The good episode of this performance is the Q versus Picard dynamic. Both actors do a fantastic job.
But the writing is pretty clumsy, and undermines everything else in this episode. The long scene at the end of the episode, for instance, where Riker tries to provide gifts which are all turned down, just goes on far too long. OK, we get it – they don’t want the gifts. That could have been done much quicker, without the baseball like approach to the point. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Blossom’ that were more subtle about the moral at the end.
However, the recent trend towards signs of hope continues. The actors are starting to settle down into the characters that they’re playing, and despite the best efforts of the writers those characters are starting to grow.
115 down, 622 to go.