https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp212
In his first appearance in the episode The Enemy, Tomalak violates the Romulan-Federation Neutral Zone in an effort to rescue the crew of a scout ship which had previously violated the same Neutral Zone and crashed on a planet. He threatens to fire on the Enterprise after Picard confronts him and his warbird, but the Romulans back down when one of the stranded crew members is returned safely to them. Indeed, this crew member helps Geordi La Forge escape the planet alive, giving both sides reason to keep the cease fire.
Like all powerful Romulans, Tomalak is of course involved in an elaborate conspiracy to trick the Federation into a trap during his next appearance in the episode The Defector. His trap involves allowing a Romulan defector Jarok to go go the Federation with fake news of a supposed Romulan build up on a planet in the Neutral Zone, to lure a Federation ship there. Picard's Enterprise is the lucky victim of this trap, but thankfully he was smart enough to have some Klingon reinforcements with him when breaking into the Neutral Zone. The Klingons force Tomalak to back down before he takes the Enterprise and its crew hostage.
QUOTE (from The Defector)
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: What shall it be, Tomalak? Commander Tomalak: You will still not survive our assault.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: And you will not survive ours. Shall we die together?
Tomalak does not match wits with Picard again on this level, but he is an antagonist which is interesting and memorable enough to appear in a couple more episodes of the latter seasons of the show. In Future Imperfect, he is part of an elaborate hologram hoax set by a lonely abandoned boy who wants company and deceives Riker into being with him for a time.
In the finale All Good Things, he appears in an alternate timeline and decides to let a single ship going a single Federation ship into the Neutral Zone to investigate an eruption in that Zone. Thus, even though he is left to holograms and alternate realities, this Romulan leader becomes one of the few recurring villains in this TV series. He is also a character brought up in many of the Star Trek books, for those who want more.
Just like the Sela character profiled a few weeks ago, Tomalak provides some much-needed consistency on the other side of the long Romulan-Federation tension storylines. It would've been interesting to see him make a cameo in the Nemesis movie, but I suppose an appearance in the finale episode, which was much like the scope of a feature film, was enough of a nod to the importance of this character.
Tomalak was played by Andreas Katsulas, who passed away in February of this year after being out of acting for the last 10 years. His other recurring role was as G'Kar on Babylon 5, and he also appeared in the Harrison Ford movie The Fugitive.
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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!
Just like the Sela character profiled a few weeks ago, Tomalak provides some much-needed consistency on the other side of the long Romulan-Federation tension storylines. It would've been interesting to see him make a cameo in the Nemesis movie, but I suppose an appearance in the finale episode, which was much like the scope of a feature film, was enough of a nod to the importance of this character.
Tomalak was played by Andreas Katsulas, who passed away in February of this year after being out of acting for the last 10 years. His other recurring role was as G'Kar on Babylon 5, and he also appeared in the Harrison Ford movie The Fugitive.
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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!
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