After winning approval for a nonaggressive blockade, Picard deploys a fleet along the Neutral Zone. His crew spreads out to lead the task force as the starships are joined by an active tachyon web, which will enable them to detect even cloaked warbirds. While Worf is kidnapped and tortured, Data faces his own test of command before a skeptical crew. He finally wins them over when his apparent disobedience to Picard helps plug a hole in the Federation’s defenses the Romulans were about to exploit.
Exposed, the Romulans withdraw, leaving the Duras sisters helpless. They flee, leaving Toral behind as Gowron at last assumes leadership of his empire.
Worf, realizing he belongs to two different cultures, decides his place is aboard the Enterprise. Picard and crew are left to wonder how the late Tasha Yar could have borne Sela, the half-human Romulan commander—said to be Tasha’s daughter—who led the operation.
Michael Piller said he initially thought of using the saga of the Klingon Empire and Worf as third season’s cliff-hanger, but the Borg epic began to take shape at that time and he shelved the Klingon idea for a year. He praised Ronald Moore’s treatment of the Klingons—here and in “Sins of the Father” (165) and “Reunion” (181)—calling them probably the most-explored alien culture in Trek.
“I’ve come to think of Part One as Shakespearean-style royal drama, I, Claudius-type intrigue at the highest levels,” Piller said, “Here we add[ed] Data’s command dilemma and the subplot of Sela that Denise Crosby came to us with,” Data’s leadership skills had already been tested on a smaller scale, of course, when he evacuated Tau Cygne V in “The Ensigns of Command” (149).
“In all of our two-parters, we always end up writing the conclusion after we return from hiatus,” Berman recalled, and then deadpanned: “It’s something we kind of look forward to over the summer!”
It was fitting that David Carson was chosen to direct this episode in which Sela is revealed to be Tasha’s daughter; he, after all, had directed “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (163), in which Tasha was sent back in time in the first place. Guinan’s interest in Tasha Yar here was set up by that earlier episode’s final sequence, where she asked Geordi about the late security chief. We learn here that Sela is twenty-three, born a year after the 1701-C was retrieved twenty-four years ago—which works out to 2344, as reckoned with “The Neutral Zone” (126)—and that Tasha was killed in an escape attempt after four-year-old Sela turned her in. Chris Hobson is a longtime friend of Ron Moore; Sutherland extras “Keith” and “Terry” are his brothers. A clue is also given to the duration of the UFP-Klingon alliance when Picard says the Romulans have been undermining it for “over twenty years,” in contrast to fifty-three years of no Federation-Romulan contact (“The Neutral Zone”/126).
Sela (Denise Crosby) confirms the unbelievable: she’s Tasha’s daughter.
Practically all of the staff’s stockpiled ship designs make an appearance here in the Starfleet armada, including the Nebula-class Sutherland, Data’s command, NCC-72015 (previously seen as the Phoenix in “The Wounded” (186). Riker’s command, the Excalibur, is of the Ambassador class, like the 1701-C, and the USS Tiananmen commemorates the central Beijing square that was the scene of a bloody Chinese populist uprising in 1989.
DARMOK
* * *
Production No.: 202 Aired: Week of September 30, 1991
Stardate: 45047.2 Code: dm
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Teleplay by Joe Menosky
Story by Philip Lazebnik and Joe Menosky
GUEST CAST
Tamarian First Officer: Richard James
Lieutenant O’Brien: Colm Meaney
Captain Dathon: Paul Winfield
Ensign Robin Lefler: Ashley Judd
* * *
The Enterprise tries for the eighth time in a century to contact the Children of Tama, a peaceful, well-intentioned advanced race whose language is indecipherable. Their words translate as descriptive phrases of people and places.
When the two races fail again in their attempt to understand each other, the Tamarians beam Picard and their own captain Dathon to a rugged planet nearby. The Tamarian ship blocks all attempts by the Enterprise crew to beam up Captain Picard.
A wary Picard, realizing Dathon means him no harm, accepts help to survive the night. He’s still trying to fathom the Tamarian’s purpose when the two are forced to combine their efforts to fight a predatory electromagnetic creature. Above, Riker and the Tamarians dicker over their captains’ safety and almost go to war when the starship makes a concerted effort to rescue Picard.
That attempt ends in failure, but not before Picard’s momentary dematerialization allows the magnetic creature to critically injure Dathon. Finally Picard catches on: the Tamarians speak in abstract narrative images based in folklore. “Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra” learned to understand each other by facing a common foe—just like “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.”
A second rescue attempt by the Enterprise succeeds in saving Picard from the creature, but the Tamarians are ready to open fire until the Enterprise captain speaks to them, praising their late leader. Contact having been successfully established, Picard is left to wonder if he would knowingly sacrifice his life for the sake of making contact with another race.
Picard and the ill-fated Dathon (Paul Winfield) learn to communicate against a common enemy.
Joe Menosky, who would leave the staff at season’s end for a sabbatical in Italy, drew high praise from Michael Piller for the work he did bringing to life this episode, which Piller said had the longest gestation period of any episode during his tenure. The inability to communicate had been the central theme of a story by Philip Lazebnik, but it was Menosky who worked out the Tamarians’ language of allusion and metaphor. He also changed the story’s focus from a complex and confusing “ant farm” visit to an exploration of the two strong commanders, Picard and Dathon.
Ashley Judd, the youngest sister of Wynnona of the singing Judd family, makes her debut here as Ensign Lefler. She will pick up a first name and a love interest in “The Game” (206). We also learn that Data has met some 1,754 different races in his twenty-six years with Starfleet.
Outdoor scenes were shot over two days near the Bronson Caves, an area off the canyon below the famous Hollywood sign. Legato said the glowing creature, portrayed by stunt extra Rex Pierson, was realized with a less expensive version of the Terminator 2-type melting effects. Going from tape to film and back again, the creature was shot against a blue screen on fast video and developed on film 10 stops over the exposure.
Though its name is unseen, the Magellan shuttlecraft debuted here, giving the series a long-sought larger shuttle whose miniature matched its full-scale set. And in one of the series’ rare effects bloopers, phaser fire is seen erupting from the forward photon torpedo launcher.
ENSIGN RO
* * *
Production No.: 203 Aired: Week of October 7, 1991
Stardate: 45076.3 Code: er
Directed by Les Landau
Teleplay by T. Michael Piller
Story by Rick Berman and Michael Piller
GUEST CAST
Ensign Ro Laren: Michelle Forbes
Keeve Falor: Scott Marlowe
Gul Dolak: Frank Collison
Orta: Jeffrey Hayenga
Transporter Officer: Harley Venton
Barber Mot: Ken Thorley
Admiral Kennelly: Cliff Potts
Guinan: Whoopi Goldberg
Computer Voice: Majel Barrett
* * *
After Bajoran extremists attack a Federation colony, Ensign Ro, a troubled young Starfleet officer, comes on board the Enterprise. The crew resents her presence: Ro was court-martialed after disobeying orders on an away team mission that led to eight deaths.
Starfleet Admiral Kennelly has pardoned Ro, who is also Bajoran, hoping she can help persuade the militant Bajoran leader Orta to call off the raids and agree to resettlement. The Bajorans were displaced from their home world by th
e Cardassians some forty years ago.
Already uneasy at Ro’s presence, Picard angrily confines the ensign to quarters after she gets his away team taken hostage while tracking Orta. But Picard soon learns the Bajorans were not responsible for the raid on the Federation colony. Guinan then befriends Ro and persuades the ensign to reveal Kennelly’s secret reason for sending her on the mission to Picard: in return for her freedom, Ro is secretly to offer Orta arms and ships, then allow his vessel to be destroyed by a Cardassian ship once he comes out of hiding. Kennelly will order the Enterprise not to interfere, in order to protect the peace treaty with the Cardassians.
Picard allows the plan to proceed, but with a twist: the Cardassians destroy an empty ship. At first furious, Kennelly is shocked to find the Cardassians staged the raid on the Federation themselves to enlist aid in destroying the Bajorans.
Afterward, Picard offers Ro a chance to remain in Starfleet—aboard his ship. She accepts.
This episode’s roots were simple, according to Rick Berman: the show was specifically designed to introduce a sharp-edged character, an idea that had been floating around as far back as Wesley’s departure from the conn seat a year earlier. “The other characters in the cast are relatively homogenous; some might even say bland,” Berman explained. “So we wanted a character with the strength and dignity of a Starfleet officer but with a troubled past, an edge.” The introduction of a strong woman often embroiled in conflict and her acceptance by the fans and writers was “one of our greatest achievements of the season,” Michael Piller added. Michelle Forbes was asked back to play the new recurring character after making a strong Impression as Timicin’s daughter Dara in “Half a Life” (196).
Actor Harley Venton’s character, a transporter officer, gets no on-screen name in either appearance, but he is named Collins in the script for this show and Hutchinson eight shows later, in “Hero Worship” (211).
The troubled Ro (Michelle Forbes) finds a friend in Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg).
Though it was not known at the time it was written, this episode would lay much of the groundwork used for the new Deep Space Nine series, set aboard an abandoned Cardassian mining station in the Bajoran system. Here we learn that Bajor was annexed forty years ago (the DS9 pilot reveals it was occupied for twenty more earlier), that Ro served on the Wellington (“11001001”/116), that she is not the only Bajoran in Starfleet (“The First Duty”/219), and that she was forced at age seven to watch her father be tortured to death—a later story point (“Preemptive Strike”/276). Also, the Cardassian warship is christened the Galor class here.
The Bajorans, Berman added, were not modeled on any one real-life ethnic group: “The Kurds, the Palestinians, the Jews in the 1940s, the boat people from Haiti—unfortunately, the homeless and terrorism are problems [in every age].”
Scenes of the Bajoran encampment were shot in one day in Bronson Canyon near the area used in the preceding episode. Michael Westmore’s subtle Bajoran makeup makes use of a nose-bridge piece reminiscent of those worn by actors who play Ornarans and Brekkians in “Symbiosis” (123).
SILICON AVATAR
* * *
Production No.: 204 Aired: Week of October 14, 1991
Stardate: 45122.3 Code: Si
Directed by Cliff Bole
Teleplay by Jeri Taylor
Story by Lawrence V. Conley
GUEST CAST
Dr. Kila Marr: Ellen Geer
Carmen Davila: Susan Diol
* * *
Riker and an away team are helping a group of colonists survey their new home when they are suddenly attacked by an old nemesis: the Crystalline Entity. All but two of the colonists and the away team are eventually rescued by the Enterprise.
Dr. Kila Marr, on the trail of the destructive alien ever since her son Renny was killed on Omicron Theta, now joins the starship in a hunt for the entity. Blaming Data for her son’s death because his “brother” Lore lured the entity to Omicron Theta, Marr is ice-cold to the android until she learns he has the stored thoughts of the colonists—including her son. Through Data—who can even mimic his voice—she is able to relive her son’s last few months of life.
Meanwhile, she and Picard clash over how to treat the Entity once it is contacted: the captain wants to try talking to it first, arguing the creature may not know it is killing. Marr simply wants revenge.
They lure the Entity with graviton pulse emissions, and the moment of truth arrives. The starship and the entity appear to be communicating—until Marr coolly and quietly raises the frequency of the pulse. The emissions shatter the entity.
Outraged, Picard can barely contain himself, but back in her quarters, Marr is strangely calm. She asks Data to talk like her son again, repeating that she “did it for him.” As dispassionate as ever, Data tells her that Renny would be sad that his mother had ruined her career for his sake.
Just when the writers had decided on no more sequels and no more “cannibalizing,” as Jeri Taylor put it, along came this premise by free-lancer Lawrence V. Conley, who took a bus down from Oregon to pitch the idea. “And of all the characters to bring back, who’d have thought the Crystalline Entity?” Taylor said, “But the Moby-Dick premise of this obsessed woman whose son’s consciousness was stored in Data was too good to pass up.”
It didn’t hurt that the staff loved the title, Taylor adds, even though “no one ever knew exactly what it meant.” One meaning of “avatar” is “the appearance on earth of a god in bodily form,” but Taylor prefers another meaning: “a repository of knowledge,” referring to Data.
Riker and Data seal off survivors from the Crystalline Entity.
The pastoral opening scenes of the Melona IV colony before its destruction were shot in a day at the Golden Oaks Ranch, also known as the Disney Ranch, in the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles.
The Entity’s destruction, though, was accomplished by adding eighteen-inch miniature trees to the foreground after the live filming of the fleeing colonists. The light beam was animated on computer later, Rob Legato said, but the “sand trap” was actually a four-foot-wide tarp spread along the ground with air shot up from under it through the mesh. As with its first appearance, the Entity itself was generated entirely by computer.
DISASTER
* * *
Production No.: 205 Aired: Week of October 21, 1991
Stardate: 45156.1 Code: di
Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont
Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
Story by Ron Jarvis and Philip A. Scorza
GUEST CAST
Keiko O’Brien: Rosalind Chao
Lieutenant Miles O’Brien: Colm Meaney
Ensign Ro Laren: Michelle Forbes
Marissa: Erika Flores
Jay Gordon: John Christopher Graas
Patterson: Max Supera
Ensign Mandel: Cameron Arnett
Lieutenant (j.g.) Monroe: Jana Marie Hupp
* * *
As Captain Picard is playing host to three young winners of a shipboard science contest, a catastrophe strikes the ship, causing violent power failures, total disruption of communications, and an almost complete shutdown of its systems.
On the bridge, Troi is shocked to find herself in command and facing a momentous decision; the disaster has weakened the magnetic containment field surrounding the ship’s antimatter pods. An explosion could occur at any moment. Ensign Ro argues she must separate the saucer section immediately, while O’Brien points out that they have no way of knowing if anyone is still alive in Engineering.
On a ship in crisis, Worf delivers Keiko’s baby.
In Ten-Forward, Riker, Data, Worf, and Keiko O’Brien, who is pregnant, treat the injured while Geordi and Dr. Crusher find themselves trapped in a cargo bay and threatened by a radioactive fire. And Captain Picard, his leg broken, is trapped in a damaged turbolift with three very frightened children.
While Troi struggles to come to a decision regarding saucer separation, Riker and Data decide to l
eave Ten-Forward for Engineering, where they will attempt to restore power. After being trapped in an access tube by an electrical current, Data is forced to sacrifice his body—but not his head—to allow them to continue. Meanwhile, Keiko shocks Worf by going into labor.
Picard and the three children attempt to reach safety as Dr. Crusher and La Forge decide their only hope of extinguishing the fire is to blow the airlock.
Riker reaches Engineering and uses Data’s head to tap into the ship’s control circuits, where he notes the failing pod field in the nick of time. Troi, seconds away from jettisoning the drive section, is overjoyed when power is restored. Picard and the children are rescued, La Forge and Crusher escape the cargo bay, and Keiko, with Worf’s assistance, gives birth to a baby girl.
A pitchman might best describe this plot as “Star Trek Meets The Poseidon Adventure,” but Ronald D. Moore’s teleplay as usual didn’t miss many chances to let all of the regular characters grow by placing them in a fish-out-of-water predicament—especially Picard, who’s trapped in a turbolift with three children, and Troi, who is forced to make life-and-death command decisions. Michael Piller remarked that his only hindsight regret was in seeing Ro “lose a rough edge” in her infant character development by apologizing so easily to Troi.
As usual in Hollywood, twins played the newborn Molly here and later (“Power Play”/215) before little Hanna Hatae took over the role a year later (“Rascals”/233) and into DS9. Beverly’s drama coaching of Geordi from The Pirates of Penzance harks back to her arts roots (see notes, “Nth Degree”/185). And we learn that O’Brien’s father with the roving eye (“Family”/178) is named Michael, while Keiko’s father is Hiro.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition Page 30