History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E11ThePegasus

* JustFollowingOrders: How Riker justified supporting Pressman twelve years ago. Nowadays, it's no longer working.

** Also, by revealing the existence of the cloak to Sirol, Picard converts an internal matter of Starfleet discipline into an international incident that threatens the treaty. The Enterprise should have slipped away unseen, while the law-abiding Federation silently destroyed the cloak later. Fortunately, it seems the Federation does not end up at war with the Romulans, and Picard suffers no consequences for an egregious error of judgment on top of Pressman's.

It's that time of year again, the holiday that brings joy to all the peoples of the ship: "Captain Picard Day." Naturally, he's uncomfortable being seen as a larger-than-life figure by the children, but he must continue the tradition and select a winner of the various drawings and sculptures of him. Thankfully, the day is interrupted by Starfleet, who immediately reassign the ''Enterprise'' and inform them they'll be taking on a passenger from Starfleet Intelligence. It turns out the passenger is Admiral Erik Pressman, who so happened to be Commander Riker's captain on his first assignment out of the Academy: USS ''Pegasus''. And as it also turns out, the ''Pegasus'' is the reason they're out here. It turns out the Romulans have found her...

* HollywoodOld / UnderAgeCasting: Creator/TerryOQuinn plays Riker's former CO, Admiral (formerly Captain) Erik Pressman, who is presumably 15-20 years older than Riker. But in reality, O'Quinn is barely a month older than Creator/JonathanFrakes.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Sirol, the Romulan captain, is [[PunchClockVillain not really evil]], but he's clearly putting on a veneer of affability to avoid discussing the real issue at hand. Picard returns his affectation in kind.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Pressman.

* FridgeLogic: The Treaty of Algeron banned the Federation from possessing cloaking devices has angered multiple fans, who wonder why the Federation would agree to such a treaty. However, Trek commentator Website/SFDebris proposed that we only know one piece of the treaty. With every Romulan being TheChessmaster, it could very well be that they gave up several short-term advantages just to gain this one long-term advantage.

* CallBack: Picard is given permission to exceed the Warp 5 speed limit established three episodes ago.

Riker and Pressman share a drink in Ten Forward. It's here that we first learn that all is not what it seems. Riker makes a mention to "the experiment," which Pressman hopes is still salvageable. The Admiral proceeds to justify what they were doing, and reminds Riker that he's under orders not to discuss with anyone the nature of the mission, including Captain Picard. Obviously, this makes Riker uneasy. We later see Pressman having some tea with the Captain, who recounts how he selected Riker to be his first officer. Being one of fifty applicants with dry statistics and useless letters of recommendation, what caught Picard's eye about Riker was that he was willing to say "no" to his captain. Pressman interprets this as selecting someone who was disobedient, but it's here that the contrast between the two men is established: Picard wants someone who is willing to challenge him, while Pressman believes a first officer should always stand by his captain. It's also established that the official report about the incident aboard ''Pegasus'' preceding its destruction are a bit vague, containing gaps Pressman does not wish to fill.

Time for some backstory and exposition. As mentioned, Riker's first assignment was USS ''Pegasus'', where Pressman was its captain. There was a warp core breach and the ship was presumed destroyed; only nine members of the crew escaped. However, an intelligence operative in the Romulan High Command intercepted a transmission indicating that a warbird found a piece of the ''Pegasus'' and was then ordered to find the rest of it. Since the ship was a testbed for new and experimental systems, some of which were used in building the ''Enterprise'', Starfleet cannot allow the ship to fall into their hands. They arrive in the system and are immediately greeted by the Romulan warbird. Picard and the Romulan commander have some banter, both blatantly aware of why they're both in the system but not tipping their hands, but wish each other well in their "research."

This episode infamously provided the basis for the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' GrandFinale "These are the Voyages...".

Meanwhile, the search for ''Pegasus'' is proceeding slowly, until they find the warp core signature coming from inside a large asteroid. After tricking the Romulans into thinking there's nothing interesting inside, they resolve to come back later to investigate further. Pressman brings Riker into the ready room and chews him out for suggesting they destroy the asteroid before they find the ship. Afterwards, Picard summons Riker to his quarters. He reads from the official JAG report about the loss of ''Pegasus''. As it turns out, there was a ''mutiny'' aboard just before they abandoned ship, and the report was deeply classified to the point that Picard need to call in a few favors to look at it. Riker recounts what happened, saying there was an explosion in engineering and afterwards, most of the crew rebelled against Captain Pressman. Nine of them ran to the escape pod, and after it launched, there was an explosion as the ship appeared to be destroyed. Furious that Riker withheld information from him, Picard lets him go but notes that he's treading on thin ice.

* UnderAgeCasting: Creator/TerryOQuinn plays Riker's first commanding officer, Admiral (formerly Captain) Pressman. Pressman is presumably 15-20 years older than Riker, but O'Quinn is barely a month older than Creator/JonathanFrakes, who plays Riker.

* RageAgainstTheMentor: Riker feels ashamed about supporting Pressman years ago.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Pressman.

-->'''Pressman''': I have powerful friends in Starfleet, Captain.

The Enterprise is ordered to head for an asteroid belt in an area between Romulan and Federation space, with Admiral Pressman aboard. Picard soon realizes that Pressman is up to something, and is horrified to learn that Commander Riker is involved.

When Riker's first commanding officer comes aboard to aid in the search for the vessel they served on, he is forced to rethink the actions he took at the time.