Welcome, fans, to the first annual official mid-January liveblogging of an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that is currently (as of 9 p.m. Eastern time) airing on BBC America. If you want to play along at home, you can find BBC America on your local cable network here. Tonight's episode is "Chain of Command: Part II."

In case you missed Part I, please catch up with the episode's entry at Memory Alpha, the premiere Star Trek wiki. In short: Following a secret mission into Cardassian space, Captain Picard is taken hostage, and the prickly Captain Jellico has taken command of the Enterprise in his stead.

9:06: Wow, what a teaser! We're in for a pretty intense one, gang. Captain Picard is being interrogated by Gul Madred (though his name is never used in the episode), played by veteran character actor David Warner, a Star Trek veteran. (You may remember him as Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.)

9:13: Here's Ronny Cox as Captain Jellico — it's so weird hearing someone else do the captain's log, right? — facing down another dastardly Cardassian.

Picard's interrogation continues. "I understand that you're a student of archeology" — classic evil interrogator stuff. The Cardassians were the best villains of the TNG era (though they didn't really come into their own until DS9 obviously). Right now the interrogation is pretty chill — would Picard care to tour the Hebitian burial vaults?

9:15: Picard protests! "Torture is expressly forbidden by the terms of the Seldonis Four convention governing treatment of prisoners of war!!!" Jean-Luc, study your 21st Century Earth history, these conventions are worth less than the paper they're printed on, even in supposedly civilized societies.

(Weird Vaseline lens blur in this ep that I don't really remember, is this some sort of weird standard def-to-HD artifact?)

9:18: Why was Dr. Crusher on this undercover mission again?

9:20: Captain Picard has been implanted with "a small device" ("it's a remarkable invention") that, even on the lowest possible setting, inflicts an unbelievable amount of paint. Picard's torturer isn't asking him what Picard knows about Starfleet's plans for Minos Korva — he simply wants to know what how many lights are on behind him.

9:25: Picard will be treated "as a terrorist" as long as the Federation refuses to withdraw from the sector. Jellico won't budge. Riker's pissed! He's relieved of duty! Dammit Jellico you can't just leave Picard to die in Cardassian custody!!

9:30: As Enterprise senior officers debate why Cardassians would specifically want to capture Captian Picard, the poor captain witnesses his interrogator telling his daughter that Human parents do not love their children as much as Cardassians — a scene that briefly and economically shows how societies dehumanize their enemies. Picard and Madred debate Cardassian history: Is Cardassian society better off since the military took charge? Madred's daughter will never go hungry — but what about her spirit? Tough questions from a classic episode.

9:35: "Is that what's keeping you from breaking? Memories of home and hearth? Images of happier times? I must congratulate you. You're remarkably strong willed. I see no point in holding you further. You may go. Someone will give you clean clothing before we return you to your ship." Sounds good! BUT: "We will get what we need from the human female." It's Dr. Crusher! It's a trick, Jean-Luc!

David Warner in this is like Alan Rickman in Die Hard-level good. Shoulda got an Emmy.

9:37: Mortdecai ad alert.

9:39: Gang, which do you like better, this one or the one with the flute? Please leave your answer in Kinja.

9:42: BTW you can purchase a formatted copy of the Senate torture report from publisher Melville House.

9:45: A little "humanizing" background on Picard's torturer. "Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information," Picard says. Early 90s syndicated scifi tv: Improbably smarter than 75 percent of 21st century political debate.

Suddenly, Picard has the upper hand. Incredible stuff from Patrick Stewart here. "In spite of all you've done to me, I find you a pitiable man." "THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS." Also shoulda got an Emmy.

9:46: That Riker — "he's the best there is." Literally any time on this show characters just explicitly tell us how cool and talented and awesome Riker is it is always hilarious.

9:50: Now Riker is wearing his sexy robe, talking about jazz. Ronny Cox hates him but now there is grudging respect. "I don't like you. I think you're insubordinate, arrogant. willful, and I don't think you're a particularly good first officer. But you are also the best pilot on the ship." THE BEST DAMN PILOT ON THIS SHIP. I doubt this. I mean, surely Data — whose reaction time is surely infinitely superior to that of a human pilot — is better.

9:55: "The Enterprise is burning in space." A great thing about this episode is that the torture is portrayed as a brutal combination of physical and mental — it's not a car battery connected to the scrotum, it's systematically attacking what Picard cares most about (The Enterprise, Dr. Crusher, the Federation) while also causing him significant physical discomfort and pain.

9:57: THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS. FUCK YES. THE STATE OF THE UNION IS THAT THERE ARE FOUR FUCKING LIGHTS.

9:59: An important coda. Picard isn't a superman who could stand up to torture thanks to his grit and bravery and sense of duty — he's a mere human being. "I was going to. I would have told him anything. Anything at all. But more than that, I believed that I could see five lights." Goddamn. Classic TNG.

10:01: LOL and we're straight into goofy-ass Data and LaForge playing Homes and Watson in the Holodeck in the opening of the next episode. A jarring segue! Thanks for following along, everyone. Same time next year!

10:08: Wait one last thing I only just now learned that the guy who played Moriarty on TNG, who is the same guy who played Niles on The Nanny, is NOT EVEN ENGLISH. He's from Arkansas! What the hell!