Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

The Enemy (1989)

Patrick Stewart: Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Quotes 

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Lieutenant - sometimes, the moral obligations of command are less than clear. I have to weigh the good of the many against the needs of the individual, and try to balance them as realistically as possible. God knows, I don't always succeed.

  Lieutenant Worf : I have not had cause to complain, Captain.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Oh. Lieutenant, you wouldn't complain even if you had cause.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Commander Tomalak - it would appear, our away team has located a second man from your "one-man ship".

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Commander, how is it that we were not informed of the presence of the second Romulan on Galondon Core?

  Commander Tomalak : A simple misunderstanding, Captain Picard. I was obviously misinformed as to the size of the craft. I assure you, I intended no deception.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Of course not.

  Commander Tomalak : You doubt my good faith?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Let's just say my faith would be reinforced by a gesture from you - such as powering down your disruptors.

  [Tomalak turns and nods to someone offscreen] 

  Lieutenant Worf : Disruptors powering down.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Thank you. Commander, we will return your officer, and escort your ship to the Neutral Zone.

  Commander Tomalak : That is acceptable.

• Commander Tomalak : Territories! You would measure territories against a man's life?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Commander, I am singularly impressed by your concern for *a* life. Do not risk any more lives by leaving the Neutral Zone!

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Commander, both our ships are ready to fight. We have two extremely powerful and destructive arsenals at our command. Our next actions will have serious repercussions. We have good reason to mistrust one another; but we have even better reason to set those differences aside. Now, of course, the question is... who will take the initiative? Who will make the first gesture of trust? - The answer is, I will. I must lower our shields to beam those men up from the planet's surface. Once the shields are down, you will, of course, have the opportunity to fire on us. If you do, you will destroy not only the Enterprise and its crew, but the ceasefire that the Romulans and the Federation now enjoy.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [to Worf]  Lieutenant... lower the shields.

• [the crew are debating the recent intrusion of a Romulan ship in Federation space] 

  Commander William T. Riker : It obviously wasn't pilot's error. I think it demands a response from us.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : But we must measure our response carefully, or history may remember Galorndon Core along with... Pearl Harbor, and Station Salem One, as the stage for a bloody preamble to war.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : If the point has not yet been made clearly Commander, let me make it again: Romulan warbirds do not enter Federation space unless they are prepared to do battle.

  Commander Tomalak : But on a mission of mercy?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : A mission - to recover one of your officers, who has been caught on a Federation planet, for reasons as yet unknown.

  Commander Tomalak : I have already explained...

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : And I have rejected your explanation!

• [last lines] 

  Commander William T. Riker : Close call.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Too close, Number One. Brinkmanship is a dangerous game.

• Commander Tomalak : You have one chance to escape destruction, Picard. Return my officer at once!

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Commander, you have entered Federation space despite my warning!

  Commander Tomalak : You forced this situation! I will not leave without him.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : He's dead.

  Commander Tomalak : Then he... is but the first to fall, Picard.