SPOILERS from the outset.
"Dominion" is a mix of the excellent and the irritating, that comes together to make an overall strong episode, albeit one that stops at a frustrating point.
On the plus side, this episode features some of the best cast performances so far this season. Brent Spiner is as good as ever, flitting between Data and Lore, while Levar Burton gives easily his best ever performance as Geordi. It's a good indication of how he's matured as an actor over the years, with his scene as the grief-stricken and desperate Geordi as he speaks to the android by far the best work he's done in the role. Both Stewart and McFadden are also on top form this episode, particularly in their quiet yet intense scenes together, discussing the lengths to which they are prepared to go in their mission.
Ed Speeler and Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut continue to show excellent chemistry, although their scene in the turbolift is a bit weird. Not only does Sydney have a very specific flirting routine, and Jack doing something slightly different puts her off, when he does touch her hand at the right moment this freaks her out. Sure, we know he's reading her mind, but surely from her perspective he's just doing something perfectly normal that she wanted him to do anyway? Christ, I'm glad I'm not dating this woman. Fortunately, their later scenes during the Changeling assault show that they make an excellent team, and this sequence actually makes Jack's sudden, newfound telepathy work as a plot point.
This is really Vadic's episode, though. Amanda Plummer, allowed to do more than chew the scenery, is absolutely phenomenal, with Vadic coming into her own as a powerful and almost justified villain. The flashbacks to her torture at the hands of a Federation scientist make for a potent and disturbing origin story, and one that is all too believable. I suspect many Trek purists will balk at this darker side to the supposedly utopian Federation, just as they balked at the dirty secrets and warfare of Deep Space Nine. I prefer this take, though, for reminding us that there is always the temptation to break the moral code when you think the ends justify the means. I love how Picard keeps trying to point out that the Federation gave the Changelings the cure to the disease that almost wiped them out, while Vadic points out that not only did they create the disease in the first place, once it came to light, even the public face of the UFP voted not to give it to them. It was only Odo and his comrades on DS9 who saved the Changelings, and then the Federation continued to experiment on their enemies.
Of course, Vadic conveniently forgets that the Dominion was also happy to commit genocide against the Cardassians, and that it had used biological warfare numerous times in the Gamma Quadrant. Her mission is not truly justified - not least because many innocents will surely die if she completes it - but it is entirely undersandable. Once she takes the Titan, it's hard not to feel a surge of triumph on her behalf.
Unfortunately, to get us to this point, the plot has to take some ridiculous and contrived turns. The forcefield battle and trap on the Titan is brilliant, but it's hard to see how Vadic could fall for it, especially as she was surely unaware that Lore was hiding in there to help her escape. Why, indeed, did Picard and Geordi leave the new android plugged in at all, knowing that Lore was in there and threatening to assert dominance? Sadly, all too often, to get a plot to function supposedly intelligent characters have to do very stupid things.
The episode gives us both questions and answers, predictable moments and surprises, and it's satisfying that this season isn't simply a folow-up to The Next Generation, but to the entire TNG-era. Tim Russ making an appearance as Tuvok (or not, as it turned out to be) was a nice touch and a genuine surprise, and I understand from his tweets post-broadcast that he'll be back again, so hopefully real Tuvok will appear before the series is done. The mysterious, swirling face is heavily implied to not be a Changeling itself, and the list of possible villains is getting slimmer. (You just know it has to be someone we've met before. My money is on Sela, as she has unfinished and it would give Denise Crosby a chance to return to the fold, but frankly it's a wild guess.) Somehow less interesting is the truth about Jack's nature, and Picard's in relation to him, as it all feels a little too contrived. Still, it looks like we'll be getting answers to these questions shortly, and not before time.
Random Thoughts:
Setting much of the episode in the debris field of the Chin'toka system is a nice touch, showing more of the fallout of the Dominion War.
Interesting that the Vulcans still have warships, though. We know from Lower Decks that they retain their own fleet, but a warship doesn't seem like their style post-Enterprise era.
Seemingly forgotten is that Lal is also within the new android, along with Data, Lore and the dormant personalities of Altan Soong and B-4. Unless, of course, this is being deliberately overlooked for a surprise development later.
Dr. Crusher is still talking like Wesley is dead, and not actually having a great time travelling time and space.
The mysterious face who likes to give orders is now named Serious Beef, thanks to a comment I made on the Star Trek Shitposting FB group being picked up. Whoever they turn out to be, I shall always think of them as Serious Beef.
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