Face of the Enemy (6 Feb. 1993)

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.

Director:

Gabrielle Beaumont

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator), Naren Shankar (teleplay),

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Patrick Stewart	...	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Commander William T. Riker
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	...	Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden	...	Doctor Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data
Scott MacDonald	...	Subcommander N'vek
Carolyn Seymour	...	Commander Toreth
Barry Lynch	...	Ensign Stefan DeSeve
Robertson Dean	...	Khazara Pilot Palteth
Dennis Cockrum	...	Corvallen Freighter Captain
Pamela Winslow	...	Ensign McKnight

Storyline

Counselor Deanna Troi is startled to find herself aboard a Romulan ship, where Subcommander N'vek admits he drugged and surgically altered her while attending a conference to have her play the part of Major Raqal of the feared imperial intelligence (political police) in order to overrule the captain Commander Toreth, who nearly succeeds in bluffing the 'novice agent' rather then just obey and carry a mysterious cargo, which N'vek next shows to Troi: it's a Romulan vice-proconsul with two aids in stasis, members of Spock's underground on Romulus, intended to become the haven for many other sympathizers once set up safely in Federation space. At the rendez-vous with a Corvallen freighter which was to take the cargo, Troi's empathic feeling the captain is unreliable makes N'vek destroy that ship, 18 casualties. While bitchy Toreth continuously questions and even challenges 'Raqal', the Enterprise has granted the plea of twenty years ago defector to the Romulans Ensign Stefan DeSeve, who ...

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Plot Keywords:

24th century | title directed by female

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

6 February 1993 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Romulan intelligence service, the Tal Shiar is a homage to the tal-shaya, a Vulcan martial arts move first mentioned in Star Trek: Journey to Babel.

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Goofs

As in many other cases, use of the universal translator creates a major hole in the plot. The translator doesn't give the user the ability to speak the language in question; it merely takes the spoken word and translates it into the recipient's language. Thus, when Counselor Troi speaks to the Romulans, they should experience the same effect as we do watching a dubbed movie; the words should be understandable, but the mouth movements shouldn't match. Normally, it isn't an issue, but since Troi is trying to pass as a Romulan, that alone should give her away.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Counselor Deanna Troi: Computer, lights.

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Connections

References Star Trek: The Next Generation: Unification II (1991)

User Reviews

Superb Episode

I just rewatched this episode after not having seen it for many, many years. It still holds up brilliantly. It is one of the best episodes of the entire series, and by far the best Troi episode. Carolyn Seymore is wonderful as the Romulan commander, to the point that one regrets that the character never reappeared in another episode. The whole thing is deliciously edge-of-your-seat suspenseful, and I'm not going to give away one iota of it, for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I was astonished to find only one review of it here; I had expected that surely many people would want to weigh in on this one. It easily makes my Next Generation top-10 list.