7x04 Gambit (1)

[6.6/10] I come to Star Trek for character more than for plot. That’s a broad overgeneralization to be sure, and the inventive sci-fi concepts at the heart of the best episodes of the franchise have always been a draw. But at base, what’s kept me coming back to Trek in all its forms is the people on those ships, not just the latest foes they’re firing on or spatial anomalies they’re unraveling.

The first part of the “Gambit” duology isn’t a bad episode per se. There’s some solid intrigue and worthwhile setups. But it’s all plot and no character. The story here is one big mystery box, with new wrinkles added to the narrative as the episode wears on, rather than to the characters themselves. It’s a valid approach, one that plenty of Star Trek episodes have deployed to success, but it just doesn’t have the same oomph for me.

I don’t want to be too ungenerous here. There’s some character material here. In the beginning of “Gambit pt. 1”, Riker and Troi get a scene to react to Captain Picard’s “death”. It’s melodramatic and overblown, both in the writing and the performances, but it is a character-based moment in an otherwise plot-heavy episode. In the same vein, we get a little bit of Riker’s choices as acting captain reflecting his anger on his superior officer’s senseless demise. But the focus is much more on unraveling the mystery at play rather than on Riker’s psychological trajectory through it.

Besides, any savvy viewer knows Picard’s not really dead. That doesn’t have to be the death knell of drama. With quality writing and performances, even fakeouts like this one can be emotionally piercing. But because the writers are so concerned with keeping the audience guessing, tossing out breadcrumbs, interrogations, and action in lieu of genuine emotional investment, most of the lead-up to Picard’s reveal plays like rank schmuck bait.

I mean hell, when the episode flashes the infamous “To Be Continued...” just as the enemy ship fires on the Enterprise’s nacelle, do we really think it’s going to destroy the ship and the crew? Of course not. It’s insulting to the viewer’s intelligence to set up such obvious headfakes like this, while hinging the core of your drama around those sorts of feints. It’s constructing the episode on a house of cards.

If you can ignore that though, there’s plenty to appreciate about what “Gambit pt. 1” does do. It has the guts to start in medias res, giving us little more than that the captain is missing, eventually presumed dead, while Riker goes on a hunt for his killers. The writers throw the audience into the tale and commendably trust us to keep up. Who “killed” Jean-Luc Picard, what these marauders' mission is, and how they’ve managed to evade our heroes in their fancy ship are all compelling questions capable of fueling the episode.

And then we meet Captain Picard again.

Look, “Gambit pt. 1” is basically two episodes in one. It’s a story of Riker and the gang solving a mystery while being short handed and emotionally compromised without their captain, and it’s a story about Picard and Riker making due on the marauders’ ship. The two are obviously connected in terms of the narrative, but don’t have much in common in terms of their vibe or approach (even if we do cut back to Data as commander of the Enterprise from time to time, a rare treat.)

Granted, the adventures on the marauders’ ship are rife with cliches. Maybe it’s just the presence of franchise stalwart Robin Curtis (maybe her character’s a descendent of Lt. Saavik?), or the fact that they’re clearly reusing old sets from the original cast films, but there’s a real 1980s adventure action b-movie tenor to the proceedings, with big, barely-sketched personalities and a lot of bombast in lieu of substance. Still, if you can appreciate the cheese and the overblown drama and domineering villain commander for what they are, there’s enough to like here to get by.

Chief among those elements is Jean-Luc Picard himself. It turns out the good captain was captured by these pirates when he was going on an archeological expedition and started asking too many questions about their ransacking various dig sites. It’s an amusingly low-stakes reason for Jean-Luc to get kidnapped and start an Ahab-like pursuit by Riker, but the allure of some noteworthy Romulan artifact worth killing and dying over papers over some of the silliness.

Regardless, the cinch of the episode is Picard hiding his Starfleet pedigree from his captors while simultaneously trying to protect Riker once the first officer is likewise kidnapped by the baddies. It’s tons of fun to see Patrick Stewart playing a hardscrabble smuggler rather than the dignified captain. The sense in which Picard is intentionally playing against type to throw his captors off the scent makes for an interesting dynamic, and Stewart is impressive in convincingly playing one character pretending to be another.

Likewise, Picard and Riker as double agents, or at least furtive conspirators with their own agenda despite the appearances they maintain to their captors, is the dynamic which buoys the episode the most. Picard setting himself in opposition to Riker, so that the raiders’ leader, Baran, might like Will and confide their plan to him, is the kind of perilous twistiness to get you fired up. There’s an inherent tension and stakes with the two Starfleet officers having to play both sides, seeming loyal, or at least compliant with the pirate king, while subtly undermining him to save lives and gain information while in his charge.

Still, the strength of that comes down to plot rather than character. We’ve yet to see a meaningful number of important character choices that challenge Picard or Riker or Data’s psyches rather than their craftiness in a crisis. The first part of “Gambit” is a rollercoaster ride, hoping to keep you along for the trip with thrills and spills and the promises of more peaks and valleys on the horizon. There’s just not that personal touch or deeper thematic connection to put the first entry in this two-parter in line with the best of Star Trek.