I find the invocation of the prime directive in this episode DISGUSTING. And this comes from someone who likes Dear doctor. In dear doctor, they refuse to cure a disease, afflicting one sapient race, so another sapient race on the planet can come into its own. If worfs Foster Brother handt have interfered in this episode... A sentient race would have died out to achieve ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. At least letting people fight their own wars can help give them a history, a culture... Letting The people overthrow a dictator and establish a democracy, gives tehm a since of accomplishment, a pride to pass on to their heirs. But this whats it accomplish other then communicate an abstract?
It's a pretty dumb premise for an episode, One would think that the underlying principles of any intergalactic governing body would be to at least preserve, if not fully aid the existence of intelligent life Is sentient life so abundant that you are just willing to let it perish? That's not only damn heartless, it's also incredibly shortsighted, & contradicts what we know of modern Human behavior, which is to aid a species close to extinction
Really, a lot about the episode could have been saved if it had been changed from Nikolai wanting to save some of the people versus everyone else wanting to leave them all to die, to Nikolai wanting his particular group of friends saved versus everyone else considering some other option (based on genetic variety, cultural ability to adapt, whatever). Realistically the Enterprise could have saved only a handful of people from the planet anyways and you still could have tried to keep the minimal-intervention mission using the holodeck (or better yet multiple holodecks linked together) so that the basic story remains.
Another curious question.. ideas on how the community evolved, since presumably they eventualy split into multiple tribes...
I can't watch this without seeing Paulie from Goodfella's as Worf's brother. Only good thing about this episode.
Badly written episode, which was a big problem with many episodes in season seven. It's inconsistent with the Picard from "Pen Pals" and the one that broke the PD nine times if it meant doing the right thing.
I was a big fan of TNG first time around. Occasionally, I get the urge to re-watch the entire series (an endeavor for which I, realistically, do not have the time). I dissuade myself by remembering that doing so would eventually bring me back to this episode.
Whenever I see this episode now, I always flash back to Donna from Doctor Who begging the Doctor to just save *someone*, even if he can't save an entire town.
Awful episode, but par for the course in season 7. After all, it's the same season that shoves a "warp drive is bad for the environment" message down our throats only to realize it was a stupid idea, and then ignore it faster than Voyager's Threshold. Another good example is how Insurrection completely contradicts the message in Journey's End. I bet if Trek was still on TV today, there would have been a preachy episode drawing a comparison between replicator food and GMOs.
This ep. reminds me of Insurrection the way they transported the society from one place to another via the holodeck.
Insurrection recycled elements from at least three episodes: Who Watches the Watchers?, Homeward, and Journey's End.