Allegiance is a mediocre episode that is too disjointed to be able to experience any real measures of success. The best that can be said for this episode is that it has one exceptionally memorable scene. Otherwise, the plot, the themes, the storylines are not woven together particularly well and we get very minor character development.

One concern for the episode is that it is more of a rehash of the premise behind Lonely Among Us (the Picard is acting strangely and must be relieved from command concept), rather than a natural progression of a theme (i.e. the premise of civil liberties in The Measure of a Man and The Offspring). Fortunately for Allegiance, the rehashed premise, while still a bit contrived, is far more plausible than Lonely Among Us.

The duplicate Picard story gives this episode its most memorable scenes. Watching Picard hold high a mug of ale and proudly proclaim, “Here’s to the finest crew in Starfleet!” — moments before leading all of Ten Forward in a drinking song — is highly entertaining and enjoyable. His dinner scene with Dr. Crusher is notable for how it demonstrates Beverly’s complex feelings toward Picard. Even though Picard isn’t genuine, Beverly is. And her performance is once again subtle, yet effective in portraying her conflicted emotions. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the “Picard is acting strangely” story before. The result is that the scenes, collectively, have a diminished effect.

The best plotline of the episode is the captivity story. It just isn’t particularly memorable. Four prisoners, including Picard, are placed in a cell that is meant to study how they each react to stress and authority. Watching the interactions of the prisoners does give us an insight into how individuals must learn to overcome fear, prejudice and suspicion in order to achieve anything. And the scenes do a fairly decent job of creating a sense of frustration and desperation as the prisoners attempt, without any real success, to escape from their confinement.

Unfortunately, that growing sense of desperation that the prisoners are beginning to feel is shattered every time the episode switches back to the duplicate Picard story. The end result is an episode that clumsily alternates between desperation and humor and cliché. It is this unbalance, alongside the repetitive Picard-acting-strangely concept, that drags the episode into mediocrity.

Allegiance is worth watching mainly for a couple of scenes, especially Ten Forward. Otherwise, it’s entirely forgettable.

Filed under: TNG Reviews