axlrhodes

I've complained about the lack of satisfying arcs in Season 7 of TNG, but Michelle Forbes saves her best for last in this penultimate episode, Preemptive Strike, an outing that offers an uncomfortable but fitting end for her character.

Forbes is a quality actress. She's got depth and natural screen chops that Sirtis, McFadden, Burton and Wheaton don't possess. That's not a dig at those actors because I like them all, but when guests as good as Forbes, Goldberg and Dwight Schultz appear, we can see the extra level of ability, of making us believe in these people. Patrick Stewart has great chemistry with Forbes too, such as the scene with Picard and Ro in the cantina near the end. It's the softest of verbal dances, underscored by the painful knowledge that one of them is about to break the heart of the other - and we feel that they both know it on some level.

That weighty final shot of a silently sullen Captain Picard makes for a powerful ending.