The Ensigns of Command

"The Ensigns of Command" is a third season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.

Plot

The Enterprise crew receives an automated message from the enigmatic Sheliak: Remove the humans on Tau Cygni V in four days. However, this is not a simple warning or directive. The Sheliak are a non-humanoid species with little regard for human life and would exterminate any humans found in their path. In fact, only due to a treaty with the Federation did they feel compelled to notify their intention to colonize before taking further action.

There is no record of a Federation colony ship being sent there as it contains levels of hyperonic radiation lethal to humans, which doesn't explain why the Sheliak indicate otherwise. The Enterprise arrives in the system to find what looks to be a small colony on the surface. Lt. Cmdr. Data, the only crewmember unaffected, takes a shuttlecraft down to the planet to coordinate the evacuation. Once he arrives, he finds that the sensors were incorrect. It is a colony of 15,253 people, the descendants of the wayward colony ship Artemis launched 92 years prior. The colonists' ancestors found a means to survive within the radiation but initially suffered heavy loss of life before an effective defense was found. Although it would normally be a simple matter of beaming the colonists off the planet, hyperonic radiation renders the transporters useless.

With time running out, Capt. Picard takes the Enterprise on a course to intercept the Sheliak colony ship en route. The Sheliak have no interest in compromising because they feel that the treaty clearly states it is within their rights to colonize Tau Cygni V. Picard is forced to determine a legal basis within the 500,000 word treaty that might stall the Sheliaks' plans. Meanwhile, on the planet, Data cannot convince the colony leader, Gosheven, that their presence is in violation of a treaty only temporarily protecting them from destruction and that evacuation is the only option. The colony leader holds that the sacrifices made by the original colonists allow them the right to live on the planet.

Ultimately, Data reasons that if persuasion cannot work, then intimidation and a show of force should be his next option. Modifying his phaser to work in the hyperonic atmosphere, he then conducts a raid on their aqueduct to prove they are helpless to defend their livelihood. One android and a phaser is nothing compared to the Sheliak. This convinces the colonists that the colony is not worth dying for and that other challenges await them on a new world. Meanwhile, Picard finds a solution to his problem within the treaty. The Sheliak can either choose to wait three weeks for the transport ships to evacuate the colony or take the matter to arbitration by the Grisellas, a species currently hibernating for the next six months. The Sheliak leader relents and the ship turns back.

Notes

• The title of the episode is taken from John Quincy Adams poem The Wants of Man.

References

• Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 3, disc 1, selection 2.

External links

• The Ensigns of Command at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Ensigns of Command" at TV.com
• The Ensigns of Command at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• The Ensigns of Command at StarTrek.com