Hello all, Ric here with my spoiler full review of Picard’s season three episode seven,
“Dominion”.
Man, am I glad this title was not aired months in advance but aside from the obvious spoiling
reference to THE Dominion, the name has a lot more relevance to the themes of the episode.
So things are beginning to come to a head in this part.
Frontier day looms and the Titan is still on the outside, both Vadic and Picard’s
team are running out of time it seems.
The episode opens with an attempt from Seven of Nine to reach out to her old friend contacts
and its alluded to that this is not the first attempt to do so with others, this time, the
target is Captain Tuvok but the scenes otherwise hopeful and joyful reunion is clouded not
by the Vulcan’s emotional distance, but the uncertainty they are talking to the man
himself.
We had heard from Ro that many would-be allies in Starfleet are not exactly compromised,
but those surrounding them are, keeping them in the dark.
Little things like LaForge's last episode saying he was protesting Frontier Day’s
fleet formations dropped hints at the levels of Starfleet infiltration and now we see it
first hand.
The back and forth was egged on by my own desire to see Tuvok returned to the show,
I wanted to believe it was him so much that when the first evidence was presented of him
claiming who he seemed to be, I believed him but another curve ball was thrown when Seven
found a hole in his facade.
What has happened to the real Tuvok then?
He is alive, that much is clear, and I suspect he is being maintained as a source of cover
for this imposter.
It brings home the point, that yeah, the Titan crew is isolated from those who would otherwise
help by a web of ignorance from the changelings weave.
Overall this episode is a powerplay for control, the Titan receives the boarding party of Vadic
and control over it begins.
Vadic is captured yet remains calm and the ensuing discussion wrests Picard’s moral
centre away from Starfleet again.
Data and Lore are locked in a struggle for dominion over the golem frame and the systems
of the Titan and Jack begins to somehow exert his will on others through these manifesting
powers.
There is a lot of attempts to seize control, a lot of struggles for Dominion.
As mentioned, this episode also sees more interactions with “Data-Lore” and although
he gets some great moments, a large part of his portrayal is there for Geordie to address
something that has been missing since Data’s departure.
Of course Picard and Data had a connection and a solid friendship, but if I had to point
out his “best friend” it would have been Geordie LaForge.
Geordie was deprived of a true farewell in Nemesis, as all were in the heat of a battle
and Data made his sacrifice in the moment.
But Picard got to receive his closure when he met with the stored mind of Data in season
one of this series while Geordie was left with his farewells unsaid.
It’s a poignant moment when he takes the time to appeal to Data-Lore and takes the
second chance to release 22 years of unsaid goodbyes and how much their friendship meant
to him.
So speaking of Data and Lore, we get to see Lore in full control for most of the show,
with him connecting to the Titan’s security systems and taking over them.
I doubt he has entirely the full story of what is going on, but I doubt his motives
go beyond, well Data’s friends want this so…
I’m going to break their plans.
With the two dominant personalities within being Data and Lore, he states he simply wants
to survive and knows full well that if it came down to a choice, the crew would delete
Lore if they could.
Understandable and Lore has ever attempted to sow discord and chaos wherever he could
even when attempts at cooperation were available.
Vadic also gets much time in the spotlight here and we get to see into her personality
far more than in prior episodes, even delving into her origin.
She always seemed unhinged and erratic for a changeling and now we know why.
She and nine others were captured during the course of the Dominion War and imprisoned
on Daystrom Station for research and experimentation.
It seems Starfleet tried to break them, form them into agents for the Federation or simply
tried to learn extensively about their abilities.
It was not the Dominion that made these shapeshifters into specialised humanoid duplicators, but
Starfleet.
This broke Vadic and now her life is bent towards revenge as she shared her newfound
aptitude among others in the Great Link.
The scars of her past are carried with her, in her memories, taking on the appearance
of her torturer and even whistling as she did.
Something like this confirms everything the Dominion fears from the Solids and justifies
its existence in their eyes.
While it does not excuse the atrocities committed on them, let’s not forget the countless
millions slaughtered by the Dominion too and their brutal prison camps.
It’s not a justification, but in many ways, Vadic is a living wound of that conflict,
born of the ugliness in the depths of both sides.
Even her own changeling “superiors” seem to be disgusted at what she has become and
are leveraging their control over her, although the Dominion knows no other way to remain
in power.
The revelation too hurts Picard and once again the Federation is found not measuring up to
his standards, as it did years ago when they failed to help the Romulans.
Painful too, must have been the decision to execute Vadic despite the qualms raised from
both Beverly and Picard over the decision, but in the end, they are acting to save their
own flesh and blood son.
Earlier on too, Beverly raised the ethical implications of using some form of biological
weakness in the changelings to target them, while Geordie, the practical engineer did
not see the qualms at first and Picard considers it all hypothetical until it isn’t.
Moments like this have been laced throughout the show, Shaw’s comment on weaponsing a
few zealots in the process of Section 31’s infection and these discussions are not only
moral ones, but ones of potential consequences.
The episode ends on an even tenser note that when the USS Titan was sinking, with Vadic
now in control of the bridge.
Sufficed to say, Picard and Beverly really need to return to the holodeck aiming program
because they really missed Vadic that much as she slithered between them?
The plot armour was unusually strong here, to the point of it being noticeable.
With the Titan only operating on a skeleton crew and LaForge and Data operating on a ship
they are unfamiliar with, I think gaining back control might be a bit of an issue, plus
now Vadic has a bridge full of hostages and returns to her more theatrical presentations.
Jack Crusher’s mysterious voices get some more definition brought to them, with Picard
learning that his remains indeed contained an anomaly that may have been misdiagnosed
as Irumodic Syndrome, or maybe caused it.
This trait is clearly present in Jack too and the focus of their goals.
Despite Picard’s assertions that they simply want his and Jack’s DNA to create a changeling
copy of him complete with accurate genetic samples, I think this is a red herring.
Vadic neither confirmed nor denied it and seemed amused by his attempted unravelling
of her plot, supplying her own queries and prodding to test their actual knowledge.
Sure it may be one element but my gut is telling me there is more to this yet.
Jack’s ability seems to have progressed to full on telepathy, sensing Sydney LaForge’s
thoughts but entering this fugue state when he does so.
It comes into play later on though when he seems to telepathically connect to Sydney
and enables her to operate in tandem with him to take down their assailant.
The voices call out for connection and seeking out others, so this ability seems to be just
that.
Very collective hive mind of him and some form of organic version of what the Borg have
would be ideal for enforcing Dominion over others.
I suspect this is the goal of these changelings, revenge on the Federation and securing themselves
through control as the Dominion ever did.
The themes of control are all throughout this episode, and none of these are resolved, Vadic
is “captain” of the Titan A but the crew are still alive and many are still free.
Data has usurped Lore once more, but Lore is not gone.
Jack took control or joint control of Sydney for a moment and that freaked them both out
because it’s still not understood.
With the episode ending on a promise of answers next week, this episode was an engaging watch
with captivating performances from all and raw emotion on display, especially from Levar
Burton, Patrick Stewart and Amanda Plummer.
That sums up my review of episode seven, “Dominion” and I look forward to answering a question
that has been on our minds since the series’ airing, “Who is Jack Crusher.”
Thanks again for watching, I’ve been Ric and goodbye.