The Defector
- Thread starter CaptainStoner
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"The Defector" is one of the best, if not the best, TNG ep of all time. Even the movies with their lavish effects, sets and cast, don't stack up to great stories like "The Defector".
While I enjoyed Mr. Sloyan as Jarok, I think Andreas Kutsulas reprising his role as Tomalok has been grossly underrated. Stewart predictably delivers the goods as Picard, but Kutsulas was truly outstanding.
Tying it all together is the ep's great writing, based on a pitch by Ronald D. Moore, later of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fame. This story alone showed that we would keep hearing from Moore for years to come, and that implied prophecy came true in spades.
The clever bit about Picard excusing Worf to talk to the Klingons was well-placed. Nobody can say they didn't warn us that the Klingons were invited to the party.
And I loved to look on Tomalok's face after the Klingons revealed themselves. What a shame that we never saw a serious outing with Tomalok again. (No, I do not count "Future Imperfect" or "All Good Things..." as serious.)
Even Troi's role on the ship gets taken semi-seriously.
I do not have a problem with Worf being able to detect the Warbird re-entering the Neutral Zone in Act I. The cloaking was just a brief psychological maneuver by the Romulans. Once the Warbird moved off, it de-cloaked again.
I was more disappointed that the Klingon Mosquitoes-of-Prey had grown to be so HUGE!
I've never been a fan of the MoP. I would've preferred to see three K'Tingas instead.
The only other minor annoyance with the ep is that Picard acts as if the Romulans have cloaking devices but the Federation didn't. Overlooking the obvious secrecy of "The Pegasus" which Picard couldn't have known about (but Riker did), lest we forget that Captain James T' Kirk personally stole a 23rd-century ancestor of this technology in "The Enterprise Incident", and I do have problem with Mr. Roddenberry's silly and contradictory politics ("Our people are explorers," the Great Bird famously said, "They don't sneek around" Not unless you consider the obvious stealth technology employed in "Who Watches the Watchers?") which to this day make no sense to me. Kirk stole the thing, and Picard acts as if the technology is off limits and out of reach.
One can rationalize that 23rd century stealth technology could be substantially different than what TNG-era Warbirds would use; there seems to be indirect evidence of this in TNG's "The Emissary", through the easy way Geordi was able to chase the cloaked Klingon vessel. Maybe the latests Romulan ships are so dangerous because of major recent advances in this technology. But Picard's whining still bothers me a little. It sounds like the writers and producers were genuflecting to the Great Goddenberry's silly rule, a rule that made no sense and was eventually abandoned anyway.
While I enjoyed Mr. Sloyan as Jarok, I think Andreas Kutsulas reprising his role as Tomalok has been grossly underrated. Stewart predictably delivers the goods as Picard, but Kutsulas was truly outstanding.
Tying it all together is the ep's great writing, based on a pitch by Ronald D. Moore, later of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fame. This story alone showed that we would keep hearing from Moore for years to come, and that implied prophecy came true in spades.
The clever bit about Picard excusing Worf to talk to the Klingons was well-placed. Nobody can say they didn't warn us that the Klingons were invited to the party.
And I loved to look on Tomalok's face after the Klingons revealed themselves. What a shame that we never saw a serious outing with Tomalok again. (No, I do not count "Future Imperfect" or "All Good Things..." as serious.)Even Troi's role on the ship gets taken semi-seriously.
I do not have a problem with Worf being able to detect the Warbird re-entering the Neutral Zone in Act I. The cloaking was just a brief psychological maneuver by the Romulans. Once the Warbird moved off, it de-cloaked again.
I was more disappointed that the Klingon Mosquitoes-of-Prey had grown to be so HUGE!
I've never been a fan of the MoP. I would've preferred to see three K'Tingas instead.The only other minor annoyance with the ep is that Picard acts as if the Romulans have cloaking devices but the Federation didn't. Overlooking the obvious secrecy of "The Pegasus" which Picard couldn't have known about (but Riker did), lest we forget that Captain James T' Kirk personally stole a 23rd-century ancestor of this technology in "The Enterprise Incident", and I do have problem with Mr. Roddenberry's silly and contradictory politics ("Our people are explorers," the Great Bird famously said, "They don't sneek around" Not unless you consider the obvious stealth technology employed in "Who Watches the Watchers?") which to this day make no sense to me. Kirk stole the thing, and Picard acts as if the technology is off limits and out of reach.
One can rationalize that 23rd century stealth technology could be substantially different than what TNG-era Warbirds would use; there seems to be indirect evidence of this in TNG's "The Emissary", through the easy way Geordi was able to chase the cloaked Klingon vessel. Maybe the latests Romulan ships are so dangerous because of major recent advances in this technology. But Picard's whining still bothers me a little. It sounds like the writers and producers were genuflecting to the Great Goddenberry's silly rule, a rule that made no sense and was eventually abandoned anyway.
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I can nearly buy that. I can see the Romulans cloaking just to mess with the Enterprise momentarily. And then de-cloak as they cross the border.
In this case, the dialog doesn't serve the moment as well as it could. After cloaking, there should have been a 2 second moment where Worf, Picard, Riker etc. share a moment of tension, and then Worf says something like "They've decloaked on their side of the Neutral Zone."
In "Who Watches The Watchers?" they used hologram technology, not real cloaking.
What's a little bit confusing about this episode: The Romulans could've shot the defector down the moment he fled, because then they would've known the truth about him. Or did they use him to capture the Enterprise? Either way, letting a high rank military guy escape to your enemy (who knows not much about you, according to what they state in the episodes) will give the Federation tons of useful information!
Whether it's labeled a cloaking device or it's a hologram, it's still stealth technology.
What drives me crazy is how Roddenberry praised "Who Watches the Watchers" (a mediocre, in not lackluster ep, at best), a story that shows Picard rescuing Federation scientists after their "holographic blind" (a ground-based cloaking technology by any other name) breaks down, but Roddenberry seemed to condemn the idea of Federation space vessels doing much the same thing. If he believed his own rhetoric ("Our people are explorers. They don't sneak around.") then any kind of stealth would be out of the question. "Who Watches the Watchers" stands in direct contradiction to that rhetoric.
I believe it was pretty clear that the Romulans let Jarok escape; they expected Jarok to unwittingly lure a Federation force into an attack.
Listen to what Jarok says to Tomalok during the confrontation before the Klingon ships decloak.
^
IIRC, later in the episode, there is also dialog regarding the fact that the Warbird had matched the scout ship's maneuvers and speed during the 'chase' at the beggining of the ep. Jarok was being set up and tested for loyalty by the Romulans. If he passed, he would become a Federation detainee. If he failed, the Romulans would have Enterprise...or so they thought.
*Edit*
Just checked the script. Here's the dialog.
GEORDI
The scout has sustained engine
damage... forcing it to drop to
point-six-one-five impulse
power... for all intents and
purposes he's finished, dead...
the warship should overtake
him... only it doesn't. Point
two-six seconds later, the
warbird slows to precisely
the same speed...
GEORDI
Three times... three speed
fluctuations... the warship
always kept its distance... I
don't think they wanted to catch
up.
BEVERLY
And yet they fired at the scout
ship... they could have killed
him...
DATA
Not necessarily, Doctor... the
Romulans have the same capability
to direct the impact of their
weapons as we do.
IIRC, later in the episode, there is also dialog regarding the fact that the Warbird had matched the scout ship's maneuvers and speed during the 'chase' at the beggining of the ep. Jarok was being set up and tested for loyalty by the Romulans. If he passed, he would become a Federation detainee. If he failed, the Romulans would have Enterprise...or so they thought.
*Edit*
Just checked the script. Here's the dialog.
GEORDI
The scout has sustained engine
damage... forcing it to drop to
point-six-one-five impulse
power... for all intents and
purposes he's finished, dead...
the warship should overtake
him... only it doesn't. Point
two-six seconds later, the
warbird slows to precisely
the same speed...
GEORDI
Three times... three speed
fluctuations... the warship
always kept its distance... I
don't think they wanted to catch
up.
BEVERLY
And yet they fired at the scout
ship... they could have killed
him...
DATA
Not necessarily, Doctor... the
Romulans have the same capability
to direct the impact of their
weapons as we do.
I don't see it. A hologram is just an optical illusion, easily detected, but the cloaking device is something specific which fools scanners and everything. You take Roddenberry's commet too literally, too.
well, that's obvious, but it was not a wise decision to let him actually escape because the Federation has now access to vital data about the Romulan Empire.
What they had access to was false information. That was part of the test for Jarok. He had been fed mis-information for some time before his decission to defect. He gave Picard & Co. only pertinant information, blew up his scout ship, and finally offed himself.
One of the best episodes of star trek ever. A+
I always felt that "The Enemy" and this episode made a great make-shift two-parter, since they both deal with Romulans and take place within a close time range. They also reference "The Enemy" in this episode more than once. Also, my favorite Romulan, Commander Tomolak, makes an appearance in both episodes. His scenes with Picard were always pure greatness!
I always felt that "The Enemy" and this episode made a great make-shift two-parter, since they both deal with Romulans and take place within a close time range. They also reference "The Enemy" in this episode more than once. Also, my favorite Romulan, Commander Tomolak, makes an appearance in both episodes. His scenes with Picard were always pure greatness!
Even back during the episode Balance of Terror, Star Fleet could track cloaked Romulans general positions while they were in motion, the cloaks were usually more effective while the Romulan ships were still. It's interesting that the Romulans apparently could not detect the approaching cloaked Klingon trio of ships.
Likely, just like ECM today, whenever the Federation figured a way around the current cloak, the Romulans would change and improve it, followed by an advance by the Federation again.
