Monday January 10, 1994
264
Stardate: 47457.1
Riker is reunited with Admiral Pressman, his former captain, when Pressman wants the Enterprise to find his missing ship, the Pegasus. However, Riker's loyalties are tested when he's asked to keep the true nature of the mission secret from Picard, as it could destroy the peace treaty between the Federation and the Romulans.
With the possible exception of "All Good Things", easily the best episode of the uneven seventh season. hide show
It's sad, but "The Pegasus" comes less than halfway through TNG's seventh season. What follows is one of the series' longest stretch of mediocre episodes, with the exception the excellent "Lower Decks", "Preemptive Strike", and series finale.
This episode inevitably evokes two episodes - "The Defector" (classic battle of wits with the Romulans) and "The Drumhead" (classic battle of wits with a rogue Starfleet admiral). Once the plot gets going, it rushes past and keeps the viewer on the edge of the seat. We get Picard dressing down Riker for maybe the only time in the series, showing off Patrick Stewart's acting ability. We get Jonathan Frakes showing, as he often did late in the series, that he was not an acting lightweight.
Exceptional and a nice little memento of what TNG could do at its peak.
Spoiler alert: An episode that shows that the Federation needs some better diplomats, and that they got rolled in their non-proliferation treaty. hide show
So the Federation actually negotiated and signed a treaty that allowed the Romulans and Cardassians and other Federation enemies keep cloaking devices, so they can constantly sneak up on Federation vessels, and bans the Federation from developing similar technology? Who negotiated this treaty, Neville Chamberlain? And Picard's self-righteousness seems out of character, since he feels protecting his ship is all-important. Wouldn't using such a cloaking device be the ultimate protection for his ship? Also weird is after being shocked at reading of the Pegasus mutiny, hours later he is violating direct orders by the Admiral. Only in this upside down, better-us-dead-than-someone-else universe would the guys trying to make their team stronger be the bad guys, and the appeasers the good guys. Very disturbing, and exactly why I hope the USA never joins such an inter-planetary organization. The UN and NATO are bad enough!
Riker's old captain shows up to bring back ghosts from the past...
Wackiness Ensues!
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I watched this episode for two reasons 1.) Being a fan of Carnivale and Battlestar Galactica's remake, I wanted to see some more of Ronald Moore's writing... and 2.) I thought it would be funny seeing Locke from Lost in a Star Fleet Uniform...
And they both paid off!!! Moore's darker, more militaristic style is shown in this episode full of tense moral questions involving the chain of command (something that' brought up in BSG quite a bit)... Should Riker obey the orders of a superior officer, even if he morally objects to the decision? or should he disregard the Admiral's orders and bring all the old skeletons to light? exactlly the type of tension i expect from Moore's writing...
and also Locke with more, darker hair in a tight star-fleet uniform made me laugh for about 10 min straight! I kept expecting the giant smoke monster to show up and teach those Romulans what's up! But then again, it only attacks guys named Eko and CGI trees...
Picard is under orders from Starfleet to rendezvous with Admiral Pressman. Picard and Riker beam him aboard. Pressman’s agenda is to find the Pegasus before it falls in Romulan hands. Pressman is Riker former commanding officer. hide show
Picard is under orders from Starfleet to rendezvous with Admiral Pressman. Picard and Riker beam him aboard. Pressman’s agenda is to find the Pegasus before it falls in Romulan hands. Pressman is Riker former commanding officer. Pressman informs Riker of the mission and tells him not to tell Picard. Picard with his hands tied has to trust the Admiral. The “Enteprise” conducts a search and finds the “Pegasus” Pressman orders the ship into a crack in the asteroid. They get sealed in by mistake by a romulan ship. I think it was intended. Now how will they get out?
Duty, loyalty, caught between a rock and a hard place. hide show
One of the best Star Trek TNG episodes. Terry O'Quinn (currently in "Lost") in one of his earlier performances as Admiral Pressman, back in the days when O'Quinn had hair! It's funny to see how he acted back then and how he acts now!
I especially liked how this episode gave some insight into Riker's career on the Starship Pegasus before he came to the Enterprise. It's also interesting to find out why Starfleet never developed their own cloaking technology (a question I've often wondered). The incident in this episode pits Riker against a ruthless hawkish admiral (O'Quinn) and Riker is ordered to conceal what's going on from Picard. But Picard does some research of his own and finds out there was a mutiny on the Pegasus while under the command of Pressman, 12 years previously. From then on, everything starts to fall into place...
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