Face of the Enemy

A Romulan double agent aboard the USS Enterprise, DeSeve. Admittedly, only as the B-plot. In the A-plot Deanna Troi wakes up as an altered Romulan on a Romulan ship. The more interesting question is: What do you do with a double agent that you caught red handed ? You let him off. Starfleet is a military organisation. Hierarchically organised. In fact, you have to let Picard off for joining the Borg collective 3 seasons earlier. A military organisation is a threat to any 'enterprise' that might want to form within the Federation. In fact, you thank that perpetrator. Because you were wondering anyway, where all this poverty lately came from.

I had been a fan of Deanna Troi from the start, but I found myself wanting to eventually see this side of her character, especially after each time they would set her up to be either led on by complete strangers or a victim or her own empathic ability.

My only complaint is that my suspension of disbelief would be thrown off a bit with how quick and perfect she would react to each problem as they would happen, but her performance (as well as the performance of the guest actors) was still enjoyable to watch.

Counsellor Troi is kidnapped and sent undercover as an agent aboard a Romulan starship.

This is an entertaining episode that gives Troi a decent storyline and contains a some quite compelling scenes.

I am a 'Hunt for Red October' fan so quite like the defection story and involvement of the Romulan cloaking device. Although the suspense associated with certain plot stakes does not really work when you know Troi will be back to normal next episode and the Enterprise will not be destroyed.

Marina Sirtis did not have the best material associated with her character for much of TNG, but this one is good. There is a reasonably good logic connected to her empathic powers that supports the plot. Above all she gets the opportunity to be a strong lead as opposed to a victim, love interest, or a sympathetic ear. For most of her performance she delivers superbly well. There are a few moments when she shouts at people that feels a bit over the top, but it somehow works due to the fact we know her character is acting the part of someone else.

The guest stars Carolyn Seymour and Scott McDonald are great as the Romulan characters and Sirtis has a number of solid exchanges with them. I particularly like the quite tense scene when Toreth tests Troi on her backstory over the dinner table.

It gives a decent level of continuity and follow up to the TNG 'Unification' episodes and is worth watching prior to the 2009 Star Trek movie and the Discovery episode 'Unification III'.

For me it's a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

Troi wakes up having been surgically altered to look like a Romulan in order to fulfill some secret mission. Meanwhile, a human who defected to the Romulans returns to coordinate the Enterprise's side.

This is a nice spy thriller, reminiscent of TOS's "The Enterprise Incident." Though, this episode isn't as good as that one, it is one of season 6's best episodes.

Troi is the focus here. I know many dislike her character, but I find Troi-centric episodes like this, "The Price", and "The Loss" to be very enjoyable.

Carolyn Seymour returns as a Romulan commander, a role she had in season 2's "Where Silence Has Lease." It's a different character, perhaps to avoid paying royalties.

We perhaps learn more about the Romulans in this episode more than in any other.

When the episode begins, Counselor Troi awakens and looks into the mirror--only to discover that she's become, inexplicably, a Romulan! Why?! What's going on here? She has no idea but one of the Romulans comes to her and tells her that she MUST go along with his plan and pretend to be a member of the Romulan Intelligence, the Tal Shiar. Fortunately, since the Tal Shiar is much like the KGB, the commander of the Romulan ship is forced to acquiesce to whatever demands Troi makes--as the commander is scared not to!

I loved this episode because it allowed Marina Sirtis (Troi) to step WAY outside her usual roles on the show. Normally, she's an incredibly passive and dull character but here she is AMAZING. As a member of the Tal Shiar, Troi becomes a very scary woman! She is tough, demanding and even a bit ruthless!! These are all things I loved seeing her character do! Additionally, the show is very exciting and very different from the norm for the show. One not to be missed.