TV Episode Review: 'Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Defector'

• Pros: Solid script. Great performance by James Sloyan.  Gripping Cold War-style tale
  Cons: A few plot holes and other minor errors
  Although Gene Roddenberry did not conceive Star Trek as a "space war" action-adventure series when he pitched it to the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) in the mid-1960s, he realized that if he wanted his show to be an outlet for socio-cultural commentary on American and world society he would need to create interstellar adversaries to his United Federation of Planets.
  
  Because in storytelling terms the Federation is a 23rd Century "America-in-futuristic-avatar," Roddenberry and the Star Trek writers created two different stand-ins for the now-vanished Soviet Union: the Romulan Star Empire and the Klingon Empire.
  a
  In Star Trek: The Original Series and its six feature film spin-offs, the Klingon Empire was the predominant "Soviet" stand-in, appearing in seven episodes of the 1960s TV series and seven of the 13 theatrical movies even though they were not introduced until Season Two.
  
  The Romulans, on the other hand, appeared only in three episodes of The Original Series and were only seen in minor roles in two of the Shatner-Nimoy-Kelley feature films.  This wasn't because the Romulans weren't interesting or worthy adversaries; it was simply a matter of TV production economics.  Having been established as blood-kin to the Vulcans, their make-up and prosthetic ears were more expensive than the original Klingon look of swarthy faces and Fu Manchu mustachios.
  
  For many fans, the Romulans were far more interesting than the pre-Star Trek: The Next Generation Klingons, partly due to the late Mark Lenard's portrayal of the Romulan Commander in Balance of Terror, and partly, one suspects, because their rare on-screen appearances made them so more mysterious to viewers.
  
  Luckily, Paramount - Star Trek's corporate owner - was able to give Roddenberry and Rick Berman, his successor as Star Trek: The Next Generation's executive producer bigger budgets, and the long-dormant rivalry between the Federation and the Romulans resumed in the first season finale, The Neutral Zone.
• 
   After that, the Romulans would return to the series in at least 14 episodes, including Season Three's The Defector.
  
• The Defector
  
  
• Stardate: 43462.5 (Earth Calendar Year 2366)
   
  Written by Ronald D. Moore
  Directed by Robert Scheerer
  
  Original Air Date: December 30, 1989
   
  While patrolling Federation space close to the Romulan Neutral Zone, the Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) encounters a Romulan scout ship similar to the one found on Galorndon Core a few months before.  As Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew warns the intruding vessel that it is in violation of treaty, a Romulan Warbird decloaks, apparently in pursuit of the scout vessel and its lone pilot, who is requesting political asylum.
  
  When the Enterprise intervenes by placing the fleeing scout ship under her protective shields, the Romulan Warbird's captain, Commander Tomalak (Andreas Katsulas) orders his crew to back off and head back to Romulan space.
  
  The scout ship's pilot (James Sloyan), tells his new hosts that he is a minor logistics officer named Setol and that he is willing to forsake his honor, his family and his very life in order to prevent a war between his people and the Federation.  The Romulan military, he informs an incredulous Picard, is building a new outpost on the Neutral Zone planet Nelvana III, which, when completed, will enable the Romulan Empire to launch a massive attack upon the Federation.
  
  Picard, who has had dealings with Romulans before, orders the Enterprise to head to the Neutral Zone to investigate, but his instincts also tell him that something is odd about Setol.  He seems to be sincerely concerned about the Nelvana III outpost, but his story that he is a minor logistics officer doesn't...quite jive.
  
  As the Enterprise investigates Setol's claims, the crew finds clues that support Picard's misgivings about the Romulan defector.  How did a minor logistics officer find out about the top secret base on Nelvana III?  Why do the Enterprise sensor records of the Warbird-scout chase show some odd inconsistencies? Who is Setol, and what is his real agenda?
  
  My Take:  The Defector is one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation's early seasons; it featured a good script by Ronald D. Moore, it brought back the scheming Commander Tomalak, it borrowed elements from The Hunt for Red October and other Cold War stories, and it was both full of interstellar intrigue and very human drama.  (In more ways than one, considering that it opens with Data performing a scene from Shakespeare's Henry V with none other than Royal Shakespeare Company member Patrick Stewart.)
  
  The episode, the season's 10th, also guest-starred a classy character actor, James Sloyan, a guy so versatile in his craft that other Star Trek spin-offs would later reuse him in totally different roles.   Sloyan's performance is full of layer upon layer of complexity and nuance as he veers from telling the truth about some things while attempting to hide others from his Starfleet "hosts" and protectors.
  
  Of course, credit is due to writer Ronald D. Moore, who at the age of 25 had been hired to join the Star Trek: The Next Generation writing staff on the basis of his script for The Bonding.  The Defector was only Moore's second script, but its fine balance of suspense, depth of character, use of a continuing Romulan "heavy" (Tomalak) and action was so well-received that he eventually became one of the series' producers and, with his friend and constant collaborator Brannon Braga, wrote the series finale, All Good Things....as well as the first two Next Generation feature films.
  
  For all its merits, however, the teleplay is not without flaws: in one scene, Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) mentions that the cloaked Romulan warbird has entered the Neutral Zone but doesn't use Trek technobabble to explain how the sensors detect this.  This would, of course, suggest that Federation starships, or at least the Enterprise, can detect cloaked Romulan warships.
  
  However, Moore digs a plot hole the size of an Olympic swimming pool when Picard muses that a fleet of cloaked Romulan ships could sally forth in the Neutral Zone undetected.  As Spock would say, "This is...illogical."