I recall not liking this episode, but unlike others I felt this way about I don't really know why. Of course a lackluster Part II might explain it, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. The captains obsession with archaeology is finally starting to pay off in a serious way, and the influence of DS9 is being felt. The first hint of Picard's thing for ancient artifacts came in Captain's Holiday where he encountered time travellers looking for an ancient artifact he was known to have discovered. In The Chase he considered giving up his career in Starfleet to go on the archaeological adventure of a lifetime and now we find him having been kidnapped by mercenaries and turning his knowledge into a cover as a smuggler. Also unlike every previous reference to money being totally silly sounding, now rat faced aliens can demand payment in bars of gold pressed latinum.
The episode opens with an undercover away team looking for the captain in a seedy alien bar somewhere. Worf has found a rat faced alien who claims to know something, but the bartender threatens him when he see the rat talking to the Enterprise crew. With some convincing from Beverly's phaser he tells them he saw a group of aliens confronting the captain and they disintegrated him with some sort of energy weapon. And since this isn't Interface everybody wants to get to the bottom of the mystery of the missing captain. An admiral even gives Riker permission to take the Enterprise on a opened search for him. Riker manages to interrogate some information out of the rat faced dude and they figure out that the captain was attacked by a group of mercenaries and even find out where they were headed.
The ship heads to the last known location of the mercenaries and over Data's objections Riker leads an away team to investigate. They find a looted archaeological site and before long they are taking fire from the mercs. For plot reasons nobody but an extra is hit by all the weapons fire but Riker gets captured by the mercs. They take him aboard their ship and manage to evade the Enterprise and escape unharmed. Riker gets a neural control device implanted which lets the captain of the ship named Baran administer extreme pain or death with a touch of his control device. Baran orders Riker taken off the bridge but suddenly Picard walks in disguised as a smuggler named Galen. Picard tells Baran that Riker isn't worth the risk and that they should kill him. Suddenly the ship starts accelerating out of control and it looks like they will all die. But somehow this is just the sort of thing Riker knows how to fix so he saves the day.
Back on the Enterprise Data has figured out where the mercs are headed and warns the science outpost that appears to be their destination. Picard finally manages to get some alone time with Riker and explains that he was captured and faked this smuggler thing to find out what they were looking for. It turns out they are looking for some unknown Romulan artifact but he still doesn't know why. When Baran walks him Picard hits Riker and convinces Baran he is interrogating him which pissed of Baran quite a bit. They arrive at the outpost but Picards plan to get Riker to talk them into turning off their shields doesn't work so Picard is forced to knock out their shields. Just as they are preparing to destroy the outpost the Enterprise appears. They try having Riker order the Enterprise to leave but of course that doesn't work. Riker instead tries sending his command codes to turn off the shields but unlike in previous instances they have been changed, but Data figures out it must be part of the plan and turns off the shields. Picard fires on the Enterprise... TO BE CONTINUED!
Review: I know this is only half an episode, but I enjoyed it more than I was expecting. Picard disguised as a smuggler is a fun change of character for him and Baran is a surprising effective villain. Looking forward to the resolution tomorrow!
7 out of 10
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