The Enemy by: David Kemper and Michael Piller and directed by: David Carson

 

“The Enemy” is written by: David Kemper and Michael Piller and is directed by: David Carson.  It was produced under production code 155, was the 7^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 55^th episode overall, and was broadcast on November 6, 1989.

 

When developing Star Trek: The Next Generation, the decision to move relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire is a fantastic piece of storytelling potential.  It meant that you could develop a character like Worf as part of the Enterprise crew and that the Federation can actually make peace with its enemies.  There’s also the real-life parallels of the Cold War, dominant in the geopolitical space of the original series, slowly coming to a close in the late 1980s.  Where the differences for Star Trek: The Next Generation comes along is in exactly who the main enemy of the Federation would be.  Gene Roddenberry created the Ferengi meant to be a critique of capitalism that in execution in the first season came across as more humorous than anything else.  Maurice Hurley seeded ideas of the Borg in the first season before their appearance in the second season episode “Q Who”, though that would be their only appearance in that season.  David Kemper and Michael Piller in “The Enemy” pose what at this point in Star Trek: The Next Generation works as the best enemy for the series, the Romulans.  This is at least partially because Kemper and Piller aren’t trying to introduce a completely new race of people but taking one established in the original series as equally part of the Cold War and bringing them up to a point politically that parallels the waning days of the war.  The Romulans and Federation are established clearly as being on the road to peace and cooperation, though early on that road.  Romulans were also used sparingly in the original series, though that was due to the makeup work took quite a long time, so there is more to be fleshed out and developed.  The second correct decision is to largely ignore the two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation to feature the Romulans, “The Neutral Zone” and “Contagion”, both episodes that didn’t actually do much to progress Romulan society.

 

“The Enemy” instead is a masterful look at the cycle of violence and these deep enshrined biases that are guiding the decisions of the characters.  Kemper and Piller have a script that keeps every subplot focused on Federation/Romulan relations somehow.  The setup takes the twist of not being about a potential peace treaty, but a planet in Federation space called Galorndon Core plagued by storms that are essentially a death trap.  The Enterprise is responding to a distress signal, Geordi LaForge as part of the away team is stuck and the signal came from Romulans.  The singular injured Romulan, Bochra played by John Snyder, is taken to the Enterprise to recover after he and Geordi have to work together (Geordi is set blind by the planet interfering with his visor), Picard has to contact the Romulan ship that is attempting to recover him by entering Federation space, and Bochra needing blood that only Worf can donate.  The scenes on the planet give LeVar Burton as Geordi LaForge his best material for the show.  Geordi is completely sympathetic and a humanist character faced with an alien that thinks his very existence is a mistake: Romulan society does not tolerate disability while humanity (in the far future) doesn’t just allow it, but accommodates it without intentionally “fixing” it.  They have to work together to get to a beacon that the Enterprise (designed by Wesley) is signaling.  This is also where the episode explores the idea that Bochra can change and Romulan society can learn from things: Geordi being left blind means Bochra, who is completely ready to die, has to be altruistic for essentially a greater good he doesn’t actually need.  It’s also the sequences of the episode that David Carson just excels at.  The lighting on the planet set makes great use of shadow, with flashes of blue tinted lightning to help accent the faces of the actors adding to the oppressive atmosphere.  Close-up shots dominate the sequence, possibly because the sets are smaller, but in effect is means that everything is just as tense and terrifying.

 

Once the episode gets back to the Enterprise while Carson’s direction is still great and the episode is tense, that is mainly due to the script and the performances, largely because Carson is shooting on long-standing sets with standard lighting techniques.  It doesn’t quite bring the episode down in terms of quality, it just loses some of the tightness of the first act.  On the other hand, when the plot shifts to asking if Worf should donate his blood to heal a different Romulan found by the away team while Geordi is still trapped on the planet we get a secondary positive attitude towards the Romulans from Riker and Crusher: Riker briefly seeing that the Romulans could be like the Klingons which Jonathan Frakes is great at, but more impactfully Gates McFadden as Dr. Crusher gets some of her best material thus far appealing to Worf’s sense of humanity and her own duty to do no harm.  The Romulan is a patient and patients have a right to care, despite being enemies of the Federation and the Enterprise.  The script doesn’t have her really pressure Worf into giving his blood, she advises him to but the text and McFadden’s performance is clear that it is entirely his choice.  Michael Dorn as Worf is another major focus here, the episode emphasizing that Worf’s hangups are a result of his childhood trauma and those feelings while immoral are not invalid.  It is a problem that Worf is going to have to eventually work through, and the twist of the knife is that the Romulan dies before Worf can actually make the decision.  This means that “The Enemy”, despite having a conclusion on Picard’s soldiers, is an episode that doesn’t actually resolve the tension.

 

Speaking of Picard, he is also a character given to the negative side of outlook towards the Romulans.  He is more levelheaded than Worf, at least on the surface, but the Romulans in Picard’s own mind are enemies.  They are the ones breaking the treaties and violating the Neutral Zone, the excuses that a ship just happened to go off course into Federation space.  The episode does leave this particular plot point unresolved, it is very possible that Tomalak, the Romulan commander coming to recover the ship that drifted to Galorndon Core, is preparing something violent towards the Federation under the guide of the Romulan Empire.  The outcome of this doesn’t actually matter, it’s all about Picard having to navigate this diplomacy when there are lives on the line that he does not fundamentally care for.  Yes, Geordi is in danger and Picard cares about him, but not the Romulans.  Patrick Stewart gives this particularly layered performance, underlined with nothing but frustration towards both the Romulans and the difficulties of saving Geordi without endangering anyone else in the crew.  Everything is just bubbling and boiling over, while like with Worf’s plot has a conclusion but doesn’t have a stable resolution.  It’s closer, there are no more deaths and Geordi and Bochra both get saved and returned to their ships, but there’s more to delve into and that’s just the perfect note to end on.

 

Overall, “The Enemy” is underrated, largely not being discussed despite clearly laying foundation for where at the very least Michael Piller wants to see Star Trek: The Next Generation actually go.  It’s an episode interested in examining tolerance and cooperation that is intentional in not resolving its central conflicts.  The bold choice is not to invalidate trauma despite knowing that lashing out because of that is generally immoral and forces the characters to sit with that without showing if they will change, opening up character arcs and setting them into motion while still resolving the general arc of the episode for the characters.  9/10.