The Defector

Perhaps the only episode in which Stewart plays a second character, not as Jean-Luc. In the introductory scene, Data is on the holodek enacting a scene from Henry V, One of the two commoners interacting with Data, as the King Henry, in commoner guise, is Stewart, playing Michael Williams (presumably as a holodek-generated character). Stewart as Captain Jean Luc Picard looks on, in appreciation of Data's performance.

I 'accidentally' watched this episode long before I became a Star Trek fan (my ex-girlfriend had lived in Seattle for 6 years and promptly introduced me to it several years later). I came home from a night on the town at maybe 3 AM, which was the time these reruns were shown on Norwegian TV back in the early 90's.

I was gripped by the story of this episode, but more importantly the acting. This was the first thing I had seen featuring Patrick Stewart, and I thought he was amazing along with guest star James Sloyan, and I was wondering why this show didn't air in the daytime/prime-time so that everyone could see it.

Norway has never been known to show sci-fi during prime-time though, and most Norwegians that admit to liking it are kind of cast-outs and are not taken seriously in other matters if they admit it. It's not like in the USA where even presidents admit to know of and even quote Kirk and Spock and even name space shuttles after it.

Anyway, since then I've watched every Star Trek episode (except TOS. Too dated for my taste) and movies (movies with the TOS cast are great) several times, but this still stands out as one of the best installments in any Star Trek media that I know of so far, mainly because of the acting.

And the best thing with this episode: Riker (Jonathan Frakes, the worst actor in Star Trek history, in my humble opinion) does not do any of his annoying moves:

• His left eyebrow lowered when he attempts to look 'mean'.

• His head cocking to one side when he's puzzled by something.

• His stumbling, tilted moves when he pretends to look tough in action scenes (imitating John Wayne or some other action hero from the 50's)

• His exaggerated speech when he pretends to be in distress ("Aaannyboodyyyyy!" taken from the first episode of TNG)

• His over-acting in general.

In this episode he actually appears normal and professional, just like the other actors.

My first impression of this episode back in the beginning of the 90's or something when I had been out on town was maybe infused by alcohol, but I just saw the episode again now, and I stand by it.

Highly recommended!

The episode is by all means ok, not terribly good or awful. James Sloyan who plays the Romulan defector often has the same approach for all his characters which doesnt mean its a bad performance but its more like he is playing himself. The episode is mostly mind games until the very end of course.

A Romulan renegade is rescued from a scout ship and immediately offers the Enterprise a warning. The Romulans are gathering on an outpost on a planet in the Neutral Zone, he says, and it is up to Picard to believe him. He says he is not a traitor but he doesn't want a war. Most of the episode involves the testing of his information. These guys are the true bad guys of the universe and have vanquished many, including the killing of Worf's family. Eventually, Picard recognizes that inaction could be worse than action and proceeds to the "location" of the outpost. The strength of this offering is that it is not unlike an episode of "The West Wing" where there is political brinkmanship. Picard even asks Data to maintain a record of these events because he would be the only likely survivor of a full battle, to show how it all came about and how it ended. The episode is worth watching just to see Picard face off against the Romulans' captain. A very intelligent show with no easy answers.

This is Star Trek at its finest. Superb plot, the writing is amazing and the performances are best in class.

The best thing here is the character reactions to Setols story, they plain don't believe him, they aren't naive, and most of the episode is spend trying to work out how much of his tale is a lie.

You just don't see stuff like this anymore. People just take what's said at face value, or maybe there's a blatant lie to be revealed but here there are so many layers. Sloyan is superb and as always Stewart is sublime.

I loved the twist at the end, on a rewatch the clues are obvious but they were perfectly written and directed to not give the game away.

I've loved this one since I was 8, and 34 years later it's still for me one of star treks finest hours.