll stick with us.
I’m currently struggling through season one of TNG for the first time and I’ve been enjoying having one of these posts to read directly afterwards. Hopefully I don’t catch up with you guys too soon.