“Data – you are the bird.”
With a flourish of Deep Space Nine’s main title score, we arrive on the first glimpse of the space station and its characters in high definition in “Birthright, Part I,” and the world feels consequently bigger. Can you tell I’m a DS9 geek? I love Dr. Julian Bashir’s crossover appearance in this episode, and as was the case with the Next Generation cast at the start of the blu-ray project, it took me a scene or two to adjust to seeing his performance in sharp, shot-yesterday focus. The results are marvelous – and although the overall visual style of Next Gen had de-evolved into something not unlike damp porridge by this point, “Birthright I” is an unusually striking episode from a visual perspective, from the Replimat and Jamie Cromwell’s makeup job, to Data’s art gallery and eventual dreamy spacewalk.
I love the first ten or fifteen minutes of this episode; it punches up a number of really excellent scenes between various characters. (Julian’s cross-examination of Data’s human qualities is my favourite.) Unfortunately, things stall shortly thereafter. As is usually the case with these things at this point in Star Trek: The Next Generation, there just isn’t enough story to sustain a two-part episode here, although admittedly, “Birthright” gets closer than most.
“Part I” succeeds largely on the back of its B-story, in which Data accidentally learns that he is able to dream. He dreams up a young version of Dr. Soong, played once again by Brent Spiner, and here wearing what looks like a Chinese peasant costume… which raises (once again) the question of exactly why his last name is Soong.
The A-story, though, comes with a gun to its head right from the off, because at no point have I ever wanted Mogh, Worf’s father, to turn out to be alive. This means I’m invested against Worf’s journey from the get-go, although his scenes with Troi and Data, early in the episode, are quite good. Sadly, everything else that gets him to the prison camp just feels like time-filler.
Blogging The Next Generation runs every Tuesday as I work my way through the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray. Season Six is in stores. Season Seven will conclude the blog in early 2015 – you can pre-order the final season now.