In the fourteenth episode of the sixth season of The Next Generation, THIS IS SO SPECTACULAR. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
Trigger Warning: For kidnapping, nonconsensual medical procedures/drugging.
Y’all, I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS EPISODE MY WHOLE LIFE. It’s been no secret that I think Troi is often underused on this show, and I think most of us can speak to this experience. Like, it figures that the character I liked the quickest would be the one who would get the least amount of stories about them. But it’s not just that she’s often used to support other stories; it’s that the show doesn’t seem to know what to do with her. If she’s the ship’s counselor, why don’t we see more scenes of her counseling people? It seemed self-explanatory, given that she’s naturally existing within this universe as a character that can help the writers explore the emotional and psychological aspects of the stories she writers. At the same time, she went through the Academy like everyone else on the Enterprise, so even then, she can be used for other stories.
It’s a travesty that it’s taken this long for the writers to give Troi a story that highlights her incredible skills as a counselor and an agent of morality, but oh my god, “Face of the Enemy” truly gives us one of the best stories of this entire season. It’s an unnerving tale of desperation, loyalty, and intrigue, and it’s also relentlessly disturbing. But I used that word – “desperation” – on purpose. It’s clear that N’Vek (and the Romulan dissidents as a whole) are ready to be desperate in their attempt to give Romulans a chance at something more. Given the fact that N’Vek’s plan so easily fell apart and relied on Troi’s skills of improvisation, I think that this helped to portray the dissidents in a very particular light.
And that’s one aspect of this episode that really made this feel real and important to me. The writers were not afraid to say, “Hey, this plan is a massive disaster from the beginning. LET’S SEE HOW BAD IT CAN GET.” Because seriously, this is A GIANT MESS. N’Vek has Troi KIDNAPPED!!! As I said on video, I’m pretty sure Troi would have helped out if someone had asked her!!! But that’s the whole point: the defecting Vice Preconsul needed to leave Romulus as soon as humanly possible. No one came up with a detailed, failsafe plan. No one had time to! That sense of desperation is thus all over the story, and as N’Vek’s plan crumbles before his eyes, Troi is forced to pick up the pieces.
What a job she does, y’all. This isn’t necessarily the first time the show has tried to put Troi into a situation that tests her ethics regarding her empathic abilities. We’ve seen another Betazoid try and turn Troi into…well, THE DARK SIDE. But what happens when Troi is forced into a situation where she needs to survive? What if that survival requires her to be ruthless, unsympathetic, and terrifying. Well, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS. Her transformation into Major Rakal of the Tal Shiar is revelatory, both because we see a side of Troi that’s unreal to us, and because it allows us to learn more of the inner workings of the Romulan government.
Troi is, simply put, a terrifying force whenever she must perform in front of Commander Toreth, who is stunningly portrayed by Carolyn Seymour. (More on Toreth later.) That first scene where she orders Toreth to comply is so goddamn chilling! But it works because Troi is able to exploit the fear the Romulans have of the Tal Shiar, the intelligence agency devoted to ensuring loyalty amongst the Romulans. (It’s hard for me not to think of Hydra and compliance, given that I’m currently trying to catch up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) I imagine that the task was made easier by her use of her empathic skills, too, since that allowed her to gauge whether or not her attempts would work.
Of course, that doesn’t always work in her favor. N’Vek ends up killing everyone aboard the Corvallen ship when Troi senses that the captain is lying. That’s not Troi’s fault; she was trying to do her best to make this mission succeed. She knew how important it was. But N’Vek panicked, and the whole mission turned into even more of a nightmare than it was before. It was a treat, then, to watch Troi demand to be listened to. I think it was important for the show to have that scene because prior to this, Troi had been merely a pawn of N’Vek. When she takes control of the plan, utilizing the Enterprise‘s appearance as a possible solution, it transforms her character. Here, we see Troi as a possible commander. We see her potential as a leader, but perhaps not the kind of leader we would normally imagine her to be.
While Sirtis’s performance alone was enough to make me adore this episode, I think “Face of the Enemy” is all the more stronger for its killer supporting cast and story. In both Toreth and Stefan DeSeve, we get to see what life in the Romulan empire is like. Toreth is a powerful commander, but one who, like Picard or Sisko, places extreme importance in saving and protecting her own crew. But it goes beyond that, at least for me. I think that if there’s one significant miscalculation here, it’s that N’Vek didn’t recognize discontent where it presented itself. Toreth’s open dislike and intolerance for the Tal Shiar was on full display here, and she risked her own reputation and career by defying Troi. It was incredible to watch, and I think it did wonders to demonstrate how the Romulans repress their own citizens. At the same time, we get that insight from DeSeve, a human who defected to the Romulans in search of moral certainty. He may have found that in the Romulans’ strict moral code, but at what cost? It wasn’t the life he thought he wanted, which is ironic for him since he can’t live that life anyway as a traitor to the Federation.
The Next Generation might not have the serialization I often crave, but I think that I’d be a fool to ignore the larger implications of this episode in terms of worldbuilding. The Romulan empire is not as foolproof or solid as they portray themselves to be. I enjoyed a chance to see what it was like to live within this culture, and I’m thrilled that it was Troi who was the focus of that story.
The video for “Face of the Enemy” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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