Star Trek: The Next Generation episode review: 'Unification - Part II'





In 1991, the 
Star Trek franchise celebrated its 25th Anniversary.  Although the feature films which starred the cast from The Original Series (TOS) had lost some momentum due to the lackluster performance of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Paramount Pictures greenlit writer-director Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and scheduled its release date for early December of 1991. 


Although Star Trek VI had a few plot points and one crossover appearance by actor Michael Dorn, the TNG producers came up with a clever concept: why not have an episode set in the TNG era that obliquely referred to the events of The Undiscovered Country which would star Leonard Nimoy as Spock? 

For TNG’s executive producer Rick Berman, Gene Roddenberry’s chosen “heir” to produce TNG and any possible spinoffs, this idea had a lot of appeal.  An episode which featured Spock in a major way would excite the fans and give the show great ratings, while at the same time the vague connection to Star Trek VI would generate excitement for that project and (perhaps) ensure its box office success. 


Nimoy, who was Star Trek VI’s executive producer, saw the logic behind this notion and agreed to appear in Unification, a two-part episode which would air in early November of 1991. 

Because Nimoy’s schedule limited his availability for the production of the two-parter, it was decided to film Unification, Part II first, which is why Paramount listed it as Episode 107 in its episode production roster. 

Unification, Part II
 
Stardate 45245.8 (Earth Calendar Year 2368) 
Original Air Date: November 11, 1991 
Written by Michael Piller 
Story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller 
Directed by Cliff Bole 

After a circuitous journey that has taken Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) from Vulcan and  the Klingon Empire and across the Neutral Zone, the captain of the Starship Enterprise and his operations manager have arrived on Romulus on stardate 45245.8.  Their purpose: to find Ambassador Spock (Nimoy) and determine why he is on that planet. 

One clue which Picard picked up while visiting the dying Sarek on Vulcan was the revelation that Spock may have come to Romulus to contact Senator Pardek (Malachi Throne), a Romulan politician whom Spock had met years earlier at the Khitomer Conference of 2293. 

But before Picard asks Spock about Pardek, he must first tell the Ambassador that his father has died on Vulcan, as well as chiding him somewhat for carrying out what Picard labels “cowboy diplomacy.” 

"If you wish to undertake a mission with obvious repercussions for the Federation, then you should discuss it with the Federation. I'm here as their representative.

Spock tells Picard that he has been working secretly with Senator Pardek with the goal to reunify the Vulcan and Romulan peoples, which were sundered 2,000 years earlier when some Vulcans refused to accept the peace-through-pursuit of-logic teachings of Surak and left their home system to establish the Romulan Star Empire. 

When Picard inquires as to why Spock decided to act on his own and not through the Federation, the former Starfleet officer explains that he was the one who initiated the first peace overture to the Klingons in 2293, and it was he who cajoled Capt. Kirk into participating in the almost disastrous last mission of the Enterprise-A. 


"It was I who committed Captain Kirk to that peace mission, and I who had to bear the responsibility for the consequences to him and to his crew." 

Unwilling to risk any other Federation personnel’s lives, Spock thus decided to carry out his unification discussions in secret, hoping to avoid any negative consequences to anyone but himself. 

While Picard, Data and Spock work with Pardek and other Romulans who support unification with Vulcan, First Officer Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and the rest of the Enterprise crew are at Qualor II, a combination spaceport and surplus ship depot.  Riker is determined to find out more about a smuggler whose ship was destroyed by the Enterprise during the early stages of the investigation.  Riker is especially keen to know what role was played by Omag (William Bastiani) in the theft of parts and even entire Vulcan vessels. 

As both investigations continue, disturbing signs appear that the Romulan government is on to Spock and Pardek’s small but growing underground movement to promote peaceful reunification between Romulus and Vulcan, and that one of Picard’s most cunning adversaries may be the mastermind of a cunning and dangerous plot to carry out a different type of unification. 


My Take:  Though it is obvious that part of Unification’s second half is essentially a teaser for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the return of Leonard Nimoy as Spock is clearly a major milestone in the Star Trek production crew’s efforts to “bridge the generations.” 

Spock, after all, has always been one of the most favorite TOS characters, so to many fans of the 1966-1969 show, a significant appearance by actor Leonard Nimoy in TNG was a very big deal that said, “Okay, the new show has blazed its own trail, but it’s definitely part of the Star Trek continuity now.” 

Michael Piller, to his credit, does a great job of writing a suspenseful teleplay with many interesting twists and turns. This is not an easy feat to accomplish, given that almost every Star Trek: The Next Generation has two storylines to depict: the A (or main) story and the B (or secondary) subplot. 

Here, the A story is Picard’s search for Spock and its immediate consequences, while the B story (which is somewhat weaker than the Stewart-Nimoy-Spiner half) is Riker’s supporting investigation of the smuggled Vulcan ships and ship parts.  They are separate parts of the puzzle and the focus alternates between each, but eventually they merge in a satisfying fashion. 

Cliff Bole (for whom the blue-skinned Bolian race was named) is a very experienced Star Trek: The Next Generation directorlike his colleague Les Landau, Bole gets superb performances from the established TNG regulars and the various guest stars. Nimoy, whose appearance in TNG would be his last in the chronology of the Star Trek universe until 2009’s Star Trek reboot, is simply marvelous. His rapport with Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner is flawless, leaving some viewers to wish that he had made another guest appearance on TNG before the series ended in 1994.

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