When a Klingon exchange officer aboard the Enterprise steals classified information for the Romulans and apparently sabotages the warp core, an investigation begins. Retired Admiral Norah Satie arrives to root out any co-conspirators the Klingon might have had. But her search turns into a witch hunt when a timid young officer falls into her crosshairs for lying about his quarter-Romulan lineage. And soon, Captain Picard himself comes under her scrutiny.
This episode had a somewhat desperate origin. The season's budget had been overrun, and the studio was demanding that it be balanced. They asked for another clip show, along the lines of the dreadful "Shades of Gray." Executive producer Rick Berman and head writer Michael Piller were adamantly against the notion, and promised to come up with a money-saving alternative episode that could be filmed on existing sets, without significant visual effects.
The core idea itself came from staff writer Ronald Moore, a concept he called "It Can't Happen Here." (It seemed very much in sync with themes he would later explore on Deep Space Nine and Battlestar Galactica.) Another staff writer, Jeri Taylor, fleshed out the actual script. She was inspired in large part by actual history, particularly the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials. The result, she felt, was the best script she ever contributed to the series.
And indeed it was strong, not only for the way it believably channeled history, but for the timelessness of the episode, and the sad way it remains extremely relevant today. The railroading of quarter-Romulan Simon Tarses is a pure and ugly portrayal of racial profiling. It easily calls to mind anti-Muslim sentiments in the wake of the September 11th attacks. And it's an easy analogy for still more scenarios with which different viewers might feel different connections. I myself, for example, see Tarses' concealment of his Romulan grandfather as an obvious metaphor for hiding one's homosexuality -- particularly for people in the military before the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," or for anyone in any government job just a few decades before that. (Or, sadly, for LGBT people today in the 29 U.S. states with no employment protections against sexual orientation discrimination.)
There are still other analogies one can draw from this episode. The use of a Betazoid as a means for truth verification feels like the suspect results of a lie detector test. The continued hunt for a conspiracy even after the warp explosion is revealed to be an accident feels just like a politician doggedly pursuing an agenda long after its pretext is exposed as false. And when Admiral Satie taunts Picard about his experience with the Borg, it's not unlike a person blaming the victim of a rape for the crime.
These lofty ideas are presented well thanks in large part to some strong guest stars. Spencer Garrett plays the nervous Simon Tarses, holding his own in scenes that feature some real acting heavyweights. One of those is Jean Simmons, the two-time Oscar nominee and Emmy winner who plays Admiral Satie. If the fire in her performance feels Shakespearean, it's no coincidence; one of those nominations was for playing Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. Even the bit players make an impact. Earl Billings doesn't have a single line as Admiral Henry, but the camera keeps cutting to his reactions during the episode's climatic scene, and his forceful exit from the room tells you all you need to know.
If the big ideas and strong performances in this episode don't do it for you, the sheer volume of connections to earlier episodes ought to be enough to thrill any longtime fan. Besides the Borg reference, we get a mention of the last Starfleet conspiracy, a return of the interspecies exchange program, a repeat performance of Riker as lawyer, and a callback to the recent escape of a Romulan spy. Plus, of course, there's an important subplot for Worf that follows up on his discommendation; Satie's interrogator throws in Worf's face the "fact" that his father was a Romulan traitor, while the Klingon spy believes he can bribe an apparently dishonorable man like Worf. Indeed, Worf's initial zeal for the witch hunt feels like his way of overcompensating for the shame he feels among his people.
This episode also marks the return of Jonathan Frakes to the director's chair, for the third time. This episode was his most dialogue-driven yet, and shows his clear knack for working with actors to get a good performance. He also did his cinematic homework; he revealed in subsequent interviews that his staging of certain scenes was deliberately meant to evoke moments from the movies Judgment at Nuremberg and The Caine Mutiny.
But another stint behind the scenes came to an end with this episode. Composer Ron Jones was fired from the series by executive producer Rick Berman, who told Jones just before he began work on this score that it would be his last. After nearly four years of wonderful and bombastic scores that didn't fit his vision for inconspicuous mood music, Berman had had enough. In a sad irony, this episode's score was exactly the sort of quiet and atmospheric composition Jones had almost never turned in. Jones indicated in subsequent interviews that he felt this episode was so driven by the acting (and effectively so), that he wanted to music to just step back and make room for it.
Berman approached the series' other regular composer, Dennis McCarthy, and invited him to become the sole composer for The Next Generation. McCarthy turned down the offer due to his workload on other projects outside Star Trek, so Jay Chattaway was brought in as Jones' replacement, continuing the alternating schedule between two regular composers.
Other observations:
- Although it is nice that the sympathetic Picard reaches out to Simon Tarses for a private meeting, it's bad lawyering on Riker's part to allow it to happen. Picard is technically part of the investigating team, after all.
- In an interview, Michael Dorn cited this as one of his two favorite episodes of the series. He has a notable role in this one, unlike his other pick, "The Offspring." Interestingly, both episodes were directed by Jonathan Frakes. (And I think that's not a coincidence, but rather another sign of Frakes' skill in working with actors.)
- Picard has many powerful lines throughout, but the sentiment with which he closes the episode may be the best of all: "[S]he or someone like her will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness. Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we have to continually pay."
For the third episode in a row, I find myself handing out an A- grade. For so late in a season, when the grind of television production is often weighing a series down, this was a particularly strong run for Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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