TNG · SEASON 77×12

The Pegasus

NOMADIC PICK · FAN FAVOURITEA tense, morally knotty Riker story.
FIRST SHOWN (US)
10 January 1994
ON
First-run syndication
STARDATE
47457.1
DIRECTED BY
LeVar Burton
PRODUCTION NO.
264

WRITTEN BYWritten by Ronald D. Moore

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

Riker's first commanding officer comes aboard to recover a starship lost years ago, and the secret mission forces Riker to choose between loyalty to his old captain and loyalty to Picard.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSISHIDE SYNOPSIS

Admiral Erik Pressman, Riker's former captain, joins the Enterprise to find the wreck of the USS Pegasus, a ship believed destroyed while Riker served aboard as a young officer. Pressman orders Riker to keep the mission's true purpose from Picard. With a Romulan warbird shadowing the search, the Pegasus is found lodged deep inside an asteroid near the Neutral Zone. Riker finally admits that the crew mutinied against Pressman during a warp core crisis, and that he stood with his captain. Picard discovers the Pegasus carried a prototype phasing cloaking device, built in violation of the Treaty of Algeron, and that Starfleet Intelligence buried the inquiry. When the Romulans seal the Enterprise inside the asteroid, the device carries the ship straight through solid rock. Picard then decloaks in full view of the Romulans and has Pressman arrested. Riker insists on facing arrest too, and Picard tells him his eventual honesty proves he deserves his post.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. 01Michael Piller rejected a planned subplot in which Data, Troi and Riker rehearsed Pygmalion, so Ronald D. Moore wrote the Captain Picard Day opening instead.
  2. 02The Pegasus model was a redress of the Oberth-class ship built by ILM for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, where it played the USS Grissom.
  3. 03The Star Trek: Enterprise finale “These Are the Voyages...” is framed as a holodeck programme Riker runs during the events of this episode.
SOURCES WE CHECKED