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| Guilty until proven innocent: Admiral Satie (Jean Simmons) and her court. |
THE PLOT
A Klingon exobiologist, attached to Enterprise as part of an exchange program, is caught transmitting information about the ship's warp core to the Romulans. Not long after his transmission, there is an explosion in the ship's engine room. This pair of incidents so close together prompts Starfleet to dispatch Admiral Norah Satie (Jean Simmons), called out of retirement due to her reputation as an investigator, sealed when she uncovered an alien conspiracy against Starfleet.
Satie is initially pleasant, responding well to Picard's respect for her work and the work of her father. She swiftly gets the Klingon to admit his attempted alliance with the Romulans, then begins searching for a co-conspirator who might have been responsible for the explosion. But when Geordi pronounces the explosion an accident and its timing a coincidence, the admiral refuses to believe it, turning the Enterprise into the site of a witch hunt for conspirators who almost certainly don't exist!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: This is a script finely calculated to bring out the best in Stewart's performance. Picard treats Satie with respect at all times, but it isn't long before he is doing everything he can to get her to call a halt to the proceedings. The climax, in which he and Satie face each other down with all the considerable rhetorical skills at their disposal, is splendid. Picard begins by making a largely intellectual statement, calmly pointing out how little evidence Satie has brought to bear in her impromptu witch hunt. She responds by attacking, using innuendo, selectively chosen facts, and calls to emotion to paint Picard as a villain. He shuts her down by exploiting her weakness by turning the words of her idolized father against her. It's effective, good words that are brilliantly delivered by Patrick Stewart, and Saiti makes the mistake of rising to the bait.
Worf: Sides with Saiti, and seems genuinely confused when Picard begins speaking against the investigation. "The Federation does have enemies!" he insists, not inaccurately. That Satie's investigation focuses on Romulans, the hated enemies who destroyed Worf's Klingon family, likely makes him even more blind to her maneuverings than he may have been anyway. It's a nice irony that Duras used the accusation of Romulan collaboration to discredit Worf's family, and now accusations of Romulan collaboration against Starfleet crew members are used to gain Worf's alliance with Satie.
Terrifying Space Bureaucrat of the Week: Veteran actress Jean Simmons lends her talents to the role of Satie. She's not someone generally known for playing villains, but this makes her all the more effective in the role. She is so calm and reasonable in her initial dealings with Picard, that it's very easy to believe what she says. When Picard argues against her persecution of a crew member, she quickly defuses his arguments by stating that it's actually in the man's interests to be proved innocent. Picard reluctantly goes along - right up until she begins using the man's distant Romulan ancestry against him, at which point he clearly sees her for what she is. Simmons plays the role with keen intelligence, making Satie a convincing adversary for Picard, and she handles a difficult "crack up" scene in a way that downplays the potential melodrama.
THOUGHTS
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin
The Drumhead apparently began life with the studio trying to pressure the producers to make a clip show. Thankfully, the show didn't go that route, but one can see how this story could be used as the frame of a clip show. Indeed, it's stuffed with references to other episodes, from Conspiracy through Data's Day, all framed by a hearing in which the Enterprise itself is effectively put on trial. Think Stargate SG-1's first season clip show, Politics, only without the clips interrupting the drama.
Jeri Taylor has not generally been my favorite Trek writer, but this script is superbly structured. It's tightly-paced and genuinely disturbing in its plausibility. It feels convincing that this investigation could get out of hand so quickly, in an atmosphere in which the Romulan threat has been gradually rising like a snakehead. Mix in the damage of the still recent Borg attack, and it's easy to believe that Starfleet would be at its most paranoid - at its most vulnerable to a Joseph McCarthy-like figure such as Saiti.
Jonathan Frakes directs, which by this point says everything you need to know. The direction is confident, with the interrogation room scenes highlighting the atmosphere. This is even true of the tag scene, in which Picard stands in shadow, mulling over what almost happened on his ship and what it might mean for the future.
The best episode of Season Four, and the series' best episode since The Best of Both Worlds.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
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Next Episode: Half a Life
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