The Pegasus is one of the few Trek shows that I simply can’t rewatch. It quite literally made me angry the first time I saw it. My wife claims that I even yelled a few choice words at the tv. Something I staunchly deny to this day.
Detailed episode plotfor those that don’t recall it. Basically the Federation broke an arms treaty (a decade earlier) and secretly researched and experimented with a cloaking device. An accident occurred killing crewmen and Riker is all angsty about it.
My biggest objection is the over simplification of the moral issue. Theres no middle ground here for Riker. We broke a treaty! The truth must be told! The hell with the possible future of the Federation. Star Trek often got preachy and this episode pushes my buttons the worst.
We know from real world events its never that simple. Arms Treaties are as much a political tool as they are a military one. Neither side is going to blindly throw away a potential advantage in developing technology. It would weaken them and cost troop’s lives in a war fought on unequal terms.
More importantly, lives were lost in developing this cloak. Riker pretty much invalidated their sacrifice by revealing all to the Romulans. Who by the way were *attacking *the Enterprise minutes earlier. Besides, doesn’t it seem likely they already suspected this research experiment had taken place? Romulan spies have infiltrated the Federation before. They were looking for the Pegasus and wanted that technology.
I consider Riker a sanctimonious fool and possibly a traitor.
Am I being too harsh on the character or the episode’s writing?
I forgot to mention Picard’s behavior. He’s the one that actually revealed the cloaked Enterprise to the Romulans.
Once again overly simplistic behavior. Picard was capable of seeing the middle ground in other episodes. Remember his role in deciding the Klingon’s new ruler? Picard was very skillful in walking a narrow line in his duties as captain and handling the Klingons.
Picard should have taken this to his supporters within the Federation. Let them decide if Pressman had gone to far and deal with him. Maybe stop research on the cloak. It’s the Federation’s right to make this decision. Picard and Riker had no right to make it for them (by revealing all to the Romulans).
Picard was my favorite character. He usually was quiet multifaceted. Part politician, part diplomat, scientist and soldier. I really liked how he obeyed orders and arrested Captain Maxwell (The Wounded). But then gives the Cardassian a lecture making it clear that that he knew Maxwell was right about their so called science station. Then warns the Federation will be watching. Great moment. The Wounded is the best episode TNG ever filmed imho. The writers tackled a lot of very sensitive issues in that episode. Racism, PTSD, politics (between the Fed and Cardassia) etc.
The writers just let Picard down in The Pegasus. I think he was smarter than that.
Nazi soldiers and followers are held in contempt for merely following orders that they should know are morally wrong. I think the writers of this episode were trying to avoid that by having Riker/Pikard (eventually) spill the beans to the Romulans.
In actuality, IMO, Riker/Pikard should have notified Starfleet HQ (or some other Federation governmental authority with oversight powers, like the JAG Corps) of any criminal mischief by Pressman, and not risked telling the Romulans anything, and starting a war. (That’s a call that the appropriate (civilian?) leadership needs to make.)
Not any one - any *unequal *arms limitation treaty. Such treaties are always imposed by winners on losers, by superpowers on weaker countries (as in the case of the NPT), or, as in the Washington Naval Treaty, are signed between nominal allies. None of these apply to the relationship between the Federation and the Romulans.
I don’t know much else about the treaty. Maybe it imposed other limitations not mentioned in the episode. I imagine that the Federation must have thought there was some other advantage gained by signing the treaty, one which was worth giving the Romulans a temporary tactical edge in space battles.
I think the issue is lack of clarity about how the experiment was authorized in the first place.
Pressman makes it sound like there were orders all the way up the chain of command for the Pegasus experiment to go forward. That being the case, you can’t argue that anyone did anything wrong. StarFleet was conducting experiments that violated a treaty, but that’s for the Romulans to settle with the Federation, and for the Federation to determine responsibility internally, not for one StarFleet captain to go around arresting other StarFleet captains.
Picard seems to approach it more like Pressman is some renegade commander who pursued the research on his own, caused his own people to die, caused a mutiny through his own carelessness and was only saved because of Riker’s narrow loyalty. That would at least justify the arrest of Pressman and an internal investigation.
Maybe Pressman is lying about support for the experiment? In a plausible world, you’d never be able to run your own personal experiments on board a starship, but we all know that this is standard practice on the Enterprise…
In any event, I agree that nothing justifies revealing it to the Romulans. There’s no reason for any political/military organization to go around airing its dirty laundry for their enemies.
It’s a dopey episode, by any analysis, and it introduces what should be yet another radical tech advance but will be forgotten by next episode - if it’s possible to render your ships invisible and/or intangible then you’ll never have to worry about being attacked again - just let enemy torpedoes and disrupters pass right through you.
I think you’re just not in the Trek mindset. There’s no gray area as far as the Federation is concerned. What Pressman did was wrong, and the right thing to do is to let the Romulans know, so they have a chance to call off the treaty. The wrong thing for Riker to do was to show any sort of loyalty.
Yes, in the real world, what you saw was stupid–though I wouldn’t call it evil like you have. But not within their world. This is as world that says that your first duty is to the truth, and lying is the worst kind of evil. And when you do what’s right, the universe usually works out in your favor.
The Romulans were already in the system looking for the Pegasus, the jig was up and it was only a matter of time before they found out. Picard did the only sensible thing by using and then revealing the technology since they couldn’t get out of the asteroid any other way. By copping to it and arresting those responsible, Picard showed that it was rogue elements in Starfleet that violated the treaty, not the Federation itself. It defused the situation and probably prevented additional conflict
