Chain of Command, Part I

This is part 1 of a two-part episode. A re-visit to these episodes reveal major flaws in the story. First, why is Captain Jellicoe negotiating with anyone? His job is to prepare for the possibility of war with the Cardassians. Second, why send Picard, a high ranking commanding officer, on an extremely risky spy mission? Third, how could the Federation let itself be so thoroughly duped by the Cardassians? Fourth, why was Ryker so upset? He had no cause to be upset. He repeatedly disobeys orders and generally behaves obnoxiously. Fifth, in this story the Federation does not occupy high moral ground. Further, the Federation is revealed to have major flaws. It makes strategic decisions on faulty information,its attitude is belligerent, both Starship captains have major issues - Jellicoe negotiates in bad-faith, Picard is a spy, and members of the crew are willful and obstinate. Why Ryker is not brought up on charges is a mystery.

Wow, what a strong episode. Ryker reveals himself as being a real twerp. A new captain comes on board and Ryker immediately cops an attitude. He reacts like a child. He doesn't like taking orders. He is inflexible and selfish. Instead of trying to help the new captain, Jellicoe, Ryker pouts and sulks. All this while Jellicoe has to negotiate with a belligerent alien race that is openly hostile and threatening to invade a planet. The rest of the crew isn't any better. They are serving on a warship, yet are openly annoyed and distressed at Jellicoe who wants to prepare for the possibility of war. The only way to get the aliens to back down is to show them that the Federation will not budge. Instead, Jellicoe is getting no support from the crew, which makes it even harder for him to deal with his adversary, and which puts the ship at risk. For a television sci-fi series, the dialog is excellent, and the story intense. That is surprising.