Jammer's Review
Star Trek: The Next Generation
"Unification"
Air dates: 11/4/1991 and 11/11/1991
Part I Teleplay by Jeri Taylor
Part II Teleplay by Michael Piller
Story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller
Part I Directed by Les Landau
Part II Directed by Cliff Bole
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"Unification" tells a complicated, sprawling, ambitious story depicting much political intrigue as played out through multiple plot strands — putting on the table the possibility of major shifts among the Alpha Quadrant superpowers while in the background telling the personal stories of a few key characters. It is, in short, the sort of Trek storytelling that would become much more common on Deep Space Nine. If only I could abide how it resolves itself. This is an effort with a lot to recommend, but plenty holding it back, too.
Famed Federation Ambassador Spock has disappeared, rumored to have gone to Romulus to meet with a Romulan senator named Pardek (Malachi Throne); some whispers have even suggested Spock might have defected. Picard travels to Vulcan to talk to Sarek and gain insights into Spock's possible motives, but Sarek is in the advanced stages of a terminal mental illness. Their scene together plays like a the last discussion before the passing of a Star Trek giant — which in a way it is, as reports that Sarek has died come later in the episode.
From here, the story breaks into two strands — one in which the Enterprise under Riker's command attempts to track the origin of some debris found adrift in space that appears to be Vulcan in origin; the other in which Picard and Data take on Romulan identities and are escorted through Romulan space in a cloaked Klingon vessel. Both subplots find some low-key humor in their off-the-beaten-path environs. Riker must contend with the fussy administrator of a junkyard (Graham Jarvis), whose laconic demeanor is unsettled only by the realization that something nefarious has been going on in his junkyard — something involving several missing derelict Vulcan ships.
Meanwhile, Klingon Captain K'Vada (yes, Stephen Root) finds great amusement in sticking Picard and Data in the most uncomfortable quarters of all time. I love Picard's enthusiasm in the face of a Klingon taunt; he cheerfully refuses to give K'Vada any satisfaction for what the Klingons know are appalling accommodations. And then, of course, there's Data as a bunk mate, who has a hilarious tendency to stand in the middle of the room and stare endlessly in one direction while processing mission data — which can be unnerving if you're Picard trying to get some sleep on a metal shelf.
It's not until Picard and Data reach Romulus and we're nearly into the second part when Spock finally shows up and the political dialogue gets into full swing. Spock reveals his mission is to reunify the long-since-diverged Vulcan and Romulan worlds — something he thinks may be possible given the current political winds. Between Senator Pardek and the up-and-coming Proconsul Neral (Norman Large), Spock believes there may be an avenue to bring the conservative elements in line with a new way of thinking. But Picard is skeptical of this risky endeavor; Romulus is a place where a Federation representative is not welcome, and Spock's capture could compromise more than just his own lofty mission.
This plot unfolds amid a character-based storyline in which Spock must contend with his own past with Sarek, which appears to him now in the form of Picard, who has brought news of Sarek's death while at the same time providing a point of view that Sarek himself might have used to challenge Spock's current course of action. Sarek and Picard once shared a mind-meld — and Spock swears there's a piece of his father that now speaks through Picard — although Picard assures him his words are his own. The complexity of this relationship is intriguing, and the dialogue is especially good at capturing the voice and wisdom of Spock, who sees logic as an ally but not a constraint.
Also interesting is how "Unification" aired a mere month before Star Trek VI debuted in theaters. One of the fascinations with the Trek universe in the TNG era was how it ran concurrently with the TOS film franchise. So particularly with Star Trek VI (which shot on many of the same soundstages as TNG) you see how the Trekkian canvas unfolds simultaneously in two narratives separated by nearly 80 years of fictional time. "Unification" makes specific mention of the Khitomer accords that would be dramatized in Trek VI a month later. Spock provides a thematic link, where in both stories moving forward requires a faith that politics will somehow work out for the best.
So there's a lot of good stuff here. Somewhat less good is Riker and the Enterprise continuing to investigate the missing Vulcan ships, which leads to a Mos Eisley-like outpost that unfortunately feels like it was made on the cheap, with an alien lounge singer whose makeup design and backstory feel second-tier. Riker's run-in with a "fat Ferengi" arms dealer could've been better; Riker as the badass can be fun, but the fat Ferengi feels like too much of a pushover given his occupation.
For our heroes on Romulus, the other shoe is about to drop, because it turns out Procounsul Neral — who assures Spock he can get the senate to come along — is actually in league with our favorite paradox-child Sela to double-cross Spock and expose the underground Romulan reunification movement. It's here where "Unification," alas, steps wrong; the ending is far too disappointing for a storyline so ambitious.
Sela's plan is to turn Spock's reunification plan against the Vulcans, using the Vulcan ships she had arranged to be stolen as a convoy filled with Romulan troops that will invade Vulcan and force a reunification on her terms. All she needs is Spock to send a message that explains these ships as part of his diplomatic mission so they're granted passage. Uh-huh. When Spock refuses, she says she'll have a hologram deliver the message instead. Double uh-huh.
I must say, these plot mechanics are not at all worthy of this story — especially Sela's lengthy dialogue that essentially explains to us and the characters the entire plot. ("And I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!") By explaining the plot she masterminds her own defeat. (To quote Trek VI: "Since you're all going to die anyway, why not tell you.") The ensuing trickery allowing Picard, Spock, and Data to escape is even more telling of Sela's incompetence; why aren't they locked in a cell? It's so unfortunate to see a story so ambitious implode so thoroughly and with such limited imagination.
It's also frustrating that a story of such political scope and significance ends up being, essentially, a Reset Button Plot. Picard and Data leave after Spock's failed political movement, but Spock decides to stay and toil away for when future generations might be capable of swaying more forward-thinking minds. It's an admirable notion (though, depressingly, by the time Star Trek XI rolls around, Spock will see just how well that has worked out), but I was hoping for something more status-quo-shaking in the here and now. Don't get me wrong: On balance, this is a good and worthwhile effort. But in the end, I can't escape a basic truth here, which is that I wanted to like "Unification" a lot more than I ultimately did.
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Next episode: A Matter of Time
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21 comments on this review
And what measures are being taken on Vulcan to prepare them for this merger? Nothing. There's this under-current of not so much a coming together, but of trying to make the Romulans behave like Vulcans.
Even though the recent book "Rough Beasts of Empire" wasn't that great, at least there was finally someone in the Trek universe telling Spock that the whole idea was just flat out naive.
For that matter, why does Starfleet need the Enterprise crew to examine some mysterious debris? Aren't there other forensic specialists in the galaxy?
However, I was distracted by the existence of "Vulcan" ships. The Vulcans are in the Federation, so I thought their only ships were the Starfleet ones. There aren't distinctive Human ships or Betazoid ships...why is there such a thing as a recognizable Vulcan ship? It seemed like a glaring piece of ret-con that was tacked on to facilitate Riker's subplot.
I think "Unification" plays better now in hindsight than it did at the time. I recall - on first viewing - being rather disappointed at how talky and political the plot was when I had been expecting something more active and explosive to mark the signficance of having Spock arrive in TNG. But in retrospect it did score some home runs with its character moments. (Especially the Sarek - Picard - Spock dynamic, which quite touchingly tried to bring closure to a character arc begun way back in "Journey to Babel").
It's also a curiosity as a glimpse of a road-not-travelled. As the early seasons passed, TNG attepted to explore where the Federation and the Romulans had common ground they did not realise. (e.g. Facing a common enemy in "The Neutral Zone" and "Contagion", Geordi befriending the Centurion in "The Enemy", and the empathy built up for Admiral Jarok in "The Defector" in season 3). With "Unification", the writers latched onto using the Vulcan connection as a means to accelerate this thread -- and so we see a very human side to the Romulan populace through the members of Spock's secret organisation. The Romulan people are by this time essentially alien only in their repressive political system, and one can empathise with Spock's passion to try to bring change. This story - for really the first time - actually makes the idea of Romulus as a potential future Federation member seem feasible, if distant.
Sadly this arc did not really progress much further in the next few seasons, as most of the "political" storytelling seemed to migrate to DS9 and Bajoran/Cardassian themes. We saw a few more hints after season 5 though: there was a moment of connection between Picard and his Romulan counterpart in "The Chase" and another glimpse of the underground movement in "Face of the Enemy", but that was about it. One of the better things about "Nemesis" was that at least it returned to this thread and gave some hint that things were moving once more towards a happier future for the Romulans. (As an aside, a major reason I find "Star Trek XI" impossible to reconcile with the mythos is its flippant negation of all this earlier optimism, by killing off both the Romulans and Vulcans alike yet not expecting us to care).
So, despite flaws in the execution, I think in terms of concept I look back on "Unification" as actually being a better idea for a story than I thought at the time, and - with its themes of bridging seemingly-impossible gaps between peoples - a fittingly Star Trek kind of concept for such a milestone occasion.
But wouldn't those pre-Federation ships be hundreds of years old at that point, and thus highly suspicious? And had Vulcans' pre-Federation history been established when the episode aired? I didn't think that was put into canon until ST:Enterprise.
It had been established since TOS that the Vulcans were a spacefaring species for thousands of years before the Federation was conceived; That is the only way that they could have split with the Romulans so long ago. That would mean that they had ships. And even if TOS hadn't established that Vulcans and Romulans had space travel for ages, this very episode did. As an integral part of its plot.
In terms of Vulcan lifetimes and history, the Federation hasn't even been around for very long by this point. There've been, what, 3 or 4 generations of Vulcans since the Federation began by this point in the timeline?
And why would they stop making their style of ships? They havn't been given up any *other* part of their culture since joining the Federation. And like I said, Starfleet ships aren't the only kind that operate within Federation space.
The early seasons of TNG weren't perfect, but there wasn't the sort of secondary cast that TOS had. Picard was the captain, but the other cast members were pretty equally used, with Data getting slightly more attention.
But starting around season 5, Picard and Data got too much screen time together (think 'Genesis' and 'Masks'). It was a precursor to the movie franchise where Picard had to be more of a man of action.
Too much Picard/Data messed up the group dynamic in the movies (particularly in 'Nemesis'). And with episodes like 'Unification.'
Michael Piller, may he rest in peace, seems to have shared the same antipathy for TOS as Rick Berman did (or maybe it wasn't so much anti-TOS bias as pro-TNG bias).
Throughout Unification Part II, the writers strain to remind us that "The Next Generation" is really where things are at. The closing mind-meld is essentially the writers' way of saying, "Look, we're [TNG] just as important in contributing to the original series as the original series itself was". Scarcel for a moment are we NOT reminded, in the latter episode, that the episode is featuring Spock as a plot tool in a TNG milieu, as opposed to giving Spock a more active role where his actions and the import of those actions are (gasp!) at least as important as those of Data and Picard.
Instead of our getting to hear why Spock really believes reunification is a possibility, or how he has been willing to, as Spock said at a later time, "put aside logic, and do what feels right", we get to hear Spock in the following ways: 1) in a prerecording message announcing that three Trojan Horse Vulcan ships are coming to reunite the Romulan and Vulcan people; 2) and in a subsequent message where he announces that those three ships carry an invasion force (apparently, three ships are sufficient to conquer all of Vulcan), and must be stopped.
Oh, and Spock tells Sela that he will not read the prerecorded message 1) noted above. Exciting, and as pedestrian as the so bad it's bad exchange between Sela and Data, wherein she complains she doesn't get to write much on the job, and Data tries to offer a helping hand by suggesting she might be happier in another profession.
And in the one Spock/Data scene that should leave us touched/stirred moved, the scene climaxes with the two characters observing how one has tried to become more human, and the other has spent much of his life trying to shake free of his human heritage. Data's quest to become human is, of course, given an additional two and one half years to play out, so the writers clearly are telling us that his arc is the one more worthy of our interest..... Perhaps a line by Spock suggesting to Data that Data may never become fully human might have at least thrown a bone to the TOS fans who had hoped Spock's return meant the return, and the paying heed to, his advice, but Berman and Piller, had they thrown such a bone, would have been remiss in their duty to constantly remind us that TNG is more important in the Star Trek mythos than TOS. Pity these writers never understood that using the TOS characters not as plot pawns but as people would not only make the TOS charaters more interesting, but would make the TNG universe a richer place.... Even a year later, with "Relics", the writers took pains to remind us that Scotty's place is really in the past and that his presence was essentially useless. A shame. Time can heal wounds, however, and the writers/producers of Star Trek XI, were evidently more concerned with telling a good story than anything else.
I won't throw the baby out however; yes part II is a severe let-down from part I as all the promising (if somewhat middling) setup leads to essentially nothing. Nothing happens. No one changes. No one learns anything, least of all we, the audience. Spock's presence is gratuitous. I loved "Sarek" and appreciated the reference here, but that plot received no development for any characters and if anything "Unification" seems to back-pedal on a lot of the excellent points of that episode.
On the other hand, I don't mind TNG being about the TNG characters and their Universe; it is their show after all. I think this review could stand separate ratings for part I (I'd say a solid 3/3.5) and part II (2 at very best).
Hear hear! I always loved Tomalak and wanted to see more of him as Picard's Romulan rival. What's especially annoying is that we only "really" see him in those two Season Three episodes. He's a hologram in "Future Imperfect" and only appears in an alternate timeline in "All Good Things".
Where is it ever said that everyone uses Starfleet ships? Not everyone in the Federation is even in or contributes to StarFleet, and each member planet maintains a civilian fleet (and undoubtedly a military presence, since SF isn't a "military organization", more like the UN), not to mention what I imagine is their version of commercial airlines, to facilitate interstellar travel unrelated to starfleet activity.
Well, it's clear in TOS and TNG that many Federation member planets contribute to Starfleet and depend upon it. I don't remember any reference to member planets also having their own independent navy, so it seems reasonable to infer that independent navies don't exist and Starfleet is the only government-sanctioned starship operation in the Federation.
Eric D. correctly pointed out that there are a few independent operators, e.g. Cyrano Jones and Kivas Fajo, operating in Federation space. However they are private individuals and not part of a government-sanctioned milatary-ish organization.
"Not everyone in the Federation is even in or contributes to StarFleet, and each member planet maintains a civilian fleet..."
Where is any of that established? Or are you inferring that?
The first part is a fine robust political episode similar in way to Klingon political episodes of Seasons 3 and 4. We have a welcome peak into Romulan society and even a slight but interesting acknowledgment of Klingon political landscape after the end of their civil war. But what really sells this episode is Picard - Sarek dynamic and their bond to Sarek's wayward son. It gives the episode a character grounding in the same way Worf's honor served that purpose in the Klingon Arc.
Then, unfortunately, episode 2 comes along and messes everything up. It makes exactly the same mistake as Redemption, Part II. Instead of focusing on the elements that made the first part interesting, writers opt for a mechanical plot resolution that shortchanges the characters. We should have gotten a symbiosis of charged-up character piece and tense political thriller. Picard acting as a "neutral zone" between Sarek and Spock with a unique insight could have led to a sort of emotional catharsis for Spock, finally leading to an understanding between him and his father.
At the same time, Romulan side of things was mishandled as well. Does anyone really think that we need to watch a story that amounts to an escape attempt with a ticking clock built in? We still don't know anything new about Roumulan politics, about the disidents or about the polital and philosophical background of this supposed "reunification". Wouldn't a series of dramatic negotiations that includes laying out concrete problems and proposed solutions argued with logic and passion between Romulan and Vulcan viewpoints be vastly more interesting than a boring Evil Plot About Conquest?
Squandered potential in a nutshell.
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