Unlike a few of the recent episodes I know I saw this one when it originally aired. I say this with some certainty because I definitely remembered who the traitor was in the group of prisoners Picard finds himself in. I was also able to see the exact moment when Picard figured it out, but didn't want to reveal it. I feel kinda bad saying this, but Allegiance could have been a TOS episode, but it wouldn't have been as smart. If this was Kirk instead of Picard he would have found a way to get out and defeat his captors in fisticuffs, not by forcing them to end the experiment. Also I kinda think maybe Picard shouldn't have let his kidnappers go at the end of the episode, but I am no expert is space law.
The episode begins with Picard reading and listening to some soothing music in his quarters. The camera changes to an odd low angle from the side shot as he falls asleep. The low angle shows a purple slab of energy appearing over him and then he disappears. On the bridge Worf notices the energy surge in the captains quarters and rushes there with a security team, but when he arrive the captain greets him at the door, but something doesn't feel right. The real Picard awakens in a holding cell of some sort with two other prisoners, a grey dude named Tholl and a Bolian Starfleet cadet named Haro. Tholl has been there for at least 10 days and Haro at least 3. There is a column in the middle of the room that has disks of gelatin in it for nutrition.
Back on the Enterprise the impostor Picard is acting strange. Instead of meeting with the USS Hood as they are scheduled to he has the ship slowly fly to a pulsar. He shows up at the officers poker game and tells Geordi to work on getting the engines more efficient and then asks Troi in the crew really trust him. Later in Ten Forward he asks Geordi and Worf if they are with him before buying a round of Ale for the whole bar. That may not be super odd, but he then leads the whole place in a rousing drinking song from his Academy days. Riker calls a meeting of the senior staff to discuss the situation. He doesn't call for mutiny, but asks them all to watch for behavior that might endanger the ship or crew.
Back in the cell a vicious alien named Esoqq appears in the fourth bed and immediately tries to start a fight, But Picard is such a badass he manages to talk him down by showing he understands his culture. Tholl turns out to be the opposite of Esoqq, a total pacifist who wouldn't even fight to keep his planet from being invaded. Over Tholls objections Picard gets the other to try and escape and the Bolian cadet manages to open the door, but behind it is a blank wall of metal, it was a trick. It is then that Picard realizes they aren't prisoners, they are test subjects and tricks the Bolian into revealing information no cadet would ever have. She admits to being an alien and transforms into two of them and call off the experiment. And just in time, back on the Enterprise the impostor Picard tries to destroy the ship by flying too close to the pulsar. Riker relieves him of command, but it is extremely tense until the real Picard shows up and gets rid of the impostor. He briefly imprisons the aliens who took him captive to teach them a lesson before telling them to get his ship.
Review: A cool episode about how much the crew trust the captain and at the same time about why he is in fact such an awesome person totally deserving their trust. Not the most groundbreaking, but a solid episode.
7 out of 10
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