“Allegiance”
Written by Richard Manning & Hans Beimler
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Season 3, Episode 18
Production episode 40273-166
Original air date: March 26, 1990
Stardate: 43714.1
Captain’s Log: Picard is relaxing in his quarters following the Enterprise curing a Phyrox plague on Cor Caroli V when he is transported away, placed in an enclosed space with two other people: a Bolian Starfleet cadet and a Mizarian. Cadet Haro has been there three days, Tholl, the Mizarian, for twelve. There are four beds, so another may arrive soon.
They have not seen their captors, and been fed barely edible food. Picard attempts to communicate with their abductors to no avail, nor can he figure out why the three of them in particular were taken. The Mizarians have been conquered six times in the past three centuries, but Tholl is a simple public servant with no enemies, and Haro is a cadet.
Back on the Enterprise, Picard has been replaced with a duplicate. He orders the Enterprise to investigate a pulsar, ignoring their rendezvous with the Hood and refusing to allow anyone to communicate off-ship. Fake Picard tells Riker privately that he will need to keep things from Riker for a bit.
Fake Picard later interrupts the poker game, guilting La Forge into leaving to improve engine efficiency, and asking Troi how far the crew’s trust goes. He goes for a physical earlier than scheduled, which surprises and confuses Crusher—though not nearly as surprising as Fake Picard’s asking her to dinner in his quarters.
At the prison, the fourth abductee arrives: a Chalnoth named Esoqq, an anarchist warrior whom Picard barely manages to talk down. He can’t eat the food, which gives them a ticking clock to get out. Unfortunately, their attempt to gimmick the door—against Tholl’s advice, as he says he tried it before and got hurt by an energy beam—results in a nasty energy beam that hurts them badly.
On the Enterprise, Fake Picard and Crusher have a very frank conversation over dinner about their relationship, and even dance before Fake Picard abruptly ends the evening. The next day, he goes to Ten-Forward, “buys” ales for the entire crew and leads them in song, singing “Heart of Oak.” This prompts the senior staff to meet, worried about how Picard is acting.
In the prison, Tholl comes under suspicion by Esoqq, since they only have his word that he tried the door. Maybe they’re being spied upon from within. They all accuse each other—the Mizarians always collaborate with potential enemies, Picard is barking orders and going on fool’s errands, Esoqq is the only one who is armed, and so on—but Picard convinces them that they have to work together or they’ll never get out. Haro pleads Picard’s case by mentioning how he helped the primitive people on Mintaka III; Picard prompts her by also mentioning Cor Caroli V, and she finishes the thought by describing the Phyrox plague.
Their second attempt to open the door succeeds, but only to a point: there’s a solid wall behind the door, putting them back to square one. Picard at that point says he’s tired of playing. It isn’t a prison, he opines, it’s a lab experiment. They’re given problems to solve, reversals, quarrels. And each of them responds differently to authority: Picard, trained to command; Esoqq, the anarchist; Tholl, the collaborator; and Haro, the cadet, deferring to authority.
But Haro, Picard says, is their captor. A first-year cadet was unlikely to know about Mintaka, and since the Phyrox plague was classified, there’s no way she could possibly know about that. “Haro” admits that Picard is right, and she transforms into three identical aliens, who explain that they have no concept of authority, which is why they’re studying it. Now that the prisoners are aware of the experiment, the results will be tainted, so they are all returned to their homes.
Fake Picard moves the Enterprise dangerously close to the pulsar—so much so that Riker must disobey him and commit mutiny or risk endangering the crew. But then the alien brings Picard back. As the aliens explain themselves, Picard gives Riker a look; he silently signals Data and Worf to set up a containment force field that traps the aliens.
The aliens completely wig out when confined. Picard eventually frees them, pointing out that they know about them now, and how to imprison them. They bugger off, and Riker takes great pleasure in informing Picard that his doppelgänger sang….
Thank You, Counselor Obvious: Apparently, the alien fake versions of people are so convincing that Troi can’t sense any difference. Whether or not it’s an accomplishment by the aliens or a defiency on Troi’s part is left as an exercise for the viewer.
The Boy!?: When Riker mutinies against Fake Picard, everyone goes along with it without hesitation—except Wes, who looks nauseated.
No Sex, Please, We’re Starfleet: Fake Picard completely hits all over Crusher—sadly for her, she isn’t on the bridge when the deception is revealed, so when she sees Picard, she thinks he’s still the one who wants to dance with her….
I Believe I Said That: “My given name is Esoqq. It means ‘fighter’.”
“I’ll bet that half the names in the Chalnoth language mean ‘fighter’.”
“Mizarians. Your names all mean ‘surrender’.”
Esoqq and Tholl making fun of each other.
Welcome Aboard: Joycelyn O’Brien, Stephen Markle, and Reiner Schöne play off each other and Sir Patrick Stewart quite well as, respectively, Haro, Tholl, and Esoqq. Markle and Schöne are particularly effective as the testy coward and the bombastic anarchist. Jerry and Jeff Rector are deliberately bland as the alien observers.
Trivial Matters: Picard and Haro make reference to the events of “Who Watches the Watchers?” a previous Manning/Beimler script.
Picard has met the Chalnoth before, while captaining the Stargazer. That meeting was chronicled in the 59th issue of DC’s TNG comic by Michael Jan Friedman and Deryl Skelton.
“Heart of Oak” is an 18th-century sea shanty that apparently remained popular into the 24th century, since not only did Picard sing it, but it looked like La Forge and, amusingly, Worf both knew the words, as did the rest of Ten-Forward.
Make it So: “I find it hard to believe you’re that good a singer.” This is half an excellent episode, and it’s the half that takes place in a locked room. The experiment that Picard, Esoqq, and Tholl are trapped in by the aliens posing as Haro is a fascinating construct, in a nicely designed set (points to production designer Richard James for the set and ever-excellent director Winrich Kolbe for shooting in it so well), and the whole thing plays out very nicely. The actors in particular sell it spectacularly.
Sadly, the same can’t be said for the flat, lifeless sequences on the Enterprise. It’s cute to have Picard act out of character, and it’s certainly more fun than it was in, say, “The Naked Now,” but it’s still tiresome and stupid and doesn’t really go anywhere unexpected. You know what every step is going to be, from the trust to the confusion to the concern to the mutiny, all at exactly the stage you expect. Blah.
Warp factor rating: 5
Keith R.A. DeCandido writes books. In 2012, he’ll write more books. If you go to his web site, you can order his books. Isn’t technology awesome?
This feels like a TOS or Season 1 episode that somehow got made during season 3.
Whether or not it’s an accomplishment by the aliens or a defiency on Troi’s part is left as an exercise for the viewer.
I believe you mean “deficiency”. I did have to double check just in case, if it makes you feel better.
This was an OK episode, but not one I’d particularly spend my time watching again.
Well, except for Picard singing. Singing is cool. :-)
— Michael A. Burstein
I wasn’t crazy about this one. The purpose and rationale behind the aliens’ test was vague, the goals of the fake Picard even more so. And the whole “aliens putting the crew through a test” formula was already played out by this point.
Also, it’s weird in retrospect to see a Bolian with hair. Maybe the idea at the time was that only the males were bald, but we saw other female Bolians later on and the only other one with hair was a background extra in “Menage a Troi.”
The 4 person locked room drama was very well done, even if the “aliens test the humans” trope had already been used a half dozen times in TOS and TNG. The shipboard scenes were cringe-inducing.
This is not a great episode (certianly nothing like the previous 3), but for me, it’s worth a watch, just to see the (faux) Picard lead the crew in a drinking song. I loved that part, and you can tell Stewart’s having fun there.
In the end, though, too many unanswered questions hold this episode back, specifically in the pulsar. Would the aliens have killed the Enterprise crew for the sake of their experiments? I say yes, but that should have been explained, IMO.
Why do only see the enterprise crew this well in other episodes? With just one look picard conveys to his bridge crew that he wants to imprison the aliens.
Yes i usually skip the faux picard scenes and they are “cringe inducing.”
This isn’t the best episode, but when I think about it the parts I remember fondly are the ones that happen on the ship. All of the charm of this episode was in watching Patrick Stewart act out of character, and the crew respond to it.
I have no particular fondness for the rest of the episode. The “rat maze” plot seems like something they would have done on Voyager.
@8: They did do it on Voyager, actually. Well, sort of. There was the episode with those out-of-phase alien scientists that were experimenting on the crew.
Come cheer up, my lads! ’tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, not press you like slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Chorus Heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak are our men; We always are ready, steady, boys, steady! We’ll fight and we’ll conquer again and again.
We ne’er see our foes but we wish them to stay,
They never see us but they wish us away;
If they run, why we follow, and run them ashore,
For if they won’t fight us, we cannot do more.
Chorus
They swear they’ll invade us, these terrible foes, They frighten our women, our children, and beaus; But should their flat bottoms in darkness get o’er, Still Britons they’ll find to receive them on shore.
Chorus
We’ll still make them fear, and we’ll still make them flee, And drub ’em on shore, as we’ve drubb’d ’em at sea; Then cheer up, my lads! with one heart let us sing: Our soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen and Queen.
Chorus
[b]
The ending to this was truly stupid. Oh, I’m so sure that confining the aliens for 2-3 minutes will mean they realize their experiments are wrong and they’ll never, ever kidnap and torture subjects ever again!
Feh.
@10. Oh, Philippa. The Tor.com office is going to regret you posting those lyrics where I can easily sing them. Right about… now.
See, I’m the exact opposite, Keith. I find the scenes in the locked room boring and uninteresting and the scenes on The Enterprise with the faux Picard to be the most fun and enjoyable.
Total agreement with DLFerguson: The only thing I liked about the “superior” alien specis testing all the plebians was that the aliens got their comeuppance. Unlike John Ellis, I didn’t think that the aliens were meant to get the point of the turnabout. We were just meant to enjoy the irony when they freaked out in confinement. The “We have no concept of authority” statement never made any sense to me, either. I get the idea that they have no concept of the emotional response to authority, but I doubt that the organization of their tests was so very decentralized. There’s a central, organizing factor coordinating Picard’s kidnap and replacement with the conducting of the test, the gathering of results, etc. If they don’t wish to call it an authority, fine, but that’s the function it serves. They’re not drones, and they clearly don’t behave as drones. They have a sense of self, and they clearly know that they need to have control of their live, sentient experimental subjects. They are happily asserting authority even as they claim it’s anathema to them. Bluh.
I enjoyed the crew vignettes on this go round, for the most part. No one action by FakePicard was really an “Ah ha!” clue that the guy wasn’t on the up-and-up. We all know he’s got a complex thing for Dr. Crusher. We all remember when he was the abrasive sort of guy who might interrupt the poker game in order to put an officer through his paces. It all has to add up to a pattern of boundary testing. And the crew has to get together to compare notes in order to realize it. While the real Picard was confined by a puzzle box prison, the Fake Picard, without realizing it, was confined more effectively by Picard’s personality and social role.
It’s odd for Picard to sing ‘Heart of Oak’. The ‘wonderful year’ was 1759, and what made it wonderful was a series of British victories against the French.
Maybe this is another of the clues to his being fake.
MadLogician, I don’t know. Picard is not simply French, he is a Picard, and Picardy us a bit complex.
One thing I found odd was that Crusher says to (fake) Picard, “I thought you didn’t dance.” Yet in Insurrection, she says, “The captain used to cut quite a rug.” Oops.
One thing I found odd was that Crusher says to (fake) Picard, “I thought you didn’t dance.” Yet in Insurrection, she says, “The captain used to cut quite a rug.” Oops.
–Oh, the double post phenomenon.
Fake Picard walking into Ten Forward and waving to everyone, singing with the crew and the reactions from his officers is one of the funniest moments in TNG.
I deeply dug the cheesy porn-jazz music Picard used to set the mood with Crusher in his crib.
OMG, the episode with the hairy, toothy, snarly guy and the dude in the bonnet snarking at each other! I absolutely loved it >:D
Also, I was totally expecting Wes to comment on the whole faux-Picard hitting on his mum thing. Maybe he did know about it and was nauseous because an alien was trying to get in his mother’s pants. :P
(Disclaimer: This is a joke!)
How can anyone not enjoy the 5 minute scene between Faux-Picard and Beverly? Lots of romantic tension and then the kiss! Come on!!!
I really enjoyed this one. I agree with Krad that the scenes inside the locked room are brilliant, but I also found the sequences on the Enterprise quite amusing, albeit somewhat predictable. Especially Picard singing in Ten Forward and flirting with Crusher, those were cool. I’d give this episode a solid 7.
The stuff in the locked room is 10/10, and the other part is 4/10, so I’d give it a 7/10.
This was an episode I only recently became aware of, and it took me back to when I was watching the show for the first time.
To add a very small note, the shot composition as the Enterprise approached the pulsar was unusually striking with great use of angle and light to make it stand out. Most exterior shots are quite boring in comparison.
To give credit to the “other half” of the story, Picard didn’t act 100% out of character, he was just a more relaxed, possibly slightly drunk, version of himself. I also like how he wasn’t simply “Evil Picard” and, the test of loyalty aside, was actually a nice person who was considerate of his crew, friendly and supporting in many ways. It was a slightly more nuanced thing than him simply being an evil lookalike/clone/possessed man, like in that “the upper echelons of the Federation are all evil bugs” episode.
The scenes in the locked room remind me of a whole host of other things, like the Saw series, the Cube series, and the Zero Escape videogame series which includes this game with the following synopsis:
All the same “you must work as a group even if you don’t trust each other” and “what if the captor is in fact one of us?” and other elements.
I like this episode. The scenes with the trapped do remind me of the Saw series as well. However, it could have been pulled off a bit better. The scenes realky didn’t go anywhere. How the aliens wanted to study ‘the concept of command’ with such a setup is beyond me.
The fake Picard scenes are cringeworthy, but it’s nice to see how the crew reacts to the senseless and in the end even dangerous orders.
I really laughed out loud when Picard suddenly closed the door on Beverly. Hilarious.
And we all really like and admire Picard. But when he acts as a nice captain who sings with his crew, all alarm bells go off. Funny thing.
This is kind of a fun little episode, provided you suspend incredulity and cringing now and then. The criticisms are all valid, and it’s not a great episode. The “four strangers trapped in a room” story plays out pretty well – the suspicions, bickering, and Picard’s trap for the supposed cadet – it’s pretty fun to watch. As for the “back at the office” scenes, I just wish they’d made the alternate Picard a bit more personable and gregarious. If Picard had been the fun, ra-ra captain, to the point where much of the crew was willing to go along, I think the Enterprise scenes would have played out better. Maybe along of the lines of a Picard who suddenly loses all inhibitions. I think they went in that direction, but only far enough for it to feel weird, and not enough to be truly funny. It would have made more sense if what Picard was doing had some plausibility (like sneaking into the neutral zone on some secret mission), but I feel a bit more absurdity would have been the most fun. It’s not going to be a truly deep episode anyway – it’s mostly filler – so why not play with it? Oh yeah, the ending is mostly a let-down; definitely agree with that. At the end of the day it’s always watchable and has a few moments. I’d call it a 6, and it doesn’t disappoint much on re-watch, so I’ll stick with a 6 there.
Unlike our highly-valued reviewer, I enjoyed the half that takes place on the ship even more than the scenes in the cell. The ‘aliens abduct one of our heroes to perform experiments on him/her’ plot is a little worn-out. And though it’s very well played, I had not much fun in watching it for the fourth time without the element of suspense. To watch Picard acting out of character, on the other hand, is still hilarious. The drinking song and the dinner with Beverley are among my favourite scenes of Star Trek. And the objective of this part of the test seems to be quite plausible to me: the aliens want to see how far the authority of a Starfleet captain goes. Even fake-Picard’s out of character behaviour can be explained in this way: he tries to enforce the crew’s bond with him before their allegiance is put to the test. On the other hand, I never understood why one of the four captives was a disguised alien. The actions of the prisoners could be observed by monitoring devices in the cell, and it would have been much more useful for the experiment if they really had a Starfleet cadet who was trained to follow orders. I also didn’t like the ending, just another case of aliens committing crimes without being held responsible for them. They should have been put on trial at the next starbase. My rating for this episode would be a solid 7.
covid 19 rewatch impression…neither part was that good for me, the scenes in captivity were a bit on the nose (al a mice in a cage) down to the food pellet. and like keith said, the parts on the ship were very paint by the numbers. pure bla
Another COVID-19 rewatch comment – Heart of Oak is still the march of the Royal Navy here in the UK. There’s a lot of gentle ties between Starfleet and contemporary navies throughout Trek, so the idea that a future-navy might know some of the old songs seemed fairly in character with the series, to me.
I guess I’m in the minority here because I think this is a solid and enjoyable episode – and I mean that regarding both the a-story and the b-story.
I really liked the dynamic of the abducted Picard locked in a strange room with strangers plot. It was like a mysterious intense play with increasingly high stakes. All of the characters had distinct personalities, were well-acted, and I appreciated that all of the non-Picard characters were alien which really adds to the sci-fi alien menagerie aspect. Of course Cadet Haro turned out to be a red herring, but Tholl and Esoqq are such compelling characters that I would have been interested in spending a little more time with them on their respective worlds. I liked how they all worked together to get out of their “trap.” And I’m sure the aliens experimenting on the crew or our hero characters is a perhaps well-worn trope on Star Trek but I grew up on TNG, not TOS, so I presume that’s why here the idea seemed more novel to me.
As to the imposter Picard side of the episode, I thought that part was a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing the crew’s reactions to their captain acting bizarre and trying to make sense of it. From the doppelgänger singing with his officers in Ten Forward to him putting the moves on Crusher and then throwing her out of his quarters after getting her all hot and bothered, it was all very entertaining stuff. I do think the aliens would have let the Enterprise crew and the ship destroy itself as it was all part of the experiment to test just how far the crew would follow “Picard’s” authority and their well-being meant nothing to these aliens. I thought the scene in Riker’s quarters of the senior staff deliberating the imposter’s strange behavior was excellent as well as the direction of the scene with the crew finally engaging in mutiny with the scene ending on “Picard” in front of the view screen, pulsar rotating in the background with eerie music playing.
And I always took that last moment on the bridge with Crusher giving Picard a knowing look as if she understands that the real Picard has returned and she has a funny but uncomfortable story to share with him about her “date” with his replacement. But then of course, as Krad points out, she literally came to the bridge after the preceding events not knowing the real Picard is back so it changes the dynamic of that last interaction. But I still prefer to think of it in my former interpretation because it’s more humorous that way.
Funny, the same thing happened to me as comment 24. As a kid I grew up watching TNG in reruns, and I thought I’d seen every episode, if out of order, at least once. It was quite surprising in my 20s to come across this one and have no memory of it. For what it’s worth I mostly agree with Krad that the story in the cage was quite well done while the scenes on the ship were meandering and unexciting. I guess the idea was that while the aliens studied the 3 captives and how they each responded to authority, they were also studying the Enterprise crew and how they reacted to a disruption in authority. But Fake Picard was just weird and randomly friendly, a very odd way to go about that.
I do wonder if the Chalnoth prosthetics were later repurposed into the makeup for the Nausicaans that we see in, I believe, “Tapestry” for the first time? They look very similar except for the coloration. And if they did recycle the design then why invent Nausicaans in the first place instead of using Chalnoth again? They even act pretty much the same, aggressive thugs looking for a fight.
@34/erictheread: The Chalnoth couldn’t be recycled again in “Tapestry” because the episode “Samaritan Snare” established that Cadet Picard had a run-in with Nausicaans.
I do agree that the makeup designs are similar between the two species and people have gotten them confused before. I think I even recall that Denise Okuda, wife of Mike Okuda, and who had a position on the show dealing with scenery design on TNG, erroneously believed it was a Nausicaan that was featured on this episode when referring to it on the audio commentary for the episode “Tapestry” on blu-ray.
I could have sworn from memory that in the scene where the faux Picard and Crusher have their date in his quarters and he then abruptly calls it a night, that Crusher says something to the effect of, “You’re throwing me out?” But in rewatching the scene just now Crusher doesn’t say anything, she just leaves Picard’s quarters with an incredulous expression. So I’m wondering if I just made up that dialogue in my mind of there’s another episode where Crusher does say that to Picard or perhaps it’s between two different characters or maybe it’s even a different series (or movie) entirely. Hmm?
To answer my own question, I just realized that I was thinking of the scene from “Datalore” where Picard has Beverly leave the bridge to accompany an ejected Wesley and Beverly protests to Picard.
Something else I noticed for the first time when rewatching this episode today: the last scene in Picard’s ready room when he is confronted by Riker, you can see flashes of light reflected in the window which is simulating the effect of the pulsar the Enterprise is approaching. Something very minor the production crew didn’t have to bother with but I love that attention to detail.
@30/ThomasE: “On the other hand, I never understood why one of the four captives was a disguised alien. The actions of the prisoners could be observed by monitoring devices in the cell, and it would have been much more useful for the experiment if they really had a Starfleet cadet who was trained to follow orders.”
If their goal was to study the psychology of authority hierarchies, then it made sense to experience it from the inside, as an actual subordinate to an authority figure rather than merely an outside observer. Indeed, the aliens were doing that from both sides — one was impersonating the captain among his real crew, the other impersonating a subordinate of the real captain. So they got to study the authority dynamic from both directions at once by adopting both sides of the role.
I find currency and capitalism to a certain extent rather inevitable even in a largely need-free culture, so I wish Trek hadn’t backed itself into a corner on the issue such that we get head-scratching contradictory bits like “Ales for everyone!” “Hurrah!”
My next favorite scene on the Enterprise after the ultimately exasperating dinner with Crusher — despite how enjoyably ridiculous Fake Picard was in Ten Forward — is the not only plausible but welcome one between Fake Picard and Riker that, early on, understandably forestalls Riker from getting suspicious.
I would actually have enjoyed seeing the real Haro if she existed as a recurring character somehow.
@39/arben: By “forestall” did you mean something fake Picard does prevents Riker from getting suspicious or did you mean it actively made Riker suspicious early on? What scene are you referring to?
@40/garreth: The former. To forestall is just what it sounds like — to stop something before it starts, to head it off in advance. I presume Arben is talking about the bit when Picard cancels the rendezvous with the Hood and takes Riker into his ready room to tell him that he may have to keep Riker in the dark about his decisions for the next few days, because of reasons.
@41/CLB: I knew what the word meant but thought arben may have misused the word to mean the opposite thing. The whole b-story aboard the Enterprise had to do with the crew’s suspicions and so I couldn’t really recall the scene that had fake Picard initially throwing off Riker having any potential doubt in his captain.
40. garreth — I meant the early scene in Picard’s ready room that CLB mentions. While the stand-in gets progressively more obviously Not Picard to the crew, I found the delicate way he/it broaches the subject of his opacity very in keeping with both Picard and Riker’s characters, and I’m a fan of well-executed trust. Had it actually been Picard and we, the audience, known his reasons were sound, I think it could’ve played just about exactly the same way.
33. Garreth – Of course Cadet Haro turned out to be a red herring,
You mean a counterfeit or ringer or masquerader. A red herrring is a false clue.