The Drumhead
Spies, saboteurs, witch hunts - it's a courtroom drama with a warning from the past that still has something important to say to us today
It seems that those most unlikely of things, a Klingon exobiologist, turns out to be that other unlikely thing, a Klingon spy, who Worf gets to beat up (Worf 9, Aliens 13) - and that’s just the set up for the story! After the credits things get really interesting as Admiral Satie is brought out of retirement to run an investigation... but surprisingly, by the end of Act One we have caught our spy, and we still have four acts to go. What's going on?
What unfolds is a witch hunt in which an innocent man is hounded and persecuted for a crime he did not commit, and as the story unfolds even Captain Picard himself is put on trial. Apparently he’s been a terribly naughty boy and broken the Prime Directive nine times since he took command… I suggest they don’t look back at Captain Kirk’s service record!
Words
“With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied - chains us all, irrevocably.”
Some writers do their best work early in their career, and this is perhaps the finest screenplay Jeri Taylor ever wrote, which she later called “a very provocative story and one which is a little darker than some of the others.” It’s a bottle show, to be sure, cheap as chips and taking place entirely on the Enterprise-D sets, but it’s an exceptional drama, with a timeless message that is even more relevant today than it was when this aired in 1991. I consider this to be right up with "The Measure of a Man" as one of the greatest Trek courtroom dramas, and I have to congratulate director Jonathan Frakes for his work bringing Taylor’s story to life.
Behind the scenes, the studio was leaning on the production team to save money, as they had racked up quite a lot of expenses this season. They proposed a clip show, but Rick Berman and Michael Piller were adamant that wasn’t going to happen. As Piller asserted:
We think they’re insulting to the audience. They tune in and then you create this false jeopardy and then flashback as their memory goes back to the wonderful time they had before they got trapped in the elevator and all that bullshit.
They dodged that bullet, here and for the rest of the run, thankfully. That said, not all bullets were avoided - we’re still saddled with the clunky ‘Klingon homeworld’, alas - but we can overlook it, as this story has more than enough in it to keep our interest.
Although Jeri Taylor wrote the screenplay, it came from a concept proposed by fellow writer Ronald D. Moore entitled “It Can't happen Here”. The idea was to show how witch-hunts, like the McCarthy hearings in the 1960s or the Salem witch trials, could happen even in a culture as enlightened as the Federation. All that was required would be if, in the name of preserving the Federation from some shadowy threat, those in authority rode roughshod over individual liberties.
Today, this risk not only remains, it is arguably even greater now (and despite what you may hear in the legacy media, it’s not just “the other team” that’s the problem). A shocking number of nations have recently invoked ‘saving democracy’ or ‘saving lives’ as reasons to ride roughshod over the principles that have united us since World War II... the warning in this episode is timeless. We would be wise to heed it.
Acting Roles
As usual with bottle shows, we have a lot of guest stars, chief among which is Jean Simmons as Admiral Satie.
With a career dating back to 1944, Simmons had a sterling career that’s full of great performances, such as her breakthrough role as Ophelia in 1948's Hamlet, Sarah Brown in 1955’s Guys and Dolls, and Varinia in 1960’s Spartacus. Her appearance in this episode is inspired casting, and as the story progresses her initially amiable demeanour gives way into a steely edge and, ultimately, an emotional outburst at the climax. She is a brilliant foil for Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard, and one of the most complex and believable villains throughout Trek.
Bruce French lends excellent support as the Betazoid Sabin Genestra.
I find it quite odd that he basically performs Troi's role of sensing emotions rather than actually reading minds. It would have been nice to acknowledge a reason for this (let’s face it, it would have been extremely intrusive and abusive to use telepathic interrogation), but this is not a problem with French's performance, which is understated and confident. They get him back in both Voyager and Enterprise, not to mention playing a bit part baddy in Star Trek: Insurrection! But I cannot help but point out that he played Father Lonigan for more than four hundred episodes in one of the wildest US daytime soaps ever made, Passions.
Ann Shea plays the alien stenographer Nellen (Nellen Tore in the screenplay), who doesn't get a single speaking line, and is basically just typing into a PADD all episode (see below for image). I feel sorry for her, but at least she got paid and a credit, which was her first - although she only played five roles in her entire career. Besides, she’s not the only guest star who doesn’t get to say anything, but at least Earl Billing’s Thomas Henry gets to play an admiral.
Then there’s Henry Woronicz as J’Dan, the Klingon who sets up the story, who gets some great scenes in the sequence when Michael Dorn’s Worf escorts him to the brig.
This is only Woronicz's fourth role, hot off of a memorable appearance in Cheers as Sam’s nemesis, Cap Richards. They will get him back for Voyager.
Finally, Spencer Garrett is brilliant as crewman Simon Tarses, who is caught lying about having a Vulcan heritage but is actually related to Romulans.
It’s a central role in the story, and his sense of both guilt and discomfort is beautifully portrayed on screen. He will also be brought back for Voyager, and went on to have a great career full of both bit parts and recurring roles. There’s even a few small movie roles, such as Allen Kincade in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, and an uncredited role as a newsreel announcer in Captain America: The First Avenger. But most fittingly given the content of this episode, Garrett played Senator Joseph McCarthy in the short-lived but enjoyable time travel romp Timeless. Something of a full circle, there, from persecuted to persecutor!
Models, Make-up, and Mattes
It’s been so long since we’ve seen this model, which is supra-fanonically the Oberth class, that it almost seems like a new appearance! It’s not, however, since it featured prominently back in “The Naked Now” where it was threatened by Wesley’s ice cream revolt.
But other than this brief shot, it’s all about the make-up and sets this week - with an extra Klingon to slap the prosthetics onto, some Vulcan/Romulan ears to glue on, and a new alien species too.
Supra-fanonically, this is a Delbian, but not on screen and not in the script. It seems to be something that was made-up behind the scenes and the name only crops up in production documents next season.
Finally, hat tip to the sets team for creating a striking interrogation room, which is actually a redress of the Enterprise’s bridge set, as can be seen reasonably clearly in this opening shot from the teaser.
It may be light on SFX, but it doesn't need them to be a brilliant episode. It was named as a favourite by both Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn. Frakes in particular was impressed with Jean Simmons, “the classiest, most significant actor we had on the series”. It’s also one of my favourites. The lesson that the only defence against the erosion of our civil rights is eternal vigilance has not lost its relevance over the thirty years since this first aired. If anything, it is an even more important warning today than ever before.
This episode was amazing! I never even thought of it as a cheap bottle show because who cares about the backdrop with drama this good!