I hate that episode so much. Apart from the “planet of the black people” episode, it’s the worst one of the first season. Just totally un-Star Trek.
They said “Make Wesley guilty of a crime and have the Enterprise crew figure out how to clear his name.” And wrote the script backwards from there.
A plot that would make more sense on The Brady Bunch.
TNG had some amazing episodes and some terrible ones, but this one is near the very bottom. As someone else said, it felt like the writing process was a “let’s make Wesley guilty and figure out how they get him out of it” and they worked backwards from there.
The law on the planet is stupid and it feels like they are violating the prime directive just by being there because the civilization can’t be warp-capable. They don’t know they’re being ruled by a computer in orbit because they think it’s a god. The lady Picard terrifies by beaming onto the satellite made that clear.
So basically even their presence on the planet is pretty inexcusable
The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proved again and again that non interference should be inversely proportional to how hot the native species is.
Can we take a moment and appreciate that actor putting up with that brutal sunburn?
First time seeing on TV men wearing slutier clothes than women
Truly a star trek moment.
Speaking of, I just rewatched that TNG episode where they visit the matriarchal society where all the women are domineering and the men are more passive. It’s hard not to laugh when Riker shows off his culturally appropriate one-nipple-tastefully-out outfit.
“make it so” would have been a much better punchline for the 3rd panel 😂
“but, I…”
“Shut up, Wesley!”
