I think of “Bloodlines” as “the last bad episode of TNG.” This is an episode that’s ill-conceived, pointless, and dull, and with the show nearing its end, one dearly wishes that its writers would use the time they have left to say and do something interesting. Happily, with the remaining three episodes after this one, they do just that. This one, however, is nothing but dead weight, and merely fills up one more slot in a season that has been distressingly short on original and compelling ideas. Alas.
Reportedly, this episode came about when Patrick Stewart was asked if there were any loose ends related to his character that he thought it might be interesting to explore, and he brought up Daimon Bok from “The Battle” all the way back in season one. But here’s the thing: Just because “The Battle” was one of the least atrocious episodes of the show, to date, when it aired, doesn’t mean that it was actually very good—much less that there was any need at all to revisit its vengeful Ferengi Daimon storyline six+ years later, as the series was coming to a close. I mean, at least “The Battle” had a reasonable narrative purpose: it established some back story for the captain (while also taking a second, and somewhat-less-unsuccessful, stab at making something of the Ferengi). What narrative purpose was served by bringing Bok back for another go at his revenge obsession with our captain? None, I would argue. The revenge plot itself is utterly lifeless, completely failing to feel anything like a real threat or a genuinely disturbing ghost from Picard’s past. Bok’s obsession with Picard isn’t remotely plausible or convincing, and his big evil plan makes minimal sense. He’s just some two-bit Ferengi who for some reason got it into his head years ago that Picard is some king of arch-villain (for reasons that never made a lot of sense), and thus tries (twice, almost seven years apart) to “get” him (both times with half-baked plans and no real support beyond some crewpersons whom he deceives into helping him). The Wrath of Khan this is not! And as for the “does Picard have a son?” angle…unfortunately, this falls utterly flat as well. Is the young man’s late mother anyone we’ve ever heard of, and/or is anything interesting or distinctive established about her, such that the possibility of Picard having a son with her provides any kind of hook? No. Okay, well, then is there anything about the young man himself that would make it particularly meaningful, on a character level, if he were Picard’s son? Nope; he’s just randomly troubled and surly for reasons that have nothing to do with Picard, so that our captain has an obstacle to try to overcome in order to connect with him. Yawn. Is there any sense that this dude’s existence is likely to change Picard’s life in any meaningful way, or does the episode use him to reveal new aspects of who Picard is? Again, no. (He’s not actually a child, for example, so the captain’s discomfort with children doesn’t really come into play; plus, I don’t know that there was really much left to do with that concept by this point in the series in any case.) Do the writers even have the guts to commit to the idea, by having it turn out that the guy really is Picard’s son? Of course not. (Not that I really wanted them to, granted, but I mean, if you’re gonna go there, go there, is my thinking.) Okay…but is the trickery via which Bok makes it seem as though Jason is Picard’s son at least clever or interesting in some way, and/or does it make even the most minimal amount of sense? Uh uh. (Oh, Bok “resequenced his DNA”—whatever it is that the Trek writers believe that phrase means. Apparently, it’s something that you can do to someone without actually interacting with that person in any way, and without that person even, like, noticing.)
So, what does that leave? Nothing. This episode has nothing to recommend it. It gets two stars because it’s just inept and pointless, rather than being painfully bad in the way that “Masks” or “Sub Rosa” (to name the two most recent one-star flops) is; still, it should not have been made.
I scarcely remember this episode, and had forgotten entirely that the premise was the return of Bok. At first thought, though I admit I might come to regret that if I re-watched either episode in which he is featured, I’m inclined to think the concept has at least *some* potential, even if Bok is hardly Khan, as you point out. Obviously this episode doesn’t handle it well, and Bok’s revenge plans seem unnecessarily convoluted both times, too. I would think if one really wanted to use this concept, I’d like to see something a little more complex as far as Bok’s psychology. I think the things that attract me to the idea enough to give the writers a pass on the “Bok returns” concept are that 1) I like seeing that Ferengi culture includes motives other than the caricature obsession with profit, and 2) I see a story that follows up on something from the past as an opportunity to do some worldbuilding and continuity, something that TNG tended to lack. So… I would ask… how could Bok’s psychology have been shown to have gotten more interesting while he was in prison instead of just being the same old desire for revenge? I have to admit, I can’t really think of anything, so probably the episode should’ve died on the vine.
Also, Bok really should have taken a page from Alexander and devoted all his revenge efforts toward time travel. Apparently it’s something you can just do if you have the time and resources in this universe.
Also.
Apparently Bok was played by two different actors in the two episodes. If you can’t even get the same actor, why bother unless you have a really interesting concept to start with? I guess I can understand that producing around 24 episodes a year would be grueling and you don’t really have time to find really good ideas all the time, but damn.
I can’t let this “resequenced his DNA” thing go. What the actual fuck would that mean? Literally, putting his DNA patterns in a different order so they were more similar to Picard’s? I’m no expert, but it seems like that would kill you if you were already alive. I guess we just have to assume it’s some kind of trick that makes your DNA seem like something other than it isn’t.
Some of the episode titles here really are cop outs. “Bloodlines”? Really? What is the episode *about*? Can you think of a title that suggests something about that? Of course, there isn’t one because the episode isn’t really about much of anything, nor does it have anything to say about the human experience.
Nah… Resequencing a living organism’s DNA, which is totally a thing that you can easily do (you know…literally changing the sequencing of the nucleotides in *every single cell of their body*), sounds harmless to me. Clearly, it would neither kill the organism nor change anything significant about it, other than making it deceive medical scanners and stuff. I don’t know why you would criticize this.
Re: titles. Yeah. Between this episode and the previous one (“Firstborn”), I have always had the hardest time remembering which title goes with which episode. Both titles seem equally (vaguely/unsatisfyingly) applicable to either episode.