Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 26: The Neutral Zone [VHS]

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Spoiler Alert: If you have not seen this episode read no further!

"The Neutral Zone" introduces us to the Next Generation version of the Romulan Empire. In this episode the Enterprise encounters a three-hundred year old ship containing cryogenically frozen humans who are from the 20th century. The story presents their dilemma of living beyond their shattered existence in the past. If only there was a follow up to see what happened.

The crew of the Enterprise have more to worry about. Something has destroyed Romulan outposts. It turns out this is the first sign of the Borg. Picard forms a truce with the commanders to share information. For all intents and purposes; this one is worth the cost of the video cassette. I love the part where the former stock broker storms on the bridge. He yells to Picard the Romulans are afraid to admit they "don't know who attacked them." The scene with the country singer telling Data about the "low mileage pet wolfies" was priceless.

Star Trek: The Next Generation concludes its first season by welcoming back an adversary from the original series in "The Neutral Zone." Unfortunately, their reappearance reveals that they had lost all fashion sense since they were last seen.

The Enterprise-D encounters a satellite containing three preserved individuals from the twentieth century. The crew revives them and helps them to adjust to the new century then find themselves in. However, tensions are running high on the ship because Federation outposts near the Neutral Zone have been destroyed. Upon investigating, the Enterprise-D comes face-to-face with a Romulan ship. After opening a dialogue with the Romulans, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) realizes something truly mysterious is going on in the Neutral Zone.

While it was undoubtedly a treat to see the Romulans once more, one cannot help but admit that their new fashion style left a lot to be desired. If they thought that silver bathrobes were an upgrade over their previous uniforms then they were sorely mistaken. The decision to add forehead ridges to the Next Generation-era Romulans also was questionable as it gave them a freakish and unsightly appearance. Certainly a far cry from their noble and dignified look from the original series. Yet, it was good to see Star Trek: The Next Generation acknowledging what had come before. Making this episode even more interesting was the way in which it paved the way for the coming of The Borg. The mystery behind the destroyed outposts was a great way to build up the suspense for the next season. It is just too bad those refugees from the twentieth-century were so annoying. Despite that fact that one of them offered a helpful observation that exposed a Romulan bluff, one cannot shake the feeling that it would have been no great loss to have kept the trio in permanent deep freeze.

This episode suffers from the serious affliction that occasionally happens in the Next Generation, in that they try to have too much in the plot. The main story line is that many of the Federation outposts on the edge of the neutral zone with the Romulans have been destroyed. There has been no contact with the Romulans for many years, so it is very possible that this is a probing action by the Romulans where they hope to ascertain the current technical status of the Federation. The Federation leadership decides to respond by sending a single ship, the Enterprise. As they travel to the neutral zone, the senior officers debate their options for response. The consensus is that they should be prepared to fight at the first provocation, as Romulan tactics are to attack without warning.
When they arrive at the neutral zone and find that the outputs are gone, "as if a giant force scooped them up." As they continue their investigation, the Enterprise sensors detect a distortion and a Romulan warbird decloaks directly in front of them. Captain Picard opens a dialog with the Romulan commanders and the Romulan commanders inform him that Romulan outposts on the border of the neutral zone have also been destroyed. Since the Romulan commanders have already concluded that the Federation is not responsible for the destruction, they agree to cooperate on this matter. The warbird then departs and the Enterprise continues on their mission.
This is one of the ways in which this episode fails. Since there has been no contact between the Federation and the Romulans for so many years, Captain Picard should have been eager to share information and shifting from soldier to diplomat, should have suggested a formal meeting. Given the atmosphere of suspicion, this is a tremendous opportunity to launch a new diplomatic initiative.
What transforms this episode from one that could have been very intense into one that is lackluster is the second plot of the episode. The Enterprise encounters a derelict ship with several people aboard who had been frozen at the time of death. Three canisters are still functioning and they are transported to the Enterprise and the people inside are revived. The interaction between the crew of the Enterprise and those who were revived after centuries of slumber has many possibilities, although the major plotline does not allow them. Given the major ramifications of re-establishing contact with the Romulans, and the possibilities of an interstellar war, this second story line is totally unnecessary.
Later in the series, we learn that the missing Federation outposts have been absorbed by the Borg, setting the stage for some of the best episodes of the series. That, and the fact that the Romulans are re-introduced to the series, makes this episode worth seeing. However, the handling is so cluttered with unnecessary verbiage that what could have been an extremely intense episode is occasionally boring.

The Romulans return as colonies disappear on both sides of the Neutral Zone and three humans from the twentieth century are reanimated . . .
Rule One of the ST:TNG universe: Everything about the twentieth century is bad.
Rule Two of the ST:TNG universe: Everyone in the twentieth century was American.
Two very disparate storylines are brought together in this episode, to not very good effect. The Romulan storyline is fairly pointless; all it does is set things up for later seasons. And as for the meet the ancestors storyline . . . There was so much the writers could have done with this, and what did they give us? A housewife, an incomprehensible country-and-western singer looking for a drink, and a hard businessman who doesn't want to believe his lawyers are no longer operating? Please!
It never ceases to amaze me how intolerant the crew of the Enterprise are of anyone who is different, and how sanctimonious they are about everything, particularly their own history. These leftovers from the twentieth century needed help and explanations; instead they are treated as annoyingly demanding lower forms of life. They are the ones who have to adjust; the crew of the Enterprise have nothing to learn. And the hint towards the idea that we all have something to learn from the past (such as it was in this episode) could have been made much more effective. For example, it could have been made clear that the businessman saw what no-one else could see.
Lazy and disappointing.