Star Trek: Chain Of Command Part 2 Review

This week, we finish examining Chain of Command and see how the two captains, Picard and Jellico, hold up against the Cardassians’ machinations. In the end, Picard proves no match for his adversary.

Part 1 ended with Captain Picard being introduced to Gul Madred, his interrogator and torturer. In the opening of Part 2, Picard has been drugged, and Madred asks him a series of questions. One of the things Madred wants to know is the Federation’s defense plans for the Minos Korva system, which the Cardassians are planning to assault. In the event of a Cardassian incursion, the Enterprise will be the command center for the Federation response. Getting wind of this, the Cardassians lured Picard into their clutches on the assumption that he knew the Federation’s defense plans. However, Picard knows nothing, since Jellico has replaced him as captain of the Enterprise. Madred is disappointed to learn of Picard’s ignorance, but he has other plans for his captive.

The Cardassians intend to milk their capture of Picard for all that it is worth, including as diplomatic leverage. Back on the Enterprise, Gul Lemec reveals that the Cardassians have Picard in custody, accusing the Federation, correctly, of acting in bad faith. Jellico refuses to acknowledge that Picard acted on Starfleet orders, knowing that to admit responsibility would all but destroy the Federation’s bargaining power. Riker, whose resentment has been growing steadily, is enraged that Jellico does not support Picard; to Riker’s way of thinking, Jellico has hung Picard out to dry. Enraged at this apparent treachery, Riker becomes openly insubordinate and Jellico relieves him of duty.

Back on Cardassia, Gul Madred and Picard match wits. Madred wants information on Minos Korva, but his primary interest is to break Picard’s will. To this end, Madred deprives Picard of food, water, and sleep; he inflicts tremendous pain through a torture implant; and he even refuses to recognize Picard as a person, referring to him merely as “Human.” Picard has a strong will—his sense of individuality survived assimilation by the Borg, after all—but over time, Madred wears him down.

Madred brings his daughter Jil Orra to work one day, and we gain a remarkable glimpse into Cardassian family life. Madred admonishes his daughter to take care of her pet wompet in much the same way that a human father would speak of his child’s puppy. The young girl is curious about Picard, and her father assures her that human parents do not truly love their children. She leaves after Madred promises to read to her when he comes home in the evening. By including his daughter in the interrogation, Madred reinforces his superiority over Picard: he does not fear placing the person he loves most within reach of Picard’s wrath.

With Jil Orra gone, Madred and Picard converse. Picard is surprised that Madred is not ashamed of his profession and that he does not try to conceal his work from his daughter; Madred responds that Cardassians are raised to regard outsiders as enemies deserving of degradation and subjugation. Picard can only muster a liberal platitude: “When children learn to devalue others, they can devalue anyone, including their parents.” While this claim is formally valid, it reveals Picard’s universalist naïveté. For him, all people are interchangeable; he does not understand the difference between Us and Them. He believes that if a man privileges his own people over outsiders, then he does not truly care about his own people either.

Madred responds that Picard knows nothing of Cardassia, its history and society. Picard says that he knows the Cardassians were once peaceful and spiritually inclined; Madred points out that this led to mass starvation and social disintegration. The rise of an authoritarian, military regime, while contrary to Federation principles, has allowed the Cardassians to survive when they otherwise would have gone extinct. Once again, Picard can only respond with a platitude: “[Your daughter’s] belly may be full, but her spirit will be empty.” One can only laugh at Picard; faced with a choice between starvation with liberal values and life with authoritarianism, he would have the Cardassians choose death.

In another power play, Madred offers Picard the opportunity to leave. As Picard walks out, Madred says that he will then commence interrogating Dr. Crusher in Picard’s place. This is a lie—Madred does not have Dr. Crusher in custody—but Picard does not know this. Thus, he chooses to remain. It seems, even Picard prefers suffering under a cruel overlord to certain alternatives.

Eventually, Madred grows overconfident. He tells Picard a story from when he was growing up on the streets of Cardassia, speaking with some pride at how good a fight he put up when an older boy tried to steal his food. This proves to be a mistake; Picard is not completely broken yet. He seizes upon this episode and deconstructs Madred’s psychology: having been weak and vulnerable as a child, Madred delights in enforcing superiority over others. Losing his temper, Madred slips again and refers to Picard by name instead of merely as “Human.” Picard whimpers words of defiance as Madred inflicts even more severe torture.

Meanwhile, back on the Enterprise, Jellico has pieced together the Cardassians’ plot and is moving to thwart it. Based on sensor readings of Gul Lemec’s ship, Jellico deduces that the Cardassians are hiding the fleet in the McAllister C-5 Nebula in preparation for an assault on Minos Korva. He plans to mine the nebula and force the Cardassians to withdraw. However, in order to pull it off, Jellico needs Commander Riker to pilot a shuttlecraft into the nebula. Swallowing his pride, Jellico goes to Riker and asks for his help, which Riker grants. The mission is a total success: Gul Lemec abandons the invasion of Minos Korva, and Jellico secures Picard’s immediate release.

Two scenes of tremendous significance remain. Picard has one final moment with Gul Madred. As one of his techniques of control, Madred shone four lights in Picard’s face and insisted that there were in fact five lights. One last time, Madred goes through the routine but with a twist: if Picard says he can see five lights, Madred offers a life of comfort and ease, while if Picard insists on four, Madred promises an eternity of torture. Of course, regardless of Picard’s answer he will be released; Madred simply wants confirmation of victory over Picard. Before Picard can reply, Gul Lemec enters to take him away. Picard defiantly cries, “THERE…ARE…FOUR…LIGHTS!”

Picard then returns to the Enterprise and relieves Captain Jellico: the universe returns to the way it is supposed to be. Picard and Troi discuss his experience with Gul Madred. Picard reveals that at the very end, not only was he prepared to say that there were five lights, he actually could see five lights. This completely transforms the meaning of the previous scene: his last words to Gul Madred were no roar of defiance; he was in fact screaming at himself, trying to deny what his own senses told him was true.

Picard was beaten by the Cardassians. Not even the Borg could so completely destroy his sense of self and connection to reality. His liberal ideals availed him naught against the overwhelming power of pain and hunger and thirst. No longer can Picard disparage the Cardassian way as he has before: in the face of extraordinary adversity, Picard’s very body and mind rebelled against his spirit, and his spirit surrendered.

In contrast to Picard, who lost everything in his contest with the Cardassians, Jellico won everything: he thwarted the Cardassians’ invasion plans and secured Picard’s release, all the while being undermined by his crew. When Jellico announced to the crew his intention to mine the nebula, they objected that he was risking too much on a mere hunch; La Forge even suggested that the Cardassians might be doing scientific research in the nebula rather than massing an invasion force. The naïveté of the crew here is hysterical: the Cardassians have dealt with the Federation honestly precisely zero times in the past, but the Enterprise crew still wants to give them the benefit of the doubt. Jellico does well to dismiss their concerns.

The two captains achieved such radically different results by being radically different characters. Picard was a conciliar captain, trying to win his crew’s approval for his decisions and earning their respect by listening to their advice but still taking charge when circumstances do not allow for debate. Jellico is authoritarian, issuing orders and expecting his crew to obey. Picard’s style is tailored for a commander who faces a wide variety of situations, when he simply cannot personally know everything that needs to be done and must rely on specialists. Jellico, by contrast, is a specialist on the Cardassians, while his crew knows nothing about them; Jellico does personally know everything that needs to be done but needs extra hands to accomplish it.

In Part 1, during negotiations with Gul Lemec, Riker remarks to Troi that Jellico is clearly sure of himself. Troi, an empath, replies that this is a façade: Jellico is in fact extremely uncertain about his situation and his prospects for success. This is true for two reasons. On the one hand, Jellico appreciates just how dangerous and precarious the whole situation is and how one false move can spell disaster.

The other reason is that Jellico is much more like his adversaries than is the Enterprise crew. He possesses the same calculating and competitive mindset of the Cardassians; he understands how they think because it’s the same way he thinks. Jellico is a Cardassian in human skin. His success arises from his ability to quickly perceive the Cardassians’ intentions and act decisively to thwart them. Jellico, as much as Gul Madred, makes the case for the Cardassians’ worldview.

The central political claim of the Cardassians is that without the Federation’s economic superabundance, liberal ideals of freedom, peace, tolerance, etc. have no place. Against this claim the Federation can make no reply; they cannot even comprehend the Cardassian position. In the DS9 episode The Maquis, Part 2, Captain Sisko powerfully explains the limitations of the Federation worldview:

“You know what the trouble is? … The trouble is Earth. On Earth there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. Well it’s easy to be a saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise. Out there in the Demilitarized Zone, all the problems haven’t been solved yet. Out there, there are no saints—just people. Angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not.”

What is true of the Maquis is just as true of the Cardassians, but Picard and his people do not understand. They are rich and entitled people living in a fantasy world; life, for them, is LARPing. When their fantasy breaks down in the face of brutal reality, they are all completely unprepared.

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