The core of the episode is the battle of wits between Picard and his Cardassian interrogator. The acting is superb, both from Patrick Stewart and from guest star David Warner. It’s not an original story, but it’s very carefully and cleverly done, with original notes such as the interrogator’s daughter (good old ‘bring your daughter to work’ day).
The rest of the episode, with the temporary captain of the Enterprise, isn’t as good – it’s enjoyable, but just doesn’t have the depth of the main part.
And then the episode, with just the final 30 seconds, really kicks it up a further notch with Picard’s confession. It’s a pity that this isn’t the kind of show where the consequences will show up next week, but that’s just a constraint of the genre.
245 down, 492 to go. And now we go on to Deep Space 9, and I have to start jumping from series to series in order to keep in chronological order.