History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E10TheDauphin

-->'''Data''': Did I? What I meant, sir, is that Daled Four rotates only once per revolution. Therefore one side is constantly dark, and the other side constantly light. One might surmise that the two hemispheres have developed disparate cultures, which is a major cause of most wars.

* RapunzelHair: Salia has extremely long hair, which emphasizes her status as a youthful princess.

The ship arrives at Daled IV, and Salia goes to bid farewell to Wesley. He is upset by the revelation that she is a shapechanger, realizing that her beautiful form has been a lie to make the crew more comfortable. Salia insists that her love for Wesley is genuine, but he spurns her. As Salia makes her final preparations to depart, Anya and Worf exchange words of mutual respect as protectors who are NotSoDifferent. Just before Salia can leave, Wesley arrives to reconcile with her and stays to witness her true form: a being of pure light. Afterwards, Guinan helps a despondent Wesley sort through his feelings about the whole escapade.

* NotSoDifferent: In the end, Anya admits that Worf has the same responsibilities to protect his charge as she does hers. The pair exchange words of mutual respect.

* IfYouWontIWill: Anya orders Pulaski to kill a patient with the flu because he might pose a small chance of infecting Salia. When Pulaski (naturally) refuses, Anya says this just before shapeshifting.

* MamaBear: Anya is very protective of Salia, and jumps to transforming into her mutant-Wookie form whenever she thinks she might be in danger.

* ShoutOut: In the digitally remastered version of the episode, the one moon of Daled IV we see onscreen looks [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daled_iv_remastered.jpg rather like]] the [[Film/ANewHope Death Star]]. (Or, more prosaically, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimas_(moon) Mimas]].

* ShoutOut: In the digitally remastered version of the episode, the one moon of Daled IV we see onscreen looks [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daled_iv_remastered.jpg rather like]] the [[Film/ANewHope Death Star]].

* GratuitousFrench: The title of the episode should actually be "The ''Dauphine''", since "dauphin" is the masculine form of the word rather than the feminine.

* CulturalPosturing: Anya constantly complains that the Enterprise is so primitive. Which is odd since everything else about the situation makes it pretty obvious her race is massively less advanced; the whole plot is about the Enterprise stepping in because they don't have any their own ships that can ferry passengers from their colony in a reasonable time frame.

* WasItAllALie: Wesley, at the end, believing Salia has just been playing at being humanoid and made him a part of that game. She firmly insists that, no, ''none'' of it was -- shapeshifter or no, she is still a young woman with the same emotions as a humanoid, and her feelings for him were genuine.
* WorthyOpponent: Worf and Anya acknowledge each other as this at the end, in contrast to earlier where each insists the other wouldn't be a match for them.

The ''Enterprise'' arrives at a hostile desert planet to pick up Salia, a sixteen-year-old girl who is destined to bring peace to Daled IV. As she's being led through the ship, she encounters Wesley, and the two fall in LoveAtFirstSight. The rest of the crew encourage Wesley to pursue her, but Salia's overprotective governess Arya complicates the issue.

While Arya is away, Salia invites Wesley in her room, and the pair spend the day eating chocolate and touring the galaxy in the holodeck. Meanwhile, Arya alarms the crew with her all-consuming obsession with protecting Salia from any harm. She demands that Dr. Pulaski kill a patient to avoid the chance of him infecting Salia. When Pulaski refuses, Arya transforms into a monstrous shape and brawls with Worf before Picard arrives to deescalate the situation.

Salia experiences a crisis between her responsibility to save Daled IV from eternal war and her desire to live her own life. Wesley encourages her to pursue her own desires and remain on the ship with him. After sneaking away from Arya, she and Wesley share a kiss. However, Arya interrupts them and threatens Wesley in her monstrous shape. Salia transforms into a similar shape to protect Wesley, revealing that she is also a shapechanger. Picard orders that their passengers will spend the rest of the journey behind a forcefield to avoid any further incidents.

The ship arrives at Daled IV, and Salia goes to bid farewell to Wesley. He is upset by the revelation that she is a shapechanger, realizing that her beautiful form has been a lie to make the crew more comfortable. Salia insists that her love for Wesley is genuine, but he spurns her. As Salia makes her final preparations to depart, Arya and Worf exchange words of mutual respect as protectors who are NotSoDifferent. Just before Salia can leave, Wesley arrives to reconcile with her and stays to witness her true form: a being of pure light. Afterwards, Guinan helps a despondent Wesley sort through his feelings about the whole escapade.

* NotSoDifferent: In the end, Arya admits that Worf has the same responsibilities to protect his charge as she does hers. The pair exchange words of mutual respect.

* TheReveal: Arya is a shapechanger! And so is Salia!

The episode begins with the Enterprise on a mission to pick up a sixteen year old girl who is destined to be the leader that brings peace to Daled IV from a hostile desert planet where she has been spending her life studying for the role. As she's being led through the ship, she encounters Wesley, who is in the process of assisting Geordi with minor repairs on the warp engine. Wesley, being a teenage boy in an 80s television show, instantly develops a crush on her so severe he finds himself unable to do basic tasks, and is told to pursue his crush by Geordi. This leads to getting advice from various members of the crew, such as Riker and Guinan (who proceed to cheesily flirt with each other as a demonstration and quickly forget that Wesley is even there).

Salia, meanwhile, is struggling with her responsibilities; she desires the freedom to make her own choices, while her overprotective governess Anya (who soon reveals herself as a shapeshifter) insists that she focus only on her studies and the monumental position she's going to undertake. As a result she's more than happy to spend time with Wesley when he approaches her, telling him about her problems and joining him on the holodeck for a sort of quasi-date after learning about the replicator from him.

Anya's overprotective nature and ability to shapeshift into deadly forms ends up causing friction with the crew, when she demands that they murder a crewman who is sick so that his illness won't risk infecting Salia. She becomes agitated when discovering that Salia has gone missing (with Wesley), but soon enough Salia has a crisis over her obligations and runs out on Wesley when he insists she could stay on the Enterprise instead of going to be a leader.

Despite both Anya's and Picard's demand that Wesley and Salia discontinue their relationship, the two of them meet up again and reconnect, even sharing a kiss. Soon after this Anya intervenes, threatening Wesley in one of her forms from before. When Wesley refuses to run out of the room to safety, Salia reveals that she too is a shapeshifter, turning into another monstrous form to protect him from Anya. Wesley and Salia discuss this later, Salia explaining that she isn't even human at all, but she and her governess took those forms to comfort the crew. Despite his (somewhat strange at this point) doubts that an alien species can feel love the same way, she insists that her emotions are genuine in human form and later on the two part on good terms. Wesley ends up talking to Guinan to sort through his feelings on the whole ordeal.

* KnightTemplarParent: Anya, who although not Salia's real parent seems to look after her like one. This includes trying to murder anything that could ''technically'' pose a threat to her or her mission, from a sick patient to a lovestruck teenage boy like Wesley.
* LoveAcrossBattlelines: Salia's parents.

* MatronChaperone: Played absolutely straight: Anya is Salia's chaperone, singlemindedly devoted to protecting Salia from anything (including romance) that could put her at risk, and in public Anya usually takes the form of a conservatively dressed older woman.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Wesley's bizarre little episode after learning the truth about Salia, where (despite having made contact with all manner of alien life prior to this episode) he's convinced Salia isn't capable of really loving him because she's a shapeshifter. It kind of feels like the fans who hated him took over the writing for this scene. Towards the end, he softens up and sees her off.

** WasItAllALie: However Salia was not upfront about being an alien shapeshifter, so Wesley has every reason to wonder if he was being played for a fool.

* MaidAndMaiden: Played absolutely straight: Anya is Salia's fiercely protective chaperone, and in public she usually takes the form of a conservatively dressed older woman.

* KnightTemplarParent: Salia, who although not Anya's real parent seems to look after her like one. This includes trying to murder anything that could ''technically'' pose a threat to her or her mission, from a sick patient to a lovestruck teenage boy like Wesley.

Salia, meanwhile, is struggling with her responsibilities; she desires the freedom to make her own choices, while her overprotective governess Anya (who seen reveals herself as a shapeshifter) insists that she focus only on her studies and the monumental position she's going to undertake. As a result she's more than happy to spend time with Wesley when he approaches her, telling him about her problems and joining him on the holodeck for a sort of quasi-date after learning about the replicator from him.

* MamaBear: Anya is very protective of Salia, and jumps to transforming into a ferocious beast whenever she thinks she might be in danger.

Salia, meanwhile, is struggling with her responsibilities; she desires the freedom to make her own choices, while her overprotective governess Anya (who seen reveals herself as a shapeshifter) insists that she focus only on her studies and the monumental position she's going to undertake. As a result she's more than happy to spend time with Westley when he approaches her, telling him about her problems and joining him on the holodeck for a sort of quasi-date after learning about the replicator from him.

Anya's overprotective nature and ability to shapeshift into deadly forms ends up causing friction with the crew, when she demands that they murder a crewman who is sick so that his illness won't risk infecting Salia. She becomes agitated when discovering that Salia has gone missing (with Wesley), but soon enough Salia has a crisis over her obligations and runs out on Westley when he insists she could stay on the Enterprise instead of going to be a leader.

* KnightTemplarParent: Salia, who although not Anya's real parent seems to look after her like one. This includes trying to murder anything that could ''technically'' pose a threat to her or her mission, from a sick patient to a lovestruck teenage boy like Westley.

* CulturalPosturing: Anya constantly complains that the Enterprise is so primitive. Which is odd since everything else about the situation makes it pretty obvious her race is massively less advanced; to whole plot is about the Enterprise stepping in because they don't have any their own ships that can ferry passengers from their colony in a reasonable time frame.