Stardate: Unknown
Original Air Date: October 2, 1989
Writer: Melinda M. Snodgrass
Director: Cliff Bole
“The Sheliak haven’t broken a century of silence to send us after phantoms…”
This episode begins with Data partaking in a classical performance (Data plays the violin) during which he learns that excessive honesty can be detrimental (this will later serve him well in his negotiations in the episode). But in the main plot, the Enterprise receives an unusual communication from the Shelia Star System. The Sheliak have not attempted to communicate with the Federation in 111 years. Why now? Their communication expresses anger that humans are currently residing on the fifth planet of Tau Cygna (in the de Laure belt, a region with heavy concentrations of hyperonic radiation), but this planet was ceded to the Sheliak under the “Corporate Sector in Section 133, Paragraph 77 of the Treaty of Armens.” Now, the Sheliak are planning to ebgin settlement of the planet in four days and they warn that all humans must be removed. Are the Sheliak correct? How is this possible? Wouldn’t humans die on Tau Cygna V since exposure to hyperonic radiation is fatal to humans?
The Enterprise speeds over to Tau Cygna V and Picard instructs Data to beam down and negotiate with the human colony, since other humans aboard the Enterprise will surely succumb to the planet’s radiation. Also, notably, neither the transporters nor phasers are not functional amidst all the hyperonic radiation. Thus, Data is sent down to the planet in a shuttlecraft since he is unaffected by hyperonic radiation.
On the planet, Data finds a small but thriving community of humans. At the center of the village is a pumping station and an aqueduct. Data meets a pair of men whose great-grandparents were citizens of the Federation, and they take Data to their leader named Gosheven (played by Grainger Hines) who explains that they are all descendants of the original settlers of a lost colony ship called The Artemis, which launched 92 years ago and was set to arrive at Septimis Minor but never checked in after the guidance system failed. The Federation launched a large search operation but the ship was never found. It crash-landed here on Tau Cygna V and has remained here ever since. How are they able to survive with all the radiation? Gosheven says the radiation took the lives of a third of the colonists early on, but the others adapted and learned to build a civilization here. Data notes there are 15,253 descendants in this colony, which is too many for the Enterprise to evacuate alone.
Data tells Gosheven that this planet actually belongs to the Sheliak species, a fearsome warlike species who consider humans a lower life form. If the Enterprise does not evacuate this colony, the Sheliak will surely slaughter them all. Data tries to convince them to evacuate, but Gosheven and his people are resistant. Gosheven would consider it an act of cowardice to abandon everything they accomplished with their colony, his grandfather is buried on a nearby mountain, First, Data tries reasoning with the colonists, then he uses reverse psychology, but nothing seems to work and they eventually attack Data. Along the way, he meets a beautiful young woman named Ard’rian McKenzie (Eileen Seeley) who agrees to help, particularly because she seems to be infatuated with Data.
Meanwhile, Picard tasks Geordi and Miles O’Brien to find a way for the transporters to work despite all the radiation interference. They run some tests on a tube but it keeps shows up melted by radiation (wouldn’t this melted tube be too dangerous for Geordi to pick up with his bare hands, let alone bring aboard the ship?) And Picard attempts to speak with the Sheliak and negotiate a compromise so the people can be evacuated but they simply hang up on him. Unfortunately, Starfleet cannot send a transport ship earlier than three weeks from now. The new plan is for the Enterprise to intercept the Sheliak’s colony ship, while Data and Ard’rian McKenzie try to come up with a creative method of persuasion (she suddenly kisses Data which leads to an amusing bit of confusion on his end).
When the Sheliak ship arrives to colonize the planet, Picard and Counselor Troi beam over to the for a face-to-face negotiation, treaty’s paragraph 653, subparagraph 9, but the Sheliak refuse to grant the colonists more time and instead simply beam them back aboard the Enterprise without warning. Time is running out and Picard deserpately wants to save the lives of more than 15,000 people on the planet.
In order to use a harsher method of persuasion, Data develops a way to use his phaser with his own neural network, He then fires the phaser on “stun” as a demonstration to show the colonists that the Seliak will be far more powerful and deadly when they arrive, and this finally convinces everyone to leave. Meanwhile, back aboard the Enterprise, while Picard finds a clause in the treaty pursuant to paragraph 290. With this legal gibberish in mind, Picard formally requests third party arbitration of the dispute with the Sheliak, pursuant to subsection D-3, and he coyly names the Grisellas as the species to arbitrate the dispute, even though the Grisellas are in the middle of their hibernation cycle and will awaken in six months time. Picard hangs up on the Sheliak before they finally grant him the three weeks needed to evacuate the colonists by the Federation.
At the end, Geordi amusingly believes he and Miles can modify the transporters, but it may take 15 years and a research team of 100 people to do so, while Ard’rian McKenzie desperately wants to know if Data has any feelings for her…
My Thoughts on “The Ensigns of Command”
“The Ensigns of Command” offers a very interesting exploration of Data and his lack of “soul” and “feelings” as he both plays classical music and negotiates with humans, and even experiences a woman falling in love with him! he also learns the benefits of telling untruths in certain circumstances. This is an all-around great episode, with plenty of negotiation on behalf of Picard and Data (all the inane contractual legalese between Picard and the Sheliak is hilarious). This is also a great Counselor Troi episode as she is given a key role in the negotiations with the Sheliak.
Plus, the Sheliak shadowy set surrounded by floating crystals and their unusual non-humanoid costumes look amazing! The TNG effects crew did an amazing job with this one. And the Sheliak, themselves, are a fascinating species. Their language is mostly indecipherable (but they have learned several Federation languages), and they seem to be obsessed with contracts and written law. But why would Picard and team wait a whole three days before even reviewing the clauses in the treaty, hoping to find something that might work toward their advantage? Wouldn’t this be the first thing they try to do?
As far as the colony on Cygna Tau V goes, the colonists seem completely unfazed by their first visitor (Data) and despite him being a unique being –an android even!– they simply send him on his way, in spite of his warnings. Luckily, Data happens to meet Ard’rian McKenzie who is willing to help. But it’s a bit hard to believe that Gosheven would be so hostile to aid in this situation. At any rate, one hopes the Federation would further investigate these colonists and how they were able to survive all the radiation on the planet for so many years. Perhaps they might discover the secret and create an inoculation for future encounters with hyperonic radiation.
Credits:
- Director: Cliff Bole
- Writer: Melinda M. Snodgrass
- Cinematography: Marvin Rush
- Guest Cast:
- Eileen Seeley…..Ard’rian McKenzie
- Mark L. Taylor…..Haritath
- Richard Allen…..Kentor
- Mart McChesney…..The Sheliak Negotiator
- Mart McChesney also voiced Armus in the Season 1 episode “Skin of Evil.”
- Christopher Collins…..Sheliak (voice)
- Grainger Hines…..Gosheven
- Apparently, Grainger Hines and the producers had some sort of disagreement over this episode. His voice was dubbed over and he had his name removed from the credits.
Star Trek Trivia:
- The title of this episode, “The Ensigns of Command” is from the poem “The Wants of Man” by U.S. President John Quincy Adams.
- This was actually the first episode produced in the third season, but the third to air.
- In concert Data and others play “Ein Klein Machmusik” by Mozart. Data plays the violin. Data later claims he is performing a precise imitation of the techniques of Jascha Heifetz and Trenka Bron-ken. Miles O’Brien plays the cello. Later in DS9, he says he father pushed him to play the cello but then stopped to join Starfleet instead.
- Data’s shuttle, title the “Onizuka,” was named in honor of astronaut Ellison Onizuka who was killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. He was the first Asian American and the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach space. This episode marks the first of three appearances of the Onizuka shuttlecraft in the series.
- Writer Melinda M. Snodgrass initially intended to be credited under the pseudonym “H.B. Savage” in order to protest rewrites by showrunner Michael I. Wagner (the rewrites included reducing the role of Ard’rian McKenzie and adding in the exotic radiation which initially prevents Data from using his phaser), however after seeing the episode, Snodgrass developed a more favorable view of the episode, and because Michael I. Wagner had left the show by that point, she consented to being credited under her real name.
- This episode features the first appearance of the newly re-designed Starfleet hand phaser. The bulky hand phasers previously used in the first two seasons had been mockingly compared to Dustbuster portable vacuum cleaners by fans.
- The Sheliak are a non-humanoid intelligent life form classification R-3. Their language is mostly indecipherable (but they have learned several Federation languages) and they are obsessed with contracts and other legal bureaucracy.
- The Sheliak costume was the same costume used for the alien Armus in the Season 1 episode “Skin of Evil,” only this time not covered in oil.
- The Sheliak vessel is a reuse of the merchant cargo ship from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).
- In this episode, Data says that his neural pathways are positronic not duotronic.
- Counselor Troi says that when the treaty with the Sheliak was first signed, they sent 372 legal experts to negotiate.
- Counselor Troi mentions a few words in her language in this episode, such as “S’smarith.”
- Cygna Tau V is an H-Class world.
- Apparently, during the filming of this episode, the entourage of The Dalai Lama visited the sets and had pictures taken with Brent Spiner.
- Picard walks over to a USS Enterprise plaque on the bridge and briefly dusts it off before returning to negotiate with the Sheliak. The main text of it apparently reads: “U.S.S. Enterprise Galaxy Class Starfleet Registry NCC-1701-D Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Mars Fifth Starship to Bear the Name.”
- In the original script for this episode, Ard’rian McKenzie actually sleeps with Data.
- When Picard and the crew pull up the Sheliak treaty on a computer screen, modern HD remastered versions of the episodes have allowed fans to pause and read some of the text, spotting many amusing phrases, references to the Iran-Contra Scandal, notes from writers to each other, as well as easter eggs for several different Japanese anime series.