Captain Edward Jellico

Story: Chain of Command, Part I
Written By: Ronald D. Moore
Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Year: 1992

See when you watch this with such a fantastic story, look, feel, characters, villains, and cliffhanger…you gotta wonder…why did “Time’s Arrow” get the season finale opener spot when there was still a great two parter in the minds of our writers? Of course it is entirely possible they had not thought of the episode yet. The fact that they split it into two episodes later in the pre production, or production. But I think Picard being captured in a covert mission at the end is one of the great Star Trek cliffhangers.
This episode focuses more on the Enterprise story than the Picard mission B-plot. For this mission Picard must hand the Enterprise over to Captain Jellico, and we get a story about our crew, and Riker in particular, clashing with the different command style. I really like that they didn’t make Jellico a bad captain really, he just is different than Picard. It is a great for tension.

Then we get the Picard story, which ultimately leads up to Worf and Crusher escaping, and Picard captured. His captor explains that Picard will tell him everything he wants to know, or he will die.

NEXT TIME: There Are Four Lights!