Well, that commentary on the ozone layer wasn't pointed at all, was it? Downright in-your-face, that was.
I think my favorite part of this episode was Jerry Hardin. Having started watching The X-Files this past summer, I have really enjoyed his appearances as "Deep Throat" on that show. They are few (only 11 of 218 episodes), but welcome. I can also look forward to his return in "Time's Arrow" as Samuel Clemens, and recall his brief appearance on Voyager in the just-okay episode "Emanations".
Actually, "When The Bough Breaks" is pretty well-written. We have an alien race that has become complacent and arrogant, secure enough in their technological superiority that they feel comfortable simply taking what they want directly from the Federation flagship. We have Picard, studied in negotiations, well aware that care must be taken to avoid the Aldeans giving up and simply retreating behind their cloak once more. And we have Doctor Crusher, whose investigations (cheesy ozone-layer comments aside) dig right to the heart of the Aldeans' problems and provide a better solution than they had settled on.
My only real question concerns the number of children taken. Counselor Troi claims to sense "thousands of minds" as Enterprise approaches the planet's location, but we only ever see about half a dozen Aldeans. They take seven children, including Wesley, in a ploy to rejuvenate their entire society… off of a ship carrying roughly 1,000 people. Surely that figure includes more than seven children?
@finfan That was a nice episode, what I like about these first series (TOS, TNG and VOY) is that humanity is very advanced with their technology (comparing to our present), but the most important achievement is to be able to give hope to other civilizations while trying to be kind to all of them, despite some friction between species. Humanity has respect and is patient towards aliens (even if they are not to us).
I usually hope to see aliens different from us. No need to see complicated make-up. A small detail is fine, just like Spock's pointy ears or Bajorans' extra wrinkles noses. Maybe we all have the same ancestors, so we just have minor differences.
This is Wesley's least annoying showing yet. He was smart but not precocious about it. Funny how he was the only one of his age taken, though. I guess that Asian friend he had on the holodeck skiing trip didn't make the cut.
Lol, Beverly and Wesley's "surreptitious" scanning of that lady was the most obvious thing ever. There's no way that would've gone unnoticed.
A cool note about this episode is that the power source reactor thingy shown at the end was only 3 feet tall in real life.
Simple story. Good story. Even Wesley isn't annoying. Picard shows that he's an extraordinary leader. Unlike Kirk he prefers a non-violent approach. He is bad with children though :wink:. It's also nice to be reminded that the Enterprise D is not only a science or military vessel. It's also home to families and civilians.
It's also a moral tale about an advanced society that became too reliant on technology and that was almost destroyed by the tech they so heavily rely on. Not only they forgot how to control their technology but they also lost any sense of morale. I like that they don't seem to realize that they took a wrong turn. They are kidnapers and yet they are benevolent and almost innocent. Good that the Federation offers them a generous off-ramp. It's a pity that we don't hear from them again. I would have loved to see how they coped with their problem and whether they were able to save their planet and race.
The episode is also hold back by budget constraints. River advertised this planet as some sort of Atlantis or utopia full of talented artists and craftsmen. We see very little of this.
See Children of Men for a better version of this
Yes we could stop global warming if only… we knew calculus
This was a great one! I really enjoyed it!
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.