UNDERDOG of PERFECTION

The Hunted
Season 3 Episode 11
Original airdate: January 6, 1990

Netflix Synopsis

Investigating a planet applying for membership into the Federation, the crew of the Enterprise finds a group of inhabitants who used to be soldiers.

My Brief Review

Why, it’s Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell), inventor of the warp engine! Oops, no, it’s Prime Minister Nayrok, of a planet whose inhabitants look exactly like humans. (I always find it interesting when Star Trek doesn’t even put weird nose ridges on alien species. Budget? Laziness? Some pseudo-explanation about a common ancestor seeding humanoid species all across the galaxy?)

Anyway… this is another great episode. The planet applying for Federation membership has a dark secret: in its earlier period of wars, it programmed some volunteers as super-soldiers without letting them know they’d never be themselves again. Instead, they’re forced to live on an off-world penal colony because they’re deemed too dangerous to rejoin mainstream society.

And the escapee certainly is dangerous… but only when threatened. That’s how he’s programmed. After he makes a daring and shrewd escape from the Enterprise (including breaking free of a transporter beam!), Picard and the away team confront the Prime Minister with the fact that he’ll have to make peace with his own veterans before his planet can be considered for membership in the Federation.

As some of the reviewers on IMDb noted, this episode is a pretty direct reference to the struggles of Vietnam War veterans and the lack of support they received from the government on their return.

Memorable Moment

Yeah… that whole breaking-free-of-a-transporter-beam thing. How’d he do that???

Crew Rando

Several, but they’re too rando to really pay attention to. Did I mention that James Cromwell is in this episode?

Distance Rating: 6K

IMDb score: 7.5/10

The Defector
Season 3 Episode 10
Original airdate: January 1, 1990

Netflix Synopsis

When a Romulan officer defects to the Federation and warns of an impending invasion, Capt. Picard struggles to decide if he is to be believed.

My Brief Review

Welcome to the 1990s!

These Romulan episodes are almost always good. The Romulans are probably my favorite “enemy” alien species in Star Trek. Their ancestral connection to Vulcan, and the extreme contrast between their cultures, is a fascinating contrast. Beyond that, the Romulan characters are always pretty well written and acted. That’s definitely the case here.

James Sloyan (who I recognized in Romulan makeup but could not identify — he’s been in a ton of stuff but I know him best from his recurring character on Murder, She Wrote, as well as from the movie Xanadu) is great as the defector, Admiral Jarok, and we have the excellent Andreas Katsulas back, after just a few episodes (which his character even notes) as Tomalak.

Memorable Moment

The episode begins on the Holodeck, with Data acting out a scene from Shakespeare’s Henry V, and, if you look closely, you’ll notice that one of the holographic commoners is in fact Patrick Stewart in heavy makeup. Picard is watching the scene from a distance and coaching Data on his acting.

Crew Rando

Wes isn’t in this episode, so I was thinking perhaps Crewman Martinez would finally get some more screen time! Of course, I need to pay attention to my rank insignia pips. Crewmen don’t have any. The rando who’s at the helm throughout the episode is an ensign (and of course, a crewman wouldn’t be at the helm anyway). Unfortunately, the ensign isn’t even given a name! IMDb just lists him, uncredited, as “Operations Division Officer.”

Distance Rating: 5K

IMDb score: 8.5/10

The Vengeance Factor
Season 3 Episode 9
Original airdate: November 18, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

The Enterprise pursues a race of “gatherers” who continue to raid Federation outposts, unaware of the dangers lurking among them.

My Brief Review

It’s Balbricker from Porky’s (seriously) vs. Snake Plissken (not seriously) in the ultimate smackdown!!

If your planet had a millennia-long history of clan wars, and made peace, except for one small group who were exiled to an existence as nomadic raiders, how would you expect them to look after a century? If you said, “Like a cross between Kip Winger and Snake Plissken,” you’d be right! Mullets and all. (It was 1989, after all.)

This is a decent episode, but a very poorly paced one, and it was difficult to get too enthusiastic about it even though the basic premise was solid.

The real problem comes in the climactic scene, however, when Yuta, the young woman who acts as the servant to the Sovereign of the planet (and who of course has had a romantic encounter with Riker earlier in the episode), attempting to murder Chorgan, the leader of the Gatherers by… uh… touching his face (it makes sense in context), is confronted by Riker with his phaser.

He stuns her… on a setting so weak that it’s little more than a weak punch in the stomach. She recoils, then takes another step towards her enemy. Riker turns up the phaser a bit, to “kickpuncher” level. She recoils again, then takes another step. Riker slowly turns his phaser up to maximum setting. She looks at Riker, then lunges at her enemy… and Riker completely vaporizes her!

In any other episode, phasers are set to “stun” which means “knock unconscious.” Why didn’t he do that so she could be taken into custody? It makes no sense for Riker to murder her. Of course, this isn’t the first time Riker has murdered with impunity and I suspect it’s not the last.

Memorable Moment

It’s hard to forget when Brull, the leader of the group of Gatherers who brings Enterprise to Chorgan, struts into Ten Forward, grabs another man’s drink out of his hand, walks over to Wesley, grabs his PADD, plops down with his foot up on Wesley’s table, and proceeds to… well… mock him for being a nerd, I guess.

Crew Rando

Backflip master Crewman Martinez was apparently in this one too but I didn’t notice him!

Distance Rating: 4K

IMDb score: 6.5/10

The Price
Season 3 Episode 8
Original airdate: November 11, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

While the Enterprise hosts negotiations for control of a stable wormhole, Troi forms a personal relationship with an opposing negotiator.

My Brief Review

I was prepared to turn this episode off 10 seconds into the cold open. Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the episode, despite its focus both on Deanna Troi’s love life and a particularly annoying trio of Ferengi. It helped that 2/3 of that trio ended up trapped in the Delta Quadrant on the other side of an unstable wormhole, and that Troi recognized what a smarmy sleaze ball the guy was and sent him packing.

Memorable Moment

The looks on the Ferengi’s faces when they realize the wormhole has closed, leaving them trapped…

Crew Rando

I’m at a bit of a loss on this one… but checking IMDb I see once again backflip master Crewman Martinez made an uncredited appearance. I think he may have been seen momentarily in sickbay, helping Dr. Crusher attend to the poisoned Federation negotiator, Mr. Mendoza.

Distance Rating: 3K

IMDb score: 6.3/10

The Enemy
Season 3 Episode 7
Original airdate: November 4, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

La Forge gets left behind on a storm-plagued planet when the rest of his team encounters a Romulan warrior.

My Brief Review

Funny… here’s a case where the Netflix and IMDb synopses are word-for-word identical. I’m still trying to figure out the mystery of where Netflix sources these.

Two days ago I decided not to watch any TNG on the treadmill when I read the previews for five episodes and was not interested in any of them. This was the first of the five. Today I went back and gave it a chance, and I’m glad I did! It was a very good episode. (With a couple of major flaws.)

Riker, Geordi and Worf are on an away mission to a planet full of heavy electrical storms. They come upon an injured Romulan — who has no business being on a Federation planet half a light year from the edge of the Neutral Zone! Meanwhile, Geordi falls in a hole and is lost. Their window in the storm closing, Riker and Worf beam back with the Romulan and leave Geordi behind.

Back on the planet, down the hole, Geordi finds (thanks to his visor) some metallic ore that he melts with a phaser to turn into a couple of climbing spikes he uses to get back to the surface. (Clever!) Only, he stumbles upon… a second Romulan!

I won’t spoil the rest of the story, but there are some heavy themes dealing with the limits of trust and the willingness we have to die for principles — or to let others die for them. Surprisingly, the writers left this difficult issue hanging in the air for us to struggle with, as the story does not provide a tidy resolution of the matter. (This is uncommonly “deep” writing for ’80s television.)

This episode features a special appearance by one of my favorite character actors as the Romulan Commander of the ship that comes to answer the distress call — Andreas Katsulas, perhaps best known as… well, the fugitive in the movie version of The Fugitive. (OK, he’s probably best known to a lot of sci-fi fans as G’Kar from Babylon 5, but I never got into that show.) His character here, Tomalak, is probably the most well-known Romulan face on TNG, making three subsequent appearances after this episode, including the series finale.

The only real problems I have with this episode are right at the beginning and end. First, I find it highly improbable that a planet whose surface is so “storm-plagued” would be a place humans could survive on for even a few seconds, despite whatever invisible technology these guys are supposed to have. And then, right at the end, after Picard says he will be escorting Tomalak’s ship back to Romulan space, we see the two ships leaving orbit of the planet in opposite directions. I recognize that they had a limited number of stock shots of the ship models in motion to work with, but surely they could have either made something work or skipped the obligatory final exterior shot of the ship this time.

Memorable Moment

Picard’s deft brinksmanship in his negotiations with the duplicitous (he’s Romulan, after all) Tomalak is some classic TNG.

Crew Rando

There are so many people working in sickbay in this episode! Where did they all come from, and why do we so rarely see anyone in there besides Dr. Crusher? If she’s in charge of the whole thing, wouldn’t she actually be the one least involved in all of the day-to-day caregiving? (This is one of my big complaints with Star Trek in general. If they have a crew of hundreds, you know every last person sent on an away mission to a barely-habitable planet would be a red shirt, not the second, fourth and fifth in command!

Distance Rating: 5K

IMDb score: 7.9/10