While Picard and Riker are visiting Angosia Three, a planet wishing to join the Federation, Prime Minister Nayrok tells them a dangerous prisoner has just escaped and asks them for help in retrieving him. The chase seems commonplace, but then the prisoner manages, at least temporarily, to escape, surprising all concerned. Nayrok tells them the prisoner is Roga Danar, who is given to bouts of excessive violence. Eventually, the ship is caught and Danar beamed aboard.

However, the security in the transporter room proves ineffective, and it takes quite some time to subdue Danar, though eventually they manage it. Later, Troi senses Danar is in pain and visits the brig to check on him, and is surprised to find he's not at all violent, and seems very bright. She checks Angosian records, and finds he's not a criminal, but a soldier. Eventually, she finds the whole story and tells Picard.

Apparently, for the recent Tarsian Wars, the Angosian soldiers were given various augmentations to survive, both physical and mental (including shielding electrical impulses, rendering them sensor-invisible). Danar and his friends were put on Lunar Five because they could not assimilate back into society after returning from the war, and the process, it seems, is irreversible. Picard asks Nayrok about Danar, only to be told that he is treading on matters of "internal security". Picard sympathizes with Danar, but still is forced to turn him over to the Angosian transport ship that just arrived. Unfortunately, as he tries, Danar manages to break out of the transporter beam and is loose on the Enterprise, with a phaser.

Despite many attempts to stop him, Danar eventually manages to escape. He beams himself over to the transport ship and commandeers it, leaving the Enterprise sensor-inoperative for the time being. Later, Nayrok calls in a panic: Danar has attacked Lunar Five and freed the prisoners, and they are heading for the capital. Picard beams down, with Troi, Data, and Worf, but claims they are not there to fight Angosia's wars for them. Just after Nayrok claims the "will of the people" made it necessary to resettle the soldiers, Danar and company arrive, armed to the teeth. Picard orders no response, reasoning that since the soldiers have been programmed to react violently only when threatened, if they are not threatened, they are not a threat either. When Danar insists that they all only want to come home, and refuses to return even temporarily to Lunar Five, Nayrok begs Picard to call his ship. Picard does so, claiming that since this is a matter of "internal security", it's not his concern, and the Enterprise leaves, convinced that if the government of Angosia survives the night, it will make a fine addition to the Federation.

Highlight Listing:

"The Hunted." The Enterprise is bombarded by a soldier who is the victim of government mind control which turns him into a violent killer.

Advertising Headline:

MAN-MADE KILLER! A soldier programmed to kill boards the Enterprise!

TV log listing:

Prison escapee boards the Enterprise on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

Operation SNAFU

At the end when the prisoners show up, Danar tells the leader to shoot. Danar shoots the wall behind him and it blasts a hole in the wall. Later scenes show the wall to be undamaged. (UV)

Technical design, graphic design, interactive features, HTML & CGI programming by Andrew Tong. || All materials Copyright © 1987-1995 by their respective authors. || Document created: January 28, 1995 || Last Modified: July 12, 1999