TNG Flashback: Unification I

Star Trek actor DeForest Kelley had briefly appeared as his character McCoy in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But now, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise, a plan was hatched to stage a much more elaborate crossover for an even more (equally? debate!) beloved character, Spock.

The celebrated Federation ambassador Spock has departed for Romulus without official sanction. Fearing that he may have defected, Starfleet dispatches Picard to track him down. The captain first turns to Spock's father Sarek for clues to Spock's thinking, only to find the elder Vulcan completely unraveled by disease. Still, Picard gets a lead on a Romulan senator, and secures aid from a cloaked Klingon ship to smuggle him and Data to Romulus. Meanwhile, the Enterprise has stumbled upon debris from a stolen Vulcan ship, and must determine who stole it and why.

This two-part episode -- the first on The Next Generation to occur mid-season rather than as part of a finale cliffhanger and premiere resolution -- was not the first attempt to bring Leonard Nimoy and the character of Spock onto the series. The writing staff had originally planned to begin the second season with a bang, by using the original series' time travel Macguffin, the Guardian of Forever, as a way of uniting "movie-era Spock" with a new, "Next Gen era Spock." Unfortunately, the Writers' Guild strike of 1988 brought development of the concept to a halt. Not only were we then subjected to a truly dreadful season two premiere, but the deal with Leonard Nimoy fell apart. By the time the strike was resolved, the success of the movie Three Men and a Baby had boosted Nimoy's directing career. Offers were coming in to him, and his price tag as an actor would have blown the entire budget of an episode of television. So that was that.

Until, that is, the approach of the 25th anniversary of Star Trek in 1991. There was a big push to commemorate the milestone with a "meeting of the generations." Michael Dorn appeared as Worf's ancestor in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. And Leonard Nimoy, an executive producer of the movie who was happy to have another way to promote it, agreed to complete the exchange by appearing on The Next Generation for barely more than the minimum salary allowed by the actors' union.

As interesting as the checkered story of Spock's return might be, it's really just preamble when it comes to this virtually Spock-free first episode of the two-parter. And that's the big problem with it: there's a lot of filler here. The combined two hours of Unification really only contain at best maybe an hour-and-a-half of compelling story. We don't even get the explanation of the episodes' title until the second half (notwithstanding the allusion to the "unification" of two generations of Star Trek). Instead, we get a rather dry snipe hunt to occupy those characters who stay behind on the Enterprise.

Cull that from the plot, and what remains is actually rather entertaining. We watch Picard put the screws to a weaselly Klingon adjutant. We watch an obnoxious Klingon captain try to get under the captain's skin by denying him human comforts. There's also a fun comedic scene in which Data's creepy stare makes Picard's already difficult attempt to sleep impossible.

And then there's the powerfully dramatic scene that marks the return (and final appearance) of Sarek. Mark Lenard gives a brilliant performance, showing a defeated Vulcan prone to emotion even in his more lucid moments, a senile and withering man. He can't even make his fingers form the Vulcan salute without Picard's help, nor can he complete the traditional "live long and prosper" greeting. It's a sad deterioration that too many people in the audience can probably identify with from personal experience.

Mark Lenard isn't the only interesting guest star here. Malachi Throne plays the Romulan senator Pardek, and this is not his first appearance in a two-part Star Trek episode; he played a commodore in the original series' "The Menagerie." Erick Avari, who played the same supporting role in both Stargate the movie and the television series, plays the Klingon B'iJik. And though it's hard to believe, that's Stephen Root hiding under the Klingon makeup of Captain K'Vada; Root would later make a career of playing countless schlubs, arguably none as memorable as Milton in the movie Office Space.

The script includes a few oblique references to the plot of Star Trek VI -- though nothing that would spoil it, as the film had not actually been released at the time this episode aired. It episode also includes a reference to the Star Trek animated series of the 1970s; when Sarek tells the story of how Spock used to defiantly venture into the mountains as a boy, he's recounting something shown in the episode "Yesteryear."

Putting these allusions into the script was staff writer Jeri Taylor. Originally, show runner Michael Piller had wanted to craft both episodes of the two-parter himself, but a busy schedule forced him to hand off this first half. Taylor did express disappointment at only getting to write the set-up, but got a consolation prize when Pocket Books approached the show about writing a novelization of the entire Unification event; Taylor wrote the book.

Other observations:

• As I noted previously, "Disaster" was the last episode aired before the death of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. The next episode, "The Game," was too soon going to be transmitted to syndicated affiliates,so there was no time to alter it. That meant that this episode, appropriately, was the series' first chance to acknowledge his passing. Both halves of "Unification" begin with a card memorializing the Great Bird of the Galaxy.

• Not all the continuity in this episode reaches across the generations. There's a mention of Mot the Barber. There's a nod to another father-son estrangement, between Riker and his dad. And there's another appearance by an imperious Zakdorn.

• There are a lot of verbal gymnastics here just to avoid inventing any Romulan words. Data's references to "the third day of the week" and "the median hour" are conspicuously awkward.

• Brent Spiner looks really different as a Romulan.

• Composer Dennis McCarthy was nominated for an Emmy award for his score of this episode. (Though I must say that personally, I didn't think it stood out.)

There's some good comedy here, and the phenomenal scene with Sarek. But generally, this episode is really just marking time until the appearance of Spock. I give it a B-.