Star Trek: The Next Generation
"Bloodlines"
Air date: 5/2/1994
Written by Nick Sagan
Directed by Les Landau
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
Picard receives a threatening out-of-left-field message from DaiMon Bok (Lee Arenberg), the Ferengi whose son Picard killed many years ago while defending the USS Stargazer from an unprovoked attack (the details of which were recounted in the first season episode, "The Battle"). Bok says he will have his revenge upon Picard by finding and killing Picard's son. Except, wait: Picard doesn't have a son — or does he?
The man who might be Picard's son is Jason Vigo (Ken Olandt) the son of a woman Picard had a brief whirlwind affair with three decades ago before he shipped off to be in the lengthy employ of Starfleet. This woman, who has been dead for some time, Picard fully believes could have raised a son without feeling the need to inform the father that the son existed (on the account of her unconventional and independent personality). So now you can add to the list of Season Seven Family Tree Theater: Picard's heretofore unknown love child. "Bloodlines" also fits into the trend of these last few episodes by telling a storyline that feels appropriate for a series winding toward closure — in this case going all the way back to the first season to bring back Bok as sort of a bookend, (although it's an oddly obscure choice).
Picard sets out on a mission to find Jason before Bok does, because, son or not, Jason is at the very least a target who now needs to be protected. Picard "rescues" Jason by beaming him off a rock face while he's in the middle of a recreational climb (which provides narrative shorthand for his adventurous risk-taking personality). DNA tests confirm Picard's paternity, and Jason is none too thrilled to learn that his unknown father has suddenly been revealed and now hopes to be part of his life. The character meat of the story, which is neither bad nor great but is reasonably decent, documents the gradual acceptance of Picard that Jason is able to reach. Meanwhile, Picard finds new emotional possibilities in realizing he's a father when he'd long assumed that fork in the road had been bypassed.
The problem with "Bloodlines" is, of course, its completely implausible plot surrounding Bok's convoluted plan for vengeance. If you think about it at all, it makes very little sense, especially once it's revealed that Picard's paternity was faked by Bok himself (who manipulated Jason's DNA) in order to concoct the "vengeance upon the child" scenario in the first place. I'm not an expert when it comes to blood-for-blood revenge, but somehow the idea of staging the creation of your enemy's son, then threatening to kill him, and then killing him (which Bok fails at, but let's suppose he had succeeded) seems like a really roundabout and, well, ineffective way of achieving satisfying revenge.
The final showdown between Bok and Picard has no juice (and lots of exposition), because Bok is so strategically outmatched and pathetic that it's hard to picture any legitimate menace here at all. Really, "Bloodlines" contains this plot only because it has to have something for the audience to latch onto besides some character moments that cannot carry the hour on their own, while building in a reset that undoes the notion of Picard actually having a son. The whole thing plays like a compromise.
Previous episode: Firstborn
Next episode: Emergence
Like this site? Support it by buying Jammer a coffee.
55 comments on this post
Mon, Mar 11, 2013, 10:36am (UTC -5)
Mon, Mar 11, 2013, 10:08pm (UTC -5)
For that matter, the Traveler's appearance in "Journey's End" counts as a first season bookend, too. But given the repressed memories of that godawful shakedown, any callbacks would have to be obscure. The only non-obscure callback I can think of is a payoff of the "Conspiracy" conspiracy. (And, of course, Q's trial of humanity.)
What if TNG had committed to packing Season 7 with as many bookends as possible? We would have seen:
-war between the Anticans and Selay
-the Edo God dispensing justice against the Federation (by stepping on grass, or something)
-the Tarellians, cured of their plague, settling on Aldea and displacing the sterile natives
-Portal, lonely for his lost T'Kon Empire, using Dr. Manheim's time machine to visit the past, where he was responsible for the creation of Armus
Instead, someone pinned "Bok returns" on the bulletin board in the writers' room, and that's what they went with.
Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 7:23pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 7:28am (UTC -5)
BTW, I agree with this critiscm of making callbacks to so-so episodes from season 1, considering there were so many good ones. Why not bring back the Bynars, or Dixon Hill, of Minna, or the aliens from Conspiracy, or Admiral Quinn, or farpoint, or anything from a good episode? Why these middling ones? Or why not go further, why not good episodes from TOS, like the guardian on forever, or the doomsday machine, something that would be fun, and us trekkies would LOVE.
Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 1:48pm (UTC -5)
I also liked some of the humor in this episode. It was also interesting to see Troi be told off by Jason, that rarely happens to her in the show.
Fri, Mar 15, 2013, 6:31pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 2:29pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 11:55pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Apr 8, 2013, 9:24pm (UTC -5)
*the Conspiracy bluegills - naturally.
*Sela Yar - her story was not finished.
*Kivas Fajo - plug him into the spec script for "Gambit" and it's automatically more interesting than plain ol' pirates. Either Fajo or...
*"Ardra" - regardless of merit, "Devil's Due" was the highest-rated TNG episode to date. That's supposed to guarantee a sequel.
*The nanites - four-plus years after Picard casually deposited them on a planet, they must have evolved superpowers like Voyager's "Drone."
*The Ux-Mal prisoners - all it would take is a passing Pakled ship to fall for their trick and suddenly the Enterprise is a target for vengeful ghosts.
*Lore/Maddox/Adm. Haftel - after "Descent part 2," Starfleet finally possesses a Soong android whose rights nobody is defending.
and finally...
*Dr. Pulaski - maybe they invited her back for "Parallels" but it didn't work out.
Some of these are undoubtedly covered by novels; I wouldn't know. But they were ripe to become canonical episodes. Don't tell me the writers were out of gas. They took the effort for a Bok comeback, and these would've been much easier. They practically write themselves, they're so obvious (of course, it took me 20 years to think of them).
Mon, Apr 8, 2013, 10:36pm (UTC -5)
The season also lacks Guinan -- I get that Whoopi Goldberg is hard to get, but it's a shame that her last episode appearance is "Suspicions."
Sun, Jun 16, 2013, 9:30pm (UTC -5)
"...DNA tests confirm Picard's paternity..."
Perhaps the writers were lampooning all of their Fun with DNA[tm] episodes. Everyone standing around anxiously waiting for the results like an episode of Jerry Springer. As if in a universe where Genesis happened not 5 episodes ago a DNA test means anything. Ha! The writers sure are funny.
Thu, Nov 7, 2013, 1:37am (UTC -5)
I like Lord Garth's point that this is kind of a remake of TWOK, or at least Bok tries pretty hard to make it into one. As in "The Battle," I almost wish Bok's case against Picard were stronger, so that we could view his attack on Picard as being more justifiable from Bok's POV and, more to the point, so that Bok's vendetta against Picard would say more about Picard. There is the hint of some fault on Picard's side -- he was in Ferengi space, though he didn't know so at the time -- and I guess we can view that as one of the risks inherent in choosing a career in Starfleet, that somehow, even if you try to avoid it, you will have responsibility for others' deaths.
That there is a dark side to Starfleet in general, and Picard in particular, which comes to haunt his younger proteges/children is an element of both "Journey's End" and "Preemptive Strike," and so this episode is of a piece with them to some degree. In both those episodes, Picard's duty to Starfleet alienates him from his protege -- though the alienation is more permanent in Ro's case than in Wesley's -- and here, during the time when it seemed as if Jason was Picard's son, it seemed as if a) Picard was not told about Jason because Miranda Vigo didn't want the Starfleet man involved in her son's life, and b) Jason's life was in jeopardy due to the consequences of even being an honourable man in Starfleet -- that you will naturally make enemies, who will at some point come after one's loved ones. When it turns out that Jason is not really Picard's son, that this was just a deception created by Bok, in some ways Bok's revenge still takes hold -- because Picard still gets the experience of "gaining" and "losing" a son, though in a much less traumatic way than the way that Bok had attempted to do. And the fact that Picard *could have*, were it not for his full dedication to Starfleet, had a child sinks in further. Back in season one, Picard was certain that he did not want children and did not really regret his prioritizing his career over having a family, but by this point Picard's a little more uncertain about this. (And we know, from Sisko e.g., that it is not impossible to be both a Starfleet captain and father, even if Picard viewed it as impossible for him.) The story still goes to showing how Picard's career interfered with a personal life, by showing Picard a son he could have had.
That's all very well, and the scenes between Picard and Jason in which they gradually overcome their estrangement work in some ways, mostly due to Patrick Stewart's fine performance. But Jason himself is pretty dull and a cliche, and so is Bok, and...I don't know, I'm running out of energy just talking about it. Not bad, especially by season seven standards, but it's not a particularly worthwhile outing. I'd probably say 2 stars, though the "hairline" line almost makes me want to bump it up to 2.5.
Fri, Jan 31, 2014, 11:07am (UTC -5)
Nice little vengeance plot but you have to wonder if the Ferengi crew were just deaf or stupid. For some reason they were still expecting ransom money after Bok made it clear that he wanted Picard to see his dead son's corpse.
Wed, Jul 9, 2014, 10:15pm (UTC -5)
I think the third ret-con family episode this season is "Inheritance" not "Journey's End"
Sat, May 30, 2015, 11:54am (UTC -5)
Wed, Jul 22, 2015, 11:04am (UTC -5)
But one quibble I had was with the revelation that Bok had somehow engineered Jason's DNA to make him appear to be Picard's son, and, in doing so, caused him to develop a degenerative neurological condition. From the viewpoint of the story, I get it that if Picard doesn't have a kid, Bok wanted to create one for him so that he could take his revenge, but why could the writers not simply permit Picard to actually be Jason's father? Was there some moral argument that postulated that Picard wouldn't be someone who would have a child out of wedlock? I didn't see what ostensibly happened as a moral failure of Picard's. The script even makes it clear that he and Miranda tried to keep in touch for a while after their romance, and also emphasizes Miranda never even revealed her pregnancy to Picard.
Also, at what point did Bok re-jigger Jason's DNA to make him appear to be Picard's child anyway? Jason is older than the incident in which Bok's son was killed, so we have to presume Jason was born with a different father's DNA and at some point in the fairly recent past, Bok altered the young man's genetic code. How did Bok do that from a distance, without being noticed, and without it having any immediately noticeable effect on Jason? Assuming that the man who actually was Jason's father was not nearly a doppelganger for Picard, wouldn't at least some of Jason's characteristics have changed when basically half of his chromosomes were swapped out? I realize that this is a fictional procedure to begin with, but I would expect that if I woke up one morning with a different set of genes, I would be shocked at my suddenly changed appearance.
I also had a hard time believing that Bok, who had recently paid his way out of prison, managed to not only gain access to a Ferengi ship and small crew, but also managed to use very advanced and esoteric transporter and genetic engineering technology to set his plot in motion, all while convincing the crew that it's just a simple kidnapping for ransom plot.
Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:02am (UTC -5)
2-1/4 stars (the extra 1/4 star for Picard's hair line joke)
I like some of the ideas in the comments for book end episodes. Sadly season 7 is awash with poor ideas and scripts. What a wasted opportunity.
Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 1:45pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Nov 1, 2015, 10:07pm (UTC -5)
Let's examine Bok's plan here. For it work....
1.) Bok must discover if a woman Picard had once been with later had a kid.
2.) That kid would have to have been born almost immediately after the break-up.
3.) Picard has to have no knowledge of this child.
4.) The woman in question has to have never told her child about his father.
5.) Said woman must now be dead, to avoid having her destroy the plan just by saying "You're not the father."
6.) Bok must then locate this child.
7.) Bok must then, somehow, clandestinely alter his DNA without him being aware of it.
8.) Bok must then acquire super-advanced and hard-to-find/use technology (the subspace transporter).
9.) Bok must then somehow convince a Ferengi crew that he is a DaiMon in good standing.
10.) Bok must then lie to them about a possible ransom in order to ensure their cooperation.
11.) Finally, Bok must go through all the motions of putting Picard in fear and then kidnapping his "son" off the Enterprise.
Not only is that one truly, and needlessly, convoluted plan, but why does Bok go through all of this rigmarole in the first place? If his plan is to finally get revenge on Picard, why isn't he just trying to kill Picard again? Once he has the subspace transporter he could easily transport Picard off the Enterprise virtually at will and murder him. There would be nothing the Enterprise could do in order to stop him. Just pay a bunch of renegades to help you and boom problem solved. Instead, he wants to go through all this trouble to set up a scenario where Picard will feel bad for losing the "son" he never knew about anyway. Um, okay.
Despite all of that, however, "Bloodlines" is actually pretty good once you get past the absurd set-up. It's got some wonderful character work for Picard, especially in his desire to be a better father to Jason than his father was to him. I also loved how Picard reacted to Jason's past criminal record - it didn't matter, he was still he's son. Just imagine how Worf would react to something like that from Alexander. He once exploded just because Alexander told a little lie. But Picard does the right thing. He's upset about the situation but doesn't let it come between the two of them or further damage the relationship, in fact he uses it to try to build a better relationship. Wonderfully done.
There's also the wonderful use of the Ferengi. This is easily the best use of the Ferengi that TNG gives us, ever. That's because they finally are not presented as bumbling, incompetent fools. Bok, despite the ludicrous nature of his plan, is not a moron. Yes, he's borderline insane in his obsessive need for revenge. But, he's resourceful; he's intelligent; he's determined; he's not someone to be taken lightly. He's a force to be reckoned with. He also manages to be somewhat intimidating - owed no doubt to the actor delivering a rather nice performance. Even the other Ferengi characters aren't caricatures anymore. The member of the Ferengi government they finally manage to get ahold of isn't stupid either; he's a jerk, but not stupid. The three Ferengi on Bok's bridge aren't morons either. Yes, they were easily deceived by Bok, but when confronted with evidence to the contrary, they do the logical/rational thing. Hmm, two episodes in a row now that have featured good Ferengi characters (Quark on "Firstborn" and these ones). Now, if we can just scrub any memory of most of the Ferengi "comedy" episodes from DS9 from our minds, we'll be in good shape.
Finally, I'm giving "Bloodlines" a +1 bonus to the score. I did this with a lot of Season Four episodes and it's only fair that I do it here as well. They brought back a Season One character/concept and actually put it to good use. Granted, Bok and his desire for vengeance is a rather odd choice, especially so very close to the end of the series (even if "The Battle" was among the best of Season One episodes). But, even now they were making an effort to fix past mistakes and I appreciate that. They gave Bok a better actor and the concept a better script and a better story and it paid off.
7/10
Mon, Nov 2, 2015, 9:03am (UTC -5)
I never needed to consider this episode on that level....
Sat, Nov 7, 2015, 8:41am (UTC -5)
It's not helped by the fact that the episode never really seems to commit to the father/son relationship. There are a couple of OK scenes as the two talk but nothing that really excels. The rest of the episode is workmanlike at best.
"You’ll never look at your hairline again in the same way" indeed. 2.5 stars.
Sat, Apr 29, 2017, 1:19am (UTC -5)
Sat, Jun 17, 2017, 3:14am (UTC -5)
I thought Picard was sterile? Didn't he tell Wesley that having children wasn't possible for him or something along those lines? I guess not, given this episode, but that just makes some of his previous comments lose any weight they had. He does know men can have children up into the later years, making all his "that bridge is burned" statements false, right? He chose his career, but we've seen other captains with children.
As much of a cop-out as it was, I'm relieved the guy wasnt actually his son. I can't really see Picard truly having a secret love child out there. Sure, Kirk might have a handful, Riker dozens... But Picard? Nah, just doesn't seem like him.
Sat, Jun 17, 2017, 11:25pm (UTC -5)
I think the episode would have had more emotional heft if there had been that tie, but that Jason, understandably, wasn't ready to cuddle up to his life-long absentee dad and just wanted to be on his way. Kind of a "don't call me. I'll call you moment."
We already know from Tapestry that young Jean-Luc was pretty impulsive, so sowing a wild oat or two wouldn't have been completely out of character. Oh well.
Happy Father's Day 2017.
Tue, Aug 1, 2017, 5:14pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Nov 10, 2017, 4:54pm (UTC -5)
By this point in the series I had lost all interest in the show and was just ready for it to end since it was just phoning in the scripts and clearly everyone had already mentally moved onto Generations, VOY and DS9. That was a hard admission as a huge TNG fan but the show had been downhill all season
Tue, Jan 9, 2018, 6:41pm (UTC -5)
why does Picard give Jason the rare artifact at the end and then they act like they are father/son?
So this episode is a major head-scratcher despite having a good premise and intriguing plot (aside from the subspace transporter that Bok came up with and that the Enterprise then replicates in a pinch -- that was a a technobabble stretch).
Really, the best part of the episode is Picard realizing he's a father and trying to get to know Jason -- good thing the guest actor did a convincing job as a rebellious son, but one who is genuine. Some good heart-to-heart stuff after rock-climbing in the holodeck. Quality dialog on being a parent between Picard and Beverly too -- being patient etc. Overall a good acting episode for Patrick Stewart.
As for Bok and the Ferengi, here they are a convincing threat and not the joke of a race I generally consider them to be portrayed as. It works in that the series is wrapping up and they bring up an old nemesis -- but Bok's plan is extremely far-fetched (fooling the other Ferengi to think he's a DaiMon, altering Jason's DNA, subspace transporter etc.) I guess when somebody wants revenge, they go through an obstacle course to try to exact it according to their specifications!
A high 2.5 stars nevertheless for its entertainment value and quality family dialog. A lot of the criticisms can be swept under the rug. In the end, it's probably better that Picard doesn't have a lovechild. Also had the typical TNG problem solving to figure out Bok's game. Overall a decent hour of TNG -- a good idea with some flaws.
Thu, Feb 15, 2018, 3:20pm (UTC -5)
Star Trek deserved a better send off.
Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:19pm (UTC -5)
Jammer said it all really. The episode's central idea is very contrived. It's a shame, because Picard and Jason's scenes were beautifully acted - you saw real longing and regret in Picard's wounded face - and this episode gives us TNG's best Ferrengi, some of whom have dementedly funny lines of dialogue ("You can pay me with your son's life!", "I insist on being paid", "There is no profit in this!").
mephyve said: "With the free sex attitude of the Trekkian future you'd think they'd have come up with some sort of birth control to protect yourself in these casual encounters."
Several above have argued that Jason should really have been Picard's son. Others say they are happy that Picard remains without child (this, supposedly, "fits" his character better; Picard does, after all, come across as a kind of celibate Renaissance man). But I like your take better: have Picard militantly argue against, and be skeptical of, his paternal links. I mean, this is the 24th century. Contraceptives are super futuristic and Picard's a meticulous and careful guy, presumably also with regards to his semen.
Wed, Jun 20, 2018, 4:37pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 7:05am (UTC -5)
Tue, Mar 5, 2019, 10:59am (UTC -5)
S.7 was one family tree story after another. Usually a yawnfest; of course "Beverly banged by a ghost and dead grandma comes to life" is wacksville watchable.
Tue, Mar 5, 2019, 11:00am (UTC -5)
Tue, May 7, 2019, 2:23pm (UTC -5)
Sun, May 19, 2019, 8:58am (UTC -5)
OMG Jason is a perfect Jack Nicholson. Why doesn't Picard show him the Holodeck. I bet there are great climbing programs in it...oops there it is
This was a nice calm look at Jason and Picard navigating their new relationship..not fake instant connection or forcing it. This was a nice arc for Picard and well acted by both him and Jason.
9/10
. I am not sure what to think of the Ferengi finding superior technology but it makes sense since they are wealthy and travel and trade far....its funny how Bok turns his knife around and safely gives the knife handle to his comrade when he surrenders..one billionth rule of acquisition .....never run with scissors.
Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 11:34pm (UTC -5)
Terrible writing as well. Why would Picard waste his time on this jerk off? Bok wants him dead so Picard should have sent him to Bok via a depressurized airlock. .5/5.0 stars.
Mon, Jan 4, 2021, 4:30pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Jan 5, 2021, 10:55am (UTC -5)
He looks a bit older than 23, and it turns out the guy who played him was ten years older than that.
Anyway .. a couple of things wrong with this episode. Firstly, the idea that the Enterprise is so easily vulnerable to an attack by a rogue Ferengi. And secondly - Picard performing his own one-man special forces away mission with a phaser.
Still - not bad.
Tue, Jan 5, 2021, 2:36pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 10:01am (UTC -5)
The whole Bok thing was just a distraction , they had to make him pathetic because hey ....we had a season 1 tng Ferengi that we now have to integrate into a DS9 Ferengi template. They went from these space raiders to space businessman
Sun, Jan 24, 2021, 2:33am (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 3, 2021, 8:27pm (UTC -5)
Sluggish:
1) Picard goes to Beverly's office to talk and he sits down. It's all serious and dramatic, but tells us nothing. Cut away then cut back and he's still sitting there. So much screen time is given, you get the impression she's unloaded quite a lot of info, but she really didn't.
2) Picard and his apparent son have lengthy banal conversations. Frankly, I could scarcely care less if the kid was his.
Haha, I guess I still haven't found a way to identify the overall issue. I do think not much happens and Stewart phones in a lot of episodes this season.
I think programs it might be Jeri Taylor being showrunner for season 7. The lengthy Picard/Beverly meeting (in my impression) isn't actually "wrong", it just feels weird to me. It actually reminds me of Interface, where something just seems off, like it's almost a different show. A new showrunner could certainly result in that.
It's obviously an artistic choice. I think in an earlier season Picard would not have still been sitting there after cutting away. And, again like Interface, this one feels more realistic than typical TNG. One may like or dislike, but it's definitely a change.
Mon, Apr 5, 2021, 12:38pm (UTC -5)
---
I'm always surprised when this one [Aquiel] shows up because it feels like such a season 7 episode, similar in scope and pacing to Eye of the Beholder. I think the reasons is because season 7 has a sort of sterility that's hard to quantify. It kind of parallels the downturn of Mythbusters in its later seasons, even before it became the Adam and Jamie cinematographer wank fest following the dismissal of the build team.
The first season of Mythbusters was also just Adam and Jamie, but they brought in random helpers as needed, and they had interviews with experts. They also documented the difficulties of tracking down the materials and supplies they needed. In the shop, there'd be random people milling about in the background working on other things, and overall there was an active bustling atmosphere about everything. By later seasons, it was much more focused on only the hosts and special guests, and I noticed that the hustle and bustle was gone. It felt less like filming some guys in their workshop, and more like filming two TV stars on a set. They stopped documenting most of their acquisition process too because, frankly, they could call up anyone and get just about anything they wanted by then. Adam even commented once that while driving down the highway with a bunch of pig carcasses in the bed of his truck someone looked over quizzically until they realized "oh, it's the Mythbusters guy."
TNG seems to have gone down a similar path. The early seasons seemed much more active, lived-in, and experimental. There were more people milling about on the Enterprise (especially notable in season 1), they visited planets with more than just three or four high-level government officials, and random characters would get a little bit of screen time, if not some lines. By late season 6 and season 7 though, it all seems much quieter. In a way there's more bottle (or near bottle) shows. That in and of itself isn't necessarily a problem, but it seems like there's nobody around except the people directly part of the story. Yes there's always some extras manning the rear stations on the bridge or lounging in ten-forward, but it still feels strangely empty. It's as if their budget was cut and they couldn't get enough extras to properly populate the sets. On the other hand, after 6+ years, the production crew had built up plenty of sets, props, and construction experience, so they could bang out some nice sets with less resources.
Of course there's exceptions through to the end of each series, but the overall pattern seems to be pretty evident. Aquiel feels very much in this late-stage mold to me.
Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 11:45pm (UTC -5)
I hate this episode because Jason is such a little punk and I can't focus on it because I keep thinking about how badly i want to cut his stupid little cowlick off
Mon, Oct 4, 2021, 1:14am (UTC -5)
I can totally buy that Picard would have a son he didn't know about. Tapestry reveals that Jean-Luc was quite the womanizer in his youth, and he's obviously matured and changed quite a bit over the last 25 years. It's completely believable that he could have gotten a woman pregnant in his 20s and never found out about it.
Now, is Jason the son we would all want him to have? No, of course not. He's clearly not the son Picard himself would want to have, either. But that's how life goes sometimes, and finding out that he had a screwup for a son could have created some very interesting storytelling opportunities for Picard.
But oh well never mind DNA shenanigans.
Bleh.
Thu, Dec 2, 2021, 2:25am (UTC -5)
- seismic activity requiring emergency transport within 5 minutes of arriving at K-Mart?
- security details that hang about in a wooden way within elbow reach of their subject?
- a “long lost son” never before suspected?
- Troi persisting in her ineffective “counselling” while being overtly hit on?
- Picard diverting the Enterprise to K-Mart based on a mere rumour with no authorisation from Starfleet?
I did finally make it to the end but not with much enjoyment. The show limps towards its end with some forgettable episodes. 1.5 stars.
Tue, Jan 4, 2022, 8:41pm (UTC -5)
Agreed, why not make him Picard's son? And/or even kill the kid?
Why play it so reset button safe at almost the very end of the series?
Considering how far back this reaches into early season one, I bet this story had been sitting in the dusty "meh" pile for quite some time.
Who even remembered Bok? I was super into TNG first run but couldn't remember what this was based on because the original was rather weak. And Bok wasn't the strength of The Battle. I far more remembered the Stargazer, the Picard maneuver and the surprisingly effective "first officer to first officer" banter.
Tue, Jan 4, 2022, 8:45pm (UTC -5)
Memory Alpha:
"The idea for this episode resulted from a conversation Jeri Taylor had with Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart on set during the filming of "Masks". Taylor asked Stewart if there were any aspects of his character that he felt were unexplored. Stewart noted the unsatisfied vengeance of DaiMon Bok from the first season episode "The Battle"."
Wed, Jan 5, 2022, 1:27am (UTC -5)
That's a hilariously appropriate example of how Patrick Stewart is a wonderful performer but has zero judgement about show content. Everything he ever asked for on TNG was conceptually stupid (although admittedly I like Captain's Holiday).
Mon, Feb 21, 2022, 6:56pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Feb 25, 2022, 4:23pm (UTC -5)
Maybe Jason's mother wanted to get pregnant.
When it was revealed that Picard kinda sorta had a son whose existence he was unaware of, I too thought the mother would turn out to be Marta Batanides, the fellow ensign he slept with in "Tapestry."
Tue, Jul 5, 2022, 11:52am (UTC -5)
I'd ordinarily fast-forward or outright skip episodes about old family ties and personal drama but this one kept me semi-glued to the screen from start to finish. It was clear from the go that there was more to it all than meets the eye and there was enough "science" in the sci-fi mix to keep things interesting for me.
Agree with Jammer's score.
Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 8:58pm (UTC -5)
*high fives all around*
"Sorry your mom was such a whore, kid."
Sat, Oct 22, 2022, 10:42am (UTC -5)
Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 2:12pm (UTC -5)
Submit a comment
◄ Season Index