Intense little episode that furthers the development of the Romulan-Federation affairs. The story is based on the Cuban Missile Crisis to set up a Cold War backdrop for these two races of the Star Trek universe. Smart. Not too whiny. Good episode.
The teaser scene that sets up Jorak's deception is one of Data studying human behavior through Shakespeare on the holodeck. These kind of scenes became such a familial part of the episodes for the characters and for the audience. And in this scene Stewart pulls double duty as Picard observing Data's interactions and one of the characters from Henry V. Wonderful stuff.
Anyway to the story. The Enterprise has to check out a Romulan scout ship that's strayed into the Neutral Zone with the pilot hailing them to ask for asylum. Two Warbirds decloak and try to destroy it pushing it into Federation space. They put up a show of force but leave without communication or a fight after the Enterprise takes the scout ship under its wing.
The pilot claims to be only a low ranking logistics officer and has come to tell them that the Romulans are ramping up for war with the Federation but he's uncomfortable with his new status as a defector and doesn't answer questions satisfactorily.
It's a nice fake-out as far as writing goes. They have less and less reason to trust that what he's saying is the truth as the episode progresses. His ship would seem to conveniently blow up before they can search it. They find out from ongoing investigations that his escape was so easy that it could've been staged and that it's possible that his wounds are self inflicted. He's also not as forthcoming with information as a person who is trying to warn the enemy about an invasion should be. It's a neat little mystery because they feed you true and false information throughout.
Their suspicions that he's merely a spy seem to be justified since all of the evidence fits and then another brushstroke is created when he talks about his genuine desire to make his world better for his children's sake. See, this works so much better than the very same argument used in the previous episode because there's more depth and history with the Romulans instead of the new Acamarians that were created for that episode. Roddenberry's vision was to jettison the Romulan and Klingon conflicts because he wanted to see new races and conflicts develop. It happened eventually with the Cardassians, Bajorans, Domionon, Breen, etc... but what Roddenberry didn't understand is that the foundation that had been set in TOS wasn't sturdy enough and needed to be strengthened up in order to build onto it. So, they finally backstepped in a creative manner to the way TOS was trying to emulate the cold war in the sixties so they could create a more complex and living story that could grow and evolve. And this episode as well as "The Enemy" were a start of this brand new dance. It's a shame Roddenberry didn't live to see that this wasn't a rehash, or his conception of rehash, but a necessary bridge from TOS to TNG. Data takes Jorak to the holodeck to look at a particular natural wonder of his home planet. I was always a little disappointed that we never go to see a lot of Romulus, but this scene demonstrates the new sorts of creativity that would be taking place as the show progressed.
Soon after it's revealed that Jorak is not Sublieutenant Setal (the name he'd given them) but an Admiral that is convinced that the Romulans have a secret base on a planet in the Neutral Zone and it genuinely worried that they intend to invade the Federation. They give the name of the treaty that set up the Neutral Zone in this episode and Picard decides to go investigate.
There's oddly nobody around to be outraged by their blatant violation of the treaty by their crossing into the Neutral Zone and they quickly figure out that it's a trap to make the Federation look like the aggressors. Jorak is, in fact, innocent having only been used to get the word out that the Romulans had a base so that the Enterprise would come snooping around and we get more of Commander Tomalak threatening them. The weak spot in this episode is that this is probably too soon after the episode "The Enemy" to continue these tensions, but it's not a big deal in the overall scheme of the seven seasons. You find out that the Enterprise didn't go alone and the confrontation was avoided because they had cloaked Klingon back up ships with them. Now this is the kind of chest beating that's much more interesting to watch than the stuff they had in the first season. It demonstrates that the Klingons can practice restraint in their role as allies to the Federation against the Romulans. It's also another excellent "gotcha" for Tomalak and another epic Picard standoff moment.
It ends sadly with Jorak shocked to learn that he was just a tool to carry the false information across the Neutral Zone as a test of his loyalty to the sadistic Romulan government. He then kills himself and leaves a note for his family that will probably never reach them. It kind of sucks to end it on a downer like that, but it was just more evidence that Star Trek was finally growing up.
I have to give it four stars for the Picard and Tomalak showdown scene alone. It's great stuff that just keeps getting better and better.
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