“Face of the Enemy” will certainly not feature on many “top episode” lists, and indeed, most careful viewers of TNG consider the “Troi episodes” to be the series’ weakest. “Face of the Enemy,” however, is a fantastic little episode that gives not only Troi the character something significant to do but also allows Sirtis to demonstrate her acting chops. The episode also builds quite nicely on “Unification” parts I and II, giving the Romulan dissident movement a feeling of depth and breadth that it did not have in the initial episodes.
Plot Ahoy
During the cold open, someone clad in a Romulan uniform wakes up groggily and staggers to the mirror. She turns on the lights only to discover that a Romulan with Counselor Troi’s face stares back at her. Subcommander N’Vek meets with Troi and explains briefly the circumstances around her kidnapping. The plan is that Troi will impersonate Major Rakal of the Tal’Shiar and order Commander Toreth to change the Khazara’s course to the Kaleb Sector. There, they will rendezvous with a Corvallen freighter to transfer cargo. Initially, Troi refuses, but N’Vek convinces her to go along with the plan in order to survive. Toreth despises the Tal’Shiar, and she greets Troi with hostility. Initially, demure, Troi eventually orders Toreth to the Kaleb Sector.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise beams aboard one Ensign DeSeve, who defected to the Romulan empire two decades prior. DeSeve asks to speak to the captain in order to pass along Ambassador Spock’s desire that the ship change course to the Kaleb Sector. After pressing DeSeve regarding his reasons for defecting, Picard acquiesces. Back on the Romulan Warbird, N’Vek takes Troi to the cargo hold where he opens one of the containers to reveal Vice-Proconsul M’Ret in stasis. He explains that he is part of Spock’s dissident movement, and the entire goal of the voyage is to facilitate not only M’Ret’s defection but also to secure the means for other dissidents to do so.
After a tense meal, the Khazara arrives at the Kaleb sector and finds the freighter present. Troi senses deception from the captain, and N’Vek fires on the ship, destroying it. Toreth rounds on him furiously, and he informs her that Troi had given the order to fire. Troi, similarly upset, must then threaten Toreth to maintain her deception. With no other choice, Troi orders the Khazara to proceed to the Federation outpost at Draken IV. However, before they can go to warp, the Enterprise appears in the area.
When the Enterprise arrives at the Kaleb sector, they find no Corvallen freighter waiting for them. They do discover the wreckage and, based on scans, conclude that Romulans destroyed the freighter about four hours prior. Under cloak, the Khazara proceeds slowly exiting the area, and with the help of a dissident engineer who misaligns a nullifier coil, the Enterprise discovers the Warbird. Toreth wants to destroy the ship, but Troi orders her to step down and takes command of the vessel. She hails the Enterprise and offers to beam aboard to discuss a diplomatic solution. When the Enterprise lowers her shields, Troi orders the Khazara to fire, using a weak phaser blast to conceal a transporter beam transferring the defecting Romulans to the Federation vessel. Discovering the beam, the pilot fires on N’Vek, killing him, and Toreth declares “Rakal” a traitor. She orders the Warbird to cloak, and when the ship drops its shields, the Enterprise beams Troi back aboard where Crusher restores her original appearance.
So, That’s a Thing That Happened
I am the first to admit that the episode’s premise tends toward the ludicrous. While I understand that N’Vek’s Plan B relied on Troi’s knowledge of Federation access codes, kidnapping a counselor from a scientific conference just to have a Starfleet Officer on hand makes little sense. Troi, as demonstrated at her supper with Toreth and the other senior staff, knows nothing about Romulan food and culture. She has no knowledge of the Romulan professor Toreth mentions, and while she covers everything well with a cruel Tal’Shiar veneer, that’s precious little on which to hang not only her own survival but that of M’Ret and his two aides. I don’t quite understand the assumption that Troi would know the codes for the gravitic sensor net; even assuming she would have been given access to them as a member of the senior staff of a ship in the general area of the Neutral Zone, I don’t know that I would be comfortable entrusting the entire mission to her memory.
Regardless, Troi does some very quick thinking in this episode, ultimately coming up with the perfect resolution on the fly. Far from being the usual plot Macguffin, her empathic powers are both useful and function appropriately within the worldbuilding of the show. Sirtis manages to have Troi slide between polar opposites: her own nature as a counselor and Starfleet officer and the cruel, conniving Tal’Shiar officer. It’s a fantastic vehicle for Sirtis, who until this point, had very, very few opportunities to explore this range of emotion with Troi. I particularly appreciated how vividly she conveyed the depth of Troi’s rage when she rants at N’Vek because there’s a tinge of desperation in the way she wrests control of the operation from N’Vek. Moreover, the scene gives the audience a taste of the emotional cost the episode exacts on Troi, which is not something the series has always been good at exploring.
Beyond having Troi kick eight flavors of ass throughout the episode, I do really wish we’d had the chance to learn more about Ensign DeSeve. We get a brief sketch of his defection; the Romulans’ strict morality appealed to a much younger version of himself. Barry Lynch also does a creditable job of stumbling over English as someone who had been speaking Romulan for much of the last two decades would. I assume DeSeve actually tried to shift back to Federation Standard rather than relying on the Universal Translator for emotional reasons.
The other break-out hit of the show is Carolyn Seymour’s Toreth. Seymour herself is a familiar figure; she portrayed Sub-Commander Taris in “Contagion” and Mirasta Yale in “First Contact,” as well as Mrs. Templeton in Janeway’s holonovel. Her Toreth is a great window into Romulan culture. Toreth is a member of the military and possesses a deep distrust of the Tal’Shiar who kidnapped her elderly father and presumably killed him. Without sacrificing any loyalty to her people and their Empire, she comes across as capable and somehow upright, and considering the level of hostility Toreth oozes toward Troi, that’s quite a feat.
This episode marks the end of the “Unification” storyline as far as TNG goes. It will be picked up in Star Trek 2009, which then flows into the events of Star Trek: Picard. It’s a good end-point for the story arc, though I do wish we’d heard more about M’Ret or even DeSeve’s future in the Federation. I understand why we don’t. Troi is the episode’s focus, and she rises to the task beautifully.
Rating:
Four cups of Earl Grey Tea and a Saucer
Stray Thoughts from the Couch:
- This episode serves as the debut for Worf’s ponytail, which I consider to be the character’s final form.
- We also discover in this episode that Romulan Warbirds use an artificial quantum singularity as a power source.