62: Silent Running

Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast

The Hunt for Red October and Face of the Enemy.

In space, all warriors are cold warriors. And none are colder, perhaps, than the steely Romulans who crew those imposingly green warbirds. In the sixth-season TNG episode “Face of the Enemy,” the normally warm-hearted Counselor Deanna Troi must join their ranks as she impersonates Major Rakal, a ruthless operative in the Tal Shiar, the Romulan intelligence service. This popular story was inspired, in part, by Tom Clancy’s thriller The Hunt for Red October—particularly the movie adaptation starring Sean Connery as a Soviet submarine commander who attempts to defect to the West. In fact, when writer Naren Shankar was at work on the script, it was Connery’s voice he imagined for the captain of the Romulan ship.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Carlos Miranda, a massive fan of The Hunt for Red October, to discuss the film’s influence on “Face of the Enemy.” We then open up the discussion and look at the role of the Romulans as primary Cold War antagonist in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as some other episodes involving defections across Star Trek’s own iron curtain: the Neutral Zone. Finally, we consider how the Enterprise’s various Romulan encounters might play into the new Picard series coming in early 2020.

Chapters Up Periscope (00:02:15) Cloaking Dagger (00:15:40) One Ping Only (00:35:20) Across the Neutral Zone (00:41:55) Chair Versus Badge (00:51:55) Final Thoughts (01:06:58)

Host Duncan Barrett

Guest Carlos Miranda

Production Duncan Barrett (Editor, Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)