But I always thought that the silver crown had been removed by a souvenir hunter even before we had entered St Petersburg." Don't let's worry about that today," said Margaret consolingly, but in a voice that accepted that her mother was right. "I wonder what can be in that envelope, Adam," she added, wanting to change the subject. In June 1966 disgraced British colonel Gerald Scott leaves a mysterious letter to his only son, Adam Scott. Adam's mother tells him that she had already asked his father to destroy the letter. However, rather than run his adversary through, Montoya decides against making a bad situation worse. Instead of wrapping the sword around Columbo’s insides, he wraps it in his muleta and hands both over to the policeman: a clear and public sign of the respect he holds for the man who has brought his world crashing down. We see in this moment that Montoya is not entirely irredeemable and he is, at the last, a man of honour.

I’d classify this as a medium episode, because the setting is a little boring, and (as you point out) Montalbán is under-used. The man who played Khan could have been a much flashier villain here.Kargan tries to get Riker to betray Starfleet; when Riker refuses, Kargan tells him that if he had, Kargan would have executed him as a traitor on the spot. Den of Geek says, in their 2013 review of this episode, "Competent, engaging, full of heart, humour and character interplay. The scene with Riker and Picard down at the shooting range is fantastic, ...". [4] Kargan: I am still Captain of this vessel and you are still crew and sworn to obey me. You gave me your oath. A scene filmed but cut for time showed the engineering room of the Pagh. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (2nd ed., p. 75)) A maquette of the engine room was already completed, photographs of which have been published in The 24th Century Technical Manual.

I liked the style of how Jeffrey Archer told his story and for the written word, sounded like Ian Hislop on the BBC television comedy panel show, Have I Got News For You. The character development of Adam Scott was spot on and you could imagine his accent to be similar to Ian Hislop. Major Alexander Petrovich Romanov - An agent of the KGB sent after Scott to obtain the icon and its contents. Fluent in English, German and French in addition to his native Russian, he has an immense passion for catching Scott after finding that his mission is to do so and has no qualms about murdering those who get in his way. whereabouts of the original icon, President Johnson's defence strategy would be rendered virtually useless, and the United States would then become a pawn on the Russian chessboard." had reached the last paragraph. He looked across at the tiny painting, no larger than a book, that remained in the centre of the Chairman's desk. The first few chapters build up the story after which the action starts, with a few deaths of course. (How will it be a thriller otherwise, huh?) There are layers and layers of mystery. Initially, it was a bit amusing to see Adam's unawareness about the situation, a man who's on the run for his life without even knowing why. What he thinks of as inheriting a mere painting to be auctioned off and earned money from, unknown to him is actually a worldwide political drama, where no one is to be trusted.And even if Montoya did freeze on that first occasion with only Hector to witness it, would a man of his stature allow it to happen again in front of so many others? I don’t buy it. The vain Don Luis Montoya would rather die than show such legacy-tarnishing weakness in public. It doesn’t ring true for who he is – similar to the way Bo Williamson meekly surrenders to Elliott Markham in Blueprint for Murder, when in reality such a character would fight tooth and nail to survive. Coronet edition 1987 Reprinted 1987 eight times Reprinted 1988twice Reprinted 1989 twice This impression February 1990 Act One [ ] " Captain's Log, Stardate 42506.5. We have departed from Starbase 179 and are headed for a rendezvous with the Klingon vessel Pagh . I have informed the staff of Commander Riker's temporary assignment."