Television Review: The Pegasus (Star Trek: The Next Generation, S7X12, 1994)
The Pegasus (S07E12)
Airdate: 10 January 1994
Written by: Ronald D. Moore
Directed by: LeVar Burton
Running Time: 46 minutes
There is a curious irony at the heart of Star Trek's so-called Golden Age: the very series that Gene Roddenberry conceived as an optimistic, utopian vision of humanity's future increasingly strayed from that founding ideal. Roddenberry imagined a civilisation that had abolished poverty, greed and petty squabbling, a species that had finally outgrown its baser instincts and reached for the stars with clean hands and noble intentions. Yet as the franchise matured, it became abundantly clear that even unimaginable technological progress would not erase the darker corners of the human soul. Humanity, it transpired, would remain scarred by moral compromises and institutional corruption, and that corruption would infect not merely individuals but the grandest institutions of all. Deep Space Nine is frequently cited as the most obvious manifestation of this trend, with its its probing of the Federation's own conscience. But the same tendencies can be discerned in The Next Generation, particularly in those episodes written by Ronald D. Moore, an author who relished taking the series into slightly darker, more ambiguous territory than his predecessors would have dared. One such instalment, which also conveniently attempted to resolve a perplexing question that "trekkies" had been asking at conventions for years, is The Pegasus, broadcast a mere few months before the series' triumphant conclusion.
The plot opens with Captain Jean-Luc Picard being unceremoniously interrupted while entertaining children during the celebrations of "Captain Picard's Day", a whimsical annual tradition aboard the Enterprise. The playful domesticity of the scene is shattered when the Captain is called away to rendezvous with the USS Crazy Horse and take aboard Rear Admiral Erik Pressman (Terry O’Quinn), a high-ranking officer of Starfleet Intelligence. Upon arrival, Pressman briefs the Enterprise crew on their next, top-secret assignment: they are to travel to Sector 1607 and attempt to locate the USS Pegasus, a prototype vessel that vanished twelve years earlier during another clandestine mission. Crucially, they must succeed before the Romulans, who have recently begun to take a suspicious interest in the same region of space, reach the wreck first.
For Commander William Riker, this mission represents something of a ghost from his past, for he had served aboard the Pegasus as a young ensign, with Pressman as his commanding officer. Pressman, however, expressly forbids Riker from discussing his previous mission with Picard, ostensibly to preserve operational secrecy. The tension between duty and honesty begins to gnaw at Riker immediately. When the Enterprise finally detects traces of the Pegasus in the Devolin system, they also make contact with a Romulan warbird, whose commander, Sirol (Michael Mack), appears to be searching for the very same vessel.
The Pegasus is eventually discovered fused within the interior of a large asteroid, apparently having crashed or been entombed there during its final moments. Yet a large fissure on the asteroid's surface offers the Enterprise a narrow avenue of approach, through which they could sneak in and retrieve whatever remains aboard the stricken vessel. While the Enterprise attempts to lure the Romulans away from the asteroid, Picard confronts Riker with what he has learned about his earlier service on the Pegasus. Under pressure, Riker confesses that there was a mutiny against Pressman aboard the doomed ship, and that Riker, then a loyal ensign, had taken Pressman's side. Both men escaped in the ship's escape pods, leaving the rest of the crew behind. The entire affair, Riker admits, has been quietly hushed up in Starfleet's records, a fact that speaks volumes about the institution's willingness to conceal its own failures.
When Pressman and Riker eventually beam aboard the Pegasus, the Admiral pointedly ignores the bodies of his former subordinates, showing not a flicker of remorse or grief. Instead, he is elated to discover the true object of his mission: an experimental device that, had it been perfected, would have granted Federation starships the ability to cloak. Upon their return to the Enterprise, however, it transpires that the Romulan warbird has "accidentally" destroyed the fissure, sealing the Enterprise inside the asteroid. Sirol offers to beam up the crew, a gesture of apparent mercy that would inevitably deliver the forbidden device into Romulan hands.
It falls to Riker to propose a solution: the device should be used by the Enterprise itself to escape the asteroid, shifting to another phase of existence that would allow the ship to pass through solid matter. When the Enterprise returns to its regular phase, however, the Romulans would inevitably learn of the device's existence, creating a potential diplomatic crisis, for the Federation was specifically barred from developing and deploying cloaking technology by the Treaty of Algeron. Pressman is furious that Riker has given away the secret despite his explicit orders, and demands the arrest of both Picard and his First Officer. But the Enterprise crew refuses to obey the order and instead confines Pressman to the brig, citing his illegal breach of the Treaty of Algeron. Riker insists on being placed in the brig as well, for he too had failed to discern the secret, having blindly followed Pressman's orders all those years ago. Picard, however, reassures him that he has matured enormously over the intervening twelve years, and that he now questions orders instead of following them without thought.
With a Star Trek author of Ronald D. Moore's calibre writing the script, one could reasonably expect The Next Generation to deliver something very good, particularly in its seventh season, when the producers were determined to end the series on a high note. Moore does not disappoint, delivering an episode that demonstrates that the Federation and Starfleet are far from the benevolent, morally perfect entities of Roddenberry's original dream. They can consist of individuals and groups willing to perform morally questionable acts and to risk lives for the sake of some clandestine and possibly sinister agenda. The episode is a subtle indictment of institutional secrecy, a theme that Moore would explore even more thoroughly in his later work on Deep Space Nine and Battlestar Galactica.
Even more importantly, the script demonstrates how much Riker has grown as a character during his time on the Enterprise, and how close his friendship with Picard has become. Picard instinctively knows that his "Number One" will ultimately do the right thing, and his faith in Riker is rewarded. The closeness between the two characters is established through the opening scene, with "Captain Picard Day" being introduced partly as a means of showcasing Jonathan Frakes' ability to entertain an audience by impersonating Patrick Stewart. Frakes' performance here is a delight, offering a lighter counterpoint to the moral weight that follows.
The episode also benefits enormously from the talents of Terry O'Quinn, one of the most formidable character actors of his generation, who would go on to make his greatest impact on television playing morally questionable characters, most memorably in Lost. Here he delivers a thoroughly believable Starfleet villain, a man whose ambition and misplaced loyalty to the institution have corroded his conscience. O'Quinn's Pressman is never a cartoonish antagonist; he is a man who genuinely believes he is serving a greater good, which makes his betrayal of Starfleet's principles all the more chilling.
The episode is also historically notable for casting Michael Mack as the first African American actor to portray a Romulan character, a small but significant step towards greater diversity in the franchise. On the technical side, the episode was directed by LeVar Burton, who, like Frakes, would build an impressive directorial record within the Star Trek franchise. Here his efforts are complemented by the talents of composer John Debney and special effects that were quite impressive for the early 1990s and hold up remarkably well even today.
The Pegasus is also notable for linking with both the past and the future of the franchise. The device retrieved from the wreck looks identical to the cloaking device that Captain Kirk stole from the Romulans in the classic Original Series episode The Enterprise Incident, a connection that provides a satisfying sense of continuity for long-time viewers. More substantially, The Pegasus offered the most comprehensive and, to date, the most credible explanation of why the Federation has never employed cloaking technology, resolving a question that fans had debated for years. The episode is also significant for its time setting, which would later serve as a plot frame for the controversial finale of Star Trek: Enterprise; in that series' final episode, an elderly Riker and Troi, still unsure how they would decide the ethical and professional dilemma posed by Pressman, use a holographic reconstruction of Captain Archer to seek guidance.
Despite its many virtues, however, The Pegasus suffers from the unfortunate decision to follow the ill-advised introduction of a warp speed limit in the earlier episode Force of Nature. That limit was referenced only twice again in The Next Generation and was all but ignored by every other series in the franchise, a continuity inconsistency that has long irritated fans. This is a pity, for The Pegasus is otherwise a very fine episode that is thereby deprived of its perfection, a small flaw in an otherwise outstanding piece of television.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo
Substack https://draxster.substack.com
LeoDex: https://leodex.io/?ref=drax
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
BCH donations: qpvxw0jax79lhmvlgcldkzpqanf03r9cjv8y6gtmk9