So they are vacationing (?) on some kind of free love porn planet of some sort. Populated by long distance runners in outfits like from a 90's Britney Spears music video. Those police monokinis! They have built a campus that looks awfully lot like Starfleet headquarters (probably the same filming location). It's as as cringe as it sounds. Worse than the usual planet Riesa madness. Wesley is AGAIN! annoying AF. Not even the habitual huggers want to hug this awkward boy. His interactions with the promiscuous girls are painful to watch. He's clearly a - I don't know - 16 years old from a futuristic society, but yet he feels shame and stumbles every time he encounters light dressed females. Only Riker seems to thoroughly enjoy that the orgy could start anytime soon. Then the writer needed someone who messes up paradise. Guess whom they have chosen: the wunderkind. As if the audience needed another reason to turn on him.
The rest is very classic Star Trek. An alien justice system unknown to the crew. A violation of law. A harsh punishment. Enforced and policed by a powerful being. The moral dilemma between respecting the aliens's legal system like the prime directive says vs. the Captain's responsibility of protecting the crew. That's not new to the franchise. That's not even new to TNG (cf. Code of Honor). I don't say that is an issue that's not worth to be discussed but this episode is just not very exciting. We already guess what will happen: they will protest, will eventually respect the alien justice system but will most definitely find a clever loophole to evade the harsh consequences (by slightly bending the rules).
I usually don't question the logic errors in plots but I don't get the general approach of the Enterprise here. It's basically an episode about the holy principles of the prime detective. They contemplate very hard about their dilemma. And yet they never question that they visited a society clearly unaware of space travel in the first place. Without asking for their permission or inquiring the rules for their visit. Plus, she let this woman encounter "her god". The crew is poisonous to their utopia.
Review by Alexander von LimbergBlockedParent2023-01-22T11:19:25Z— updated 2023-09-11T06:44:39Z
So they are vacationing (?) on some kind of free love porn planet of some sort. Populated by long distance runners in outfits like from a 90's Britney Spears music video. Those police monokinis! They have built a campus that looks awfully lot like Starfleet headquarters (probably the same filming location). It's as as cringe as it sounds. Worse than the usual planet Riesa madness. Wesley is AGAIN! annoying AF. Not even the habitual huggers want to hug this awkward boy. His interactions with the promiscuous girls are painful to watch. He's clearly a - I don't know - 16 years old from a futuristic society, but yet he feels shame and stumbles every time he encounters light dressed females. Only Riker seems to thoroughly enjoy that the orgy could start anytime soon. Then the writer needed someone who messes up paradise. Guess whom they have chosen: the wunderkind. As if the audience needed another reason to turn on him.
The rest is very classic Star Trek. An alien justice system unknown to the crew. A violation of law. A harsh punishment. Enforced and policed by a powerful being. The moral dilemma between respecting the aliens's legal system like the prime directive says vs. the Captain's responsibility of protecting the crew. That's not new to the franchise. That's not even new to TNG (cf. Code of Honor). I don't say that is an issue that's not worth to be discussed but this episode is just not very exciting. We already guess what will happen: they will protest, will eventually respect the alien justice system but will most definitely find a clever loophole to evade the harsh consequences (by slightly bending the rules).
I usually don't question the logic errors in plots but I don't get the general approach of the Enterprise here. It's basically an episode about the holy principles of the prime detective. They contemplate very hard about their dilemma. And yet they never question that they visited a society clearly unaware of space travel in the first place. Without asking for their permission or inquiring the rules for their visit. Plus, she let this woman encounter "her god". The crew is poisonous to their utopia.