[Nate the Great]

December 14th, 1992, "Chain of Command Part Two"

No fiver

The Episode

MADRED: How many others were part of this mission?
PICARD: Two.
MADRED: Name and rank?
PICARD: Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher. Lieutenant Worf.

Madred asked for rank, not position. Beverly worked hard for the rank of Commander, don't forget it!

PICARD: I demand to see a neutral representative as required by the Federation-Cardassian peace treaty.
(Madred removes the blindfold and the guards leave)
MADRED: We have already sent a message to Tohvun Three, the nearest neutral planet. They assure us they will dispatch someone immediately.

Yeah, that's a great way to start, with a lie. Now when Picard gets back to the Federation he can tell them to never bargain with Cardassians because they can't be trusted to obey the treaty.

MADRED:I understand that you are a student of archaeology. Did you know that Cardassia boasts some of the most ancient and splendid ruins in the entire galaxy?
PICARD: I know that the burial vaults of the First Hebitian civilisation are said to be magnificent.

The Hebetians play a much larger part in the novel "A Stitch in Time", the "autobiography" of Garak. His adoptive father was a collector of Hebetian artifacts. After a period of climate change the survivors became Cardassians. To this day a few Cardassians meet in secret to conduct Hebetian rituals. Their enemy is the True Way (only mentioned in "Our Man Bashir" and "Crossfire").

PICARD: Torture is expressly forbidden by the terms of the Seldonis Four convention governing treatment of prisoners of war.

Only mention of the Seldonis Four convention, I have to wonder why it never came up in "Tribunal."

MADRED: Are you in good health? Do you have any physical ailments I should know about?

Would it matter? "Oh yeah, I'm a diabetic. Do you have any insulin around, because if you don't the slightest torture would kill me." "Oh, of course, we'll call the whole thing off!" Yeah, right.

MADRED: Yes, I'm sure you have. (he turns on four spotlights behind his desk) How many lights do you see there?
PICARD: I see four lights.
MADRED: No, there are five. Are you quite sure?

I HATE this plot point. Hate hate hate. I don't care if it's a plausible form of torture, it's just sick.

RIKER: Under the terms of the Selonis Convention, Captain Picard must
LEMEC: The Selonis Convention applies to prisoners of war, which means you would have to acknowledge that he was captured during a mission authorised by the Federation. Are you willing to make such an admission?
JELLICO: No.
LEMEC: Then he will be treated as a terrorist.

Jellico's an idiot.

(Data is now wearing command red and three pips)

Ugh. Even if Jellico has appointed Data first officer until a new one can be sent out, that doesn't justify a division transfer or promotion.

MADRED: I want you to be very careful with your wompat from now on, Jil Orra.

Only appearance of a wompat, although I was surprised to learn that it's a real word: a sort of sling for strapping your toddler to your chest.

JIL ORRA: I will, father. Do humans have mothers and fathers?
MADRED: Yes, but human mothers and fathers don't love their children as we do. They're not the same as we are.

How do you know that? When's the last time Madred swapped parenthood stories with a human? Never, I'll bet.

PICARD: To expose a child to this. To someone who is suffering. To see that it is you that inflict that suffering.
MADRED: From the time Jil Orra could crawl she's been taught about the enemies of the Cardassians, and that enemies deserve their fate.
PICARD: When children learn to devalue others, they can devalue anyone, including their parents.
MADRED: What a blind, narrow view you have. What an arrogant man you are.

How is anything that Picard said arrogance? He's not forcing the opinion on Madred, he's trying to teach him a lesson.

MADRED: And what did peace and spirituality get us? People starved by the millions. Bodies went unburied. Disease was rampant. Suffering was unimaginable.

Ugh. What does peace and spirituality have to do with refusing to bury bodies?

MADRED: My daughter will never worry about going hungry.
PICARD: Her belly may be full, but her spirit will be empty.

To paraphrase from Gargoyles, survival isn't enough.

MADRED: Shall we begin again? How many lights are there?
PICARD: What lights?

Now is not the time to be a smart alec, Picard. You say "four" as many times as it takes for Madred to stop asking, you don't ask to be tortured!

(Picard is lying on the floor, singing through parched lips)
PICARD: Sur le pont d'Avignon on y danse on y danse.

This is a French song about a dance performed on a bridge back in the Middle Ages. "On the bridge in Avignon they are dancing there, they are dancing there."

In the German dub of "The Lion King" Zazu sings this song instead of "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts."

PICARD: Doctor Crusher has no knowledge of any of Starfleet's plans. She's a Medical officer.
MADRED: You might be right. I'll have to determine that for myself.
(Picard sits in the chair)

What an idiot. Madred has already proven himself a liar. If they chose to keep Crusher as a prisoner she wouldn't be a bargaining chip, she'd be a torture victim in the room next door.

JELLICO: All right. Worf, prepare a series of five hundred antimatter mines with magnetic targeting capabilities.

The standard photon complement of the Enterprise is 250. While I have no doubt they could replicate mines and bleed off some antimatter, it would take a long time.

MADRED: Oh, you're awake. Have something to eat. I insist. Boiled taspar egg. It's a delicacy I'm happy to share with you.
(Madred gives Picard a knife to slice the top off the very large egg, but this one isn't boiled. The contents are still alive and moving. Picard downs it in one)

Talk about pointlessly sadistic. Picard has to have had worse. I'm especially reminded of the time in the novel "Dragon's Honor" where he had to eat everything the Emperor put in front of him or else jeapardize an important treaty. That includes all sorts of alien offal, lizard saliva, and even worse stuff that anyone else would rather be executed than try to eat it. Good book, I recommend it, that's the one where Riker wins an entire planet in a poker game.

PICARD: Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information. It is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control. One wonders that it's still practiced.

Duh. Make the torture bad enough and people are willing to confess to anything just to make it stop. You won't get much useful information out of the victims.

PICARD: In spite of all you've done to me, I find you a pitiable man.

Oh, that had to hurt.

MADRED: Picard, stop it, or I will turn this on and leave you here in agony all night.
PICARD: Ah! You called me Picard.

Mike drop.

RIKER: Yes, sir. I understand you've been talking to every shuttle pilot on board.
JELLICO: Let's drop the ranks for a moment. I don't like you. I think you're insubordinate, arrogant. willful, and I don't think you're a particularly good first officer.

Oh, how I hate him. Riker's style of being first officer is incompatible with your style of being captain. He's not a particularly good first officer for Jellico, but Jellico has no right to expand that to a global opinion.

RIKER: Well, now that the ranks are dropped, Captain, I don't like you, either. You are arrogant and closed-minded. You need to control everything and everyone. You don't provide an atmosphere of trust, and you don't inspire these people to go out of their way for you. You've get everybody wound up so tight there's no joy in anything. I don't think you're a particularly good Captain.

Mike drop.

PICARD: I want to see neutral representative.
MADRED: There is no such person.

Of course there is. Madred is either just stubborn or he shares the common Cardassian delusion that the universe is out to get them unless they strike first.

JELLICO: I stand relieved. (to all) It's been an honour serving with you.
(Jellico leaves with knives sticking out of his back)

This is one that needed a third part to properly punish Jellico, or at least give his arc some sort of resolution.

PICARD: What I didn't put in the report was that at the end he gave me a choice between a life of comfort or more torture. All I had to do was to say that I could see five lights, when in fact, there were only four.
TROI: You didn't say it?
PICARD: No, no, but I was going to. I would have told him anything. Anything at all. But more than that, I believed that I could see five lights.

Never liked this scene. Picard should've had a complete victory.

Memory Alpha

* The Nitpicker's Guide is referenced on an episode page for once. That's neat.

Memory Beta

* Picard will have his revenge on Madred in the novel Ship of the Line.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil wonders if Riker is a better pilot than Data. Of course he his, he has intuition and other emotions on his side. Just like Picard back in "Booby Trap."