5x08 Unification (2)

[8.0/10] One of the smartest things the powers that be did to advance The Next Generation from its predecessor was to flip the dynamic between captain and first officer. In The Original Series, Kirk was the swashbuckling adventurer and Spock was the seasoned officer. In TNG, Picard is the more stoic diplomat and Riker is the more roguish rule-bender.

That comes into play in “Unification.” Picard has a mystery to solve, but while it requires a bit of subterfuge, it also requires diplomacy, playing politics, calling in old favors and speaking with politicians and potentates. Riker’s mystery is a Kirkian throwback, one that requires flattering junkyard masters, flirting with piano-players, and roughing up venal profiteers. In a two-part episode, The Next Generation delivers a bit of each of those two complementary elements of what made Star Trek so notable.

But it also creates a bit of a problem, because episodes need conflict, and often, so do personal interactions in stories, and Picard and Spock are a little too much alike, their interactions with one another given too little time to develop, in order for what little disagreement exists between them to have much impact. Instead, “Unification” has to coast on the thrill of seeing the first officer of the original Enterprise coming face-to-face with the captain of the current Enterprise.

But it’s hell of a thrill! Despite having seen this episode in my distant youth, and knowing more or well when and how it happens, I have to admit to giving a little cheer when Picard declares that he’s in search of Ambassador Spock, and the man himself emerges from the shadows to declare “you have found him.” It’s a meeting 20+ years in the making, and as manufactured as the conflict between them feels, it’s hard to resist the energy that comes from seeing these two men bridge the gap between The Original Series and The Next Generation.

The way the episode tries to overcome the persistence of that similarity is to make Picard a stand-in for Sarek (Spock’s dad) whom he mind-melded with in the prior season. And it kind of works! If “Unification” does nothing else, it uses that momentous meeting to pay off a contentious father-son relationship that’s been present in the series from the first moment we met Spock’s parents back in 1967.

Having Picard be the vessel for that creates both a connection and a distance between him and Spock, and gives Spock a means that is both welcome and yet at a remove to reconcile his feelings about his father and receive his father’s feelings for him. Like the best Star Trek stories, it creates an emotional undercurrent and personal stakes to the wider political intrigue and action that take center stage in the episode, even if it’s not a perfect fit for Picard and Spock’s natural dynamic.

There is, naturally, a decent amount of fanservice in this one. There’s thinly-veiled (and clunkily-written) references to Kirk. Some Romulan goons are taken out by a combination of a nerve pinch and a punch to the face a la the original duo. And there’s pretty blunt notes of Picard’s resistance to the “cowboy diplomacy” of Spock’s era as the two men become representatives for their respective shows’ differences, but ultimate compatibility. None of it’s subtle, but it’s all enjoyable for blending the DNA of the two series, and that gets it far.

And yet, what should be the most fan service-y moment of them all ends up being arguably the best and most revealing scene of the two-parter. In many ways Data occupies the space in TNG that Spock once did in TOS. He is the emotionless, logical being who’s trying to understand humanity. But while that could create too much similarity between Data and Spock, instead it uses their differences to find insights and irony. Spock sees Data as having by design the purely logical state that so many Vulcans strive and struggle to achieve, and Data sees Spock as having abandoned the thing he wants most in the world by seeming to reject his human side and embrace his stoic, Vulcan one. The similarities and yet notable differences between the two create a particular resonance to their “grass is always greener” conversation.

Of course it can’t all be character work, fan service, and theme. There has to be some actual plot too, and the story here is basically split into two, dovetailing plot threads. The first one sees Picard and Data surreptitiously making their way to Romulus to investigate rumors that Spock has defected, and find the Ambassador attempting to help bring about Unification between the Vulcans and Roulans. The second sees Riker investigating some mysterious debris, and working his way through the clues until he’s caught in a web of missing ships and backroom deals related to that same unification effort.

The latter story feels mostly like an excuse to let Riker do his best attempt at Kirking it up, but it’s a fun outing. Whether he’s stifled by officious intergalactic quartermasters (and, ugh, basically using Troi as bait), putting the screws on Ferrengi gangsters, or recognizing a ruse when he sees one, his efforts to uncover the Romulan conspiracyspearheaded by Sela, with a fun performance from Denise Crosby are a fun outing, even if they feel a little superfluous.

The main story with Picard has a better setup than payoff. Watching Picard figure out the mystery, whether it requires him to commune with a deteriorating Sarek whose mind is in disarray, to negotiate his way with Gauron and a tempestuous Klingon ally (Stephen Root!), or to blend-in in Romlunan society, is a compelling build.

But when he meets Spock, all the fan-service and semi-contrived debates between the two take up time that hinders advancing the plot. Of course there’s a secret conspiracy, and allies turn out to be collaborators, and the FATE OF THE VERY QUADRANT is at stake, but what do you know, our heroes save the day in the nick of time. It’s a little too convenient, and a little too tidy, and all resolved a little too quickly, but there’s legitimate reasons for the characters to do what they do, and it’s an episode less about the plot as a story and more about providing enough of a spine to throw Spock and Picard together, and blend the spirit of TOS with that of TNG, and in that, it succeeds.

Let’s face it, Michael Piller and Rick Berman could basically have had Spock and Picard sitting in a dimly lit room discussing the proper way to cook chicken for 90 minutes and fans like yours truly would still lap it up. They are arguably the two characters, and two actors, who most elevated Star Trek as it burst onto the scene and then reestablished itself on television after a nearly two-decade hiatus. Just getting to watch these two holy figures of the franchise interact is a treat.

And so despite the fact that pairing them removes the dynamic that makes their relationship with their command counterparts interesting -- differences in temperament and philosophy -- saps some of the life out of their manufactured conflicts, the spark that Leonard Nimoy and Patrick Stewart bring to their roles wins out. “Unification” isn’t perfect, but it’s damn good, and those two men, who have done so much for Star Trek, are the biggest reason why.