“An ale for me, and for my officers… in fact, ales for everyone!”
I guess there’s nothing particularly wrong with “Allegiance,” except I don’t like it much. It has the feel of an old-style Star Trek science fiction story, and it splits its action between two perfectly worthwhile threads – the four-hander play taking place in the holding cell, and the Picard-isn’t-Picard gambit happening back on the ship. Except, I don’t really find either throughline particularly compelling. The mystery in the cell isn’t very well developed, and the shenanigans on the ship don’t carry much weight. There is something entertaining about the notion of the fake Picard seeing just how much random shit he can do before someone snaps – but since we know that fake Picard is fake Picard right from the outset, it’s not like we’re under any delusions about what’s going to happen.
In the annals of Picard/Beverly slashing, “Allegiance” is memorable for being the one where they finally make out, albeit with a kiss between the real Beverly and the fake Picard. I hate it when that happens. Picard’s date with Crusher could almost play as a satire of how particularly opaque and awful a passive aggressive man can be when dating a woman, or of sexual harassment in general. After Beverly acknowledges that she has no desire for a romantic relationship with her commanding officer at this time, fake Picard pushes it forward anyway, inviting her for a slow dance, planting one on her… and then kicking her immediately out of his quarters.
Meanwhile, over in the holding cell, we have two nicely-drawn supporting characters: the Mizarian public servant, representative of a race of collaborators, and the Chalnath psychopath, whose race practices anarchy. I love the makeup design on Esoqq, in spite of the gigantic orange fright wig; his three-inch teeth sticking horizontally out of his mouth are very memorable. Being fed quivering pink disks of protein would be enough to drive anyone to distraction, and the drama in the cell bubbles away pretty much exactly as you’d expect, right up till the moment when – as though he were playing a game of Clue – Picard stands up and announces that he’s ready to solve the puzzle, open the envelope, and go the hell home.
The episode is likely best remembered for the bizarre scene where fake Picard orders up a round of pints for everyone in Ten Forward and then leads the crew in a drinking song. Taken with Picard’s unusually forceful commendations of his crew’s good work, and his stop by the poker game for the first time, and his date with Beverly, you could almost read “Allegiance” as a commentary on how stiff Picard’s relationship with the Enterprise crew normally is.
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 arrives on July 30.