This episode pleasantly shocked me. I was shocked that when Wesley asked why people take drugs, Tasha said, "Because drugs make you feel good." She then went on to explain the dangers of drugs, but I realized that this is the only anti-drug message I have ever seen, which used the true reason why people use drugs. Most other anti-drug messages sweep the "makes em feel good" reason under the rug. Probably because they're afraid that people will ignore the rest of the message, but I was proud that Star Trek was not afraid to take the bull by the horns and get their point across.

They want to block the photosphere of the star, so a big, black dot appears on the screen and moves to cover the star. The problem I had with this is, the star is in the center of the screen and the dot appears off center. Who programmed the dot to appear off center and was it's movement controlled by a person or the computer? If the computer controlled the movement of this dot, why not have it cover the star immediately? The computer knew the correct size for the dot, would it have been that much harder to have the dot appear in the right place?

Watching the solar flares, Riker says that he has never seen anything like it. Funny, it looked to me like footage of our sun's solar flares.

Amazing how many races in the first season had their own transporters. Especially amazing that the Ornaran transporter was compatible with the Federations, since the Ornaran transporter should be more powerful to compensate for all the solar activity. For that matter, why didn't T'Jon just beam everyone and everything down to the planet?

The Sanction is orbiting Brekkia, it has two Brekkians, the Felicium and the payment for the Felicium on board. Why? Is it a normal business procedure to beam the Felicium up to the ship and then agree on a price? This relationship has been going on for 200 years, so it would seem that the payment for Felicium would have been set already. So why not beam the payment down and then the Felicium up? (Because then there would be no argument over who owns the Felicium and therefore no show.)

After the Brekkians and the Ornarans zap each other, Riker says that he has never seen humanoids with that ability, but in The Naked Now he said he studied the logs of all ships named Enterprise. Does this mean that there is no visual record of Apollo, from the Classic episode Who Mourns For Adonais? Apollo was humanoid and he clearly had the ability to zap people with lightning bolts, Dr. McCoy even commented on an organ in his body that might be the source of this power, but Riker wasn't interested enough to look up any visual logs? (Well, maybe he got distracted by the pictures of Lt. Palamas in that Grecian outfit?)

Crusher tells the Security Guard to escort the Brekkians to their quarters, then the Captain walks in, the guard stands to attention, then the woman asks to talk to Picard, and it is only afterwards that the guard starts to escort the Brekkians to their quarters. Having never served in the military, I cannot say if this is proper behavior or not, but it looked unusual.
Who is the guard supposed to be guarding? If the Brekkians were a threat should the guard have allowed the Brekkian woman to approach the Captain? I find it hard to believe that the guard was protecting the Brekkians from members of the crew. Are Security Guards on Starships nothing more than glorified bellhops???

Wesley doesn't know why people get addicted or why people use drugs, but in The Naked Now he knew about drunkenness.

Riker is zapped by an Ornaran, afterwards he says he feels all right, but at no point does Crusher even try to examine him. There are cases of people who have been zapped by lightning bolts, who felt okay and later died or nearly died from the effects of being zapped. Crusher should have had him examined immediately after he was released.

Re. the transporters...
This could be explained by dialogue I have forgotten, but why is it the transporters have major difficulties locking onto the "Sanction's" crew and then beam everyone down to the planet at the end just fine?

Been too long since I've seen this, but which planet was closer to the sun? (The Sanction was orbiting Brekkia, then the Enterprise later beamed them down to Ornara.)
Also, maybe the solar flares had settled down?
Then again, maybe the engineers overhauled the transporters to compensate for the differences?

I love how, towards the end of the episode, when Picard, Dr. Crusher and Yar are in the cargo bay, right after they beam the Brekkians off the ship, when Picard and Crusher are leaving the cargo bay, in the background you can see Yar waving as the doors shut. This episode was filmed after Skin of Evil, so that was Yar's last scene, and Denice Crosby was taking a minute to wave good-bye to the fans.

Phil pointed that out in his first Nitpicker's guide. Still haven't seen it myself (the goodbye wave, that is)

This one was on again today, and I had never seen the wave and watched for it, and sure enough she does wave. It right after they beam the feclicum and 4 people down to the planet, and Picard and Crusher are walking out of the cargo bay, watch Yar was the doors close, she gives a nice big wave

God, I LOVE the message in this episode! This episode should be played at all high schools and colleges nationwide. Kudos to the writers for the script.

The message is worthy, but the presentation is clunky, self-righteous and IMHO terribly patronizing overall.

You're honestly not gonna find many teenagers/college-age kids these days who'd take it seriously.

Why didn't Troi sense that T'Jon & his friend were "junkies"? Crusher should've been able to spot the symptoms of withdrawl as well. I mean, even 20th century doctors can tell.

Crusher should've been able to spot the symptoms of withdrawl as well. I mean, even 20th century doctors can tell.

Mmmmmm...but are all symptoms of withdrawal the same for all drugs?
And even if they are, from what I've seen of, say, heroin withdrawal, I can imagine it mimicking a 'plague' long enough to fool a doctor who has every reason to believe that that's what she's looking at.

And why would Troi been able to tell? She senses emotions, not drugs.

Hmmm. Interesting point, Kerriem, but McCoy diagnosed John Gill as being drugged in "Patterns of Force" (80 yrs earlier)

Luigi, Good point.

Drugged, yes. In drug withdrawal, no. I'm thinking there's a difference in the symptoms. (And IIRC, Crusher does in fact recognize the symptoms of intoxication here, doesn't she?)

Bear in mind, again, that Dr.Crusher has been told that this is a plague. She has no reason whatsoever to doubt that anybody's not telling her the truth. The ep goes to great pains to indicate that she wouldn't even be thinking of anything as zooey as an entire planet of junkies.

Ah. Thanx.

Watched it again today. Saw Yar's wave near the end too.

DELETED SONG:

T'Jon & friend: "Hey, hey we're the junkies!
we hate it when we're "comin' down"
We're too busy snortin'
to make it to the next town."

What annoyed me about this show ...

... was how one person would start a sentence ...

... then another person would finish it.

(Thanks, bro.)

Let me get this straight. Picard was not violating the Prime Directive when he beamed these people off the ship. He didn't violate it when he offered to help fix their ships, free of charge, with Federation equipment. But he would violate it by tlling the Onarans the Deep Dark Secret about Felicium? I doubt that mightily. Giving them that tiny bit of information, which they have a right to know, is not passing judgement on their lifestyle. The Onarans may decide to keep taking it, liking the effect it has on them. Plenty of people take drugs recreationally. For all we know, the Brekkians do it too, in moderation. If Picard wanted to be high-and-mighty about the Prime Directive, he should have let them fry. Not telling them after all that they had done already is just cruel. How many of those people committed suicide thinking their race was doomed, or died in riots as the supply ran out, after the Enterprise left? How much pain and panic did Onara suffer so Picard's conscience could be clear and the Brekkians could keep their sick secret from them for a few more weeks, and all for want of a few words or some simple remedy from Dr. Crusher? With compassion and understanding like that, who needs cruelty?

Chris Diehl: Let me get this straight. Picard was not violating the Prime Directive when he beamed these people off the ship. He didn't violate it when he offered to help fix their ships, free of charge, with Federation equipment. But he would violate it by telling the Onarans the Deep Dark Secret about Felicium?
Luigi Novi: Why does everyone seem to twist the Prime Directive into a pretzel until it somehow means "interacting with aliens"? That’s not what it forbids. The Prime Directive forbids interference in the natural course of evolution of a culture, particularly cultures that have no knowledge of alien life. Beaming them off the ship and offering to fix their ships did not endanger the natural course of their cultural evolution, and both the Onarans and the Brekkians were acquainted with alien life.

Chris Diehl: I doubt that mightily. Giving them that tiny bit of information, which they have a right to know, is not passing judgement on their lifestyle.
Luigi Novi: Again, who said that the Prime Directive forbids "passing judgement on a lifestyle?" It forbids activity that would alter the course of an alien society’s evolution.

Chris Diehl: How many of those people committed suicide thinking their race was doomed, or died in riots as the supply ran out, after the Enterprise left? How much pain and panic did Onara suffer so Picard's conscience could be clear and the Brekkians could keep their sick secret from them for a few more weeks, and all for want of a few words or some simple remedy from Dr. Crusher?
Luigi Novi: And how many would’ve suffered if Brekka’s one offworld industry collapsed? Would there not be wide-reaching implications for both the Brekkians and the Onarans if Picard divulged this information? This is the reason for the Prime Directive. Actions that are initially benevolent in intention may have disastrous, sometime unforseen consequences in the long-run, and for one culture to take it upon itself to meddle in another’s affairs in this manner poses the danger of taking away that recipient culture’s ability to govern themselves in an informed and natural manner.

Luigi Novi: Why does everyone seem to twist the Prime Directive into a pretzel until it somehow means "interacting with aliens"? That’s not what it forbids. The Prime Directive forbids interference in the natural course of evolution of a culture, particularly cultures that have no knowledge of alien life. Beaming them off the ship and offering to fix their ships did not endanger the natural course of their cultural evolution, and both the Onarans and the Brekkians were acquainted with alien life.

But if they were using obsolite freighters that are in the process of breaking down the natural course of development for them would have been for them to break down and be no longer able to transport the drug. Since Picard used the Prime Directive at the end to justify not giving them the power cores to fix the ships wasn't he breaking it in the begining by offering to fix the ships. Even if he saved the people on the ship when they told him about their situation (and the lack of transport ships) shouldn't he have just said "Sorry about y'all's luck, we'll drop you off at your planet, hope you can work everything out"

Luigi Novi: Why does everyone seem to twist the Prime Directive into a pretzel until it somehow means "interacting with aliens"? That's not what it forbids. The Prime Directive forbids interference in the natural course of evolution of a culture, particularly cultures that have no knowledge of alien life.

You're right, of course, in theory. In practice, the trick is defining what constitutes 'interference' by one culture and the 'natural evolution' of the other...which, luckily for Trek dramatic tension, speedily makes things much more complicated.
Therefore yes, even the tinest interaction with alien races can potentially have all sorts of complications, as Brian neatly illustrated above.

That's true, Kerri. There are, I think, one or two criteria I can think of that may not cover everything, but are a good starting point. This may be a good springboard to another debate about the PD:

First is that the action must be done with the open consent of the planet's legitimate government.

The action must not have the consequence of unilaterally causing a huge drastic change in the culture of the planet. If, for example, a society decides to do away with religion, it must do so on its own, naturally, over the natural period of time it would any other culture that never encountered alien life. If, for another example, a society is given some new technology, it cannot be technology that they are centuries away from, it cannot be technology they would not have likely developed on their own, and it cannot be technology that would either cause a major shift in the internal balance of power, or affect a cultural change like the one mentioned above. This way, the little tweeks in technology traded among the Federation and its friends (as when the Feds modified their engines at the end of the Dominion War to give them immunity the Klingons had from the Breen's energy dampening weapon) is okay, but telling a society that there is no God, or giving them a new kind of device that they're a century away from, and would cause a sizable portion of their economy or industries to collapse would be a no-no. Revealing the existence of alien life to a pre-warp society is covered by this.

Brian Fitzgerald: 00Since Picard used the Prime Directive at the end to justify not giving them the power cores to fix the ships wasn't he breaking it in the begining by offering to fix the ships.
Luigi Novi: No, because he didn't know at that point that the simple act of repairing a ship would have such a huge consequence.

They told him that they didn't have any working freighters to transport the drug, so he knew that if he didn't help them fix the ships they wouldn't be able to transport any more drug.

Which at that point, he thought was a medicine, and not an addictive narcotic. When Crusher informed him it was an addictive narcotic they were taking only out of addiction, Picard withheld the replacement magnetic coils. Why would offering to fix their ships prior to this be considered breaking the PD?

I still fail to see how telling the Onarans about Felicium would necessarily change things. They might listen politely to Picard and Crusher, then say "we can't take that risk" or just say "yeah, sure." My point is, if rescuing members of a species (both races look alike, and are probably two different ethnic groups) that the Federation had no prior contact with, and offering technical help to them the first time they meet them isn't a violation of the Prime Directive, why is telling them this one piece of information, that they clearly have the means to learn on their own, a violation? The cat's out of the bag. Just encountering a warp-capable society would be a huge enough piece of interference, so what's the problem? I am not saying they should sell them phasers and warp drives, just that they are not obligated to keep the Brekkians' secret for them in the name of an inconsistently applied law (or did I miss Kirk being dragged before the JAG court for all the planets whose computer rulers he blew up?). If Kirk could let his conscience override the Prime Directive, why couldn't Picard do it too?

I do have another observation. At the end, Picard tells Crusher about how the Prime Directive is there for a good reason. I believe he makes the point that it keeps Starfleet personnel from playing God and trying to make the universe in Starfleet's image (not a direct quote, but that seems to be the gist). I would have loved to see someone record that little speech and follow him around, playing it whenever he decides the holy Prime Directive can be ignored because it's convenient (Good example: I, Borg). Perhaps Starfleet could make every officer in command of a ship or observation post have a crewman stand behind him and play that speech back every hour on the hour, like the Roman custom of having a slave whispering in a triumphant general's ear to remember he is mortal. I just think there are a number of episodes where it would be nice to confront him with his own words.
I think Picard's solution was clever, but I also think it was a solution to a problem of his own creation.

Which at that point, he thought was a medicine, and not an addictive narcotic. When Crusher informed him it was an addictive narcotic they were taking only out of addiction, Picard withheld the replacement magnetic coils. Why would offering to fix their ships prior to this be considered breaking the PD?

Because if the Enterprise was not in the system at the time the ship would have been destroyed and they would have had no way of transporting any more of the "medicine". Sounds like interference to me. If the natural course of evolution was for them to be no longer able to fix their ships why should the Federation interfere.

Chris Diehl: I still fail to see how telling the Onarans about Felicium would necessarily change things.
Luigi Novi: It would alert the Onarans to the fact that they no longer needed it, and would’ve caused massive changes to both worlds. Refining felicium is Brekka’s only industry, so if the Onarans stopped taking it, Brekka’s economy would collapse. Onara stopped developing technologically once they developed rudimentary space flight. If they were cured of their addiction, they might develop further, and take a greater role in the interstellar community, and any time any species does that, it can have affects on all other species in the quadrant.

Chris Diehl: My point is, if rescuing members of a species (both races look alike, and are probably two different ethnic groups) that the Federation had no prior contact with, and offering technical help to them the first time they meet them isn't a violation of the Prime Directive…
Luigi Novi: Again, why would you ever think that this was a violation of the P.D. in the first place?

Chris Diehl: The cat's out of the bag. Just encountering a warp-capable society would be a huge enough piece of interference, so what's the problem?
Luigi Novi: But we don’t know that the Federation was the first warp-capable species the Onarans and Brekkians ever encountered. Who says the Federation was the one that made first contact with them, or that they don’t have warp drive?

Chris Diehl: I am not saying they should sell them phasers and warp drives, just that they are not obligated to keep the Brekkians' secret for them in the name of an inconsistently applied law (or did I miss Kirk being dragged before the JAG court for all the planets whose computer rulers he blew up?). If Kirk could let his conscience override the Prime Directive, why couldn't Picard do it too?
Luigi Novi: I think that’s an overly simplistic way of describing both Kirk and Picard’s actions. First of all, no one ever said that you can simply violate it because of your "conscience." There are circumstances in which both Picard and Kirk violated it, but this was either because there were extenuating circumstances in which they were forced to do so (Who Watches the Watchers(TNG), Homeward), or because of plots that were badly or inconsistently written (Pen Pals). I don’t recall the exact plot of A Taste of Armageddon, (which I think is the one you’re referring to, right?), but did Kirk destroy their war computer computers because he simply felt like it, or because he was captured and his life was in danger?

Second, it’s been depicted that Kirk was more of a cowboy than Picard, and that the type of "cowboy diplomacy" Kirk employed is not as tolerated in Picard’s time.

Chris Diehl: I would have loved to see someone record that little speech and follow him around, playing it whenever he decides the holy Prime Directive can be ignored because it's convenient (Good example: I, Borg).
Luigi Novi: Where in I, Borg did Picard EVER violate the Prime Directive? He didn’t encounter any pre-warp cultures in that episode. The only beings he encountered in that episode were the Borg, with which the Federation is at war with, and under every obligation to destroy.

Brian Fitzgerald: Because if the Enterprise was not in the system at the time the ship would have been destroyed and they would have had no way of transporting any more of the "medicine". Sounds like interference to me. If the natural course of evolution was for them to be no longer able to fix their ships why should the Federation interfere.
Luigi Novi: Because the word "interference," as it pertains to the P.D. doesn’t mean "interaction." It refers to acts that would cause radical changes to another culture that that culture would not experience on their own. If "interference" simply meant "interacting with another race," or "helping" someone, then does that mean the Federation violated their own Prime Directive when they allied themselves with the Klingons and Romulans during the Dominion War, or for that matter, EVER TIME they make first contact with a warp-capable species?

Luigi Novi: Because the word "interference," as it pertains to the P.D. doesn’t mean "interaction." It refers to acts that would cause radical changes to another culture that that culture would not experience on their own.

Any I'd say that if the people of the planet had let industry and technology fall so far behind that they couldn't even fix (or replace) 2 or 3 little ships that they built in the first place; ships that are their only way of getting the drug I'd say comming in and giving them the parts they need to fix them (parts apparently their industry is no longer able to make) that is major interference.

Again, Picard didn't KNOW it was a drug when he first offered to fix them. Isn't that at least in part why he changed his mind eventually?

Luigi- also, think of "Return of the Archons"

Let me repeate the question subbing medicine for drug and the question still stands.

Any I'd say that if the people of the planet had let industry and technology fall so far behind that they couldn't even fix (or replace) 2 or 3 little ships that they built in the first place; ships that are their only way of getting the medicine I'd say comming in and giving them the parts they need to fix them (parts apparently their industry is no longer able to make) that is major interference.

Not if doing does not cause an unnatural change in their evolution or culture, Brian. Giving them magnetic coils for their ships would not have done this.

I haven't seen that ep in a while, Sparrow, so I can't recall the exact events of it. When Kirk destroyed the computer, was and the landing party still in danger themselves, or could they have escaped without destroying it? If it was the former, then he did what he had to do out of self-defense. Let me know.

To bad they wern't popular in the second season

"The replicators are popular this year"
-Janeway when offering a trade.

Gotta love how Janeway will give everyone but the Kazon the replicators.

sorry, I know wrong show. Someone mentioned the borg and Picard not destroying them as a voilation of the prime directive, which made me think of what Janeway did.

Woulden't destroying them and killing so many be considered a war crime though?

I think it was both self-defense and the "these people should not be ruled by a machine" idea, but it's been a while since I've seen it, too.

Another ep I thought of- "The Apple". However, in that ep, the ship was yet again in danger.

As you probably know, two cast members from "The Wrath of Khan" pop up here:

Judson Scott (Sobi) was Khan's right hand man, Joachim. He recently played the mysterious prophet Absalom in the X-Files' three-parter that brought back Fox Mulder.

The late Merritt Butrick (T'Jon) was Kirk's son, David Marcus. He died of AIDS shortly after this episode was completed.

--He died of AIDS shortly after this episode was completed.--

Not drug-related, I assume?

Spec, AIDS is a disease.

If it was a joke, it was kind of off.

No because IV drug users were a high risk groups for AIDS infection early on because they would share needles.

I stand corrected.

This marks one of the few times, if not the only one, that Picard addresses his entire crew regarding a mission.

And what a short mission it turns out to be! They arrive in the system, watch the flares, and immediately come upon the freighter. They deal with the crisis, drop off the crew, and immediately leave the system, completely forgetting that they had a mission to study the star.

And speaking of immediately leaving...Picard lets Geordi pick a random destination. Say what? Would an aircraft carrier captain tell his helmsman to just pick a place to go, and allow him to take them all there simply because 'I've never been there'? Geordi's piloting a starship, not driving a tour bus!

The differences in tactics between Kirk and Picard were discussed above at great length, but left out a major element; Kirk was a hands-on type of commander, who when he saw a society in trouble, usually took steps to fix it. Picard did no such thing here, all safe and cozy on his ship, never seeing the Ornaran society for what it is. Would he be so callous at not interfering if he could see women, children, and young teenagers wasted on felicium? Wouldn't that tug on the average person's heart and say, "The Prime Directive is a wonderful set of rules, but it's flawed. I should be allowed to help these people."? There was nothing 'natural' about the symbiotic relationship between the two planets, so why not break the chain of addiction for them because it's wrong. What would it take for Picard to look at this differently? Torture of Ornarans? Slavery in appalling living conditions? Just because it's been 200 years, is that a factor? What if it had started just a year ago?

How effective a system is this anyway, when the people that supposedly are doing all the work and providing for the good life styles of the Brekkians are doped up some of the time, and in painful withdrawl symtoms the rest?

"Behave yourselves...gentlemen" a cringe-worthy line delivered by Yar. Something about the way she says it just bugs me.

Security showed up with tiny phasers, rather than the bigger pistols. I guess the big ones were in the shop for repairs.

The "tiny phasers" would have worked just as well as the "bigger pistols". Size doesn't always matter.

And although the aruement about the prime directive up above is a couple of years old, I have to agree with Luigis views on this one. IF the Prime Directive was simply "don't make contact with anyone", why explore space in the first place?

Just a note: Don't you just want to reach out and slap Langor when she says, "It's none of your business." after Picard notes that he will not interfere with the delivery of the Felicium.

I would've loved seeing Bev do that.

---
Been too long since I've seen this, but which planet was closer to the sun? (The Sanction was orbiting Brekkia, then the Enterprise later beamed them down to Ornara.)
---
Brekkia was planet 4, Ornara was planet 3. Ornara is closer.

Although how come there's two planets in the star's life zone? It's a pretty narrow region of space, and two gravitational bodies that close together in the systems formation would have coalesced into a single body.

I suppose it's possible that one of them was a rogue object from somewhere else in the system, but the gravitational effects of the two bodies as they orbited would have major repurcussions on each other.

The display should probably have dimmed and filtered most of the star's light rather than putting a big black dot over it - after all, there may have been things of interest that the dot blocked out (like solar flares coming to chargrill the Enterprise ;)).

By Chris Marks (Chris_marks) on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 5:01 am
Although how come there's two planets in the star's life zone? It's a pretty narrow region of space, and two gravitational bodies that close together in the systems formation would have coalesced into a single body.

We don't know that, which is to say we can only hypothesise as to the distance a planet has to be from a star in order for it to be Earth-like. We know of only one Earth-like planet to base any conclusions on, and that is Earth.

There could be factors that would increase the 'habitable' band, or that would allow two Earth-like planets to exist within a smaller band. (Both planets could be in the same orbit, but on different sides of the star for example. Or one of the planets is outside what we think of as being the 'habitable' zone. In fact if some hypothesis are correct there could be life on Mars and two of Jupiter's moons as well as on Earth - although to Quote Spock its not going to be 'life as we know it'. This would, if true, mean that 'Habitable' is relative to the needs of a particular species.)

At this moment in time we have a fair idea of how planets form, and several hypothesis to explain the sizes and materials that make up those planets in our own star system. The discovery of planets orbiting other stars seems to confirm our ideas up to a point. But as we have yet to find any planets that would come close to Earth-like out there we can't tell if Earth is a typical habitable world or unusual in some way. It could be that having only a single planet in the habitable zone is the exception, rather than the rule.

By Will on Monday, April 04, 2005 - 3:06 pm:

The differences in tactics between Kirk and Picard were discussed above at great length, but left out a major element; Kirk was a hands-on type of commander, who when he saw a society in trouble, usually took steps to fix it. Picard did no such thing here, all safe and cozy on his ship, never seeing the Ornaran society for what it is. Would he be so callous at not interfering if he could see women, children, and young teenagers wasted on felicium? Wouldn't that tug on the average person's heart and say, "The Prime Directive is a wonderful set of rules, but it's flawed. I should be allowed to help these people."? There was nothing 'natural' about the symbiotic relationship between the two planets, so why not break the chain of addiction for them because it's wrong. What would it take for Picard to look at this differently? Torture of Ornarans? Slavery in appalling living conditions? Just because it's been 200 years, is that a factor? What if it had started just a year ago?

In Enterprise Dear Doctor Archer (who has no Prime Directive to fall back on as its not been invented yet) states that they 'Didn't come out here to play God'. This could be considered as a good way of describing the basic principle behind the Prime Directive - and may have been the intention behind the line.

From what we can tell the Prime Directive has two main parts. The first prohibits any contact with alien cultures that don't have warp drive, the second prohibits interference with internal problems with other cultures regardless of their technology level - This is why Picard refused to aid Gowron during the Klingon Civil war.

There do seem to be some situations where the Prime Directive can be relaxed to allow some intervention - all of which (from what we can tell) involve a culture that is already being affected by another outside force. Picard was able to (indirectly) aid Gowron during the KCW because he, and the Federation, had some reason to think that the Romulans were involved. 'A Private little war' (TOS) saw a direct violation of the PD by Kirk but only because the Klingons were already interfering in that culture.

This is also why comparing Kirk's actions and Picard's is, at best unfair. Every time Kirk got involved with cultures that could have been considered PD violations he was either trying to undo influences from outside - 'A Piece of the action', 'A Private little war' - or he was dragged into the situation by accident. Picard rarely ended up in those situations, but in general he acted in the same way and for the same reasons.

(Ironically Picard is the one Captain in Star Trek lore who has directly interfered in another culture in a way that was very much 'playing God'. In Pen Pals (TNG) Picard saves the civilization on Drema IV - technically this is the kind of interference the PD is meant to prevent. Yes it was morally the right action, but legally Picard should have been removed from command, along with the entire senior staff of the Enterprise. I can't recall Kirk ever deliberately breaking the PD like this.)

We should also consider one last thing about the PD. It may not, and probably shouldn't, be taken to mean that the Federation will never involve itself in other cultures or help them out. Rather it should be taken as a rule that tries to prevent Starship Captains from getting themselves - and the Federation - involved without considering the implications in detail. It would seem likely that the Federation may be willing to push the PD aside in some cases to provide help, providing they they are fully convinced after careful deliberation that the action is the right thing to do, isn't ultimately going to make things worse and above all isn't going to lead to the Federation having to provide assistance in one form or another for a protracted length of time.

Maybe it's just me, but when Yar was talking about how drugs make you feel good, I got the impression she was speaking from personal experience. (just the tone of her voice and her facial expressions)

I thought that too. Maybe Yar needed something to unwind from all the other nasty things on her home planet?

Of course she was speaking from personal experience. How else would she know that drugs make you feel good? Just because someone is in Starfleet doesn't mean they were always a perfect angel.

"The message is worthy, but the presentation is clunky, self-righteous and IMHO terribly patronizing overall." -kerriem

In other words, it's from the first season of TNG? ;-) Other common elements: Crew members standing akwardly at angles to each other/guest cast and expositing information to each other, Picard talking about clues and puzzles and missing pieces to this mystery, Picard making grand exclamations about life, the universe, and everything on the bridge at the beginning, and Picard's marked lack of patience ("What's wrong with these people?!") and diplomacy as soon as the script calls for it. :-) I'm sure there are more.

Something I noticed: Picard did not let the Brekkians or the Ornarans on the Bridge. That condradicts an entry in the Nitpicker's Guild Trek Glossary, specifically the acronym BANNED, which stands for Bridge Access Never Never Ever Denied. Well, in this case, it was, as Picard denied the four access to the bridge!

That was smart, considering what T'Jon did to Riker. As we saw, Picard called his bluff, T'Jon may have been a desperate drug addict, but he was no killer. And he and his four associates went back to their planets to deal with their problem in their own way, without the necessary parts to repair the freighters that carried the drug and the payment.

I like Phil's Rumination regarding the freighters. Once they stop working, and when they can no longer get the felicium, the Ornarans, en masse, will go into severe
withdrawal. But when that wears off, they will realize that the Brekkians have been cheating and manipulating them for the last 200 years. I know I would not would to be a Brekkian stuck on Ornara in that situation, to paraphrase Phil.

As for the controversy surrounding the preachy, pretentious, "Drugs Are Bad, Drugs Are Evil" speech delivered by Yar, I was 9 years old when this episode aired, and I already knew that. But I guess others did not. So that's why we were subjected to:

"I guess I just don't understand."
"Wes, I hope you never do!"

Bleecchh! Talk about puke-inducing dialogue! But it was for a purpose. Anti-drug PSA's were very "in" in the mid-late '80's, thats all.

And that's that! Just remember, don't believe everything in the Glossary, most of it is just for fun, they are mostly jokes!

But I enjoyed reading it. I'm glad I was able to dispute one!

One more thing: a sci-fi website that reviewed the First Season of TNG on DVD back in 2002, said this of the picture of Yar waving at the camera as the cargo bay doors close:

"Look real close here and you can see Denise Crosby waving goodbye to her career!"

Ouch!

But when that wears off, they will realize that the Brekkians have been cheating and manipulating them for the last 200 years. I know I would not would to be a Brekkian stuck on Ornara in that situation, to paraphrase Phil.
Maybe they figure it'll be over a lot quicker that way?

Once the Brekkians on Onara are lynched it'll just be a matter of time before the Onarans rebuild spaceships & fly to Brekkia & start blasting them from orbit. ;-)

Just imagine the stress of the Brekkians who realize, or expect, this is a distinct possibility?

They'll be too busy trying to get a job- now they'll have to produce their OWN necessities!

Message, people, don't miss the message!