Unification II
And now, all the stuff that didn't happen in the first part because we were too busy setting it up
With planetary-sized shoulder pads, Captain Picard and Data meet up with Spock, who chat for so long we’re taken aback when the opening credits suddenly kick in. Get used to the chattiness, as this episode is primarily conversation after conversation after conversation. On the plus side, we get to visit an alien bar with a four-handed pianist, witness the return of the villainous Sela, and gaze with faint interest at some so-so political ruminations about the reunification between the Vulcans and the Romulans. It all builds up to the most unspectacular invasion attempt in the history of science fiction, but at least we get to see some spaceships get blown up by a Warbird.
Words
Owing to Leonard Nimoy’s hectic schedule (since he was shooting Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country simultaneously) this episode had to be shot before the first part. As the director Cliff Bole was later to remark “sometimes you have to do crazy things” when you're making a TV show. Nimoy’s son, Adam, was supposed to direct this episode but it didn’t happen for some reason, although he did direct two episodes in season six in the end.
It’s nice to have the Galorndon Core (from “The Enemy”) namechecked, even if a lot of fans were unimpressed with the attempt to invade the planet Vulcan with three starships. Michael Piller, who wrote the teleplay, insisted that the only plausible way you could invade a key Federation planet would be with a ‘Trojan horse’. I have some sympathy for this viewpoint… but it’s still rather underwhelming to watch.
However, despite defending this plot point from criticism, Piller was still really unhappy with his work on this episode:
When I looked at the second hour of “Unification”, which I’ll always consider a character study of Spock, I realized it was talky and nothing goes on. I was very unhappy with that... It’s no secret I was disappointed more by my own work on it than anything else. I remember watching it for the first time cut together and saying, “This is dark, it’s flat, who cares, it’s talky.” I’m a writer who depends a great deal on his instincts and they almost always lead me in a good direction. This time I don’t think they did. If I had it to do over, I would do a science-fiction mystery with weird stuff and get Spock involved in some form or fashion. It was unfortunate that we chose to do another political story so close to the stuff we had just done on the Klingon Empire. It was a very politically heavy opening of the season.
The director was also unhappy:
We should have gone out. We should have put some air in that show. We shouldn’t have been in a cave so long, we should have gone out and had a little more action.
...however, he defended Piller’s script, and didn’t think the root problem was there. Personally, I think they both have a point. While a lot more fun than the first part, it’s still a bit of a disappointment, especially if compared to the delightful Klingon-Romulan political shenanigans that spanned season four into season five, which finished up just six weeks ago.
Acting Roles
I’ll pass over all the roles that were in the first part for brevity, and cut straight to the new faces. First of all, Denise Crosby returns as Sela - and this is the last time we see her in TNG. She’s having fun as a villain, certainly, but her lack of acting skill is all too apparent, and she’s upstaged by just about everyone who appears in a scene with her.
But of course it’s all overshadowed by Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, a role that he has become so comfortable playing that it’s almost impossible that anything he could ever do would seem remarkable. Don’t get me wrong, we love Nimoy as Spock, and we always will... but his main job here is to just turn up and put on the ears. This is, in fact, the very last time he played Spock on television.
A couple of bit parts of note. The ‘fat Ferengi’ Omag is played by Billy Bastiani, who is over the top and not very convincing...
The only even remotely interesting thing I can say about him is that he appeared in L.A. Law a few years later, although you may have seen him as a vendor in the background of the Seinfeld episode “The Understudy”.
Vidal Peterson plays the young Romulan D’Tan, and they get him back in another role in DS9 too, although he doesn’t get to play with polyhedral dice there.
He had a relatively short career, but one standout role is as Will Halloway, one of the two main characters in Something Wicked This Way comes. You might also recognise him as ‘The Elder’ in Mork and Mindy (he looked even younger then - remember that Orkan’s age backwards). This is a good time to remind everyone that Mork and Mindy was a spin-off from Happy Days. Strange but true.
There’s a nice bit part performance by Harriet Leider as Amarie, the four-armed pianist in the Qualor bar.
This is just her second role, and she only performed nine times on TV and film throughout her career. She’s good fun here as a foil for Jonathan Frakes’ Riker, who performs the opening bars of Miles Davis’ 1959 number “Freedie Freeloader” on the piano.
She’s even better paired with Michael Dorn’s Worf as we get the debut of Klingon opera - fantastic!
Speaking of Riker, he gets to play two roles in this episode, if you count Holographic Riker. Recall that Picard notes that Data doesn't get Riker’s hair “quite right” - he’s spot on. It was purposefully styled in a looser and swept-forward style.
A small thing, but a nice touch all the same.
Models, Make-up, and Mattes
The make-up department is unbelievably busy again this week, and we have some new aliens and some old ones too. Did you spot the Antican (from “Lonely Among Us”) in the bar scene...?
The Qalor bar is a redress of the observation lounge. I love the description in the script:
The bar itself is dark and private, a place where quiet liaisons can be safely arranged. It’s a slow night. A couple of alien hookers wait for trade to pick up... some very strange faces stay mysteriously in the shadows of tables in the back... Amarie looks up to see Riker sitting down at the piano bar...
The Vulcan freighters appear to be new models created for this episode, which were reused a few times in DS9, once representing the same thing (a Vulcan freighter), and once in another role. It is fun watching the Warbird blow them all up!
But of course, no surprises for what I’m going to single out as my SFX star in this episode. Not only did we get a brilliant new Syd Dutton matte painting last episode we get another one this week. This one is at sunset, and is even more beautiful than the last one!
Both these new matte paintings of Romulus feature prominently in this episode, a double bill of Dutton genius, and far and away the best feature of this episode.
Certainly not the best TNG has to offer but Spock (Spock and Picard together) carries it and makes it great. Also the Klingon opera is gold and we get Worf hamming it up for laughs.