Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is relieved of command of the Enterprise (1701-D) and he is put on a secret mission with Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Worf (Michael Dorn) to find and destroy a suspected Cardassian bioweapon.   Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox) is given the command of the Enterprise and his tight way of doing things unsettles the crew of the Enterprise as Starfleet assigns the Enterprise to patrol the border of Cardassian space, but the crew is put to the test when Picard is captured and he is tortured.  Jellico has no interest to rescue Picard as he is trying to stop a new conflict between the Cardassians and the Federation/ Starfleet.  Meanwhile, Picard is put under torture from a Cardassian interrogator (David Warner) who wants to break Picard.

 

CHAIN OF COMMAND is presented as one movie with the two part storyline edited together.   It shows how another Captain runs the Enterprise and how Starfleet is looking at the bigger picture over saving one man.   Picard struggles for his life and soul while the senior crew of the Enterprise wants to save him.   This story is uncomfortable at times while creating conflict between the new Captain and the crew while Jellico wants to make sure the peace he brokered with the Cardassians doesn’t erupt into a new war.  It is interesting to see Next Generation shake things up even though it is mostly back to the status quo after this one except for Troi wearing a Starfleet uniform and the fish tank is out.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio Commentary by Ronny Cox, Jonathan West, and Mike & Denise Okuda

 

THE PRIVILEGE OF RANK: MAKING OF “CHAIN OF COMMAND”- cast and crew look back at the making of the memorable two part episode like how Ronny Cox was brought on as a different kind of captain, how Patrick Stewart wanted an episode about the torture of prisoners due to his work with Amnesty International, how guest star David Warner inspired Patrick Stewart to be an actor and join a Shakespeare repertory company which featured David Warner playing Hamlet, and how a couple of things were done to please the cast (like getting rid of the fish tank in the ready room that Patrick Stewart hated and putting Deanna Troi in a proper Starfleet uniform).

 

Over ten minutes of deleted scenes

 

Episodic promos for part 1 and 2 of CHAIN OF COMMAND

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  CHAIIN OF COMMAND is one of the better two part storylines which benefits from a longer time to tell the story and conflicts while the making-of featurette is the best extra (even over the wealth of deleted scenes).

 

This blu-ray review is (c)6-24-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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