By D.K. Henderson on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 - 08:00 am:

Picard should have pointed out to the Edo that, by not THOROUGHLY explaining the rules and regs to Wesley, they, in effect, conspired to murder him.
Wesley seemed quite unaware of the significance of those arbitrarily chosen restricted areas. I'm quite certain he would have avoided them had he known.
This being the case, all of the Edo around the beam-down point, including the youngsters, would have to be executed after Wesley. I rather think they would have reconsidered.
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By Brian Henley on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 - 01:29 pm:

I'm curious as to the Starfleet protocol here. A few seasons later, Riker gets into deep doo doo when he's captured on a covert mission to gather information on an alien race. The information he gathers will make the official First Contact go smoother.

I guess Starfleet never did this with the Edo, since whoever they would have sent probably would have mentioned in his report that the Edo kill anyone who steps out of line.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 08:06 am:

Do you think that a planet where the people make love at the drop of a hat, any hat, is an acceptable place for children? Or has the Federation done away with those laws about not letting underage people see sexually explicit activity?

A planet with people that sexually active would probably establish the age of consent at puberty, which would be quite a few years before 18, at least for some. Of course, they probably have a very comprehensive sex education policy, so that by the time someone is physically ready for sex they are also psychologically ready for sex.

The ship's viewer shows the 'communication globe' disappearing at the top of the screen, but when the camera switches to an exterior shot, the globe goes beneath the ship and rises through the saucer section.

Watching Worf and Riker talk about sex I realized that Worf indicated that Earth women are too fragile, past tense. Does this mean that there is an old human girlfriend of Worf's traveling around in a wheelchair?

Talk about bad luck, Wesley just happens to commit a crime in an active punishment zone, a few minutes before it becomes inactive. (Remember a mediator later comments that preventing the execution was also a punishable offense, but the zone was no longer active, so they were safe.) Five minutes later and Wesley could have committed any crime he wanted and not been punished by the Edo, because the zone was no longer active. So all a master criminal on Rubicun III has to do is figure out when the zone is active and commit his crime sprees afterwards. What a truly remarkable example of "Justice."

Just how did the mediators know Wesley had committed a crime? All the people who saw it were just standing around mourning. Where did the mediators come from and how did they get there so fast? (Does their God help them see all and get them there toot sweet? Maybe the God tripped Wesley to see how the Enterprise crew would react?)
How did they know when the punishment zone was inactive? I think I saw something change on one of the mediators' necklaces, but I'm not certain. Why are crimes only punishable in active punishment zones? Are there a limited number of people who want this job? (All the rest are too busy making love at the drop of a hat, I guess.) Wouldn't it make more sense for a punishment zone to stay active when a mediator is there? (Of course, if it were than Wesley wouldn't be the only one facing death.)

Picard says that the seeds of criminal behavior can be detected and dealt with. Oh, really? What about the theft of the Enterprise by the Binars in 11001001; or Mark Jameson's supplying weapons to the planet Mordan IV as revealed in Too Short a Season; Jake Kurland stealing a shuttle in Coming of Age; Ira Graves stealing Data's body in The Schizoid Man; Paul Stubbs, the mass murderer of thousands to millions of Nanites, not to mention the damage he caused to the computer, in Evolution; Devinoni Ral in The Price, while not actually a criminal, certainly engages in unethical behavior; Vash the lying, grave robbing and duplicitous beauty from Captain's Holiday, Qpid, and a Deep Space Nine episode; Kivas Fajo of The Most Toys; Romulan spy Ambassador T'Pel from Data's Day; Captain Maxwell's treaty violations in The Wounded; Admiral Satie's actions in The Drumhead; Kila Marr's obsession in Silicon Avatar; Dr. Toby Russell's experimenting on patients in Ethics; Nova Squadron in The First Duty; the terrorists in Starship Mine; Talera the Vulcan isolationist from Gambit; Admiral Pressman, Riker and everyone involved in the conspiracy about the Federation Cloaking Device in The Pegasus; Nicholai Rozhenko's activities in Homeward; and every member of the Maquis in too many episodes to count. Now some of my examples are debatable. Picard may have meant just humans in his statement. Some criminal activities came about from a variety of emotional stresses, but still if psychology is so good you can detect the seeds of criminal behavior wouldn't it make sense to examine those who had just suffered emotional traumas?

Picard refers to Capital Punishment as a deterrent, actually its primary purpose is to permanently remove dangerous people from society, any deterrent value is secondary.

When the Edo God is charging the Enterprise, Picard taps his communicator, pages the Transporter Chief and about a minute later the Transporter Chief finally deigns to answer. What took him so long? Did someone drop a hat?

On page 116 of the NextGen Guide II, Phil commented about Wesley beaming down to the planet without a communicator. Well, Picard does the same thing toward the end of the show. He only gets it back when Rivan returns it.

After being allowed to beam up to the ship, Picard and the Away Team walk onto the Bridge and it looks like they interrupt a conversation between Data and Troi and neither seems particularly worried about either Wesley's safety or what kind of retribution the Edo God is going to exact for violating the Prime Directive. Hmmm.

At the beginning of the show, Dr. Crusher said how hard it was setting up the colony, but at the end of the show it's implied that they are going to have to remove it. Boy, if the crew needed shore leave after setting up the colony, they're really gonna be ticked having to take it back down.

Did anyone notice that the Edo girl who befriended Wesley wore the most clothing of all the females? Perhaps she reached the Edo age of consent (if such a thing even exists on that planet) rather late, cuz she looks to be about 13-15 in Earth years. Or maybe she had to somehow earn the right to wear less clothing and hadn't yet when the Enterprise visited them.

I wonder if Edo's "god" keeps the planet at the same climate all year round so the inhabitants never have to worry about extreme heat or cold and the harshnesses that come with such temperatures.

Has anyone noticed that the actress, Judith Jones, was also in "Noah's Ark" a few years ago, as the teen mother of the little boy who lived with his teen father and the family that adopted them both? That was about ten years after Justice aired, so Judith, playing a teen mom, couldn't be a teen herself, since she was around her mid-20's, but then again it's pretty common for 20-somethings to play teens.

What a silly episode.
As Phil said in the NextGenII Guide, even going down to see the Edo constitutes a violation of the Prime Directive. Amazingly, at one point Rivan says, "Riker has explained it to us." How?
"Well, our Prime Directive forbids to make contact with species that are not at our level of technology unless we are forced to visit their planet. If we do have to transport to the planet, we must be disguised to pass as natives, show no evidence that we have greater technology, give no identification or information that indicates we are not from their planet, and indeed make no reference to space or the fact that there are other forms of intelligent life therein. Finally, we must not interfere in the natural development of the planet- we should let its inhabitants behave as they are inclined and exercise their laws and customs whether in contact with us or not, without our passing judgement or interfering. In fact, all that means we shouldn't have come here, but what the hell. We needed an episode. We should have known better..."
Why does Picard hail transporter room when the Edo God is making to ram the ship? Given what we see in many later episodes of Trek, shouldn't he simply have said "Transporter Room: urgent: beam the Edo female back to the planet"? Indeed, why does the transporter chief return the hail? "Picard to transporter room" would be followed by "Transpoter Chief here, captain" or "Transporter Chief here. Go ahead." Not by "Transporter Room to captain", surely?!!?

If Worf was raised on Earth, how come he doesn't know what Riker is talking about when Number One says "When in Rome..." ??

Probably not a Russian saying. He probably knows all about "old Russian fairy tale of Cinderella", though. Worf and Chekov would probably get along famously!

the guy that's at tactical when they first see the EDO god sounds very familiar. He also looks kind of familiar. His voice sound a lot like Joe Carry's and he does kind of resemble what a younger version of him would look like.

Is it the same actor?

Someone mentioned it above I think about researching the culture but even in the episode I used to get so mad at Riker and Yar. Picard sent a team down to research the culture and customs, they even mention their findings at the beginning of the episode. Riker says (I think it was Riker) "And they make love at the drop of a hat" and then Yar says "Of any hat sir."
Seems to me whatever they WERE studying down there it wasn't the local laws and other important things like that... but hey... they have sex a lot, that's important right?

No doubt someone will prove me wrong here, but surely once transport commences, the molecules of a persons body start to disintegrate (and end up in the transport buffers). How then can Picard speak at the end of the episode just after they start to be transported?

Saavik did it in STII, Allan. In STI, the two ill fated StarFleeters in the transporter (Sonak and Kirk's ex-wife(or was this in the book or later Missing Years books?)) screamed and writhed about during transport. Also, Barclay moved around and grabbed a LeechStarFleeter in an episode ("Realm of Fear"?). Really, they shouldn't be able to do these things, basically having been killed, disintegrated, and not yet reintegrated, but at least TPTB are consistent in their inconsistency.

You mean consistent in their implausibility, right?

The One uses something called Quantum Tunnelling to move between universes in the multiverse. The transportees may move around and scream and such (especially since it looks quite painful). Now maybe this is sorta the way the Trek Transporters work. Ie take a and energize the persons molecules and send them in their entirety through subspace directly to where they need to go. Without being demolecularized. Just a thought.

StarFleet woman in TMP: "He said something about wanting to see how it scrambled our molecules first." (not a exact quote). Bones was always complaining about how the transporter rearranged his molecules during transport, so I'm pretty sure its disintegration. Also, don't they often talk about reintregration? Oh, one more thing, what did Scotty say about his stint in the transporter in Relics? I don't have my tape handy...

I just saw the one. It looked pretty painful indeed since they got ripped into little itty bitty pieces. Molecular disintigraion indeed!

Ye gods and small fishies, what an idiotic ep. Right down there with 'Spock's Brain'....except that that ep was the beginning of the end for TOS. This drek was supposed to help kick off the shiny-new, much improved, hey-look-us-over Next Generation!

The individual problems have all been addressed, but I'd like to emphasize one: How the *^$#%^&* do you land on a planet and start snuggling the populace without first doing a fairly indepth report on the local culture? Including their justice system, which in this case would seem to take up a fairly large chunk of their culture, and their belief system, ditto?
And if, as actually indicated in the ep, your chief security officer has in fact researched said justice system...in what universe does anyone check out a legal code and miss the part about punishments?

(I realize I'm ranting, but the sheer stupidity of this ep has been festering for a very long time...ever since the night of it's TV debut, when as a trusting Trekker I tuned in, all excited to see the great new NextGen, and instead got this...Well, anyway, you see what I mean. )

What's even more heartbreaking is that the initial concept (like that of 'Angel One') apparently had the potential to be vivid, daring, truly exciting television. It's like they just had to give Roddenberry's libido a farewell fling or something.

Phil commented on that in the NexGen guide.

Commented on what?
(I know he caught the nit I mentioned - hence 'emphasize one'. I just picked one aspect to stress the basic stupidity of the whole.)

While I'm at it, a fresh nit, the reverse of the above: Does it strike anybody else as odd that the kind, helpful, friendly, share-everything-we've-got-and-we-do-mean-everything Edoes (Edoeans?) somehow fail to volunteer even the slightest warning re: random judicial deathtraps?!
Seems like bad manners, at the very least, to invite strangers down for a snuggle and inadvertently get them killed ten minutes later.

Anonymous, not the woman that was killed, the short haired ensign(I think) who beamed up after the transporter was fixed.

Once again, God bless Bill Theiss for his work on the costumes.

GAWD, I wish there was a real starship Enterprise right now...I'd warp to the Edo planet at warp 9!

(NOW I got it right!)

Hmph! Those costumes inspire Lust, and you thank the Other Guy for Bill Thiess?

That's it! I'm out of here!

I'll be in my trailer.

At the beginning of the episode, when the away team returns from Rubicun III and everyone retakes their stations, some oddities happen: When the shot changes, the unnamed conn officer is suddenly standing behind Picard, Worf is gone and Picard is suddenly looking at Riker.

By the way, Josh Clark, the guy who plays the unnamed conn officer in this episode also played Joe Carey on Voyager.

When Rivan stops the three Edo kids, you can see the shadow of a microphone boom on the right side of the screen.

When Wesley shows the Edo kids, how to faire la rue, one of the Edo boys is holding the ball with one hand. In the next shot he is holding the ball with both hands.

Rivan’s hair looks different, when she is walking with Picard, Troi and Crusher through Enterprise’s corridors. It’s much darker.

At the end of the episode, when everybody is returning to their stations, Wesley is sitting in one shot, in the following shot he is still standing.

Yep, that was definitely Joe Carey (Josh Clark). You can see him pretty clearly at the beginning when he's sitting at Conn.

And this is surely the single most embarrassing episode of NextGen.

Ok, I may be way off here...

What was the Enterprise crew even doing making contact with these people???

Isn't it Starfleet protocol to only have first contact with "warp capable" civilizations?

Nope. You're right. Of course, the episode that established that first contact procedure was three years later ("First Contact")...

But even then, why did they reveal themselves to these primitive people? Even in TOS, McCoy said, "no references to space or the fact that there are other worlds".

I've given up on nitpicking this ep. There are so many plot and other stupidities involved - especially the whole 'First Contact? We don't need no steenkin' First Contact!!' thing - that it's just too easy anymore.

Besides, I'm convinced the creators didn't mean for it to be taken seriously either - they were just trying to humour poor senile Gene Roddenberry one last time, and things got out of hand.

I know. I want to know what the writer of this episode was thinking. The death penalty FOR STEPPING ON GRASS!!!

Maybe Wesley should have claimed he had glaucoma? Oh, wait, that's the excuse for Smoking the Grass. ;-)

Actually I think it damaging the flower bed, not walking on the grass. However I believe the point was that it was an excessive punishment for a minor crime (or even a victimless crime). Hence Picard's speech about Justice at the end. There are any number of minor crimes on the law books that carry a stiff punishment & the writer could have been thinking about one of those when he came up with the story.
And the writer was probably against the death penalty as well.

On a flower bed, okay, sorry!

You'll pardon me if I avoid this episode in reruns

You could always hit the mute button and just look at the eye candy. 8-) ;-)

I guess the TRUE moral of this story is that The Prime Directive is used in all situations on all backwards planets except ones where they wear skimpy clothing.

This episode illustrates how having civilians, and especially children, aboard Starfleet vessels. While it's true that Wesley is an officer (field commission or not), this could have happened to some other child after shore leave was approved for the whole ship's company. A situation like this was bound to happen from the moment Starfleet decided to allow civilians on ships. I wonder if Starfleet personnel are liable for civilian deaths among the ship's company.

The Edo legal system does not impress me much. It lacks several basic concepts like Criminal Intent, Trial by Jury, Proportionality, and Ignorance as a defense. Basically. Wesley accidentally damaged a greenhouse and some plants in it. Two Mediators show up right away and ask a few questions before whipping out a syringe full of poison or drugs designed to kill him, in spite of the fact that he didn't know he had broken the law nor that death was the penalty. It seems designed not to protect people or provide consequences for their misdeeds, but to maintain order through terror.

Finally, Picard comes off like a ninny here. First, he claims at one point that the Prime Directive was never meant to apply to "the Crusher boy." To that, I must ask, why not? He's a Starfleet officer, one able to serve on the bridge ahead of dozens of Academy-graduated junior officers. Even if he were still a civilian, he is on an alien planet and as such is a representative of the Federation. Shouldn't he have to follow the Prime Directive, or can civilians go to low-tech planets and hand out phasers and replicators to the locals? Second, Picard states that he won't reduce their situation to numbers. Again, why not? The ship defending Rubicun III (or its crew) seems willing and able to destroy the Enterprise if they help Wesley in a way that breaks the Prime Directive Picard swore to follow at all costs. This is one reason I admire Babylon 5. They do let the numbers make the choice, like in real life.

I should add "is a bad idea" to the first sentence.

I believe that at this point in the series Wesley was still a civilian.

Wasn't he "Acting Ensign"?

By this time, yes. He became an acting ensign two episodes before, in "Where No One Has Gone Before."

If the Edo "god" was a machine enslaving the Planet, why did the enterprie not just blow it up and find out where it came from. I mean why let someother thing violate the Prime Directive?

First of all, the Prime Directive isn't a rule that the Federation force upon races or powers outside its jurisdiction, Username. It is only a rule that Starfleet must adhere to itself when dealing with the internal civil matters of non-Federation worlds, most specifically, when encountering pre-warp societies.

Second, murdering a ship full of sentient beings that is not threatening you simply because you feel like "finding something out" is certainly not consistent with either the Prime Directive in particular, or the ideals of the Federation or Star Trek in general.

Third, that god ship was clearly more powerful than the Enterprise. I'm not sure if you've seen the episode recently, but it was made clear that they were clearly more advanced than Federation races.

Oh... I never saw the entire Episode.

It was so stu-pid....just changed the channel and just watched the O'Really Factor.

Either way, the "god ship" was enslaving the Edoes so Picard could've/should've done something right?

A Borg Cube is clearly more powerful than a Galaxy class starship but the Enterprise crew found a way to destroy one in BOBW.

I have no username: Either way, the "god ship" was enslaving the Edoes so Picard could've/should've done something right?
Luigi Novi: No, there was no indication of slavery. It was portrayed as a protector of the planet, not a slavemaster.

still, there is a difference to how Picard reacts to the "god" of the Edo showing up and how Kirk would have reacted, if you think of TOS eps. like "Apple, Apple", "The Return of the Archons" etc. Kirk always twisted the Prime Directive to allow him to destroy computers when ruling a society.

On the other hand, Kirk would've been to busy down on the planet making out with the Edo babes to fight the God-ship. He was most angry about the culture in "Apple" forbidding kissing and stuff, methinks...

Well this entire episode is a violation of the Prime Directive so I guess anything goes.

Why do you assume this ship/machine enslaves the Edo? No indication is given that it gives them orders or does anything but tolerate their worship. Also, the assocation between it and the Edo's concept of God seems to be a result of some confusion. When the officers ask about the thing up in orbit of the planet, the Edo assume they mean God. This doesn't necessarily mean that what they call God and that thing are one and the same. Nobody describes it to them, nor do the Edo show a picture of it and say that it's God. While Rivan assumes that the thing, floating over the world, is God, she assumes Picard is one too because he was up there with it.

Actually the Edo do think of it specifically as god and it knows they think of it as god.

Chris, I wasn't assuming the machine actually enslaves the Edo, I was pointing out that Kirk would argue it does, to have a reason to destroy it.

I doubt Kirk's Enterprise would have been able to destroy it, it seemed alot more powerful than the Enterprise D.

Kirk wouldn't have needed his ship to destroy it. He would've been able to talk it into submission.

I doubt it, he was always more ready to shoot and kill than to talk.

I think Anon was referring to how Kirk usually seemed able to talk a computer into self destructing or going away. Reference: Nomad, Landru just for two.

If Yar was supposed to study ALL the laws and customs of the Edo, how did she overlook their Death Penalty?

(She asked one of the Edo, "And who is responsible for telling visitors about this?") [or something like that] Well, Tasha...if you'd done your job more thoroughly, you wouldn't asking this dumb question, now would ya?)

One of the Edo males is playing a stringed instrument...it looks very similar to the guitar played by Adam in "The Way To Eden"

Yeah, brother!

Yesterday I met a blonde girl (well, she's 21 but at my age they're all girls now) at my bank branch named Roxy who looks just like Judith "Edo Girl" Jones! Her nametag had her first and last name and I told her she had a movie star name (her last is similar to that of a famous old time movie star whose name was parodied in a very well-known 1974 comedy) and that she looked like a girl in this episode which I didn't name but only said was from 1987. She replied, "I was two then," which is how I figured out her age. 'Twasn't hard.

What SHOULD have happened:

Take the syringe & analyze the poison

Create antidote for poison

Have Edo execute Wesley

Immediately beam up Wesley & revive him with antidote.


(It worked for "Code of Honor"...what's the difference here? Of course one may ask, why is the Enterprise doing here in the first place, seeing the Edo are a pre-warp civilzation?
The Prime Directive doesn't encourage visits to pre-warp civiliations. SO...why is Picard worked up about violating the Prime Directive?...Hey, Jean-Luc dude...you already violated it by coming here!)

Did they ever specifically say that they were pre-warp? They could be like the Ba'Ku.

Actually, at this point in the series, had the "do not visit pre-warp civilizations" part of the prime directive been established yet?

Hey, here's a great nit. In "Angel One", Picard and friends couldn't remove the freighter survivors against their will because they weren't Starfleet officers and not subject to the prime directive. I don't believe that Wesley is an officer yet, so why is Edo law even an issue?

Are you sure that he specified "Starfleet officers" in Angel One, and not "Federation citizens"? It should've been the latter, and if it wasn't, then I'd say it was a mistake/nit on the part of whoever wrote that line of dialog. Wesley, however, is a Federation citizen.

And no, I don't think they ever explicitly stated that the Edo were pre-warp.

Here's a quote from the Memory Alpha page on "Angel One":
Ramsey tells the rest of the away team that at first they thought Angel One was great, but then they saw how the men had no respect and were discriminated against. When they spoke out, they were forced to become fugitives. He refuses to leave, and Data adds that they can’t force him, as he and his crew are not part of Starfleet, nor do they have to obey the Prime Directive.

test

congrats, you've successfully passed the test. you may now enter starfleet acade.. I mean Nitcentral

Thanks for you "permission"! It means so much to me!

btw, if you have any issues with the whole username password issues. There's a board for that stuff. (At the very bottom)

http://nitcentral.philfarrand.com/discus/messages/27304/27304.html?1216707766

and I'm saying this just to be helpful, not out of any attitude that you shouldn't have posted "test" here.

I wasn't having any "issues". This is my first time posting on this board since it was changed to having to have a user name and I was just testing to see if I got it all hooked up right, thank you very much.

Why don't you worry about yourself and let me worry about me, ok?

I meant if you have any issues in the future.

I don't know if this has been addressed before, but Picard hit it right on the head when he remarked at the beginning that this planet (Rubicun III) was "too good to be true". Well, the planet *was* real and true, but the experience they had with the natives was a bit jarring, being that the only punishment for any crime was death.

Also, remember when Picard said that his people no longer execute criminals, because the Federation was now able to "detect the seeds of criminal behavior in their population"? How would that explain the Maquis, made up of mostly human colonists who rebelled against the Federation when their colonies were ceded to the Cardassians when the Demilitarized Zone was formed in 2370? Of course, all that happened six years after this episode, but still, the Maquis were basically criminals, and their criminal tendencies had not been detected the way Picard said that the Federation could do with it's inhabitants.

Also, the Federation Travel Guide from 1997 said that Rubicun III was a place to avoid. It told of the death penalty for any crime, and then added: "Though the Edo themselves have no way of enforcing their law, a "mysterious entity" there does - so steer clear."

The "mysterious entity" turned out to be an alien vessel that existed interdimensionally - in was half in and half out of the universe. And the Edo Probe that boomed in ship-shuddering tones to Picard and Data to "STATE THE PURPOSE!"
was fully ready to defend "it's children" below.

But I wonder if there was just one alien aboard the vessel, or several. Was it a race defending Rubicun III from harm, or was it just one entity that the Edo considered to be their "god"?

Anyway, Wesley was almost executed, but Picard managed to convince the Edo "god" that they should be able to leave unharmed. Then the Federation had to remove the colony from the neighboring Strnad star sytem as well.

I don't suppose any other Starfleet vessel visited this planet. Or any other major Alpha Quadrant race did, either. It's probably for the best, as the Edo world had a beautiful outer appearance, but was very dark and disturbing underneath!

I believe there is dialog in the episode to support the notion that the Edo god was a ship containing more then one individual. I believe data also concluded that they were once a race like humans that evolved. my guess is that they came from Edo originally. evolved and then kept watch over the planet and as new life forms evolved there (or the Edo planted them) they were protective because they wanted to watch the Edo grow and perhaps some day reach the same level of advancement as the race watching over them.

No, Andre, the Federation did NOT have to remove the colony from Strnad. Picard asked the Edo "god", "We will remove the colony from the adjacent system if you direct us to do so." Waiting for an answer, Picard saw the "godships" disappear, and that seemed to be the answer, "Suit yourself".

How would that explain the Maquis, made up of mostly human colonists who rebelled against the Federation when their colonies were ceded to the Cardassians when the Demilitarized Zone was formed in 2370? Of course, all that happened six years after this episode, but still, the Maquis were basically criminals, and their criminal tendencies had not been detected the way Picard said that the Federation could do with it's inhabitants.

The Maquis were more rebels, freedom fighters, political prisoners or even terrorists (your mileage may vary) which isn't quite the same thing as robbing, raping & murdering as a way of life. They had a political goal they were working towards. We don't consider the founding fathers criminals even though the British sure did.

Plus this was an early episode where Gene was trying to really push for his idea of a "better humanity" in the 24th century. Just a few seasons later we started to see thieving murdering humans who were nothing more than the common criminals we see today.

You're so right, Brian. Apparently I saw the whole Maquis thing as either "black or white" (meaning that if the Federation wanted to capture them, they must all be bad) and thanks to your logical explanation, I now view the Maquis differently. Especially now that I've been watching "Caretaker" again recently.

As for the "it was only the first season, Gene was still in charge, after he died things became very different" argument, well, you got me there. It is what it is, and it shall be so for all time.

PM me on Facebook some time, Brian. You and I could have some pretty cool Trek-related converstaions. And you don't even have to be wearing clothes to do it! :-D

And Geoff, there's no need to be rude. I get it, I was wrong, but what I was wrong about was pretty insignificant!

Perhaps next time you could be a bit more diplomatic. Thank you for your time.

Also, Brian, what 24th century humans on TNG were thieves and murderers? Kivas Fajo was both, but he was a Zibalian!

Excuse me, "Zimbalian".

I just thought I would add this, it was from a different Trek-related board. It was concerning Kirk and Picard in Generations and why there was no effort made by either of them to contact the inhabitants of Veridian IV to warn them of the danger that Dr. Soran posed to them from his trilithium weapon. It went like this:

"It would violate the Prime Directive for Starfleet to initiate first contact with a pre-warp civilization." - TWS Garrison in 2004

I then added this in 2010:

"Then why did the ENT-D go to Rubicun III, beam down, and start "hugging the populace"? Because, apparently, that episode was made before that particular aspect of the PD was made public!

BTW, the Edo will *never* get warp drive the way they're going, they're way too happy kissing, dancing, running around, and making love at the drop of a hat. ANY hat!"

And then Andrew Gilbertson added this:

"Yeah... the Edo are one of the few great "Huh...?" plot contradictions in terms of the PD; I can only speculate that, say, the Ferengi had already landed there, or something- that they were already exposed to space travelers or something, thus rendering them exempt... as an in-story reason, of course. The real reason is that the writers WEREN'T THINKING!!!"

And I agree with him about that. But I do stand by my earlier post concerning the Edo Vessel and how it may well have possibly contained more than one individual. The inhabitants of the interdimensional spacecraft may very well have been highly evolved beings that were at one time a lot like the way humans were in the 24th century, and they have made it their mission to watch over the Edo and protect them from any other race interfering with the natural development of their culture. That I can see being possible, it's actually a pretty cool idea.

Too bad that Wesley had to accidently break an Edo law and the process Picard had to undertake (convincing the Edo "God" to allow them all to leave) would be a bit of a failure for the Federation's attempt to make first contact with the planet's inhabitants. And like I said before, the Federation probably made no more efforts to make contact with Rubicun III again after this. As for if any other species had done so, like the Ferengi for example, well, that is certain open for speculation. But I think that, like Andrew said, concerning the Starfleet had a policy for not interfering with the development of pre-warp civilizations and therefore would (usually) not make contact with them until they had achieved warp drive, the writers were not thinking the whole idea of this episode through.

Unfortunate, for sure. But as for what it is, I think it's OK. Better than numerous other ideas the writers had, I think!

D.K. Henderson on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 - 08:00 am: Picard should have pointed out to the Edo that, by not THOROUGHLY explaining the rules and regs to Wesley, they, in effect, conspired to murder him.
That would run the risk of Picard being found guilty of violating Edo law himself.