User Reviews

As one of the TNG's most groundbreaking episodes, "The DrumHead" is a poignant, moral reminder of how corruption can leak through and taint all that is righteous.

Retired Admiral Norah Satie (wonderfully portrayed by the remarkable Jean Simmons) investigates an explosion on the Enterprise, suspected to be caused by a saboteur. But when it is discovered the the explosion is nothing more than an accident, Admiral Satie is still convinced that there is a conspiracy on board and will not stop investigating until she finds one. Fingers point at a Klingon exchange officer and then a young Starfleet officer who lied about his quarter Romulan ancestry in his Starfleet application. Captain Picard is the first to see the troubling signs of a witchhunt trial and tries to put a halt on the investigation and save the young officer, Simon Tarses, from being wrongfully accused. This results in him being targeted instead.

One of the most intense moments is when after Admiral Satie holds his experience with being captured by the Borg over him, Captain Picard demostrates grace underpressure by quoting "With the first link the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied... chains us all irrevocably" - words spoken by the Admiral's father, to show the trial onlookers that the trial they're in is not a trial, but an execution of the soul. Picard's speech is then followed by an fanatical tirade from the enraged Admiral who inadvertently exposes her ulterior and twisted motives to the shocked and disgusted crowd.

A great episode and a wonderful cast. Patrick Stewart did a splendid acting job in this episode. Jean Simmons played a wonderfully complex villain, who unlike Q or Khan from "Start Trek: The Original Series", is a leader in Starfleet and the Federation of Planets who has disguised her true dark persona under a cloak of good deeds. Michael Dorn's characterization of Worf is deep and dynamic as he finds himself misled by Simmons's character and realizes what kind of person she really was when she starts interrogating his captain.

The episode's message applies to reality with McCarthyism and the recent political strife of 2020 and 2021, as it mirrors the tactical spread of fear, hate and paranoia politicians now use to sway the community. "Vigilance" as Picard says to Lt. Worf, "is the price we must continually pay". A deep and excellently written episode full of rich material.

The story lines pretty much details the plot but a good viewing highlights the problem of fanatics in any age. Jean Simmons, Admiral Nora Satie, is on a mission to ferret out the members of a conspiracy of traitors on the Enterprise and is not to be deterred by any facts that clearly show the absence of any such conspiracy. I suspect Simmons was able to channel her persona from Elmer Gantry to meet the needs of her character. And Patrick Stewart is there to ably remind us that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. An episode to remind the viewer that there are far too many willing to usurp individual freedom in the name of justice.

ST:TNG:95 - "The Drumhead" (Stardate: 44769.2) - this is the 21st episode of the 4th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Another Klingon exchange officer onboard the Enterprise (the first being Kurn from "Sins Of The Father") is accused of spying (after there's damage to the dilithium chamber). To help assist with the investigation of the accused, retired Admiral Norah Satie (played by Oscar-nominated actress Jean Simmons in an Emmy-worthy performance) decides to help out.

However, in the process, she turns the investigation into a witch hunt, as she accuses even Captain Picard of his loyalties.

Truly a remarkable episode.

Trivia note: Worf's dis-commendation ("Sins Of The Father") from the Klingon High Council (stating his father is a traitor) is mentioned more than once in this episode. Also, Picard notes he took command of the Enterprise on Stardate 41124.

"Drumhead" shows just what can happen in an environment when paranoia reigns. Ret. Adm. Nora Satie (Jean Simmons) is summoned to the Enterprise to head an investigation of sabotage/conspiracy aboard ship.

Simon Tarses (Spencer Garrett) is interrogated and reveals that he is 1/4 Vulcanian. However Satie's Betazoid assistant with her mind reading capability insists Tarses is hiding something. The inquisition resumes in an open courtroom where the proceedings had been private before and Tarses pleads the 5th Amendment to inquiries that he is 1/4 Romulan instead of Vulcanian and lied on his Starfleet Admission form, making his testimony "suspect." Tarses is indeed 1/4 Romulan but Capt Picard finds no other blemish in his record and is satisfied that Tarses is no threat, Satie thinks otherwise.

Meanwhile Picard finds out the explosion of the dilithium chamber was caused by a manufacturing defect in the hatch casing. This being the reason for the investigation. Picard tries to dissuade Satie from continuing the investigation but she flatly refuses indicating that she reports directly to Starfleet Command. Meanwhile Picard is now grilled by Satie and his career is put into question with Prime Directive violations, his Borg assimilation and Satie questions Picard's loyalty to Starfleet. When Lt. Cdr. Worf (Michael Dorn) rises to defend Picard, Satie points out the Worf's father was a Romulan Collaborator and the Worf himself has been discommendated by the Klingons which is then another mark against Picard. Witness to all this is head of Starfleet Security Adm. Thomas Henry (Earl Billings). When Picard's response is to quote Satie's father, a respected jurist, on the subject of the state placing limitations on a person's liberty. Satie furiously berates Picard for invoking her father's name in his own defense, stating that she has "brought down bigger men than you, Picard!" Admiral Henry leaves the room in the middle of the tirade, having recognized Satie's paranoia for what it was. The prosecution calls a recess, and leaves a disgraced Satie sitting alone in the courtroom.

The episode ends with Worf finding Picard in the observation lounge to inform the captain that Admiral Henry has ended the hearings and of Satie's departure from the Enterprise. Picard remarks that the human race thinks it has come so far, with the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials all an unpleasant memory. Worf laments that he was initially eager to assist Satie in her witch-hunt because of how she presented her case. Picard speaks of the ever-present, but subtle, danger of those who would spread fear and suspicion in the name of righteousness and reminds him that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Satie's breakdown at the end is reminiscent of Capt. Queeg's (Humphrey Bogart) meltdown in "The Caine Mutiny." In that movie it is brought out that paranoids walk a fine line between sanity and insanity. Saite is in the end just another Queeg or McCarthy or any other person who uses fear to gain an end. 10 of 10.

How Star Trek in all of its incarnations never won an Emmy for the show or episodes/actors itself is unbelievable. Certainly this is one episode worthy of a win amongst many others such as "The Measure of a Man"; "Yesterday's Enterprise"; "The Offspring"; "Sarek"; "The Best of Both Worlds Pts 1 & 2"; "Half a Life"; "Darmok"; "Unification Pts 1 & 2"; "Ethics"; "The Inner Light"; "Chain of Command Pts 1 & 2"; "Dark Page"; "The Pegasus" & "All Good Things..." And that is only "TNG."

When an overzealous retired commander, played by Jean Simmons, one of our greatest actresses, comes on board the Enterprise to investigate suspected espionage, she proves to be a take-no-hostages type. At first this seems like an admirable trait. But before she arrives they have already got their guy. They also have concluded that a malfunctioning system in the drive system was caused by faulty workmanship, a part that was defective. However, during the investigation, a young ensign gets caught in a lie. He misrepresented himself on his Starfleet application because of Romulan heritage. She now begins to poison the crewman against this guy, ignoring facts and leading a witch hunt. When PIcard intervenes, she begins to attack his integrity and his successes and to imply that his experiences with the Borg have compromised his decision making. She takes Worf in as they begin to make lists of possible acquaintances this guy had as a child and at the Academy. Of course, this is like the House Un-American Activities Committee of the fifties and her agenda is not much different than Senator McCarthy's was back then. This is an extremely well-acted and gripping episode.

THE PLOT (SPOILERS)

Suspecting espionage and sabotage Starfleet sends an retired admiral/prosecutor to investigate. Picard co-operates until he begins to suspect a witch hunt and starts to resist. This shifts the focus of investigation to Picard himself and he must answer charges. Exploiting the admiral's instability, Picard drives home a moral lesson.

THE GOOD STUFF

Picard is wonderful in this and for the most part so is the admiral. Ensign Tarses is interesting too, and I like he lied about his Romulan ancestor which shows how deep racism and prejudice still lurk in the depths of the supposed highly rational Federation. This episode also raises serious questions about the justice at work in Starfleet, of which Picard usually boast as a great virtue. The fact that it seems biased and hostile, and thus flawed, makes it more believable. I cheered Worf on as he was about to destroy a prosecutor bringing up his father's supposed dishonor.

THE BAD STUFF

1) Worf. It feels weird writing this as he is usually one one of the better characters, but here I disliked him. I'm so sick and tired of people saying "yeah but he is Klingon" (other characters, reviewers and fans alike). Come on, he was raised by humans, grew up amongst humans, went to school with them and serves with them. He's not really Klingon and this explains why every single Klingon he encounters takes the mickey out of him. In Redemption he shows a constant lack of understanding of Klingon culture.

But here, when the chance presents itself to ruin a fellow officer he becomes all Klingon, immediately assuming guilt when someone doesn't answer, and participating almost gleefully in the witch hunt. Has he forgotten all the Federation supposedly stands for? Every lesson he learned from Picard. In fact, only when the Admiral accuses Picard does he become offended. He annoyed me in this one.

2) I fail to see how the Admiral's rant at the end changes anything. She basically says out loud what everyone already knows, that she accuses Picard of being a collaborator. Her anger at him twisting her beloved and dearly missed father's words seems normal to me.

3) This is the worst example of Starfleet justice after Measure of a Man. Yes, yes, that's a fine episode but the justice part is ridiculous. In Measure of a Man, the starbase doesn't have legal personnel so unqualified officers will do, the judge is Picard's old flame, Riker is forced to participate under direct threat of Data's life, he doesn't get a closing statement but the Judge does allow him to dismantle the defendant, and to top it all of, Picard immediately offers her dinner the second she rules in his favor. A TOTAL FARCE!

This episode is almost as bad. Unqualified people interrogate until the professionals arrive, the admiral is clearly bonkers, a crewman is only suspect because of uninformed and illegal Betazoid probing of the mind, one of the Federation's Guarantees (cough Fifth Amendment cough) is used as a slap in the face of someone exercising that right, no one bothers to supervise a deluded Klingon from digging a fellow officer's past and so on and so on. It makes Starfleet's hatred of Cardassian justice extremely shallow and hypocrite.

4) There are better episodes to vent my hatred of the Prime Directive but the fact that Picard, one of the best captains in the fleet, is accused of violating it so many times, proves, to me, the utter invalidity of the PD in the first place. captains cannot help violating it because it is not realistic, not practical, not usable in unforeseen circumstances.

5) The instant Worf approves of the Admirals'tactics she proclaims her faith that he will turn out to be very important in the investigation. A little conceited, isn't it?

CONCLUSION

Over all I like this episode but it enhanced my problems with admirals (they only make things worse), Betazoids (probing people without their permission should be against the law), Federation justice (it's biased, hostile, illegal almost), and the moral compass of the Chief of Security. I like the tense, almost paranoid feel of this episode, but since it is clear Picard will never be convicted the trial does lose some of its initial appeal. Worf is insufferable and his turnabout does not come from a sincere realization but from his crush on Picard. This episode raises some serious questions about the often repeated superiority of human and Federation justice (Picard often mentions "a fair trial" but I have yet to see one). It is a good one though, and certainly worthy of your time. 7/10

In "The Drumhead" a Star Fleet investigation into a Romulan spy aboard the Enterprise turns into a witchhunt on the entire crew, including Picard himself.

Frakes is a very good director, better than I previously gave him credit for. Here we watch the ship's slow descent into madness. Admiral Satie shows up and seemingly gets along great with the crew. But as the investigation gets more desperate, we watch as her and her posse turn away from due process and start their own twisted tribunal. There's nothing really wrong with this episode. It's great from start to finish.

The plot of this episode is tenuous at best. A Klingon comes on board who turns out to be a romulan spy and there is coincidentally an explosion in engineering around the same time. Those in close contact with the spy are questioned by a visiting admiral, including a medical technician who is determined to have lied on during his inquiry about his romulan ancestry based as discovered by a betazoid's intuition. Fine, so far so good. But surely, if betazoid instinct is going to be admissable evidence, or at least grounds for further investigation, they could make use of it to easily determine whether the technician, once exposed for his original lie, was lying about anything else or not. Instead the "highly skilled and logical" prosecuting admiral decides that the best course of action is not to do this, but to question the technician without giving him any chance to respond, to look into the technician's background and put... Captain Picard on trial? What?! This makes no sense within the plot. Under no circumstance would a highly regarded captain with countless commendations suddenly be treated as highly suspicious for objecting to further inquiries of his crew. The trial is dropped when the prosecuting admiral has an emotional outburst about Picard's quoting her father, which reveals her unjustified conviction about Picard's guilt. I suppose the conclusion is that sometimes prosecutors become unfairly convinced of people's guilt. Agreed. But the plot of this episode is very forced and any weight it's anti-inquisition message might have can't stand atop the crumbling foundation.

The acting, cinematography, and music are all very standard for star trek, which is to say, pretty good, but the plot and the emotional core of the episode are not.

Great episode that takes a deep dive into the irrationality of the conspiracy witch hunt. Conspiracies have always been a 'thing' but with the rise of the internet has generated an increasingly unhinged group of wide eyed believers and this episode is as relevant as ever.

Simmonds is wonderful as Satie. She captures the spirit of insufferable arrogance and misplaced rage prevent in those who initiate such witch hunts. Worf gets to be the 'common man' who is manipulated to bend witnesses and facts to Satie's will.

I find it interesting that Satie's villainy is never explained. She is the daughter of a well respected judge --- how did she become so twisted? You know what --- Probably best they didn't explain it. I like using my own imagination.

To a framer every problem can be solved with a hammer. To a conspiracy theorist every major event is a conspiracy even if they have to invent a conspiracy to fit the situation. This episodes is basically the start of a potential slippery slope that could degenerate into WW2 levels of insanity/persecution if not contained and challenged.

An explosion in the Enterprise's engine room is linked to the leaking of confidential documents to the Romulans so retired admiral Nora Satie is brought in to investigate. The prime suspect is a Klingon exchange officer and it is soon shown that he leaked the documents but he denies any connection to the explosion. As the investigation expands suspicion falls on a young medical officer as Satie's Betazoid assistant senses that he is hiding something important during his interview. That something turns out to be the fact that one of his grandparents was Romulan rather than Vulcan as he claimed on his Star Fleet application. Picard doesn't see this as evidence that he is involved in a conspiracy; in fact by now it has been established that the explosion was due to a faulty part rather than enemy action… however these are just details to Satie who is determined to uncover 'the conspiracy' and sees anybody who defends those she accuses as a co-conspirator. Picard sees this as a witch-hunt and tries to call off the enquiry; this only puts him in the firing line as Satie starts going through his record.

It is said "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness" but those who absolutely believe in the righteousness of their cause can be just as dangerous as ones enemies and "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions'. Initially Satie come across as an upstanding advocate for justice but gradually it becomes apparent that she is a zealot; Jean Simmons does a fine job in the role as she gradually reveals just how obsessed she is. Patrick Stewart is on top form as Capt. Picard as he fights for the ideals the Federation was built on. The story might not be full of action but it is dramatic with an important message to put across and we can't forget that there are still plenty of people willing to justify the use of dubious techniques to expose suspected foes in the name of what is 'right'.

Great performances abound in this typical Star Trek fare. It was good viewing the first time around, but I will skip it in the future. I can forgive the lack of legal development in the 2300s, I can forgive the racism which shall hopefully not be so much in the forefront of society by then. I can even forgive the stupid slapstick from the previous episode in which the only two women who lend a hand in the fight using the stupid "vase to knock him out" trope. I cannot forgive yet another woman being dismissed for being irrational.

Everything about this episode contributes to the formula for a great Star Trek episode, but that a racist woman's dumb beliefs get eclipsed by "I'm an old, irrational bint, don't listen to me" was off-putting to say the least; it undermined Picard's points about ethics and made for a dull conclusion to an otherwise decent TNG episode.

Klingon exobiologists? Security breach? Things are already looking good. Are there spies aboard the Enterprise? We always knew that traitors on Qo'nos would be treated to a slow death and Worf cannot explain why his disgraced father would have once helped the Romulans, even though we all know he didn't.

I was surprised that the Admiral didn't question his loyalty further. Is it not possible that if he felt disgraced by his fate on Qo'nos that he might side with the enemy in order to get his revenge?

Romulans, sabotage, and dilithium crystals. Shadows cast by conspirators plotting their evil deeds. Like roaches scurrying for a dark corner.

This is an investigatory type of tale which is intriguing but plods along slowly. A kind of McCarthyism meets the Caine Mutiny but it does gets deeper and more fascinating as it rolls along.

This Episodes Clue: Varinia.