History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded

* {{Retcon}}: Earlier seasons presented the Federation as having been pretty much at peace until the Borg invasion. The Klingons had allied with the Federation, the Romulans had taken up decades-long isolationism and most other conflicts had been very minor. In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E21PeakPerformance Peak Performance]]" Riker goes so far as to claim that starship combat is a "minor" province of a Starfleet officer's duties. This episode establishes that not only was the Ferengi incident ''not'' the first time that Picard's former ship the ''Stargazer'' had nearly been destroyed by an enemy attack, but that a GreatOffscreenWar against the Cardassians had only just concluded within the last ''year''!

Shortly afterwards, Picard makes contact with Vice Admiral Hayden at Starfleet Command, who confirms the worst: Starfleet has a rogue captain on their hands. Benjamin Maxwell (Creator/BobGunton), commander of the ''Phoenix'' and hero of the Cardassian War, was the one responsible for the attack. And he's somewhere out there now, running silent, doing God knows what else. The Cardassian government has agreed to allow the ''Enterprise'' to try and find Maxwell before he does more harm, provided they allow a Cardassian presence on board. Macet will do nicely. Before signing off, Hayden cautions Picard to tread ''very'' carefully. Still recovering from their losses at Wolf 359, Starfleet is simply unprepared for another war. The fragile peace ''must'' be maintained.

* FreezeFrameBonus: During [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEXjz2dyJtw the battle]] between the Phoenix and the Cardassian ships, we get a pretty cool tactical display on the Enterprise's viewscreen. Though all we see are dots in place of the ships with their name or identification number right next to it, once the ships open fire you get text descriptors that quickly shows what weapons were fired and the damage resulting from those attacks (including the dot "exploding" and then disappearing when the sensors show the attacked ship has been destroyed). The text is much more easily read on the BluRay edition.

* ArtisticLicensePolitics: The peace treaty that ended the war between the Federation and the Cardassians as described seems to imply an alliance between the two former warring powers, when peace treaties are simply used to end wars and there would (most likely) need to be a lot more trust before either side considers a former enemy a friend. If two former enemies become friends, a separate treaty of alliance beyond the existent peace treaty would have to be drafted and signed.

* ArtisticLicensePolitics: The peace treaty that ended the war between the Federation and the Cardassians as described seems to imply an alliance between the two former warring powers, when peace treaties are simply used to end wars and there would (most likely) need to be a lot more trust before either side conisders a former enemy a friend.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: As the Cardassians are leaving the transporter room after beaming over, [[TheEmpath Tori]] pauses and looks at O'Brien in pure shock, hinting to the audience that he has some ''very'' deep-seated issues with Cardassians.

* TheseHandsHaveKilled: During the war, O'Brien was involved in a fight with some Cardassian soldiers who were attacking Federation colonists. O'Brian grabbed a phaser and fired it without checking the settings first; the Caradassian was ''vaporized''. When recalling the incident to one of Macet's aides, O'Brian mentions that he'd never killed anyone before then.

* MeaningfulName: Maxwell's ship is the USS ''Phoenix'', named after the mythical bird that cyclically burns itself before rising from the ashes and lives again. In this episode, Maxwell threatens to reawaken hostilities between the Federation and the Cardassians. ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' revealed that the ''Phoenix'' was also the name of Zephram Cochrane's spaceship when he made humanity's first warp flight, leading to first contact with an alien species, the Vulcans, and humanity rising out of the ashes of World War III in the mid-21st century.

* TheExtremistWasRight: Picard privately concedes to Macet that Maxwell was right that the Cardassians ''are'' rearming themselves. When Macet asks why Picard didn't do what Maxwell asked, Picard replies that maintaining the peace was more important.

** In this first appearance, the ''Nebula''-class starship's "AWACS" pod is round, and thins out toward the edges, like a lens. The producers were dissatisfied with the final product and the model was refurbished with a new, more triangular pod in all subsequent appearances. The ''Nebula''-class is also treated as a combat-dedicated vessel, when virtually all future depictions treat it as science-focused vessel - [[AllThereInTheManual explained]] [[HandWave away]] by having the pod be a mission-specific fully swappable module.

* FallenHero: Benjamin Maxwell--O'Brien simply cannot believe that his old CO is capable of acting out of revenge.

* VillainousBSOD: "I'm not gonna win this one, am I, Chief?"

* RememberTheNewGuy: The Cardassians apparently have been at war with the Federation until just recently and are another major alien race in the sector. This episode was the first time they'd been mentioned.

* ShellShockedVeteran: O'Brien and Maxwell are both traumatized by the recent war, though O'Brien seems to be dealing with it better than his Captain. Glinn Dako isn't much better off, expressing a deep regret in fighting the battle that cost Maxwell his family, angrily dismissing it as being based on faulty intel.

* VastBureaucracy: Maxwell's opinion of Starfleet as a whole is diplomacy and paperwork. After Picard refuses to go along with him, he looks around the Ready Room and scornfully says, "It smells musty in here. Like a ''bureaucrat's office''."

* CrusadingWidower: Maxwell is largely fueled by suppressed grief over losing his wife and children at Setlik III.

* ShellShockedVeteran: O'Brien and Maxwell are both traumatized by the recent war, though O'Brien seems to be dealing with it better than his Captain.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Gul Macet and his crew, setting the tone for future portrayals of Cardassians. He's unfailingly polite and even-tempered and reprimands his subordinate who was caught hacking the Enterprise's computers, but it's also implied that he's fully aware of the plot Maxwell was onto.