The Hunted
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 8 January 1990
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- 43489.2
- DIRECTED BY
- Cliff Bole
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 159
WRITTEN BYWritten by Robin Bernheim
While assessing a world that wants to join the Federation, the Enterprise is asked to help catch an escaped prisoner, who proves a formidable opponent with a story the authorities would rather not hear.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
The Enterprise is at Angosia III, assessing its application to join the Federation, when Prime Minister Nayrok asks for help recapturing an escaped prisoner, Roga Danar. Danar is caught and brought aboard, but the crew discover that he has no criminal record. The truth emerges: Danar is a war veteran whom the Angosian government biologically and psychologically altered to be the perfect soldier. When the war ended, these men were judged unfit to return to peaceful society, so they were locked away in a prison colony on Lunar V. While being handed over to the Angosian police, Danar escapes, outwits the Enterprise's security, sabotages its sensors and frees his fellow veterans, who rise in rebellion. Nayrok begs for Federation help, but Picard refuses to intervene in what he calls an internal matter. He leaves the Angosians to face the soldiers they created, telling them that they must deal with their treatment of their veterans before membership can be considered.
- 01The story was conceived as an allegory for US veterans of the Vietnam War returning home, examining how a society treats its soldiers once the fighting stops.
- 02James Cromwell, who plays Nayrok, returned to Star Trek several times, most famously as Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact.
- 03On his first day as a staff writer, Ira Steven Behr expanded Danar's escape from the Enterprise into a major action sequence, uncredited.