The Best of Both Worlds: Part I

Over the past week and a bit I’ve been catching up on the new special features available in the third season BluRay set. One feature that stood out for me was an hour long round table discussion with Naren Shankar, Ren‚ Echevarria, Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga and Seth Macfarlane. In it they discussed their time on the show and their fondness for showrunner Michael Piller. But they also alluded to the turmoils that were abound on the series, and since watching that feature I’ve had a different view of Star Trek…

It’s certainly not diminished my love for the series, but it has taken on a new light… and hearing of their struggles (notably in another feature with Ira Steven Behr) I am enjoying more what I am watching. “Well, that’s great – but how does that all apply to the Best of Both Worlds?” I hear you ask…

Well, Michael took this episode and wrote the first cliffhanger of the series (Menagerie doesn’t count.) And he effectively killed Captain Picard for the summer of 1990. He also wrote the famous Borg line for the first time “Resistance is Futile” – which is a cultural reference now. He had no idea how he was going to resolve it, or the controversy the visual effects guys would cause in the second part with the advent of the internet (more on that next season…)

This was, and is, the second best episode of The Next Generation… and THE best two parter. (What’s better you ask? Find out in season six!)

This episode concludes with several possibilities, Riker could finally get a command, Shelby could be our new number one – if we don’t drown her first – and we could be without Captain Picard forever…