“Family” was exactly the right sort of episode with which to follow the epic-ness that was “The Best of Both Worlds”: something completely different, which represented the show pausing to acknowledge the significance of what had just happened before plunging headlong into the “next thing”—while, of course, also addressing the lasting trauma that would inevitably result from Captain Picard’s experience of being assimilated by the Borg. This was an opportunity to create something just as unprecedented for the show as BOBW itself, but in a totally different register. This episode is rightly regarded as an admirable departure from TNG’s normal modes of storytelling in that it is exclusively a low-key character piece, and getting to meet members of both Picard’s and Worf’s families, and glimpse their dynamics, is engaging and illuminating in a number of ways. And yet, with all of that said, I can’t help but feel that the episode is not quite as good as it ought to be. It’s good, but it’s not quite great—and that’s a little disappointing, for this episode in particular.
I hesitate to place too much emphasis on what I see as the episode’s shortcomings, because I do quite like it. Still, before I dig into what I enjoy about it, there are a couple of critiques that need to be gotten out of the way. First, both of its main storylines are, if truth be told, pretty simplistic and…thin. The characters that are introduced (both Picard’s family and Worf’s parents) are memorable, and the setups are rich with potential, but there’s something unsatisfyingly perfunctory about the (really very simple) playing out of both of the episode’s family encounters. It just feels like more was needed, in both cases. (I’m largely passing over the very minimal third storyline about Wesley and the recording left by his dad, which I would characterize as fine for what it is, but nothing special.) Also, I will not be the first to point out that the fistfight-turned-bonding scene between Jean-Luc and Robert is a bit trite and lazy, and I’ve never been entirely certain that I quite buy it. Similarly, at no point am I able to take seriously the notion that Picard is actually considering leaving Starfleet to work with his friend on the ocean project (in stark contrast to how the BOBW cliffhanger had just made me genuinely question whether he might be leaving the show). I appreciate what the episode is trying to do with this idea, but it ends up feeling like kind of an empty gesture to me. Finally, although I like the family member characters that the episode introduces, I also find it disappointing how fully they conform to twentieth century gender stereotypes. The dialogue makes it clear, for instance, that in both the Picard and the Rozhenko households, the wife does the cooking (and it sounds as though the same arrangement prevailed between Jean-Luc’s parents). Robert is passionate about his vineyard, and Sergey is a former Starfleet enlistee who geeks out over the Enterprise—but who are Marie and Helena, apart from loving parental figures whose male family members appreciate their culinary talents? This would be problematic in a contemporary story, and it’s even worse in a twenty-fourth century one where human culture is supposed to have evolved beyond this sort of nonsense. (Worse still is the moment when Worf complains to O’Brien about his mother’s perpetual lateness, and O’Brien commiserates with him in a blatantly sexist way.)
On the other hand, learning that our captain comes from a fairly conservative, tradition-bound family background against which he rebelled, and imagining him as a young dreamer in the vein of his nephew, who spent his adolescence chafing against mundanity, then eventually struck out on his own, joined Starfleet, and headed for the stars—and who hasn’t been home in decades and has never even met his sister-in-law prior to this episode!—really, really works for me. It’s entirely new information, and it illuminates the character in interesting ways, yet it also feels utterly true to what we already know about him. It contextualizes his famous reserve, and the way that he clings to his dignity and his self-sufficiency, while also showing us a different side of a man whom we’re accustomed to seeing as, metaphorically, the adult in the room—the wise, authoritative, responsible captain, from whom younger, brasher officers have much to learn. In his own mind, he must see himself as essentially a less narrow-minded, more diversity-embracing version of his father or his elder brother—authority figures in his life whose gravitas he emulates, even as he enacts his determination to be “better” than them. (Perhaps he even strives to blend, in himself, the “best of both worlds”?) Also, I appreciate (and personally relate to) the scene in which he thanks Marie for making him feel “like part of the family,” only for her to remind him that he is not “like” part of the family—he is family. The ambivalence about fully “belonging” makes perfect sense for him, and his sister-in-law’s efforts to make him feel welcome are really endearing. Finally, seeing him joking around with his friend Louis humanizes him in a way that nothing prior to this episode ever accomplished in quite the same way. Good stuff.
I will readily admit that some of the deeper significance that I suspect writer Ron Moore meant for us to read into the captain’s decision, in this post-traumatic moment, to visit his family for the first time in twenty years, and in the catharsis that he ultimately finds through reconnecting with the older brother with whom he has never seen eye to eye, has been lost on me in past viewings. For an intriguing analysis whose details I won’t delve much into here, I highly recommend reading commenter William B’s thoughts on the Jammer’s Reviews site (comment #11 beneath the review itself). But on a very personal note, I will also say that on this most recent viewing, I found Picard’s instinct to return home and try to reconnect with a family that he has spent most of his life distancing himself from (both literally and figuratively), in this moment of struggling to come to terms with an identity-destabilizing trauma, newly relatable. The fact that, upon arriving, he initially is unable to breach the walls that both he and Robert have built up between them over the years, leading to mounting frustration, also resonates for me. I may never have had my individuality and my humanity stolen from me by a terrifying alien collective, but this episode manages to bring that fantastical experience down to earth somewhat, for me, by showing Picard reacting to it in a way that parallels a response that I had to a (much more mundane) thing that I have experienced.
Worf’s parents, for their part, may be slightly corny caricatures to some extent, but they’re adorable, and their visit is used to good effect in a number of ways, even if—again—I might wish for a bit more substance in how their efforts to connect with their adoptive son play out. Prior to this episode, the show has never really delved into Worf’s childhood; he’s the Klingon among humans on the Enterprise, but somehow one barely registers the fact that he had an entire childhood as a Klingon among humans before this. The Rozhenkos seem about as un-Klingon as two humans could be, and the gulf in temperament and basic worldview between them and Worf helps to make sense of the latter’s lifelong determination to embrace and identify with his Klingon heritage and his instinctive assumption that no one around him can really understand him—and yet, his parents’ overt sentimentality and gentle acceptance are also clearly responsible for allowing him to flourish. And for all his impatience with them and his discomfort with their human sentimentality, Worf clearly recognizes this, and feels genuine affection for them. Guinan’s conversation with the Rozhenkos is touching, too, and I am almost surprised by how plausible I find what she tells them; we think of Worf as eternally looking to the Klingon Empire as his cultural touchstone, but the idea that beneath this, almost unconsciously, there is a layer of his psyche that looks back nostalgically toward earth and his human parents and the love and the sense of belonging that they gave him rings true. Also, the fact that the episode takes advantage of this moment to touch base with Worf’s “discommendation” from “Sins of the Father” is very much to its credit, both providing what little genuine “meat” actually is present in his scenes with his parents and also rounding out the episode’s theme of homecoming and reconnecting with family after being smacked down by one’s experiences out in the larger world.
Honestly, my favorite moment in the entire episode might be the one right before its end when Picard, returning to the ship, encounters Worf escorting his parents to the transporter room to beam back down to earth. Worf and his mother only just manage to shepherd his overexcited dad away from the encounter without letting him embarrass Worf too much, with Sergey, before the doors shut between them and the captain, managing to get out his line about having “all the specs and diagrams back home” one last time. The knowing smile and fond little chuckle from Picard, following this, pull the entire episode together. Fresh from his encounter with his own family, the captain easily empathizes with Worf, and his reaction acknowledges the universality of how family can be trying and complicated and embarrassing and deeply imperfect, and yet, at the same time, renewing, and grounding, giving us exactly what we need in a way that nothing else could. Picard’s smile in this moment tells us, more clearly than anything else, that his visit to his own family has changed him—that despite his characteristic reserve, his seriousness and constant striving for excellence and the sky-high expectations that he holds himself to, and (in particular) his powerful need to believe (and project to others) that he has already bounced back from his Borg experience, he is coming away somewhat humbled, and with a renewed awareness of his own need for human connection. And that, as a result, he’s going to be all right.
This, of course, is followed by one final scene, in which Robert and Marie observe young Rene sitting outside after dark, lost in his romantic dreams about starships and adventures. Robert, remarkably, is indulgent about it, revealing that he, too, has been impacted by reconnecting with his brother. But more importantly, the scene communicates that while remaining grounded and connected to your roots is important, especially when processing trauma…being a dreamer and striking off to make your own way in the world is important too. Ideally, we don’t have to choose between these opposite poles. Picard’s cherished and chosen life of starships and exploration, and his disinterest in living a life that replicates his father’s, contains the potential for trauma and horror and even losing himself, but it is still worthwhile, and he still values it. And if, after BOBW, TNG needed to pause for a moment to reckon with the enormity of what it had just shown us, and ponder its implications and its effects on Picard, the image of Rene gazing up with longing at the stars at the end of “Family” signals that, having duly paused, we are now ready to return to those stars, and move on to whatever comes next.