Star Trek TNG: Season 2, Episode Ten “The Dauphin”

Stardate: 42568.8
Original Air Date: February 20, 1989
Writer: Scott Rubenstein, Leonard Mlodinow
Director: Rob Bowman

“Do not be fooled by her looks. The body is just a shell.”

The Enterprise-D is approaching Klavdia III and, when the ship has exited warp, Geordi is making some routine adjustments to the deuterium control conduit which will take several hours. Wesley Crusher helps him acquire an SCM model three from ship stores but he soon grows distracted. Meanwhile, as the Enterprise enters standard orbit around Klavdia III, the crew notices the planet is hardly an inviting place, even for a research establishment. Another planet facing civil war (Daled IV) had sent their future leader here 16 years ago for safe refuge. It is now the Enterprise’s mission to transport this young leader –the future hope of Daled IV— in the hopes that she can end the civil war.

When they arrive, Klavdia III’s troposphere distorts communications. After Worf cleans it up, an old woman named Anya confirms that the Enterprise may beam aboard both she and the 16-year-old head of state, Salia of Daled IV. When Anya and Salia arrive, Salia shows curiosity about all the technology on the starship, but Anya, who is her strict governess, forbids Salia from doing anything outside her quarters. We learn that Salia was born on Daled IV where her parents were on opposite sides in the multi-century civil war. They both died after her birth and a Federation ship brought her and her governess to Klavdia III for protection. Now, she is being returned to Daled IV to hopefully bring about a lasting peace. Notably, Daled IV rotates only once per revolution, with one side constantly in darkness, while the other side is constantly light. Therefore, the planet has wildly disparate cultures on either side (the denizens of Daled IV are quite literally “night and day” –Riker initially mistakes Data’s comment for a colloquialism).

But something is suspicious about Anya and Salia. Counselor Troi believes these two guests are not “what they say they are.” Even as Salia and Wesley Crusher quickly strike up an infatuation which distracts Wesley from his engineering work with Geordi as he demonstrates the ship’s technology to Salia, such as the food replicator, the holodeck, and Ten Forward.  

Meanwhile, as Worf gives Anya a tour of the ship, she begins prying into the engineering work of Geordi and the medical practice of Dr. Pulaski. Apparently in paranoid fear of a disease outbreak, she suddenly transforms into a fearsome bug-eyed beast and attempts to kill Hennessey, a crewman affected with a contagious disease. This shocking and fairly ludicrous incident is resolved by Worf and Picard who command her to stand down. Dr. Pulaski notes that Anya may be a creature known as an “allasomorph” (or shape-shifter), something featured in the galactic zoological catalogue. An allasomorph can allegedly transform its molecular structure into other life forms, hence making it the perfect protector. Worf confines Anya to her quarters, while grudgingly admitting that her powers are stronger than his own.

Then when the Enterprise arrives at Daled IV, sensors show that the atmosphere is nearly identical to Klavdia III and it has the same troposphere interference as on Klavdia III (rendering it inhospitable to human life). Salia, after a confrontation with Anya, suddenly decides she is ready to live up to her namesake and, despite considering remaining aboard the Enterprise with Wesley.    

In the end, Anya plans to go to the nearby third moon (it is within range of the Enterprise’s transporter) while Salia will fulfill her destiny on Daled IV with the hopes of ending the civil war (though she does not know exactly how she will do so). She and Wesley briefly reconcile in the end as she exposes her true form (a mysterious, clear, non-humanoid form). In spite of being upset and then sad, Wesley allows her to go. Will he ever see Salia again in the future? Guinan offers him some sage wisdom on the protean nature of love.   

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My Thoughts on “The Dauphin”

In another diplomatic mission episode, “The Dauphin” is a fairly straightforward tale of the Enterprise transporting an alien who is destined to rescue her planet from civil war, but her intense and overpowering governess proves to be a threat aboard the ship when both guests are discovered to be shape-shifters. While I thought this was a perfectly satisfactory plot, it still elicited some questions for me –Why was Anya so completely paranoid about diseases on the ship, as well as potential flaws to the ship’s technology? Why wouldn’t the Enterprise be informed that Anya and Salia are shape-shifters? What harm could it cause to tell Starfleet? And how does Anya seem to understand all the intimate details of schematics aboard the Enterprise? Has she been trained in the field of complex Federation starship engineering? And why in the world would Worf give a tour to an alien who is already suspected of lying, even showing her key aspects of the ship’s engineering and medical bays? This doesn’t really make sense.

Additionally, the teenage romance between Wesley and Salia is far too on the nose in this episode, especially when they first meet in a hallway aboard the Enterprise. While their infatuation did lead to some smirking humor throughout the episode –like Worf demonstrating to Wesley the Klingon female mating call, or Riker somewhat questionably flirting with Guinan in Ten Four– it still felt forced into the story.   

But the biggest problem I had with this episode is how exactly Salia ultimately comes to the decision that she actually wants to pursue her destined role on Daled IV. It all seems to happen behind-closed-doors despite it being the central issue of the episode –What made her finally decide to fulfill her political obligation on Daled IV? Did Anya manage to persuade her? Did she arrive at the decision herself? We never really get to see her internal dilemma between either choosing her budding love for Wesley or embarking on a diplomatic career for political harmony on Daled IV. Regardless, this was a nice little bottle episode of TNG, albeit with some glaring plot holes.  

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Star Trek Trivia:

• At one point in this episode, Worf unleashes a loud primal roar to amusingly show Wesley Crusher how a Klingon lures a mate. Female Klingons apparently roar, hurl heavy objects, and claw at their mates while the male Klingons read love poetry.  
• When Wesley Crusher shows Salia how to work the food replicator, she asks for “something sweet” so Wesley orders Thalian chocolate mousse on Thalos VII, they age the beans 400 years).
• Dr. Pulaski appears in this episode. She is treating Hennessey who has a case of Andronesian encephalitis, a contagious disease.  
• At one point, Wesley Crusher mentions that the Federation has only charted 19% of the galaxy. Using the holodeck, he shows Salia planets like Rousseau V, where the harmonic resonance from neutrino clouds becomes synchronous.
• Wesley is given guidance from Guinan in this episode.
• Salia’s governess, Anya is played by Paddi Edwards (1931-1999), perhaps best known for performing the voice of Flotsam & Jetsam in Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989) and also the voice of Gozer the Gozerian in Ghostbusters (1984).   
• Salia is played by Jaime Hubbard, who appeared in several minor roles in movies and works as a psychotherapist in Los Angeles, CA. Apparently, she is about a decade older than Wil Wheaton.
• In this episode, Dr. Pulaski notes that Anya may be a creature known as an “allasomorph” (or shape-shifter), something featured in the “galactic zoological catalogue.”
• Notably, this episode does not begin with a captain’s log listing the stardate. Instead Picard identifies the stardate in a log featured later in the episode.