Just watched and for me the strong trend from last week continues. Vadic is a great, fun villain so far, even if the design of the Shrike is a little uninspiring. Her theatrics do recall similar stuff from Khan, but she make her own thing of it and as an actor, Plummer is clearly having a whale of a time.
I like Shaw, like, a lot. It's nice to see he had a reason for behaving as he did in the last episode beyond just being an asshole. 500 lives on an exploratory vessel facing an arsenal like that aboard the Shrike... the right thing to do is run... However his about-face at the end felt earned and I look forward to seeing more of him.
Jack is great too. Once more, the actor is clearly having fun just reigning the theatrics on the right side of things. Obvious of course that he is Picard's son, but sometimes when a breadcrumb trail is left as it has been then the obvious conclusion is satisfying. That is, if he really is Picard's son. Time will tell.
Only complaint (and it's a late complaint as the segments were few and far between) is all the stuff about Raffi and her various issues. As i said last week, nothing against Michelle Hurd. I've been a fan since way back (Law and Order then she did a stint on ER) but the character of Raffi is just grating. Shouting, crying, smashing things and hitting things and... that's really all she's been since Season 1 of this show. When her ex-husband pointed out what a selfish and obsessive shit she can be, I found myself agreeing with him.
Maybe the problem is she's being given nobody to bounce off. One whole scene in this episode was her shouting at a screen, hopefully pairing her with Worf will result in something more interesting. Honestly speaking though, of the characters introduced in PIC S1-2, Raffi would have been my last choice as a character to keep around.
The Next Generation: 10/10
Disengage: 8/10
. But whatever, this isn't some Victorian melodrama where one protagonist can really say "How am I to be assured that he is verily my own offspring?" The only justification may be some nebulous respect for privacy. But really, we're talking about a man wanted for multiple crimes whose existence is putting the lives of 500 people at risk.
