Trek-a-Week #22: Chain of Command Part I

Ben:

After watching Chain of Command Part I, I realized that almost all of the things I remember liking about Chain of Command are things that happen in Part II. That’s not to say Part I isn’t a good episode, but it definitely feels like the pieces are mainly just being put into place here. There’s a sort of Star Trek tradition of two-part episodes that start strong but don’t really stick the landing; this one looks to be the opposite.

There’re two related stories going on in Chain of Command Part I: The Enterprise with Jellico in command and the mission to Celtris III.

The latter is by far the less interesting of the two. The makeup of the mission team is fairly bizarre — Picard, Worf, and Dr. Crusher (Sorry haters — and by “haters” I mean Katherine). Worf, of course, actually makes sense to send. Having Picard — no spring chicken, despite being in remarkable shape for his age — though, on the team harks back to TOS where inexplicably Kirk, the ship’s captain, would beam down on each and every away mission. Similarly, I’m not sure a middle-aged lady, Dr. Crusher, is necessarily a great choice for this grueling mission either. There’s an in-story explanation for all this, but at the moment that explanation seems kind of thin and ham-handed. I’ll withhold full judgement until we know what the reasoning is behind the Cardassians’ luring Picard specifically into their trap.

I can’t though, move on to the Jellico plot-line without noting how painfully bad the Dr. Crusher/Ferengi earlobe handjob (“lobejob”?)scene in the bar is. Yikes.

Anyway, the point of the whole away mission is to get Picard captured and into the hands of the Cardassian, Madred, and set us up for Part II.

On to the happenings on The Enterprise, though. This is by far the meatier part of the episode. I don’t know that there’s a Big Philosophical Issue ™ in this episode, but there’s sure one question I was asking myself throughout: Is Jellico a dick, or is he just a guy doing his job differently than what people are used to?

Having been around military culture a lot of my early life (I punted on being the third generation of Towles to become a Navy officer) I can say that this sort of person — equal parts chummy, bombastic, confident, smart, and arrogant — is not a fictional conceit. People like this often start chummy, then come on really strong — and I think it’s a deliberate tactic to “test the waters” with people that may potentially offer resistance. That seems to be precisely what Jellico is doing here with Riker.

Here’s the weird thing, though: I kinda like Jellico. I like that he’s direct. He says what he wants done and expects it to be executed. His style stands in stark contrast to the sometimes overly touchy-feely vibe of the TNG Enterprise. Case in point for this contrast is the scene between Jellico and Troi — one of my favorite scenes maybe in all TNG:

TROI: …Perhaps everyone just needs some time. Time for you to get to know and trust the crew, and time for them to understand how you want things done.
JELLICO: I’m glad you brought this to my attention, Deanna. Unfortunately, I don’t have time for a honeymoon with the crew. You’ve clearly given this a lot of thought, so I’d like you to take charge of the morale situation. Please see to it that they make the adjustment to the new routine quickly and easily… By the way. I prefer a certain formality on the Bridge. I’d appreciate it if you wore standard uniform when you’re on duty.

With just a sentence or two here Jellico manages to turn the situation on its head and also give Troi a “take a hike, Snowflake” in the same breath. And anyone who has kids can completely empathize with Jellico’s “I don’t want to talk about it. Get it done” (to Riker).

I did, though, find this one-off comment from Troi interesting. Post-negotiations with Lemec — where Jellico’s strategy of “negging” Lemec seems to have maybe paid off — Troi and Riker have this brief exchange:

RIKER: Well, I’ll say this for him. He’s sure of himself.
TROI: No, he’s not.

The term “negging” came to mind I think because there’s something uniquely male about the way Jellico operates: making people wait as a show of power, storming off as a strategy. It’s all so PUA — and by extension kind of silly and gross. It’s also a tenuous strategy. Jellico is completely thrown off his game when Lemec flips the tables on him with his unassuming, “Where is Picard?” question.

Star Trek has another tradition (besides two-parters that don’t stick the landing) — that of the interloper who comes onto a starship, starts throwing their weight around, and is proved naive by a “real” captain who has to take over and save the day. I don’t think (despite Troi’s assessment here) that that’s where Chain of Command is headed, though. I’m glad that I don’t remember how the second part of this pans out. I’m really looking forward to it!

Stray items:

• Is Jellico wearing shoulder pads?
• I love the matte painting used for Torman V, which was used even in this Blu-Ray remastered version of the episode.
• “Get that fish out of the ready room!”

Katherine:

I was a little surprised that Ben selected another two-part episode for us to watch. Seems like we’re giving up two slots for a single story. Be that as it may, this is an episode I enjoyed watching, though it seems like it could’ve been compressed into a shorter story as it all felt mostly like setup. Chain of Command opens with a zinger as the Enterprise rendezvouses with another Federation ship and an admiral comes on board to bluntly tell Picard that she is relieving him of his position!

The admiral says that Cardassian forces are mobilizing on the Federation border and there is concern that they may make an incursion into Federation space. Her reasoning for putting a new captain (Jellico) in charge of the Enterprise is that he has prior experience negotiating with Cardassians and she’d like for him to lead the Enterprise to meet with the enemy forces. When Riker asks where Picard has gone, she will only say that he, Dr. Crusher and Worf have been “reassigned.”

In Chain of Command, the new captain strides onto the ship and immediately takes control. I had a mixed reaction to his entry. On the one hand, Jellico clearly knows his stuff. The ship will be going into a dangerous situation and he seems perfectly suited to preparing for battle. He gives orders confidently and concisely without leaving any room for misinterpretation. If his job is to command the ship and crew, then he is meeting that expectation without fail. On the other hand, however, he’s kind of a jerk. He interrupts people and, in contrast to Picard, seems not to want others to succeed but to see them fail.

There are some subtleties here that make Jellico come across as so distasteful. Instead of using a title and surname to address his crew members — e.g., Commander Riker, Counselor Troi, Mister Data — he calls them by their first names. This may not seem like a big deal, and as captain he is certainly allowed this entitlement. It is, however, a power play meant to demonstrate the lower rank of the person being spoken down to. I am reminded of the scene in Kurosawa’s Ran where Hidetora, an aging warlord who decides to abdicate to his sons, is asked, however politely, by his daughter-in-law to sit at a place that is slightly but literally lower than hers. Subversive but understated language and actions can do a great deal to undermine someone’s authority.

Scenes on the Enterprise show water-cooler discussion among Riker, Geordi and Troi as they struggle with accepting a new captain. As for Picard, we realize that he’s been given a mission to sneak onto a planet in Cardassian space believed to be hiding a laboratory where a metagenic weapon is being developed. Gasp from Crusher, who then explains that this biological toxin — so bad, even the Romulans have avowed not to use it — destroys all life yet leaves the planet’s infrastructure intact, allowing enemy occupation. This type of virus releases “theta band carrier waves” which apparently Picard has studied, thus making him the best selection for this task.

The Enterprise catches up to the Cardassians on the border and Jellico puts his political maneuvering skills to work, making them wait to meet with him, in an attempt to put them in an inferior position. Sadly, it turns out they have a trump card since they seem to know that Picard has been sent to infiltrate one of their planets. The final scenes show the “secret lab” revealed as just a lure sending out theta waves, Worf and Crusher narrowly escaping and Picard being captured. The head Cardassian, now alone with a handcuffed Picard, tells him it was a trap set specifically for him and that if Picard does not answer his questions, he will be killed. Nooo!

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the concluding half of this episode. The decent choice would be for Jellico to try to rescue Picard. While he is aware of Picard’s mission and seems outwardly to offer support, Jellico also is expecting failure and is therefore assuming the Enterprise will be his ship to command. The story really illuminates how being able to do a job doesn’t mean that you’re good at it. Picard and Jellico are both capable and experienced enough to hold the rank of captain. But Picard encourages his crew while Jellico demeans them; Picard expects the best from others, and gets it, whereas Jellico expects only obedience.

The most telling scene is the exchange between Jellico and Troi — glad she finally has more than one line to say! — in which she delicately tries to explain that the crew are having a hard time adjusting to the change in command. She’s really asking Jellico to implement change management, a hokey corporate term but a meaningful construct for understanding that organizational changes have to be managed by making alterations and supporting people in order to keep morale up. Without buy-in from employees/crew, changes will not be accepted and will fail. Jellico curtly accepts this information, says he doesn’t have time for it and drops it on Troi to handle, then closes by telling her to wear “standard uniform” while on duty. Asking for overtime, dumping tasks on people, even dictating how to dress — I’m expecting mutiny before it’s all over.

Next week: Chain of Command Part II