‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap: ‘The Battle’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

In the world of creative writing, there are a great many elements that go into creating characters that resonate with an audience. So many in fact, that we could spend days discussing the finer nuances of how one builds a dynamic, fictional human being. But while all of those elements deserve their respective day in the sun, for the sake of time and relevance, it is best we look squarely at the one that matters the most in regard to this Retro Recap of Star Trek: The Next Generation; backstory. Because learning more about a character’s past, helps us to understand what has made them the person they are when we meet them in the story, and the next episode of this dynamic series took the time to put the backstory of the Enterprise’s most important officer on display.
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For ‘The Battle’ allowed for us to learn a lot about Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in quite the unique manner. Because the Ferengi delivered unto him his former command, the U.S.S. Stargazer. A ship that participated in a fierce battle at Maxia nine years ago and was abandoned by Picard and the crew after suffering serious damage in the fight, despite winning the contest by way of a little technique known as ‘The Picard Maneuver’. But here, she is returned to the captain in serviceable shape and her return is what helped us to learn more about the captain’s past. Because his re-telling of this iconic fight, helped us to understand just how brilliant he is under fire. Since his quick thinking allowed for said maneuver to come to light, and his decision to fight back in fierce fashion, undoubtedly saved a lot of lives. 

But what matters more, is that it becomes obvious the more we dive into this story, that abandoning the Stargazer, helped Jean-Luc to understand the nuances of being a Starfleet captain. Such as making the most difficult call imaginable. Because abandoning ship is no easy decision, especially when there was a fine chance the ship could have been salvaged. But possibly at a great cost to the crew since the old gal looks rough here, meaning that people could have been hurt whilst putting out fires and fixing badly damaged systems. Which makes it quite interesting that the ship looks so good. Because there’s a grand implication that Daimon Bok spent a lot of money on restoring it, and it is her restoration that is paramount to the plot. For her return to Starfleet brings about some health problems for Captain Picard, since he begins to experience nasty headaches with the ship in tow, something that appears to be related to a touch of PTSD.

But in reality, this is nothing more than a grand scheme on Bok’s part. Because nine years ago, it was his son who lost his life in the Battle of Maxia whilst duking it out with Picard and the return of this old ship is part of a plan to exact a little revenge upon Captain Picard. Which is why the Daimon placed a mind control device within Picard’s personal effects from the Stargazer, so he could force the captain to relive that fateful day and eventually, suffer great loss by harming his crew, and this was quite the unexpected twist and one ugly scheme. But thankfully, Lieutenant Commander Data’s infinite logic and wisdom, helps him to devise a way to prevent the captain from attacking the Enterprise with his patented maneuver when Bok’s device motivates Picard to ‘reassume’ command of the Stargazer, allowing for the crew to save Jean-Luc from a difficult memory and a grand mistake.

If anything, this episode was quite the pleasant surprise. For it featured an engrossing plot, one filled with a grand mystery and fine tension and most importantly, it finally helped us to get to know our intrepid Captain. Plus, this story also gets some serious kudos for injecting a revenge parable into the Star Trek mythos. Because that’s something that this franchise always explored in light fashion, since the prevailing belief is that such matters should be eradicated by the 24th Century. But here it is on full display and it’s handled in a fascinating manner here and really, in the end, this looks like the beginning of a hot streak of quality episodes. Because this one really let the crew shine and it locks in your attention and it should be complimented nicely by the next episode in this saga since that one will feature the return of Picard’s greatest frenemy, and that adventure with Q is where we will pick up, next time. Until then.

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