The Defector

Worth it for not only James Sloyan's incredible work as the title character, and the performances by the series regulars which met all their usual standards and then some, but for the incredible delivery of one of the best "promos" ever in Star Trek history by Andreas Katsulas on Picard and the Enterprise near the end. Just awesome, awesome, awesome... truly the crescendo of the episode. Watching Sloyan, Katsulas and Stewart in that scene is incredible. When I heard today that Mr. Katsulas had passed on, it was one of the first memories of his performances that came to mind. Cool, perfect, and utterly gripping.

This is one of my favorite ST-TNG episodes. I found the script flawless and the premise gripping. It kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. The climax and ending are brilliant. In my opinion, the writers did their best work here. It's a match of wits in this story, highlighting the core traits of the main characters and of the intergalactic races. Guest star Sloyan is excellent. Stewart does some of his best work as Picard. {Though this episode is of a serious nature, Data has some humorous and endearing moments.} Burton, as LaForge, has thoughtful commentary on analytical thinking. The visuals and special-effects are superb, as only ST can do. I've seen this episode several times in reruns and I don't tire of it. If you are a Star-Trek fan, but haven't yet seen this one, you should. It's one of the most celebrated episodes of the series.

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.

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!

During the height of the Cold War in the '60's, G. Roddenberry had a vision of a TV show that would portray Mankind in the distant future as having become the best we are capable of becoming.

Original Star Trek was the result, and it really started something. Proof of that is that today we are still praising film and written examples of mankind overcoming our own differences and faults, uniting as one, and thereby becoming an example for all life. Anywhere.

The crude and poor resources of the '60's TV industry managed in getting this ideal across, otherwise, we would not be here 50 years later discussing this.

ST-TNG (so far) has been the pinnacle of this vision. This episode stands as one of the best example of it.

Patrick Stewart's background in Shakespearian acting really comes across here, and sets the standard for all of the others. And they all rose to the challenge and delivered amazingly.

This stands as one of the best episodes of ST-TNG, when it was in it's prime! The feelings, tension, and drama it shows are far beyond the capability of those behind the latest movie efforts to carry on the ST storyline.

Some alien somewhere has 10 thumbs, and they are all 'Up' for this one.