Thoughts on "Code of Honor"...

[Christopher]

While I agree that contact with pre-warp civilizations was nothing unusual in TOS I think that TNG established it as something that was prohibited as early as "Who Watches the Watchers" in Season 3.

Revealing your existence to species that didn't already know about alien life was off-limits from TOS onward (see "Bread and Circuses" and "A Private Little War"), though inconsistently applied. The annoying mistake "First Contact" made was equating that with "pre-warp." It's pat and simplistic to assume that inventing warp drive was the only possible way a species could learn about other worlds. What about radio astronomy and SETI? What about space telescopes powerful enough to image exoplanets and identify biosignatures and technosignatures? Realistically, most technological civilizations should be able to confirm the existence of aliens long before they develop warp drive. And that's not even counting the possibility that non-Federation starfarers without a Prime Directive could have already contacted a pre-spaceflight world long before Starfleet discovered it. It's simplistic to assume Starfleet is the only game in town.

 

[Orphalesion]

Revealing your existence to species that didn't already know about alien life was off-limits from TOS onward (see "Bread and Circuses" and "A Private Little War"), though inconsistently applied. The annoying mistake "First Contact" made was equating that with "pre-warp." It's pat and simplistic to assume that inventing warp drive was the only possible way a species could learn about other worlds. What about radio astronomy and SETI? What about space telescopes powerful enough to image exoplanets and identify biosignatures and technosignatures? Realistically, most technological civilizations should be able to confirm the existence of aliens long before they develop warp drive. And that's not even counting the possibility that non-Federation starfarers without a Prime Directive could have already contacted a pre-spaceflight world long before Starfleet discovered it. It's simplistic to assume Starfleet is the only game in town.

Ah, so we can assume that Angel One, and possibly the Lingonians might have learned of the Federations existence through something like SETI or intercepting communications or the like (which might have also been the reason that Federation vessel landed on Angel I 62 years before the episode)
This of course leaves only the Edo without any explanation as to why the Enterprise interacted with them, as you pointed out. That's really a complicated case. The Edo seem advanced enough to have modern looking syringes and glass houses, at least, so they might technology that would allow them to communicate with or at least learn off other civilizations. Though with their cliche "god thing" existing, it's difficult to say what aspects of their society might have been given to them by that thing and whether it would have interfered with any attempt to communicate beyond their planet.
In the episode the Edo didn't seem perplexed by the outlandish clothing or (as in the case of Worf) clearly alien appearances of their visitors, so it could be that the Edo knew of life on other planets, but just hadn't encountered the Federation/Starfleet yet...
But with the Edo it's really difficult to fathom how their society is supposed to have worked anyway, do they all just run around perfectly landscaped gardens all day and "play at love"?

 

[Jayson1]

With the Edo perhaps they made contact with aliens friendly with the Federation and they told the Federation about the planet and basically arranged a visit. Their must of have been lots of subspace communication going on before the Enterprise showed up. Then the away teams went down to explore and get a feel of things though stupidly don't bother to ask about their legal system or laws.


Jason

 

[UssGlenn]

Of course, none of that explains "Justice," which was explicitly a first contact.

I think we have to assume it was their first contact with the Federation but not with Alien life in general.

 

[Christopher]

I think we have to assume it was their first contact with the Federation but not with Alien life in general.

Yeah, but how did the Enterprise crew know that going in? According to the opening log entry, they were the ones to initiate contact with the Edo, not the other way around. So how could they have known it was okay? It just doesn't make sense.

 

[UssGlenn]

Yeah, but how did the Enterprise crew know that going in? According to the opening log entry, they were the ones to initiate contact with the Edo, not the other way around. So how could they have known it was okay?

My theory to fill the plot hole: After finding the planet they do a scan of the communication networks and find references to other known galactic civilizations. Thus they know it's save to introduce themselves.

 

[Orphalesion]

Either the idea that a allied civilization had contact with the Edo or that they picked it up from scanning the Edo's planetwide communications sounds sensible to me.

Then the away teams went down to explore and get a feel of things though stupidly don't bother to ask about their legal system or laws.

Uh... I might remind you that Tasha did a whole report on their customs and laws, and according to her it was all very simple and sensible!
At least that's what she claims...

 

[UssGlenn]

Yeah, did they ever say how she missed that?

 

[Christopher]

My theory to fill the plot hole: After finding the planet they do a scan of the communication networks and find references to other known galactic civilizations. Thus they know it's save to introduce themselves.

That would make sense, but then, why not just hail them from orbit? The way it was presented in the episode was that they sent down Riker's team specifically to find out what the locals were like. Basically the equivalent of 18th-century sailors sending a shore party to an island to look around and see who they met. It was really dumb, is what I'm saying.

 

[Orphalesion]

Yeah, did they ever say how she missed that?

That would make sense, but then, why not just hail them from orbit? The way it was presented in the episode was that they sent down Riker's team specifically to find out what the locals were like. Basically the equivalent of 18th-century sailors sending a shore party to an island to look around and see who they met. It was really dumb, is what I'm saying.

It's almost as if the episode was not very well written

On the Yar thing we might also note that for the rest of the episode Tasha does absolutely nothing to help Wesley, despite her supposed bond with the boy and that what happened is partially her responsibility.
(Though to be fair, I understand in the earlier versions of the script Tasha was a lot more involved)

 

[Nerys Myk]

Anchilles Fever is no small thing to laugh at!

That could put a wedge between the Federation and the Ligonians.

 

[Mike McDevitt]

That would make sense, but then, why not just hail them from orbit? The way it was presented in the episode was that they sent down Riker's team specifically to find out what the locals were like. Basically the equivalent of 18th-century sailors sending a shore party to an island to look around and see who they met. It was really dumb, is what I'm saying.

Given that it’s dumb (and on that, We Reach) I have two possible dumb answers that would satisfy me about our Starfleet heroes not donking things up on purpose:
1. They met some Edo in a warp ship while settling colonists on neighboring Strnad but never told us, the humble audience.
2. They detected warp signatures throughout the Rubicon system and jumped the gun, not realizing it was the Edo God they were scanning.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I understand that the decision to make it an all-black cast was made after the writing and there's some hints at this given that the present given them is Chinese. Mind you, I think the actors were a bit aware of what was going on in the episode too.

PICARD: Yours is a different world.

LUTAN: With clear and simple ways deeply rooted in our culture.

I am sure that line was written straight but Jessie Lawrence Ferguson plays it with such IMMENSE disdain.

I recommend Will Wheaton's review of the episode in MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE. Its hilarious.

If Shran called Archer "Pink-Skin" all the time, then what would ha have called Sisko, all the time?

Whatever he did call him, Shran would have only done it once.

 

[Maurice]

[...]Look at how NBC's censors had no problem with William Shatner making out with France Nuyen in "Elaan of Troyius" but freaked out over him kissing Nichelle Nichols in "Plato's Stepchildren."[...]

No evidence trail of that has assertion has ever been demonstrated to exist. The actors tell such tales, but that doesn't make it so. Nichelle Nichols' accounts of the supposed incident doesn't match the production records. I suggest this story not be dignified with treating it as factual.

 

[Christopher]

^Okay, but didn't the early season 1 flirtations between Spock and Uhura get kiboshed because of racial objections from some quarters?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The part that's hardest to justify as not being racist is kidnapping a woman off the ship to force her into marriage, then refusing to give a life saving vaccine if their rituals surrounding right to rape are not respected.

The only all black planet we ever see features ritualistic behavior around unwilling women being bound to men. This triggers a lot of racist imagery about sexual violence and implies Eurocentric portrayals of a lot of tribal cultures framed to make them look backwards to justify exploiting them.

 

[Charles Phipps]

The part that's hardest to justify as not being racist is kidnapping a woman off the ship to force her into marriage, then refusing to give a life saving vaccine if their rituals surrounding right to rape are not respected.

The only all black planet we ever see features ritualistic behavior around unwilling women being bound to men. This triggers a lot of racist imagery about sexual violence and implies Eurocentric portrayals of a lot of tribal cultures framed to make them look backwards to justify exploiting them.

Mind you, I actually think this illustrates the problem with how white washed most of the galaxy is. I find the "Master Race Sextopia" planet of "Justice" to be disgustingly racist as well. It's like a utopia founded by Hitler.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If every other episode had a planet with majority dark skinned people, it'd be easier to justify having one of them be a tribal rape kidnap planet.

 

[BillJ]

It's like a utopia founded by Hitler.

Or Larry Flint.

 

[Vger23]

I distinctly remember seeing this episode in first-run as a 12 year old, who was very excited to be watching a new Star Trek show. I also remember, even at the age of 12, thinking it was one of the worst things I had ever seen and wondering if this was what would be in store each week.

Code of Honor is a pile of rat feces, I'm afraid. That's even without the obvious casting issues that advanced negative/backward stereotypes.