| The Next Generation | |
| 140 | |
| Face Of The Enemy | |
| 46519.1 | |
What's in a name? That which we call a Romulan by any other name would sound remarkably like Counsellor Troi! The silly psychologist has managed to get herself kidnapped and is now a guest of the Imperial Romulan Forces. Rather than lock her up, they've surgically altered her to look like a Romulan and given her the rank of Major in their Intelligence section - the Tal Shiar! Not a bad promotion from the Federation rank of Visual Candy.
The important thing to realise is that it's not the bad Romulans that have captured her, it's the good Romulans! Which is a subtle distinction indeed - they all look alike to me. They need her to fulfil an important role in a secret mission. It is a great plan with just two minor flaws - One: Troi is a simpering wimp without an assertive bone in her body; and Two: Troi is a simpering wimp without an assertive bone in her body. Now, I realise that, technically speaking, that's only one flaw, but I thought that it was such a big one it was worth mentioning twice.
The Enterprise hasn't missed her because she was supposed to be at a conference... I wonder if Picard authorised this little holiday of hers? He has other things to worry about though, as they have picked up what looks like another Romulan! Except he isn't either, he's a human defector who has decided to reverse his loyalties once again - straight into jail. He tells Picard that he has a message from Ambassador Spock - more cowboy diplomacy - they must rendezvous with a freighter to pick up an important cargo.
Troi knows what the cargo is - the Romulan Vice Pro-Counsel and his aids. It's a defection plot! All she has to do is convince Commander Toreth to use her Warbird as a minibus, and deliver the cargo to a mercenary freighter. I sense tension! That's why she's a fascist pigdog member of the Tal Shiar, so she can get to order people around. Unfortunately she's not very good at it...
The Warbird meets the mercenaries, but thanks to her wonderful Betazoid intuition, Troi knows that they are planning to be naughty - so her co-conspirator Sub Cmdr N'Vek blows them up! Diplomacy, Romulan style. It does set the plan back a little though - now they will have to try and enter Federation space and deliver the cargo personally. They cloak the ship, when...
But, soft! What ship through yonder window breaks? It is the Enterprise, and the Romulans are most surprised. Troi suddenly decides that since no-one else has offered to put an assertive bone in her body, she'll do it herself. She manages to fix things so that the Enterprise can track them, but is that a good thing...
Cmdr Toreth thinks that it might be fun to play chicken - if the Enterprise can track them while they're cloaked, they'll destroy it; and if they can't, then they'll leave. Simple - except that Troi overrules the plan. She orders the ship to decloak, and hails the Enterprise. Now it's their turn to be surprised. She asks them to lower their shields so that she can beam on board, and as soon as they do, orders the Romulans to fire their disruptors!
It's all a trick of course, to cover the transport of the defectors onto the Enterprise. It works, but the ruse doesn't hold out for long. Sub Cmdr N'Vek is blown away by the success of the plan, and then shortly afterwards by a Romulan disruptor. Unfortunately Troi is to be interrogated, and then executed... except that the Bald Avenger has other plans and has her beamed onboard and then warps away!
