The New Trek Programme Guide got it right when it summed the episode up thus: "Makes ditchwater look exciting".
It gets my vote for worst NextGen episode ever (yes, even worse than Sub Rosa!)

Chris Thomas: Shame!

I thought this episode had some rather clever morals within it, and a rather sinister undertone too...

Has anyone ever read "The Giver" ? It seems close to this episode....

I quite like this episode, but one thing is really wrong.

Geordi and friend spend 3 days vastly increasing the power of the tractor beam, after which it is only just strong enough to move the stellar core fragment.

This is nonsense. In the frictionless vacuum of space, you can move an object just as easily by applying a small force for a long time, as by applying a large force for a small time.

In other words, the tractor beam was strong enough to start with. They just needed to run it for 4 times as long. (Or if this strains the ship's systems, run it at 50% for 8 times as long.)

The apparent timeline for this episode suggests that there was plenty of time to do this. Indeed, as Spock pointed out in 'The Paradise Syndrome' the closer the core fragment gets to the planet, the more difficult it is to move. The 3 days they spent fiddling with the tractor beam actually made the task of shifting the core fragment harder.

It would have made more sense to say that the core fragment was made of neutronium, and that an unmodified tractor beam couldn't lock on to neutronium.

Oh, and they play the 'life support failure is instantly dangerous' card again. Why? As someone else wrote, the ship's air isn't going anywhere.

But if the life support system isn't working to recycle the CO2 everyone's exhaling back into oxygen, then wouldn't that be a problem?

Hi Luigi. I enjoy your posts.

Of course CO² would eventually be a problem.

But the sequence where life support fails on a few decks lasts only a few minutes (seconds on-screen). Even allowing for very heavy editing, it can't have been more than an hour or two (and there was no evidence of that sort of editing). CO² wouldn't build up much in that amount of time.

It's like the contrast between Voyager: One where Seven collapses the moment life support fails, vs NextGen: The Last Outpost where they face a very long, lingering death.

It's CO₂, not CO².

Duh, *slaps forehead*
Thanks, you're right of course.

Anyone can make a mistake.
But to make a mistake and highlight it with formatting takes real stupidity!

Gee, Sophie, I thought you meant to say:

"Of course COCO would eventually be a problem."

Naughty COCO.

Yeah but I thought Tandy got rid of the CoCo.

Thank you for the compliment, Sophie.

Luigi, I've been meaning to compliment you on your posts also. The opportunity seems to have presented itself here so: I look forward to reading your posts, they're insightful, amusing and well thought out. Well done.

Oops, got my handle wrong...always rushing....

Why THANK YOU, Miko! This is the second time someone has used the word "insightful" to describe them, but the first time anyone has ever claimed to "look forward" to them. You two are just sweet. If I ever meet you two, I'm gonna have to give you each a big fat hug. (Sniff, sniff.) Oh, look, now I'm blushing.

And don't worry, Miko, I knew the correct spelling of your name, even without the addendum.

I'm feeling a lot of love in the room...
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MY NITS
Unfortunately, Conor’s office is unavailable. His friend Rudy Giuliani is crashing there at the moment.
If Aaron Conor is the colony’s governor, wouldn’t he have been in his office, or in an astronomer’s observatory when first speaking with the Enterprise? Instead, when Picard speaks with him, it appears from the background that Conor is in a public square or art museum. People are in the background walking around casually. Shouldn’t this communication by Conor with an outside ship be conducted in private? This would be the case with ANY such planet or colony contacting an extra-planetary ship, but given how xenophobic these guys are, it would only be MORE so.
Data to Engineering, can you please send someone with a screwdriver to the bridge?
The ops console sure wobbles a lot when Data uses it.
Well, is letting a stellar core fragment smash into their colony sufficient punishment?
Is Moab IV located in Federation space? I’m just wondering, because the episode Doctor Bashir, I Presume(DS9) established that genetic engineering, for any purpose other than correcting prenatal deformities or healing severe injuries is banned in the Federation.
Well, they’re the most screwed up, I guess
More anthropocentricity: When Troi tells Conor that she’s a student of human nature, he doesn’t quite get her meaning, so she elaborates by saying that she’s the ship’s counselor. What, she counsels only humans?

By the way, Sophie, I liked your nit about why Geordi and Hannah Bates' work on the tractor beam is silly, mostly because it kinda reminds me about the old joke about the guy stranded on an island with a pig, a vicious dog and the beautiful woman. (I assume you're familiar with it?)

Thanks Luigi. I wasn't familiar with the joke, but I just looked it up on the web. LOL.

Also, to add to Sophie's tractor beam nit, the farther away the core fragment, the less they have to move it! Think about it as an angle problem and circle problem: each circle has 360 degrees (or 2p radians). So moving an angle of one degree on a larger circle's circumference necessarily means you moved a longer distance than a one degree movement on a smaller circle's circumference. Illustrated:

................ooooooooo................
..............oo......../**..............
............oo.....ooo./...**............
...........o.....oo...**.....*...........
..........o.....o..../..*.....*..........
..........o....o....o----*----*..........
..........o.....o.......o.....o..........
...........o.....oo...oo.....o...........
............oo.....ooo.....oo............
..............oo.........oo..............
................ooooooooo................

Whoa. I thought I put a lot of work into that chart showing how all the modern Trek seasons lined up with one another on one of the other boards, but that diagram must've REALLY taken a while, Yacht! Well done!

And Sophie, how exactly do you look up a joke on the web? Do you use a search engine? If so, which key words do you use?

Thanks Luigi!

I'd also like to add my voice to Luigi's in querying how Sophie looked up that joke on the web.

I went to www.yahoo.com and searched on something like:
+joke +island +pig +dog +woman

I just tried it again, and yahoo's first response is the right one!

Phil, from his NextGen Guide vol II; Alternate Viewpoints and Corrections #1: "I spoke with Rachel Schroeder, a visually impaired Trekker who's still waiting for a VISOR just like Geordi's. (One that works, that is!)

You can tell Rachel that they do indeed have a visual aid device, though it’s actually a headset, rather than a visor, and is much bigger than Geordi’s VISOR, and uses virtual reality imaging cameras instead of the entire EM spectrum, as Geordi's does. It actually looks like a virtual reality headset, and is obviously not as sophisticated as Geordi’s VISOR, though we can hope that it will improve in quality with future advances in technology. An article in the December 1993 issue of Popular Mechanics featured an article on such a device.

If Counselor Troi was worried about being disruptive, maybe she should have changed to a more modest uniform.

When Picard is talking about genetic engineers' time being long past, I couldn't help but notice an ammonite fossil over his shoulder, and like genetic engineers, the ammonites' time is also long past.

Isn't the mass of the Enterprise much less than the mass of stellar core fragment? If so, then how can a low mass object push a heavy mass object around?

One of the ideas that Russian scientists have come up with to deal with comets and asteroids on a collision course with the Earth is to focus a laser on the side of the object, vaporize a part of it and the force of the gaseous matter leaving the object will alter the object's course. I wonder if such a plan would work with a stellar core fragment?

If this society has been so perfectly engineered, then why would Conner fall in love with Troi? (Besides her form fitting outfit, that is.) Why would anyone want to leave? Conner said that he was engineered to feel that he must lead his people. Hannah Bates was engineered to be the best scientist, etc., etc. If the genetic engineers can affect people's feelings then no one, but a genetic anomaly, would want to leave the colony.

In some respects this episode can be seen as an illustration of a human failing. Parents have an idea of what they think would be a good thing and force their children to live in a world not of their making. without choices, and forced to follow a path that someone else decided upon.

If the genetic engineers can affect people's feelings then no one, but a genetic anomaly, would want to leave the colony.

They can't, except in a very broad sense - the colonists could concievably be programmed to be passive, accepting of authority, but that's about it.
What the ep is actually trying to get across - pretty sloppily, at that - is the idea of genetically engineered abilities, not emotions. Presumably an intensive education program is then implemented to develop each individual's abilities (and emotional needs) to the full.

Once again, despite a massive ship like the Enterprise-D, which probably has about 10,000 rooms, and a whole bunch of labs...Geordi insists on using the electric socket plug in Engineering, 15 feet away from the warp core to fiddle with another of his experimental toys. Can't this guy work in a lab somewhere on deck 47 ( )? Why so near the volatile heart of ship's power?

And the Moabians must have perfected the science of DNA research to a fantastic level, is they were able to remove the element that causes boredom in one's job and life. Imagine, 75 years as a gardener and nothing else, or a waste disposal person, or the guy that makes shoelaces and nothing but shoelaces all his life. Even an advanced culture would require menial, boring jobs to service the rest of the community. But, not here, apparently.

Once again, despite a massive ship like the Enterprise-D, which probably has about 10,000 rooms, and a whole bunch of labs...Geordi insists on using the electric socket plug in Engineering, 15 feet away from the warp core to fiddle with another of his experimental toys. Can't this guy work in a lab somewhere on deck 47 ( [] )? Why so near the volatile heart of ship's power?

LOL! And an excellent point, Will.

(You could argue that the creators just didn't want to bother with another set, but a)we nitpickers of course don't deal in reality and b)I can't see how it would be all that much trouble to throw together a lab. C'mon, guys, wall off a corner or something!)

Even an advanced culture would require menial, boring jobs to service the rest of the community. But, not here, apparently.

This is where that intensive educational program I mentioned above kicks in. Much like the Delta-Gamma-Epsilon classes in Brave New World, those menials would likely be 'programmed' from a very young age to believe that the jobs they do are just the most incredibly important and worthwhile tasks going.
But of course to actually explore that - and the ensuing ramifications - the ep would have had to probe a lot deeper than it's theme allows.

One thing I just didn't get was the idea that every single aspect of these peoples' lives was completely predictable and nothing taken to chance. Haven't they ever heard of "nature"? Don't these people have pets of any sort? Animals certainly don't follow predictable behaviour patterns. And even if they don't keep captive animals, what about wild animals? These people obviously have living organisms of some sort on their planet, as we see plants in abundance.

But ok. Let's say they take every precaution, and raise all food in a completely artificial environment. You still have problems with the weather! Don't these people ever experience natural disasters? Hailstorms, tornadoes, even unusual amounts of rain? There's a reason why such things are called "acts of God": they're completely uncontrollable. Their perfect little micro-managed society of eight generations is a complete impossibility.

Why should they have hailstorms, tornadoes, or unusual amounts of rain? They live in a bubble dome!

IIRC, Freya, they did make mention of people dying unexpectedly, so these people's lives weren't completely predictable.

As for an 'act of god' well, there was that stellar core fragment. ;-)

Rhetorical funny question: Does Alistair Cooke's descendants live here? And if so, do they have a "Masterpiece Theater"? (Nyuk nyuk)

DUMB SCENE: The first beam down sequence...the Away Team beamed down in the center of the biosphere...right in front of everybody.

These people DO NOT have warp drive, they DO NOT have transporters, isn't beaming down in front of these people a violation of the Prime Directive?

Nice to get THAT out of the way..however Troi confesses that she had a "relationship" with the leader. And from the tone in Troi's voice, the relationship sounds like it was more than casual.
If what I think happened did occur,and the people on this planet DO NOT believe in having "those kind of relationships" with outsiders...which if what I'm thinking happened, it is another violation of the Prime Directive.

As Riker says at the end, they're Human. The Prime Directive doesn't apply.

NANJAO: Once again, "Humpty Dumpty" is mentioned in STTNG. I'm telling you, Mother Goose's stories are immortal.

BTW... the planet DID have a "Masterpiece Theater"...it was where the child was playing the piano. No Alistar Cooke though.

I heard no mention at all about the colony's sexuality, only their jobs. Shouldn't Aaron and Hannah have mates in the colony, since their lives were predestined from the beginning? Where are they? And wouldn't they be upset to know that he fell in love with someone else, and she wants to leave the planet?
The colony is in the thousands as I believe Martin points out, but only 23 people want to leave; this is considered a serious blow to the colony. Well, boo-hoo, guys! Pick up a book and research for the missing jobs and learn a new trade!
And if there are thousands of colonists, why did Aaron speak to a small group of them in the square, and not on somekinda e-mail or home communications system?
My biggest problem with this episode is that Aaron is so young, and is somehow in charge. Where's his predecesor? What did Aaron do before he became the leader? Did he lead in some other capacity? Lead singer for the Masterpiece Society rock band? Leader of the Pack? Scout club leader?
I guess the original colonists purposefully put this colony on a planet with a poisonous atmosphere so that the descendants wouldn't want to leave and start a new colony somewhere, upsetting the 'masterpiece' element.

I don't know that anyone has drawn a parallel to this yet, but wouldn't the members of the colony that left on the Enterprise all be ineligible for Starfleet jobs since they were created through genetic engineering?

KAM: If this society has been so perfectly engineered [...] Why would anyone want to leave?
kerriem: Presumably an intensive education program is then implemented to develop each individual's abilities (and emotional needs) to the full.
Will: Even an advanced culture would require menial, boring jobs to service the rest of the community.
I was going through old TNG tapes and I caught this ep again. The sections I highlighted pretty much covers what I was going to say but I have to ask, is this society a bunch of genetically engineered communists? Perhaps I don't understand communism all that well but there would have to be menial jobs in this society, and there probably is an intensive education program to create interest in these jobs, but that sounds like propaganda to me. They may be perfectly engineered, but those 23 people who left the colony probably realized that their civilization will never advance or evolve being so isolated and eugenically screened.

Just because a job is "menial" doesn't mean that some people couldn't enjoy it or at least get enjoyment out of doing a job that helps out the community as a whole.

I'm sure there are garbagemen & janitors who enjoy their jobs, although a lot of people might not want to do those jobs.

Very true; infact where I live being a garbageman pays $14 an hour with decent benefits. However, being genetically engineered to do those jobs for life without the possibility of change or advancement could get a bit tedious. I highlighted your line because I agree that if those people and that society is so perfect they shouldn't want to leave, no matter their vocation or who paid them a visit to save their lives. Perhaps 'programming' them to stay is something future generations will be exposed to.

Isn't the idea of Star Trek that technology has eliminated the need for menial jobs so that everyone can pursue their dreams?

That's the Federation, this was an isolationist colony.

Still don't most people's dream involve non-work things (vacations, sex, watching movies/plays/etc.)? I can't believably imagine a society like that surviving.

There's a writing quote I love, "I hate writing, but I love having written." Even to make your dreams come true you sometimes have to do some work that isn't necesarily fun.

NANJAO 1

I could almost hear that "judge" character who was trying to advise others of the dangers saying: KAAAHHHHHNNNNer at the end.

NIT 1

If Hannah could willfully try to fake a crack in the dome, it would suggest that she has free will, given that the will of the colony wouldn't allow that. Since it's been established that these people have free will, one has to ask how deal they with disobedient children. Genetic engineering wouldn't keep a 4 year old from doing mischievous things.


NIT 2

Speaking of genetically engineered perfection, and Humpty Dumpty.. The moral of Humpty Dumpty (at least according to how it's portrayed in the episode) is about how some things can't be fixed. The point of Aaron's mother telling him this story comes off as a warning for him to not let things get broken period.

That's not only a foolish position, it's not logical, and these genetically engineered people should know that. Life, be it genetically engineered or not, is never over-easy and to raise leaders to not know how to handle dealing with things that can't be fixed is going to harm their society more than 23 people leaving.


NANJAO 2

Note:
I don't mean to start a heated debate on the religious, moral, or ethical issues that arise from this next statement. I'm just pointing out it out.

Sexual activity would have to be regulated quite heavily. Can't have bad genes entering the system. The only way for people to engage in intimacy without the chance that bad genes enter into the equation would be if all "activity" of that nature would require abortion techniques on fertilized eggs that aren't welcome.

(While some may not view contraceptives as a form of a abortion, many do. As I said, I'm not intending to start a debate about the contraceptives part.)

Sexual activity would have to be regulated quite heavily. Can't have bad genes entering the system. The only way for people to engage in intimacy without the chance that bad genes enter into the equation would be if all "activity" of that nature would require abortion techniques on fertilized eggs that aren't welcome.

Or the genetic coding for the colonists could have been altered to reduce or eliminate the sex drive. That would solve the problem of unwanted procreation.

No wonder that judge was bitter...

Seems that you wouldn't need either one. Today we have birth control methods that are over 96% effective if used correctly. There's even research into a birth control pill for guys. A few hundred years into the future if this society legally mandated such methods for anyone who wasn't licensed to have a child it could keep control without abortions or suppressing the natural sex drive.

A few hundred years into the future if this society legally mandated such methods for anyone who wasn't licensed to have a child it could keep control without abortions or suppressing the natural sex drive.

Or they could put something in the water supply - this is a self contained habitat after all.

I'm surprised that no one brought up Khan during this episode. It because because of Khan and his merry bunch of followers that genetic engineering was outlawed on Earth, and later the Federation.

What the colonists were doing in this episode was the same thing that brought Khan into existence. Granted they weren't a bunch of power mad maniacs wanting to take over the galaxy, but still...

Dey Young (Hannah Bates) would later play Arissa on DS9's "A Simple Investigation", and would be Odo's first lover.

I thought she was really attractive in this episode. She and Geordi worked together pretty well, and apparently they kept their relationship professional, they didn't get together the way Troi and Conor did.

Hmm. Genetic Engineering. These humans were not created by the same organization that "enhanced" Julian Bashir, were they? I mean, by the time DS9 was on, that sort of thing was illegal within the Federation. At least I think it was!

Hmm. Genetic Engineering. These humans were not created by the same organization that "enhanced" Julian Bashir, were they? I mean, by the time DS9 was on, that sort of thing was illegal within the Federation. At least I think it was!

It was outlawed on Earth in the 1990's, after the Eugenics Wars, and that ban was adopted by the Federation. Julian Bashir's parents had to go to a non-Federation planet to have him enhanced.

The people in this episode left Earth in the 22nd Century, because they knew what they were doing was illegal.

Once again I'm surprise Khan wasn't mentioned. It was because of him that genetic engineering was banned on Earth.

Does every Trek episode have to have an explicit reference to previous series? Personally I prefer it when they keep that sort of thing to a minimum, as NextGen tended to do. I mean, they just mentioned Khan four episodes ago in A Matter of Time. Two within four episodes would be overkill.

Well this was the first Trek episode to really deal with genetic engineering since Space Seed. That's why.

When I see the show in reruns, I tend to avoid most Season Five episodes like this one, because they became to soap opera like. Occasionally, you'd get a good science fiction episode (A Matter Of Time, Conundrum, Power Play, and Cause And Effect, and the acclaimed The Inner Light come to mind here), but it seems they chose to do episodes that could have been done on a contemporary show (Worf, the single dad thing, for example). I find most of the soap opera episodes just plain boring.

It was not until Jeri Taylor took over at the start of Season Six, that the soap opera format was scrapped and we shifted back towards science fiction.

Sorry for rambling here folks. However, am I the only one who found Season Five to be a mostly disappointing season?

Actually, I found it to be the peak of TNG perfection. Nearly all my favorite episodes came from season 5.

The Enterprise is shown hovering quite close to the stellar core fragment. A back of the envelope calculation shows that the fragment's gravity field at that location would be in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of g's. The fragment is also obviously hotter than white hot. In that respect, Enterprise is basically holding a position equivalent to a low orbit above a blue giant star. Is Enterprise really able to operate so casually in such a ferociously hostile environment?

Btw, the mass of that fragment would be VASTLY greater than a planet's. So, if Enterprise had the power to just barely deflect the fragment enough to avoid disaster, it could have moved the far less massive PLANET out of the way by a MUCH greater and safer margin.