So I'm Watching "Chains of Command"
- Thread starter Dale Sams
- Start date
During the meeting with the Cardies where it's revealed they've captured Picard, we see why Riker would have been a bad choice to handle the negotiations: His reaction. He's too attached to Picard.
I'm undoubtedly slow. What is the hidden, for me anyway, meaning of Borg?
I'm undoubtedly slow. What is the hidden, for me anyway, meaning of Borg?
cyBORG.
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Tru dat!! I did too....
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I'm undoubtedly slow. What is the hidden, for me anyway, meaning of Borg?
cyBORG.
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Oddly enough I just read that today in Destiny Book Three: Lost Souls.
Thank You, for explaining however. It seemed so obvious when I read that. I guess I really am slow.
Yes, in "The Pegasus." Riker, under orders from his former captain (now an admiral), refuses to answer Picard's questions regarding a mutiny aboard Riker's old ship. Picard is angered at the refusal and basically threatens Riker that he'll replace him as first officer if he decides he can no longer trust him. Eventually, Riker comes clean and regains Picard's trust.
My take exactly. Riker's refusal to take any of the ships offered to him earlier would have also played into Starfleet's decision not to give him command for this very sensitive mission.
Great point... Riker doesn't seem to be able to see the forest through the trees. Again, his reaction justified the admiral's decision not to give Riker command.
And probably started a war.
Or so embarrassed the Federation that the Cardys ended up with Minos Korva, which was their true objective.
Given the Cardassian love of Xanatos roulette this seems likely, so all in all lucky that Captain Jellico showed up and kicked there butts.
And if the Cardassians had taken Jellico's walking out of their meeting as overly offensive or just using the capture of Picard could have led them to war, after all Jellico confirmed that Picard had been "reassigned." The ships in the nebula could have made their attack while the Gul and his ship (or was it 2?) could have kept Jellico busy enough to allow the Cardassian fleet time to take the planet. Jellico really wasn't as confident in his plan as he appeared.
Of course he wasn't. He said as much about war being nearly inevitable when speaking privately with Picard
He had one shot at making this problem go away without violence & war coming of it. Everything he did was choreographed for that purpose. He was one man thrown into a frying pan with one skate. He was even prepared in advance for the possibility that Picard would fail. He knew ahead of time that there very likely would come a point he'd have to abandon Picard
This is likely the most plausible factor in why Riker was stepped on for Command of the mission. HQ would know Riker would be too close to Picard to make that call. After all, that was his gut call in BoBW too, rescue Picard. It may have worked out for everyone there, but it doesn't change the fact that his instincts are so inclined, & could not work in this scenario
Jellico may have not had unwavering faith in the plan, but he knew it was their only option & had to be played just so
Except Riker's plan really wasn't all about rescuing Picard, it was about using Picard to try to access the Borg. Riker made two command decisions that could have killed Picard: the deflector dish weapon and letting the Borg ship blow up when it was unknown if the cubes destruction would have killed Picard. And he was ready to ram the Enterprise into the cube as a last ditch effort to save the Federation.
So I tend to think that Riker could have distanced himself from Picard had he been in the center chair.
He sure didn't in Chain of Command. Now I think the episode did do Riker's character a diservice, but at the same time yeah.. as portrayed, I can see why Jellico ripped into him.
I think the producers realized they had a conundrum (no pun intended) with the character of Riker after BOBW. Here the guy saved Earth, maybe the whole Federation, and still he refuses promotion and his own ship?
The only way to make that work for any period of time was to occasionally knock him down a peg or two, and perhaps give the audience the impression that 'maybe he rose to the occasion' during the Borg incident... but that level of performance might not be the rule, but rather the exception.
In other words, maybe they wanted the audience to think that Riker's very good, occasionally great, but certainly not always great (like Picard). We see this again on several episodes, such as "The Pegasus" and "Rascals."
Even in "Generations," he manages to get the Enterprise-D destroyed! How many of you were shouting at the screen, 'How about rotating those shield frequencies, Riker!'
I always gave him a pass on that. For all we know they were. Who would be making those shield rotations again? Probably Geordi with his spycam.
I blame Deanna for that fiasco. Crazy women drivers.
19 years later and I'm still irritated how that all went down.
Deanna's thought process:
"Hmm. Open space to the left, open space forward, planet to the right. I know! I'll turn right!"
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