The Wounded by: Jeri Taylor from a story by: Stuart Charno, Sara Charno, and Cy Chermak and directed by: Chip Chalmers

 

“The Wounded” is written by: Jeri Taylor, from a story by: Stuart Charno, Sara Charno, and Cy Chermak, and is directed by: Chip Chalmers.  It was produced under production code 186, was the 12^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, the 86^th episode overall, and was broadcast on January 28, 1991.

 

“The Wounded” is about what happens after war.  Scriptwriter Jeri Taylor introduces the Cardassians, a reptilian race previously engaged in war with the Federation.  Peace is an uneasy one, compromises made on both sides and wounds not allowed to heal.  They have been hastily plastered over with hopes that nature will take its course.  The inciting incident is a Federation starship going rogue and attacking a Cardassian ship, pursuing and destroying a supply ship, and the Enterprise are sent as peacekeepers.  War must be avoided at all costs.  The Federation could not afford another extended conflict after The Best of Both Worlds.  The underlying question of “The Wounded” is whether or not these attacks are a man scarred by his experiences in war have gone rogue or if the Cardassians are preparing their own attacks.  The man in question is Captain Benjamin Maxwell, played by character actor Bob Gunton, whom we are told is a rational and emotionally stable man.  Transporter chief Miles O’Brien, played by Colm Meaney, served under him for a number of years during the war.  Representing the Cardassians is Gul Macet, played by Marc Alaimo, who is equally insistent that they only want peace and the outposts are for scientific research.  There are a number of elements that make “The Wounded” stand out as an examination of war’s aftermath, however it’s the final twist of the episode that despite acting outside of protocol and on no evidence, Maxwell is correct.  The Cardassians are preparing for war, slowly but surely, obviously for a future episode to pick up, but in doing so it means that the episode still keeps Maxwell’s decisions in a framing of morally abhorrent.  Gunton gets a monologue about how bureaucracy will not move nearly fast enough to stop the war from coming earlier in the episode, and with that ending his framing is not justified.  The Federation likely would not have gone to war anyways even if the proper channels were used as they are bleeding.

 

Taylor structures “The Wounded” as an incredibly dialogue heavy episode, steeping the events in this melodrama all while dedicating several scenes to showing characters existing in their lives.  It’s almost the opposite structure of the previous episode “Data’s Day” as the daily life becomes background, yet integral background, to the events of the main plot.  The decision is made to hang the emotional weight of the episode on Miles O’Brien, pushing him closer to becoming a major player in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  O’Brien’s experiences in war scarred him emotionally, while he knows that the current peace with the Cardassians means he should not fear them he still becomes cautious with them around.  There is an excellent scene between O’Brien and one of the other Cardassians in Ten Forward examining how much self-loathing the war had imposed on O’Brien.  Meaney plays it as a man desperately attempting to be the better man and believe that since despite the self-loathing, Maxwell must be a stronger man than he is and equally avoids the temptation.  Meaney later plays opposite Gunton as Maxwell equally well, singing and Irish song to eventually talk the man down.  O’Brien finds the peaceful resolution to a situation that had already killed 650 Cardassians.  These scenes would not work nearly as well if Taylor hadn’t given O’Brien’s character a much needed exploration in some quiet if humorous scenes opposite Keiko, played by Rosalind Chao.  It’s already surprising that Keiko returns immediately after her introduction, as surprising as O’Brien being given a plot, but Chao and Meany have excellent chemistry.  The scenes are simple, mostly discussions of food from their respective cultures which are particularly great, but they are enough to further them as a couple in the early days of their marriage.  This is the most humanization O’Brien has gotten in the series thus far, while he had been given several larger scenes in the previous season giving the character a plot is a leap of faith in Meaney’s ability and further cements “The Wounded” as an episode of groundwork for later plans.

 

The Cardassians from a production standpoint feel ever so slightly like a replacement for the Ferengi.  The Ferengi despite appearing multiple times in Star Trek: The Next Generation do not really have enough presence to make an intimidating villain, largely because of how their episodes were both intentionally and unintentionally given a comedic bent.  It also likely did not help that their designs and the direction their actors had been given were laughable.  The Ferengi’s two bulbous lobes protruding from their heads are a piece of design that look far too much like buttocks to be taken seriously with their rather strained voices.  In designing the Cardassians, by contrast, are far more subtle.  There is clear inspiration for what made the redesigned Klingons work quite well with head ridges that almost outline the upper skull in a way to make them look more reptilian in nature and a particularly pale makeup work by Michael Westmore.  Like the Klingons, there’s something intimidating about where the ridges are placed and unlike the Ferengi, director Chip Chalmers allows the Cardassian actors to speak closer to their normal voices.  Marc Alaimo as Macet is equally responsible for establishing the threat of the Cardassians, his performance flipping on a dime depending on whom he is speaking with from concern to charm, to an understated hostility.  He is the reason the twist at the end of the episode works.  For the bulk of the episode while Alaimo puts cracks in the mask that Macet is putting up for everybody, but they are subtle.  The character has clearly put his underlings up to investigate the Enterprise under enough plausible deniability but clearly speaks out of both sides of his mouth.  Alaimo never makes the character outright antagonistic, but the sinister undertones are there from the beginning and clearly are providing a base for a much bigger story to be told.

 

Overall, “The Wounded” makes a near perfect inversion of “Data’s Day”.  It rewrites several of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s past mistakes in introducing potential new villains and in introducing potential new characters.  Miles O’Brien feels like he is given a proper introduction here despite appearing as far back as the first season, Colm Meaney taking the material he is given in both hands and establishing the character as all too human.  “The Wounded” is a story about all too human hurt while having to close old wounds even if they will leave scars that are ripe for reopening.  9/10.