[7.4/10] Starfleet vessels usually meet three flavors of aliens in their journeys: technologically undeveloped species like the Edo, with stories about what the Prime Directive requires; relatively equal species like the Ferengi, who require diplomacy and strategy; and godlike beings like Q, who simply have to be withstood.
But it’s unique to see them meet a species like the Aldeans, who occupy a middle ground between the Federation’s peers and its deity-esque tormentors. They are recognizable as human beings and have the same needs and concerns Starfleet officers do, but they also have the technology to push the Enterprise around and basically dictate to our heroes, which is not a combination we see very often.
I like it. “When the Bough Breaks” makes the Aldeans the clear antagonists here, but it also makes them comprehensible, even paternalistic toward Picard in the way he often is toward other species. They beam onto the Enterprise and beam people off without much in the way of warning or consent. They kidnap the ship’s children (or at least the ones deemed “special” in some way). They don’t hesitate to knock the ship around when they feel Picard is getting too big for his britches.
But they also don’t view themselves as bad people. They offer otherwise unattainable knowledge to the Federation in exchange for the ship’s kids, aiming to craft a fair trade. They explain why their absconding with the ship’s children is necessary due to their own sterility and dying civilization, reasoning that the humans on board can just make more, while the Aldeans have been reduced to such desperate but needed measures to persist. In short, they think they’re not only right, but moral, and view our heroes as being (ironically) quite childish about the situation, an interesting reversal from the usual state of affairs.
It helps that there’s clear stakes here. The children have been kidnapped. The Aldeans need them to perpetuate their society and won’t give them back without a fight. The crew obvious wants their kids back and won’t accept any information exchange as a substitute. It’s a straightforward conflict that gives dimension to the challenge ahead of Picard and company, without the show needing to spend a lot of time fumfering over why it’s important to both sides.
But there’s also emotional stakes here. The episode could easily just coast on the easy to understand strain of parents and children being separated. But we get to spend time with the kids who are taken, both before and after the kidnapping.
We see artistic little Harry and his dad get into an argument over whether it’s worth it to do calculus before the kiddo is stolen away. We see the kids’ tempted by the prospect of the Aldeans fostering their talents and allowing them to do whatever they want to do. But we also see the kids missing their parents, and realizing that no amount of artistic fulfillment or freedom can be a substitute. There's even character moments for Picard, who’s still not used to being around children, understanding their need for comfort and reassurance in this situation. The show takes time to color in the emotional experience of the kids on the planet, which makes the stakes of the conflict feel more real and involving.
Plus, god help me, this is a good Wesley episode! Making him the leader of the youngins rather than the twerp among the adults puts him in a better light. The episode gives him the chance to be a leader, challenging the Aldeans where he can, showing care and kindness to the other kids he’s de facto responsible for as the only older person they actually know, and even organizing a sort of “strike” where they refuse to speak or eat as a form of passive resistance to their smiling captors. He’s admirable here, not as a wunderkind who can magically solve technological problems or see things others can’t, but by being a sharp and compassionate leader.
He even helps his mom scan one of the Aldeans, so that Dr. Crusher can potentially find a cure for their sterility, while the Enterprise tries to find a way to beam in through a hole in the planet’s defenses and disable their shields. That’s one of the other benefits of this episode’s approach. The Aldeans’ technological superiority makes this a problem the Enterprise can’t just beam or blast their way out of, and the usual diplomatic approach seems doomed to failure as well, requiring some unique problem solving.
Writer Hannah Louise Shearer does a good job of introducing multiple ways out of the predicament, each of which comes with its risks and precariousness, making the audience wonder which one will let our heroes save the day. It could be that the Wesley-organized passive resistance will convince the Aldeans how much the children they absconded with want to return home. It could be that Data will find an opening and make it possible for an away team to beam in and turn off the planet’s defenses. Or it could simply be that Dr. Crusher will find a cure for their Children of Men situation and obviate the Aldeans’ need to steal kids in lieu of having their own.
The answer turns out to be all three. The strike gives Picard an opening to intervene and buy time for his operatives to work. Riker and Data stopping the Aldeans’ central computer limits their opponents’ technological advantages. And Crusher’s cure, while initially rejected as a phony tactic, allows officers to prove themselves just as moral and advanced, offering help even to these supercilious beings who’ve done such a terrible thing.
That’s the central irony of the episode. The Aldeans have technology that allows them to only consider the Enterprise’s desires and needs so far as they want to. But they don’t understand that technology, as it was built by “progenitors” centuries ago. The thing that protected them and provided for their every desire turned out to be the thing was slowly killing them and erasing their society. The advanced race doesn’t turn out to be so advanced after all.
It’s a neat twist to the resolution of the episode, one that gives the Aldeans an epiphany about themselves as a way forward, and one that proves how, despite being theoretically outmatched by a superior species, there’s more to these craft humans than their doubters might think, both in terms of their morality and understanding. The reunions aboard the Enterprise are sweet, and by holding our heroes up against a society that can best them, TNG brings out the best in the children and parents aboard the Enterprise.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-01-23T18:47:32Z
[7.4/10] Starfleet vessels usually meet three flavors of aliens in their journeys: technologically undeveloped species like the Edo, with stories about what the Prime Directive requires; relatively equal species like the Ferengi, who require diplomacy and strategy; and godlike beings like Q, who simply have to be withstood.
But it’s unique to see them meet a species like the Aldeans, who occupy a middle ground between the Federation’s peers and its deity-esque tormentors. They are recognizable as human beings and have the same needs and concerns Starfleet officers do, but they also have the technology to push the Enterprise around and basically dictate to our heroes, which is not a combination we see very often.
I like it. “When the Bough Breaks” makes the Aldeans the clear antagonists here, but it also makes them comprehensible, even paternalistic toward Picard in the way he often is toward other species. They beam onto the Enterprise and beam people off without much in the way of warning or consent. They kidnap the ship’s children (or at least the ones deemed “special” in some way). They don’t hesitate to knock the ship around when they feel Picard is getting too big for his britches.
But they also don’t view themselves as bad people. They offer otherwise unattainable knowledge to the Federation in exchange for the ship’s kids, aiming to craft a fair trade. They explain why their absconding with the ship’s children is necessary due to their own sterility and dying civilization, reasoning that the humans on board can just make more, while the Aldeans have been reduced to such desperate but needed measures to persist. In short, they think they’re not only right, but moral, and view our heroes as being (ironically) quite childish about the situation, an interesting reversal from the usual state of affairs.
It helps that there’s clear stakes here. The children have been kidnapped. The Aldeans need them to perpetuate their society and won’t give them back without a fight. The crew obvious wants their kids back and won’t accept any information exchange as a substitute. It’s a straightforward conflict that gives dimension to the challenge ahead of Picard and company, without the show needing to spend a lot of time fumfering over why it’s important to both sides.
But there’s also emotional stakes here. The episode could easily just coast on the easy to understand strain of parents and children being separated. But we get to spend time with the kids who are taken, both before and after the kidnapping.
We see artistic little Harry and his dad get into an argument over whether it’s worth it to do calculus before the kiddo is stolen away. We see the kids’ tempted by the prospect of the Aldeans fostering their talents and allowing them to do whatever they want to do. But we also see the kids missing their parents, and realizing that no amount of artistic fulfillment or freedom can be a substitute. There's even character moments for Picard, who’s still not used to being around children, understanding their need for comfort and reassurance in this situation. The show takes time to color in the emotional experience of the kids on the planet, which makes the stakes of the conflict feel more real and involving.
Plus, god help me, this is a good Wesley episode! Making him the leader of the youngins rather than the twerp among the adults puts him in a better light. The episode gives him the chance to be a leader, challenging the Aldeans where he can, showing care and kindness to the other kids he’s de facto responsible for as the only older person they actually know, and even organizing a sort of “strike” where they refuse to speak or eat as a form of passive resistance to their smiling captors. He’s admirable here, not as a wunderkind who can magically solve technological problems or see things others can’t, but by being a sharp and compassionate leader.
He even helps his mom scan one of the Aldeans, so that Dr. Crusher can potentially find a cure for their sterility, while the Enterprise tries to find a way to beam in through a hole in the planet’s defenses and disable their shields. That’s one of the other benefits of this episode’s approach. The Aldeans’ technological superiority makes this a problem the Enterprise can’t just beam or blast their way out of, and the usual diplomatic approach seems doomed to failure as well, requiring some unique problem solving.
Writer Hannah Louise Shearer does a good job of introducing multiple ways out of the predicament, each of which comes with its risks and precariousness, making the audience wonder which one will let our heroes save the day. It could be that the Wesley-organized passive resistance will convince the Aldeans how much the children they absconded with want to return home. It could be that Data will find an opening and make it possible for an away team to beam in and turn off the planet’s defenses. Or it could simply be that Dr. Crusher will find a cure for their Children of Men situation and obviate the Aldeans’ need to steal kids in lieu of having their own.
The answer turns out to be all three. The strike gives Picard an opening to intervene and buy time for his operatives to work. Riker and Data stopping the Aldeans’ central computer limits their opponents’ technological advantages. And Crusher’s cure, while initially rejected as a phony tactic, allows officers to prove themselves just as moral and advanced, offering help even to these supercilious beings who’ve done such a terrible thing.
That’s the central irony of the episode. The Aldeans have technology that allows them to only consider the Enterprise’s desires and needs so far as they want to. But they don’t understand that technology, as it was built by “progenitors” centuries ago. The thing that protected them and provided for their every desire turned out to be the thing was slowly killing them and erasing their society. The advanced race doesn’t turn out to be so advanced after all.
It’s a neat twist to the resolution of the episode, one that gives the Aldeans an epiphany about themselves as a way forward, and one that proves how, despite being theoretically outmatched by a superior species, there’s more to these craft humans than their doubters might think, both in terms of their morality and understanding. The reunions aboard the Enterprise are sweet, and by holding our heroes up against a society that can best them, TNG brings out the best in the children and parents aboard the Enterprise.