The Most Amazing Performance by Patrick Stewart on TNG!!

How come this man never won or been nominated for an Emmy? This episode proves that he should been at least nominated. He was brilliant! So was Daivd Warner and Ronny Cox, but Stewart was amazing. If I were the head of the Emmy committe, I would just hand him the award. Not just any actor can pull that off. A man is being tortured and abused, but he still has his spirt. And Picard being asked if their were five lights instead of four. "There....are....four....lights!" Was his answer. I was just in awe of Stewart. The episode itself was brilliant. Ronny Cox as the fill in captain is so different from what Picard is. Also, Jonathan Frakes turns a good performance. This show is brilliant all the way around.

Great Episode - And Sad Showing From The Enterprise Crew

This two-parter was a terrific season-ending ST-TNG episode, featuring a duel with the Cardassians, Captain Picard in jeopardy and a new commander for the Star Ship Enterprise.

And the Enterprise crew really let us down. Rather than exhibiting military professionalism and backing to the hilt their new commander -- Capt. Jellico, magnificently portrayed by Ronny Cox -- they fought him every step of the way. The story had a strong emotional pull on the viewers, thus the obvious course was to sympathize with the crew's irritation at their new boss, whose personality was far different from that of Capt. Picard. However, that crew was placed on that ship to carry out orders issued by their captain, to the letter and spirit of his or her desires. Possibly their long association with Capt. Picard had made them too buddy-buddy with him, somewhat slack in their militarism, and weak in adapting to a personnel/command change.

Here's a new (though experienced) commander placed in charge of a crew whose former commander had been drafted for a special mission. Capt. Jellico too had a special mission, a head-to-head negotiation with hostile Cardassians. Rather than being completely free to concentrate on that mission, Capt. Jellico had to deal with the distractions of crew sensitivity and grudging cooperation, which extended to Executive Officer Riker's outright insubordination (for which he was quite properly relieved!). And Jellico was eminently appropriate in ordering Deanna to dress more professionally, rather than prancing around in her skin-tight slack-suit.

At first glance, combined with the history of being emotionally connected to the Enterprise crew, it could have been perceived that Capt. Jellico was being harsh and/or unfair -- but further thought, coupled with an understanding of how a military chain of command functions, illuminates only the fact that Riker, Deanna and the others truly reflected poorly upon Capt. Picard, who should have nurtured in them the ability to conform professionally to whatever martial situations they encountered. Instead, they acted like a bunch of whiny teenagers.

Capt. Jellico, upon his departure, told the crew it had been a privilege to serve with them. Later, however, I bet he subtly, quietly passed the word in his professional circle that the Enterprise command crew was a gaggle of spoiled brats, and working with any of them on a future assignment should probably be avoided. I believe that is what I would have done.

But then again, this was just a fictional TV show -- and a great one at that!

What a performance!

This episode is one of the best in the show's seven-year run. I am always amazed by the acting of Patrick Stewart and in this episode his talents are able to shine. He and an equally good David Warner are thrown together in this episode and they play off each other perfectly. It is a wonderful combination of storytelling and acting and I highly recommend it to any Star Trek fan.