Star Trek makeups: ‘Major Rakal’

TNG: ‘Major Rakal’

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘Face of the Enemy’ Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) wakes up one morning to discover she’s a Romulan aboard a Romulan warship and sharing it uncomfortably with Commander Toreth (Carolyn Seymour).

It turns out to be one of Spock’s cunning plans: she’s been kidnapped and surgically altered to become ‘Major Rakal’, an officer of the Tal Shiar (the elite intelligence agency of the Romulan Star Empire), to take part in a secret mission – implausible but at least it gave Marina the chance to try out a few new expressions (and even to lose her rag). Deanna was one of those female characters (like Kes in Voyager) that Star Trek created every so often and then realised they’re not very useful – this was one of the few episodes where she got much to do other than be generally supportive.

The makeup

Michael Westmore was the makeup designer and supervisor on Star Trek: The Next Generation.