The High Ground

** (stars out of 5)

The non-aligned Federation trade partner Rutia IV has a history of violent insurrection. Beverly Crusher gets to see it up close when Ansata Separatists detonate a bomb near the cafe she is patronizing with Data and Worf. Just as the cops arrive, the doctor is abducted.

Her captor is a dark and charming bad boy (where have we seen that before this season?).

"If you need anything ask for me. My name is Kyril Finn. They know me." Really? Your underlings know you, huh? Imagine that.

The Ansata seek independence from the Rutians of the eastern continent.

"History has shown us that strength may be useless when faced with terrorism." The Rutian lady cop Riker consults with seems to agree: there's no negotiating with animals.

Beverly's son did a little better on his abduction hunger stike than Bev does today. All it takes is a whining 'Come on' from hand-wringing Finn. Om, nom, nom!

The Ansata consist of around 200 terrorists and perhaps 5,000 sympathizers. They use a dimensional shifter called the inverter which allows them to pop in and out of shielded areas. Inter-dimensional adaptive transport was abandoned in the mid-23rd century in the Federation because it's fatal.

"A dead martyr is worth ten posturing leaders," groans Finn of his therefore imminent death.

Geordi's adaptive subspace magnetosphere echogram might trace the inverter. Good thing! Could you repeat that into the replicator, please?

Beverly's ancestors were from North America. Luckily, Finn thinks of himself as George Washington. "I am willing to die for my freedom... and in the finest tradition of your own great civilization I am willing to kill for it, too." How delightful. Killing non-combatants for your freedom. Kind of like smashing a bread maker hoping donuts will fall out.

Riker tells one of the Ansata detainees that the Federation is willing to negotiate for Crusher's release, and over the cop's strident objections lets him go.

Data points out from his studies that terrorism works. Mexico gaining independence from Spain and "the Irish Unification of 2024" to name a couple. Picard doesn't believe "that political power flows from the barrel of a gun" but admits that humans have struggled with the morality of this issue for awhile now.

With the inverter, no one can stop them when they slap a bomb on the warp core. Geordi's quick thinking saves everyone, beaming the bomb into space tagged by his communicator.

When Finn hits the bridge, Picard slugs him and makes the jump back to his cave as a second prisoner. Bev is a little Stockholmed, taking Finn's side despite the fact that Finn just tried to explode her kid.

Finn tells Troi his demands: a Federation trade embargo/blockade against Rutia.

The Rutian alienness is subtle (and no doubt inexpensive): all the men have skunk stripes, and all the women seem to be red heads. Red-headed lady cop shoots Finn dead from behind as he threatens Picard, Bev talks a skunk-head boy out of killing Lady Cop.

"The High Ground" makes Dr. Crusher look weak-willed, and terrorism sound good. IS that a huge mistake? Star Trek is at its best when it asks us to consider all sides, so I have to give it a little credit. But it's one of the year's few flops, to my mind.

The Hunted

*** (3 stars out of 5)

Fresh from the Tarsian Wars, the people of Angosia III have a pleasantly peaceful (if grey and stuffy) world. Prime Minister Nayrock is nay-rocking that moustache. Oh, James Cromwell, what were you thinking?

An Angosian super-soldier who doesn't show up on the sensors busts out of the Penal Colony on Lunar V and causes havoc for the Enterprise. (Heh, penal colony.)

The troublemaker is Roga Danar, a well-spoken man with smouldering eyes and strategically ripped fatigues. He causes action scenes and explosions as he leads the crew on a merry chase.

He's also got a fascination for Counselor Troi, who uncovers his grievances with a government that modified his mind and body for war, but had no means to refit him for peacetime.

Of course, you'll recall Troi's through playing the sucker for dark and handsome bad boys.

Clearly an emergency: killer with super-skills on the loose, nobody in engineering responding, Geordi's out cold, but Worf and his security buddy are just sauntering down the corridor to the rescue at a moderate pace. Inspiring work, guys, to be sure.

"They're your brothers, your sons, and you turned your backs on them," says Picard to the Angosian fat-cats. J'accuse!

"The Hunted" is almost all action and effects and that's no bad thing. PTSD and the ongoing struggle to avoid worrying about how to help war veterans is older than shell-shock and will probably still be a concern in 300 years. Unless we really do grow out of our love for war.

The Defector

**** (4 stars out of 5)

Data rehearses the lead in Shakespeare's 'Henry V' for Picard on the holodeck.

Picard insists Data discover his own performance, not simply imitate Olivier, Branagh, or Kullnark. (No doubt a fine Shakespearean Klingon though Kullnark might be.)

A Romulan scoutship in distress dashes toward the Enterprise out of the Neutral Zone, its pilot requesting asylum.

The defector, Mere Logistics Clerk Setal, still seeping green from his burns, claims a cloaked base has been built on Nelvana III in the Neutral Zone. When it is complete the Angry Warbirds will be able to hit 15 UFP sectors. And he wants to stop it rather than dance on their human bones.

He set his vessel to explode, so La Forge and Data never got to steal the tape deck and hubcaps. The defector knew they'd try that. "The Federation credo, exploitation!"

The defector calls Worf nasty names like pahtk and tohzah. Riker smoothly replies: "Only a veruul would use such language in public." (There are times when I wonder what's up with the Universal Translator. Is there a Cursing Filter? Come to think of it, 'merde' stayed 'merde' when Picard said 'merde', too.)

The defector hates and also understands Worf. "Exactly the type that will get us all killed if we're not careful."

The cynical Romulan shows the audience that he has something that is not a TUMS in his boot.

Geordi and Data turn up an analysis that shows Tomalak's warbird LET the scoutship escape.

Picard once more agonizes over the nearness of interstellar war. "Now if these men do not die well it will be a black matter for the king who led them to it."

The defector gives up nothing during Riker and Troi's mildly badgering interrogation. This is not twenty-first century TV, after all. Starfleet neither condones nor probably THOUGHT about using torture to promote honesty. The Romulan does not appreciate their forbearance. "Oh, what a fool I've been. To come looking for courage in a lair of cowards."

He goes for a drink and complains at Data. "These are not my stars. Even the heavens are denied me here."

Fed up with people being distrustful but generally decent to him, the defector admits that he is Admiral Alidar Jarok, commander of the massacre at the Norkan outposts.

"What you call massacres were called the Norkan campaigns on my world, Captain. One world's butcher is another world's hero. Perhaps I am neither one... There comes a time in a man's life that you cannot know. When he looks down at the first smile of his baby girl and realizes that he must change the world for her... She will grow up believing that I am a traitor. But she will grow up."

Enterprise violates the Treaty of Algeron and enters the Neutral Zone to investigate Nelvana III. There's no base. But there is a dandy trap and Tomalak eager to display the broken hull of the Federation flagship in his capital city.

Most fortunately, the Federation has some Angry Birds for friends. Picard had Worf prepare some cloaked Klingons earlier. They were probably quite disappointed when the Romulans backed off.

Utterly disgraced and alone, Jarok finds peace in the Federation and buys a farm.

"The Defector" is awesome. I have much respect for actors James Sloyan and Andreas Katsulas as Jarok and Tomalok. There's a point at which grey checkerboard outfits, spikes, sharp ears, foreheads, and Beatles wigs stops and the actor underneath starts. There's a lot of layer and emotional nuance here. Plus it's just great drama. I find Ronald Moore's writing quite stirring today.

The Vengeance Factor

** (2 stars out of 5)

Title makes it sound like it features Jean-Claude Van Damme, doesn't it? Too bad, it doesn't.

An away team finds the Emerald City has been ransacked. No, sorry to mislead you, it's just a totally green room. Pretty odd lighting design for a human station. Unless you're trying to trap a villainous Yellow Lantern or something? Well, at least it makes the corpses look more lurid.

"Someone sure stripped this place," Riker observes. This man knows stripping when he sees it.

Dr. Crusher finds unique Acamarian blood. This suggests 'the Gatherers' (a bunch of local pirates) are to blame.

Sovereign Marouk of Acamar III describes her world's savage history of clan blood feuds, a problem which solved itself when The Gatherers split from society a century ago. Marouk's cook and food taster Yuta seems like exactly the kind of meek, withdrawn slave Riker would hit on.

Wait, WHAT? Slave? Sorry, do we LIKE these people? Seems as though their culture still has bigger problems than a bunch of stinky pirates.

And they ARE stinky. Mr. Worf even comments on it. The Gatherers suck at stealth, Worf says, because they don't bathe enough. This from a guy who two years back said Klingons don't like bathing.

Yuta's got a secret. She follows old man Volnath from Clan Lornack off alone, and he dies at her insidious touch.

The Gatherers aren't too particular what they loot, but still. I think it's probably inadvisable of Volnath to wear a Borg's old body stocking.

Riker tells Yuta he does not want a love slave, but an equal. Yuta cannot return his affection. Too bad, so sad, moving on.

Yuta's Clan Tralesta genetically modified her to live long and kill Lornacks with an artificial micro virus.

Just in time to save Gatherer Leader Chorgan, Data and Crusher discover a 53-year-old photo of ageless Yuta present at the heart-attack death of Lornack Penthor-Mul.

Riker tries to stun Yuta to stop her attack, but it doesn't work. He is forced to disintegrate her.

Or is he? She's not super-strong. The virus won't hurt Riker. Why doesn't he just stand between her and Never-Getzoffizass, I mean, Chorgan? Why did Riker beam over alone? Was Worf busy with his annual bath? Why even bring a phaser? Can the replicator not make a butterfly net for Buffy the Lornack Slayer?

"The Vengeance Factor" clearly has some issues. The murder 'mystery' is tepid, and the resolution is very contrived. I know, I know, I'm supposed to give a crap about Yuta's problems. I'm supposed to sympathize with Riker's moral dilemma. But when McCoy had to do this very thing in 'The Man Trap', his deadly dame was a threat to everyone she could reach. It was literally a spur of the moment choice between Kirk's life or Nancy's. Riker had prep time. He's got her talking. AND there are bunches of big beefy pirate thugs, slave owners, and Picard ALL just standing around with their thumbs in their bums.

Clearly when the Federation said there are no capital crimes anymore they meant unless you enjoy the noise a phaser makes.

The Price

*** (3 stars out of 5)

Not Vincent, Not Fisher, but Wormhole. For the right price, somebody gets the only known stable wormhole from Barzan II to the Gamma Quadrant. Well, don't all volunteer at once. It's a wormhole, people! A wormhole.

"God forbid I should miss my first look at the wormhole," Troi snarks.

Barzani Premier Bhavani must choose between the offers of friendly Mendosa from the Federation, towering scholarly Leyor of the Caldonians, and smarmy Devinoni Ral, representing the neutral Chrysalians.

And, barging in at the last minute, the Ferengi, bag of gold in hand. They were not invited.

"Fine, fine, just have your Klingon servant get us some chairs," groans DaiMon Goss.

Intrigue and back-stabbing ensues as a reminder that humans are above all that sort of thing in the twenty-fourth century.

Ral takes it upon himself to get Troi to "leave the office" and "let her hair down". Also, he gets her replicator tipsy for some 'Downtown Devinoni', as no one has ever called it.

Troi brags about her boudoir adventures to Beverly at their two-person aerobics class. As a reminder that humans are above all that sort of thing... never mind.

Goss' subordinate Dr. Arridor distills Goss's Ferengi blood into a fast-acting contact allergen to incapacitate Mendosa with a handshake. Riker must take Mendosa's place in the negotiations due to his skills in poker.

"Poker? Is that a game of some sort?" Riker ponders. Myself, I ponder how that even works. Not disparaging Riker, but nobody else is a trained diplomat? In a crew of a thousand? I guess it really is just science geeks, gearheads, or jarheads. Hope they never have to make first contact with anything on their ongoing new-life-seeking-out mission. (Really, Riker's fine, I'm just being a dork.)

In bed for a massage, (with Troi, not Riker) Ral reveals his secret: he's one-quarter Betazoid empath and uses it to manipulate people. Shocked! Shocked and appalled! Also, scarred. Scarred for life.

Data and Geordi look the gift wormhole in the mouth, since "Magic Door to ANYTHING" could include, well, Borgs. Not trusting the human's word, Arridor and Kol tag along.

Geordi and Data discover the wormhole is unstable at the other end. It strands the stubborn Ferengi in the Delta Quadrant. Refusing to listen to Geordi's warning to get gone, the speculators are lost 70,000 light-years from their mother ship. I hope they went tinkles before they left.

Ral turns an argument about his ethics with Troi around, asking whether her conscience is entirely clear for her empathic edge.

Ral also taunts Riker with the 'I've Got your Girl' Maneuver. Riker turns that around neatly: "She's just the woman to bring some meaning to your sorry existence, if you're smart enough to take it. I doubt you are."

Ral made a side deal with Goss. If Goss kicked up a fuss with some missiles and some brinksmanship, the Chrysalians would win the bid and cut the Ferengi in. Troi blabs this scheme to the Premier, resolving her ethics and effectively ending her tryst with Downtown Devinoni Ral.

He claims to have had a change of heart, but Troi's through playing the sucker for dark and handsome bad boys...!

"The Price" comes from the 2360's, or as it was later known: 'The Me Decade'. Ramping up greed and sex in one fell swoop, Ral seems like an oddly despicable, self-indulgent type for a human of the high-moral values, commodity-free, 'enrich yourself' world of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', doesn't he? But, admit it, there's always gonna be a Harry Mudd.

Stable wormhole, huh? Lost in the Delta Quadrant, huh? I don't see 14 seasons worth of T.V. in THOSE premises.

The Enemy

**** (4 stars out of 5)

It was a dark and stormy planet. Worf meets an injured Romulan who hollers to let him go, and rather than catch him by the toe, the Klingon punches him in the face.

Geordi falls into a sinkhole, and misses his transporter window back. This world, Galornden Core, is firmly inside the Federation, and should not have Romulan encroachment, strictly speaking. Unless they're up to no good. Which is always.

With a phaser, Geordi fashions some metal spikes to climb out. Wes devises a neutrino pulse beacon to send him. Now if only this place wasn't so bad for the brain pan that his VISOR inputs fail. And then he's captured by a Romulan. And there's sand in his boots. And there's nothing good on TV on Galornden Core.

Romulan Commander Tomalak stops by. (By sheerest coincidence he is the identical cousin of Babylon 5's Ambassador G'Kar.)

Bev gets to break the good news to Worf: of all the people on board, (even the Vulcans somehow), Worf's the only one whose ribosome donations can cure the wounded Romulan.

Guess what Worf doesn't do.

"If you had seen them kill your parents, Doctor, you would understand it is always the time and place for those feelings."

Crusher is aghast. "You're the only one who can save his life!"

"Then he will die."

Geordi's captor, Centurion Bochra, is surprised to hear La Forge was born blind. His race does not waste resources on 'defective children'. Bochra can barely walk and Geordi's vision has cut out. They must rely on each other. And possibly get an apartment together. Spin-off!

"If that Romulan dies, does his family carry that bitterness on another generation?" Riker asks Worf. Even Picard begs Worf to help, but doesn't make it an order. I'd call that a mistake on Picard's end, but Worf could probably sue for cultural insensitivity or something. Protected under his Rights and Freedoms to Blind Hatred, no doubt.

The injured Romulan seals his own fate. "I would rather die than pollute my body with Klingon filth." Worf is only too happy to accommodate him.

He's a racist in Vorta Vor now.

"Then he is but the first to fall, Picard," sneers Tomalak. Always itching to start intergalactic war, these Romulans. They must not be getting enough blue jeans and bootleg CDs across the border.

Picard bravely tells Tomalak he's about to lower his shields in order to beam up Geordi and Bochra. Jean-Luc literally risks the peace & a thousand souls on Tomalak's unwillingness to shoot first. Note to self: this works on Romulans. Not so sure about everybody else. Klingons, for example.

"The Enemy" is an old favourite. Like the movie 'Enemy Mine' before it, there is cause for ire on both sides and we get some more insight into the bad guys. I cheer Geordi's struggle for survival. The portrayal of Worf, I also admire: his grudges are real and they don't go away just because the hour has elapsed.

Booby Trap

*** (3 stars out of 5)

Geordi strikes out on his date with Christi (a person) but finds smooches on the holodeck anyway. Who needs real girls? (Insert Valentine's Day joke here.)

Orelious IX (former planet, current rock garden) is the site of the final conflict between the Promellians and the Menthars. The Promellians built battle cruisers to stand the test of time, while the Menthars were known as the Fresh-Makers.

Picard used to build model airships in bottles as a boy. Riker, Worf, and Data have never heard of such a thing. O'Brien has. Or possibly he's a good suck-up. Or both.

Now Picard has a Promellian BattleCruiser of his very own. With realistic skeletons featuring 'died at their posts' action! It makes his history-loving heart go pitter-patter-clank. ('Cause it's a metal heart, you understand.)

Guinan tells hard-luck Geordi she's attracted to bald men, because a bald man was kind to her once when she was hurting. I wonder if his heart went pitter-patter-clank...?

Geordi must put aside his floundering love life and race against time to figure out how to get Enterprise free of a cunning and deadly trap. So of course, he falls in love with the voice, face, and journals of the engineering propulsion specialist who designed the ship's engines: Dr. Leah Brahms.

"I need to get inside there." Geordi muses. He means the dilithium reaction chamber. What were YOU thinking?

Possibly to make up for Christi, maybe even for Moriarty, the computer manifests the geek girl of Geordi's dreams. With a 9 percent margin of error, the hologram even simulates Brahms' personality.

Picard balks at Geordi's propulsion proposal to escape: turn control over to the computer. Picard used to imagine flying a single propellor airplane. "Now the machines are flying us."

In the end, they go the other way: less power, more Picard. The Captain coasts them to safety on a pair of thrusters and no prayer (heathens, remember).

Worf makes the ship in the bottle go ka-blooey. Waste not, want... never mind.

Hologram Leah is, to put it mildly, somewhat forward. "Every time you look at the ship, it's me. Everytime you touch it, it's me."(She may have attended the Minuet School of Accommodating Photon-Based Ladies.)

"Booby Trap" brings the fun with a good Geordi episode, good effects, and a noticeable soundtrack. It again raises the question (and not for the last time) how real is real? For my part? I'm glad I don't need a battery pack for my flesh wife.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Happy Valentines Day.