This thing with the Chinese balloon and our unwillingness to shoot it down and examine it reminded me of a Star Trek episode.

Picard and I’m guessing a Romulan were having one of their many faceoffs at the end of the episode.

There was a probe or something that the Romulans were trying to convince StarFleet was completely innocent and Picard was not having it. Telling the Romulan that he knew they were full of shit, but was not going to do anything about in the hope of preventing a war.

I’ve watched this scene of YouTube countess times and now when i want to find it…nothing.

Is that the one where the Romulans lure the Enterprise into the neutral zone and are gleefully going to destroy them, but Picard was expecting the ploy and had requested backup from 3 Klingon Birds of Prey?

The Defector S3E10

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
Is that the one where the Romulans lure the Enterprise into the neutral zone and are gleefully going to destroy them, but Picard was expecting the ploy and had requested backup from 3 Klingon Birds of Prey?

I thought so at first but they all fly away at the end. It’s been so long…I “think” the Romulan may have been on board the ship for some reason. I feel like it was just Picard and the Romulan big shot in the same room or via the screen, the Romulan is dressing down Picard for some transgression that one of the Enterprise crew did and Picard gets right back in his face. Essentially saying, I’m going to prevent a war by not investigating, but I just want you to know that I know.

That was a lot of writing above, i just started to rif.

I didn't see your response and updated my post with the episode name and when it aired.

Was it Season 3 episode 7 "The Enemy"? Picard has the below quote near the end;

"Commander, both our ships are ready to fight. We have two extremely powerful and destructive arsenals at our command. Our next actions will have serious repercussions. We have reason to mistrust one another but even better reason to set those differences aside. Of course, the question is, who will take the initiative? Who will make the first gesture of trust? The answer is, I will. I must lower our shields to beam those men up from the planet's surface. Once the shields are down, you will of course have the opportunity to fire on us. If you do, you will destroy not only the Enterprise and its crew, but the cease fire that the Romulans and the Federation now enjoy."



Or possibly you're thinking of the episode where the Enterprise has to enter Cardassian space to go after Cpt. Maxwell who went rogue. At the end he tells the Cardassian commander that he knows what they're doing.

Or possibly you're thinking of the episode where the Enterprise has to enter Cardassian space to go after Cpt. Maxwell who went rogue. At the end he tells the Cardassian commander that he knows what they're doing.

Yep! Cardassians; I had my enemies confused.

That scene is the one I was looking for, thank you!

That episode just played here on TV this past week; very interesting episode.

It is a good one - One of the top 10 for TNG IMO. It's where some the O'Brien character's background is first explored.

I LOVE that episode. It's actually one of the few TNG episodes where I actually like O'Brien's character. He had a LOT more character development in DS9, but that was a great episode. He had PTSD and hated the Cardassians (well, he didn't 'hate' them, but he hated what he became, BECAUSE of them).

Yeah, Capt Maxwell was wrong, but he was right about the Cardi build-up. This episode helped set the stage for DS9 with the Cardis as the new bad guys.