174 – Bloodlines

Grade: C-

Summary

DaiMon Bok is back. This time, he threatens to kill Picard’s son. What? Picard has a son?

Commentary

This is a very mediocre episode and it has a lot of problems. There are only a few episodes worse than this one, and only a few that I like less than this one. First, we’ve never met Picard’s son and there has never been any mention of him ever. In fact, I don’t remember if we even knew his mother before this. So here’s yet another Picard love interest – I’m not sure how this man even got through the Academy. Anyway, it’s just not believable that this character really is his son.

Second, the ending just flat out stinks. You know how every single Ferengi episode will end – with someone convincing all the supporting Ferengi that there is no profit in their activity. Then they turn against the leader and demand a refund. It would have been better if they had come up with something more creative – especially considering that this is the last Ferengi episode in the TNG series.

Third, the plot is extremely weak and filled with cliches. Almost nothing happens in this episode that a regular viewer couldn’t have seen a mile away. There are no surprising details – not even right at the end when Dr Crusher tells the Captain that she has something she needs to tell him. Then they cut to the Bridge, and then back to Sickbay. Presumably, Dr Crusher broke the news during that time, and when we finally hear it at the climax, nobody is surprised.

Fourth, this storyline with Bok just isn’t interesting. It wasn’t interesting the first time we saw him way back in the first season of the series. Let’s face it, the Ferengi are not terribly threatening anyway, and they never have been. Thankfully, the Ferengi were given much better treatment in Deep Space Nine – they’re villains, but comical ones.

Fifth, this episode raises a huge plot hole. Bok is using a sub-space transporter, which allows him to be light-years away from the Enterprise and still beam on and off the ship. So why doesn’t Starfleet have such a transporter? Well, apparently, they were working on one but then abandoned the idea because they thought it would be impractical or something. Well, obviously that’s been disproven. But unfortunately, this piece of technology will never be seen again. It’s annoying they couldn’t come up with some other explanation that wouldn’t draw so much attention to itself.

Not one of my favorites. Skip this one.

Of Note

Apparently, this episode was Patrick Stewart’s idea. Personally, I think it was an idea we could have done without. Seems like they ran out of good ideas.