“The Wounded”
Written by Stuart Charno, Sara Charno, Cy Chermak, and Jeri Taylor
Directed by Chip Chalmers
Season 4, Episode 12
Production episode 40274-186
Original air date: January 28, 1991
Stardate: 44429.6
Captain’s Log: The Enterprise is on a mapping mission near the Cardassian border. A peace treaty signed a year earlier ended the long conflict between the Federation and the Cardassians, a conflict so vicious that there’s been nothing remotely resembling an indication of it in the past three-plus seasons’ worth of television episodes. Picard reminisces about a time he faced off against Cardassians while commanding the Stargazer.
A Cardassian ship, the Trager, attacks the Enterprise without obvious provocation. The Enterprise gets the upper hand in short order, at which point the Cardassian shipmaster, Gul Macet, is willing to talk. He reveals that a Federation starship destroyed a Cardassian science station in the Cuellar system. Picard assures Macet that the Federation has no wish to abandon the treaty. Macet tartly points out that the Cardassians haven’t abandoned it, but is willing to wait an hour while Picard contacts Starfleet.
[Smells musty in here — like a bureaucrat’s office!]