TNG: “The Pegasus” and “Homeward”

Date: May 27, 2020

Season 7, Episodes 12 and 13

Musical Accompaniment: Giving my iTunes playlist a spin, too many bands to list.

Interstellar News: It rained, and then it stopped, and then it rained, and then it stopped… need I continue?

Favorite Quote from “The Pegasus”:

Riker: I can’t help but feel I should have come forward a long time ago.

Picard: When the moment came to make a decision, you made the right one. You chose to tell the truth and face the consequences. So long as you can still do that, then you deserve to wear that uniform. And I will still be proud to have you as my First Officer.

Picard explaining to Riker that it’s never too late to tell the truth, as long as you’re willing to face the consequences.

“The Pegasus” begins with “Captain Picard Day”, ya know… for the kids. Suddenly Admiral Blackwell tells them to rendezvous with the Crazy Horse where they meet with Admiral Pressman, Riker’s first captain from the Pegasus. Apparently the Pegasus didn’t explode and is somewhere in the Devolin system, where the Romulans are also lurking. Picard has a pleasant conversation with the Romulan captain Sirol and each goes in search of the missing ship. Picard and Riker discuss a supposed mutiny aboard the Pegasus and then Riker clams up… because, “orders”. The Enterprise finds it first, inside of an asteroid, and Pressman demands they go in after “the experiment” over Picard’s objections.

The Pegasus is half stuck in the rock when Pressman and Riker beam down. Turns out the “experiment” was phased cloak technology, in clear violation of the treaty, and also what caused the ship to “explode” years ago. The mutiny was just because Pressman endangered the lives of those on board for an illegal experiment and Riker finally expresses his displeasure, especially because he didn’t know any better as a young ensign. They beam back but the Romulans “accidentally” seal them in, so Riker spills the beans and they use the “experiment” to get themselves out. On Picard’s orders they decloak in front of the Romulans and says they’ll explain later. Pressman and Riker are arrested, but Riker will likely not suffer too many consequences because he’s still a main cast member.

This was a wonderful episode from start to finish. “Picard Day” is delightful, mostly because Picard is sooooooooooo over it and uncomfortable but also because Riker is doofy and playful with his captain. We get two admirals in this episode where one continues the tradition of being an asshole but at least has the decency to get what’s coming to him for doing something illegal. There’s the mystery about “the experiment” and the mutiny, which are all nicely cleared up by the end. There’s also the slimy Sirol who is so polite it hurts, but he and Picard have the most amazingly cordial we-both-know-what’s-up-and-we’re-totally-lying conversation. Riker finally gathers his courage and stands up to Pressman, something 12 years in the making, and we see how far he has come under Picard’s mentoring. There are almost no faults to this episode, except for the fact that a lot of stuff happens behind the scenes that I would have liked to see. 9 years in prison for this episode!

Favorite Quote from “Homeward”:

Nikolai: I wasn’t going to let those people die just because your Captain started quoting Federation dogma to me.

Worf: Your duty was to respect the Captain’s orders and to uphold the Prime Directive.

Nikolai: Duty. That’s all that really matters to you, isn’t it? Well, I refuse to be bound by an abstraction. The lives of the people of Boraal are far more important to me.

The biggest problem with this interpretation of the Prime Directive.

“Homeward” has the Enterprise answering the distress call of Dr. Nikolai Rozhenko, Worf’s foster brother, on Boraal II. The planet is in distress and won’t be able to sustain life anymore but the inhabitants aren’t advanced enough to know about space travel, so Worf beams down undercover and finds not only his brother, but a whole bunch of Boraalans. Nikolai couldn’t leave them to die and, as usual, everyone but Crusher is quoting the Prime Directive. Nikolai, however, recreates the caves on the holodeck and beams up the Boraalans while they are sleeping and he has a plan.

Picard approves the plan, mostly because he doesn’t have an alternative, so Nikolai and Worf take the Boraalans on a journey through the caves where the holodeck will change until they can find a new planet for them. A Boraalan named Vorin wanders off and accidentally makes his way onto the Enterprise. Troi and Picard try to help him to make a decision; stay on the Enterprise and make a new life in space or go back to his people and decide what to tell them. He eventually kills himself because he cannot make either decision. Back in the holodeck, Nikolai has impregnated one of the Boraalans and decides he wants to stay with them. Eventually they arrive at the new planet and use a holodeck storm as a cover to beam everyone down, where the brothers Rozhenko say goodbye.

I don’t recall when the Prime Directive meant leaving a bunch of people to die because they weren’t advanced enough. Picard knows how important it is to preserve a culture, I’m looking at you “The Inner Light“, so why is he so opposed to preserving the Boraalan culture and/or people? Since when was loss of life an acceptable casualty of the Prime Directive? Okay I will admint that Nikolai’s plan wasn’t foolproof and didn’t have pre-approval, but it worked eventually… though at the high price of a life. I also wonder if Nikolai would have cared so much if he wasn’t going to be a father, I choose to think so. I did love Worf’s quick thinking about the “sign of La Forge” and creating the storm, and Nikolai’s plan really did have a lot of merit and was more in the spirit of the Prime Directive than the rest of the bridge crew could muster. As always, Crusher is the voice of reason. No more than 3 Class-M planets for this episode.

TA Out!