The Enterprise is sent to the planet Angosia III to review their application to join the Federation. Soon after their arrival, a prisoner escapes from a lunar penal colony, and Picard agrees to help capture the escapee. But the "criminal" turns out to be a genetically enhanced, psychologically reconditioned super soldier who has been exiled from his planet's society after the end of the war in which he fought. Stunning though this revelation is, the greater issue may be trying to retain custody of the man, whose heightened abilities allow him to escape the brig and run loose on the ship.
Like "The Defector" immediately before it, "The Hunted" is an episode based largely around its main guest star -- in this case the super soldier Roga Danar. Also like "The Defector," the episode does not focus on any one crew member's particular reaction to the guest, opting instead to put several characters in contact with him. The primary relationships explored with Danar are with Troi and Data. This is a technique the show has used once or twice before, juxtaposing the series' most emotional character and least emotional character. When Troi and Data are in agreement -- in this case, in their assessment that Roga Danar has been fundamentally wronged -- then what they're saying must be the truth.
The problem is that Roga Danar isn't realized as a very compelling character. Some of the problems start on the page. The writers seem to be trying too hard to sell us on how brilliant and tough this guy is. The opening act revolves around the ship's pursuit of Danar, who employs a series of tricks to avoid capture. But the cat and mouse just isn't that compelling, and it feels most of the time like it's the Enterprise crew members' stupidity and not Danar's brilliance that is postponing an end to the chase.
But I think the larger problem with Roga Danar is in the casting. Guest star Jeff McCarthy simply isn't that imposing a presence. He's not physically large or strong, his voice is soft instead of gruff, and he doesn't carry himself like a soldier. Even his face is wrong for the role -- he looks rather like comedian Kevin Nealon, which makes it nearly impossible for me to take him seriously. Makeup could have perhaps bridged the gap here (some very unthreatening performers have been made into credible Klingons, for example), but this particular alien-of-the-week doesn't get any special treatment. Danar has very similar eye makeup to Yuta, the character from the recent "The Vengeance Factor," which makes him look more like he's been to a face painting booth at a carnival than a military conditioning camp.
It also doesn't help that later in the episode, when Roga Danar escapes from the brig and an act-long pursuit sequence begins, there's absolutely no sense of urgency from anyone involved. In this supposed chase, everyone walks everywhere... and at a quite leisurely pace. Neither is there a sense of claustrophobia. In this first appearance of the "Jefferies tubes" in Star Trek: The Next Generation, these mechanical ducts through the ship are tall enough to walk upright in. (The Next Generation seemingly realized this was not a good thing after this episode; future episodes would revise the tubes to be more like the crawl space ducts of the original series.)
The intended climax of the episode was tossed out for budgetary reasons; there was neither the money nor the time in the schedule to film it. It reportedly involved Danar and his soldiers barging into the alien capitol building on a Rambo-like rampage, shooting up every member of the government, and taking over in a coup. Instead, we're left with an ambiguous ending in which Picard leaves the planet behind in a sort of Mexican standoff -- the soldiers' mental programming doesn't allow them to attack the politicians unless they're threatened, but the politicians can only resort to force to make the soldiers leave the building. It might be an interesting resolution for a science fiction short story, but it's rather unsatisfying as a Star Trek episode, since it sort of leaves you to wonder, what was the point of our heroes getting involved in the first place?
So what is good about the episode? Little bits here and there. Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner give good performances as Troi and Data; they do make the most of their scenes in this episode. The second chase through the Enterprise, though lacking urgency, does have a great deal of cleverness in it -- both Danar and the crew make several smart moves and counter-moves.
The episode is also notable for its "lesser" guest character, the alien leader Nayrok, played by James Cromwell. He doesn't even get top billing in this episode; this was long before anyone knew who he was. But his appearance here laid the groundwork for future Trek appearances: another Next Generation episode, a Deep Space Nine episode, and of course his big role in Star Trek: First Contact as Zefram Cochrane.
Other observations:
- With the episode falling short in many places at trying to instill a sense of urgency, the music has to make up the shortcomings. And it's a rare occasion where Dennis McCarthy, whom I find to be the least skilled of Trek's regular composers, actually succeeds. Bombastic music underscores the early ship-to-ship pursuit, and a more percussion driven theme underscores the later chase through the ship. The finale of the episode is also good, featuring a nice fanfare for the soldiers when they storm the capitol.
- Poor Worf. Once again, the way to show the audience that someone is tough is to have them beat the crap out of Worf.
- This middling episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation gave us one of the most powerful cards in Decipher's Star Trek: The Next Generation Customizable Card Game. By the time the game was released at the end of 1994, I hardly remembered who Roga Danar was, but I used his personnel card in probably every single deck I built for the first several years of the game's existence.
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