Face of the Enemy
- Episode aired Feb 6, 1993
- TV-PG
- 46m
Deanna awakes to find herself altered to look like a Romulan, immediately unaware she's involved in a cat-and-mouse game as a member of their intelligence agency.Deanna awakes to find herself altered to look like a Romulan, immediately unaware she's involved in a cat-and-mouse game as a member of their intelligence agency.Deanna awakes to find herself altered to look like a Romulan, immediately unaware she's involved in a cat-and-mouse game as a member of their intelligence agency.
- Ensign McKnight
- (as Pamela Winslow)
- Computer
- (voice)
- Crewman Garvey
- (uncredited)
- Ensign Kellogg
- (uncredited)
- Romulan Aide
- (uncredited)
- Khazara Romulan Officer
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWorf's ponytail makes its debut here. He would keep it for the remainder of this series and keep when he moved on to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). Michael Dorn wanted the change because he was tired of "looking like a Klingon who's just been to the beauty salon!"
- GoofsTroi goes undercover as a Romulan, presumably relying on the Universal Translator to make her language sound like theirs. It has been established that the Translator takes the voice of whoever is speaking and translates the words to the listener's language. Therefore, to the Romulans, Troi would look like a character in a poorly dubbed foreign movie, with the spoken words not matching the mouth movements, which would make the disguise impossible to keep up, but no one seems to notice. However, it is never specifically stated that Troi is using the Translator, so it could be the case that Troi speaks Romulan and is able to pass herself off as one. The Commander's suspicions about Troi's background could be based on her accent, which a non-native speaker would surely possess.
This, of course, would ignore all of the other instances across all of Star Trek in which the crew communicate readily with species never before encountered, but at least this occurrence has a plausible explanation.
- Quotes
Counselor Deanna Troi: We're not playing it your way anymore, N'Vek. I've been kidnapped, surgically altered, put in danger. I've gone along with all your plans; now *you* are going to listen to me! You find a way to let the Enterprise track us, or I will go to Toreth and tell her I've discovered you're a traitor! I'll have you ejected into space, is that clear, Subcommander?
- ConnectionsReferenced in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Timescape (1993)
- SoundtracksStar Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage
Essentially Toreth meets with undercover Troi, unbeknownst to Toreth, and Troi gives orders. When they eat Toreth suspects something isn't what it seems and quizes. They eat viinerine, and Toreth tests her to see if she knows what it is. Putting on the tough Romulan act, Troi says she's tasted better. Toreth taunts her until Troi puts her in her place. They rendevouse with a Cravellian crater ship. And here we finally see just how dangerous the Romulans are. No cloak, and they brutally destroy the crator at N'Vek's insistance. And the Cravellians are armed. So yes the Romulans are indeed the first-rate threat they present. But they're still outmatched by Cardassians. Whether they can take on a Federation class starship is still a mystery but there are some flaws in the Romulan design that leave them vulnerable to the Federation and Cardassians. Either way, way Toreth is tired of the Tal Shiar and them underestimating the Federation, which is the cause of Romulan foils and bumbling in many episodes. N'Vek reveals himself as a member of the Vulcan Dissident movement. And that the cargo is secretly the bodies of three dissidents in transit. The side story back on the Enterprise is good "c**p TV" in the likes of the UPN/Warner Bros./WB flagship "Richard Bey" tradition. Stefan DeSeve (Latin how fitting, I'm part Latino), a former Federation officer, who defected to the Romulans, claims to have info on the dissident movement and is greeted with coldness by Riker, who downright says he doesn't want to see him in a Romulan uniform. The Romulans have two problems. One of them is not bumbling and is a source of escapism, in that they're one-dimensional, as are the Klingons. The other is they're comic foils who believe they can't get caught but then try to get sly when they do. Which is why they often are bumbling. This episode is one of the more lethal threat episodes, although it doesn't completely help with being one-dimensional. The bad thing is when N'Vek protests Troi's order she threatens to expose him. It really shows what an informant Troi is. She brings out the worst in a white liberal "Seinfeld"-hating Federation, and being black is the only thing that keeps the "TNG" - "Voyager" shows from being bad.
- robert-macc
- May 27, 2024
Details
- Runtime46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1