Star Trek: The Next Generation 5.07

Unification - Part 1

Captain Picard receives word from Starfleet that Ambassador Spock has been sighted on the Romulan home world. It is suspected that he might have defected. Starfleet wants Captain Picard to figure out what Spock is up to and, if possible, retrieve him.

Picard visits Sarek, Spock's father, who is gravely ill. Picard hopes that Sarek might have some insight as to why his son is on the Romulan home world. Sarek suggests that Spock might be there to see Pardek, a Romulan senator with whom he has maintained a friendly relationship.

Captain Picard and Commander Data get a ride from a Klingon warship to the Romulan home world. The trip is arranged thanks to the leader of the Klingon high council.

The Enterprise investigates some mysterious space debris while Picard and Data are on their way to the Romulan home world. They travel to a junkyard in search of the ship from which the debris originated. They find out that someone has been sneaking into the junkyard and appropriating things illegally. They try to stop the thieves but when the Enterprise returns fire the thieves ship is destroyed.

Captain Picard and Commander Data get word while they are on their way to the Romulan home world that Sarek has died. Picard and Data disguise themselves as Romulans and secretly beam down to the Romulan home world. They make contact with Senator Pardek and Ambassador Spock.

Thoughts

The Klingon commander of the ship that takes Picard and Data to the Romulan home world was played by Stephen Root whom I know best from NewsRadio. I believe that this story is his one and only appearance in any Star Trek television show or movie. It predates his time on NewsRadio by a few years.

It's not clear what connection there is between the two storylines but presumably they will come together in the concluding chapter of this story. Spock is only seen at the very beginning and the very end of this episode. He only speaks a couple lines.

So far so good. I'm not crazy about it but it feels like the story is still building at this point. It has yet to get truly interesting.