Another something of a "bottle episode" that also has something of a focus on a secondary character, two in a row on both instances.
In this episode Picard and the Enterprise are tasked to meet with a Cardassian delegation to track down a Starfleet captain who has gone rogue with his vessel and started attacking Cardassian vessels unprovoked.
This episode introduces us to the Cardassians and gives us some history on the relationship between them and the Federation all of which will, obviously, become a big part of "Deep Space Nine" as well as O'Brien's role in that series.
The Cardassians make for a good introduction and although they don't have much of a major appearance in TNG (other than in Chain of Command) the makeup and costuming work on them is pretty elaborate for a "alien of the week" species which is usually a hint of "some" plan for future use of them. While this didn't come to fruition in TNG and DS9 wasn't likely fully being planned this early the Cardassians certainly panned out to be a major Trek species.
We learn of some history between the Cardassians and the Federation which involved some-level of war in the recent past, a conflict that seemed to be resolved with the Cardassians and Federation managing to reach some level of peace and co-operation but the scars of the war are obviously still there which is where the main focus of this episode comes from.
It presents us with two characters who were something of victims in a conflict with the Cardassians during the war and how they've reacted to the emotional injuries they sustained.
First we have Chief O'Brien, during the war he got into a tussle with a Cardassian soldier, was handed a weapon and used it to defend himself unknown the phaser was set to the highest setting which vaporized the Cardassian soldier, becoming the first person O'Brien killed. He's internalized this pain and while he says he doesn't "hate" the Cardassians over what they did during the war he hates what he became (a killer) due to the war. He has a few encounters with the Cardassians while on the ship where he all-but stiff-shoulders them when walking by obviously holding deep emotions against them. Whether or not he was telling the truth on where his anger was directed is up to debate, it's easy to take O'Brien for his word here but his actions over the course of the episode speak a bit louder as well as his own words when he does show some level of distrust against them.
And then we have Captain Maxwell of the USS Phoenix who blames the Cardassians for the loss of his family during a confrontation during the war. At one point in a conversation with him he seems to behave as though he thinks the war is still going on, apparently suffering from some sort of 'shell-shock' from the events of the war. He blames the Cardassians for the death of his family and it's assumed at first by many that this clouded his judgment when it came to his attacks against Cardassian supply ships but, in the end, it turns out he was right that the Cardassians were up to no good. Something Picard confirms at the end of the episode but opted to maintain the peace between the Federation and the Cardassians over possibly starting another war by boarding a Cardassian ship for inspection.
Also in this episode we get a bit of a glimpse at O'Brien's married life and it seems the Honeymoon is already over to some degree as he and Keiko seem to have disagreements on what constitutes a meal. Keiko prepares a meal for them consisting of light, Asian themed dishes which O'Brien doesn't seem to enjoy too much wanting something heartier. Later he prepares a potato casserole for dinner for the both of them where Keiko turns her nose up that and questions the presence of capers in the dish. It's odd that these two dated long enough to decide to get married but apparently have never made dinner with each other to know the other's food preferences and likes? (This is the episode where Keiko turns her nose up over the idea of O'Brien's mother preparing raw meat with her hands.)
Again, it's an odd depiction of the marriage and relationship between the two; and in the two episodes it's hard to see what O"Brien sees in Keiko. It would have been nice to see more of the romance and love between the two other than these petty little skirmishes they get into.
Overall a pretty good episode and some more good moments with O'Brien as wee see his interaction with his former commanding officer and learn more of his past. Certainly a big turning point of the character becoming less of a background/secondary character as he takes on his path to becoming a main character on DS9.
Not a whole lot of good moments for the rest of the crew other than some nice diplomacy moments with Picard interacting with the Cardassian commander as well as his smack-down of the commander at the end of the episode.
The episode makes use of the Phoenix's "transponder" or "prefix" code to allow the Cardassians to take down the ship's shields during an altercation. Of course, this strategy was used by Kirk to take down the Reliant's shields in Star Trek II.
Oddly, the prefix-code isn't used later in the episode when O'Brien wants to beam aboard to the ship in order to possibly talk Captain Maxwell down. No doubt the code was changed after the Cardassians made use of it but you'd think the Enterprise or Starfleet would have a way of getting the new code. Also O'Brien manages to beam over to the ship in a window of a fraction of a second during the shield's power cycle which shouldn't be nearly enough time for a transport to take place.
Also little to no mention is made of the Phoenix's crew and why they are blindly following Maxwell's order to fire on defenseless, friendly, ships that have not fired first. At the end of the episode the Phoenix is put under command of the ship's first officer in order to take it to starbase. But.... How much can we trust THAT guy?! Hasn't he been following his Captain's insane orders all of this time? Why not place the ship under the watch of Riker or Data?
Still, a good enough episode in the fairly strong fourth season.
Great line:
"It's not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I've become because of you." - O'Brien explaining his animosity towards the Cardassian officers during their time on the ship after telling his phaser story.
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