Occasionally when exploring the wonders of deep space, our heroes of Trek have been summoned to – or by sheer accident – become another person to fulfil their mission. Whether it’s O’Brien mixing with gangsters or Picard becoming a mercenary, Star Trek’s filled with episodes where our favourite explorers have to become someone else to save the day….
FACE OF THE ENEMY
The Next Generation Season 6
Waking up on the Warbird Khazara, Deanna Troi finds herself in a bit of a pickle. Kidnapped and surgically altered to take the place of a Tal Shiar Commander she finds herself led by her handler, N’Vek, to lead a secret mission after the Commander had been killed. Out of her comfort zone, Troi has to convince the crew she’s the real deal despite the ships skipper knowing something’s not quite right….
In quite a unique episode for the ships counsellor as well as a rare peek behind the curtain for the Romulans and their warbirds, which are typically only seen through the viewscreen. It all of course comes down to Spock, with Troi learning that N’Vek’s operation was all in place to ferry defectors to Federation sanctuary and she was chosen – not just because of her resemblance to the Commander – but a Starfleet operative offered a better guarantee of success than another Romulan.
THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT
The Original Series, Season 3
There’s a bit of an open joke about a certain streamer producing shows where you have to have the plot explicitly explained in order to know what’s going on as they assume people are too busy on their phones to pay attention. The Enterprise Incident is not one for the generation of doom scrollers as Kirk’s antics keep the audience trying to figure out whats going on as much as the Romulans he’s targetting.
Kicking off with Kirk losing his marbles and provoking the Romulans, he gets captured by the Romulans then taken out by Spock, who seemingly has one foot in the Romulan Empire as he shows his cerebral muscle to the Romulan Commander to flirt his way through the day, the Vulcan way of course. But it’s all intentional. Kirk’s bizarre breakdown, Spock’s near defection are all part of a larger mission to get their hands on the Romulan cloaking technology they discovered in Balance of Terror.
Sure, this is a bit of a cheat as Kirk only dons the Romulan ears to get off the ship, but it’s still an undercover operation and too good an episode not to include it!
APOCALYPSE RISING
Deep Space Nine, Season 5
Ending with a dramatic cliffhanger, Season 4 of DS9 saw Odo punished by his people by transforming him into permanent human state, but in doing so he gleaned a secret they hid badly from him. Gowron, the head of the Klingon Empire, was an imposter. With the Dominion manipulating the Empire into the war with the Federation, season five opens with Sisko leading a covert mission to oust the Founder posing as Gowron and end the war.
Transformed into Klingons, and coached by Worf, Sisko embraces the challenge while Odo sulks under his ridges and O’Brien struggles with his new teeth. With a little help from renegade Dukat, they sneak into a ceremony led by Gowron with the plan to expose him as a changeling. But there’s one slight problem. The Founders lied. Their poorly kept secret was intentional, and if the mission succeeded the war would have escalated rapidly since Gowron wasn’t the founder…
A fun episode that puts everyone out their comfort zone, the Klingon antics add to the already tense plot to open the fifth season with a hint towards the end of one war and escalation of another.
PREEMPTIVE STRIKE
The Next Generation Season 7
Returning to the Enterprise as a highly trained and highly respected Lieutenant, the former roguish Ro Laren has a new mission. Infiltrate the Maquis. Formed by disillusioned Federation colonists who’s homes swapped ruling hands as part of a border with Cardassia, Ro was chosen thanks to her already well known history of rebellion making an easy cover story as well as her distaste for Cardassians after living under their thumb during their occupation of Bajor.
As Picard acts as her handler, pushing her to help take down the organisation, Ro does what she does best. Rebel. Not for the sake of rebellion. But through understanding, empathy and growing closer to the community that shared a lot of connection with her own.
Thinking of Next Generation and undercover missions, episodes like Gambit, Chain of Command or even First Contact might come to mind before this one. But Pre-emptive strike really hammers home that there are sometimes no right or wrong answers. Sometimes the enemy has a point. And sometimes an officer can’t turn back on their beliefs or morality giving Ro an exit plan to the series while raising future threads that would continue through Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
PAST TENSE
Deep Space Nine Season 3
Not quite a mission that was planned all along, Past Tense see’s Sisko go undercover by sheer accident as he takes on the mantle of a 21st century icon that inspired societal change on a huge level in the 21st century.
On leave to Earth for a bit of down time and a conference, Sisko, Dax and Bashir beam down and arrive in the right place. Just not the right time. Arriving in 2024, Dax finds herself on the right side of town and managed to blag her way into high society to track down Bashir and Sisko who, as it turned out, woke up on the wrong side of town. Without any identification, they’re arrested and processed as homeless vagrants and taken to a Sanctuary District.
In this era Sanctuary Districts were zoned off areas of major cities where the homeless and poor would be housed and segregated from the rest of society. Designed to give support, services, food and accommodation to those who had fallen on hard times, the reality of the districts were vastly less optimistic. Overcrowded and under resources, the San Fransico Sanctuary District has essentially become an open air prison where gangs formed, the mentally ill suffered without adequate support, and a place intended for hope was just were hope goes to die. The population isolated, looked down upon, and largely forgotten, would explode in a series of riots led by Gabriel Bell in a watershed moment that would usher in reform that would bring an end to the failed plan and save those trapped in continuous destitution.
Unfortunately, due to the new elements of Bashir and Sisko in play, Bell was killed while trying to protect Bashir. At the risk of completely destroying the timeline, Sisko used his knowledge of Bell and the era to take his place and make sure the riots went ahead while balancing an unstable situation filled with just as unstable people.
As time goes on, the episodes critique of it’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to such a huge societal problem, as well as it’s depiction of overstressed an underfunded services, it’s one of the few episodes set in a year that passed us by in the real world where we could actually believe Star Trek’s timeline and our own are one and the same.
Did we miss out your Favourite Kirk-Spock moments? Get engaged and let us know at Starbase Europa!
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