“Well, it’s time for the long pants.”
Star Trek: The Next Generation concludes the third season with what is essentially a graduate thesis on how completely the storytelling formidability of the series had evolved over the course of the year. Spinning off the introduction of the Borg in the exemplary “Q Who” last season, Michael Piller delivers a season finale in “The Best Of Both Worlds” that has gone on to become, perhaps, the most memorable event in the series’ history. There is only one downside to this: having created a mega-event by torturing Trekkies worldwide with a summer’s worth of anticipation about how the cliffhanger of “The Best Of Both Worlds” would be resolved, Next Gen – indeed, all of the modern Star Trek series – would never again conclude a season without a cliffhanger. This, at least in part, misunderstands the power of this episode: “The Best Of Both Worlds” worked, and still does, because its jaw-dropping final movement came out of nowhere.
As I recall, there was even rumour (real or invented) that Patrick Stewart’s contract was under some dispute at the end of season three; this creates, at least, a credible possibility that Picard, having been abducted by the Borg and transformed into Locutus, would never come back. This leads me to the other, sneaky little secret of “The Best Of Both Worlds:” it’s a Riker episode. This episode, and its conclusion, are not only among the very finest shows that Next Gen ever put together, but they create a substantial character drama for an Enterprise crew member who could frequently be considered to be one-dimensional. Riker turns away from the captain’s chair for the third time here, but this time it’s not made so easy for him: Picard gives him a fatherly kick in the ass to get his career moving, Deanna challenges him to figure out what he really wants, and while all that’s going on, he’s got Commander Shelby nipping at his heels – and openly canvassing for his job.
Elizabeth Dennehy is marvelous as Shelby, and Frakes is similarly marvelous against her. Like most lotharios, Riker doesn’t particularly warm to a confident, aggressive woman who has no sexual interest in him. To be fair, Shelby is also manipulative, vain, and more than a little rude — but Riker is staunch, condescending, and takes all of it way too personally. It’s a great dramatic pairing — it would make a great buddy cop movie — and Dennehy’s absence from the rest of the series was a real shame. Commander Shelby would have been a welcome recurring character for the rest of The Next Generation.
Composer Ron Jones reaches his zenith here, given a full orchestra to craft an immense sound for the episode’s musical score. He writes a signature theme for the Borg, accompanied by hellishly distorted choral synths, and then punches out some of the best space battle music since Star Wars. The visual effects are similarly top-flight, borrowing nebula mattes from The Wrath of Khan and showing a “great scoop in the earth” from a Borg-destroyed colony firsthand. For an episode in which, essentially, the Enterprise just plays hide-and-seek with a Borg ship until the Borg ship finally wins, “The Best of Both Worlds” feels surprisingly large and immediate.
“Best I” builds slowly. I was surprised, in re-watching it, how unornamented and thin those first three or four acts seem on paper. But it all comes down to those final moments, when Picard is revealed in his Borg-turned state, and where, after a minute or two of argument among the principal cast, Riker is forced to stare down his captain and utter the line that might very well go on Jonathan Frakes’ tombstone. As Riker grits his teeth and says “Mr. Worf – fire,” and the screen cuts to black while the orchestra pounds the rafters, I can still hear a million voices cry out in terror at the prospect of a long, cold summer.
Five Enterprises out of five.
Blogging The Next Generation runs every Tuesday as I work my way through every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray. Season Four is in stores now.