In the episode Homeward, d'you think Picard made the right call with the Boralans? After Nikolai abducted the villagers from the planet and came clean, Picard went along with the plan pretty quickly to transplant them to a new world. But was this really the best course of action?
For one, the effects of a new ecosystem could be potentially devastating to the immune system of a pre-industrialized humanoid. Presumably, the crew can beam down to alien worlds because of the transporter's bio-filter and the advanced medical technology available. The Boralans, on the other hand, could potentially die from diseases that the native life forms have developed natural resistances to over time.
Secondly, did they really expect the Boralans to just accept the new animals and plant life located (from their POV) a few hundred kilometers from where they were? To relate it to our terms, say a group of Aztecs were caught up in a similar situation and migrated to a planet where targs were present. Would the society really accept that?
Also, Nikolai's whole argument about preserving a culture is dubious at best. The Boralan's world is gone. That world helped to shape the beliefs of its people, just as their new one will. By planting the seed of that new villiage, they're effectively saying goodbye to that culture. Assuming they survive and prosper, the society present there a decade from then could be expected to be vastly different than the one they tried to save.
For one, the effects of a new ecosystem could be potentially devastating to the immune system of a pre-industrialized humanoid. Presumably, the crew can beam down to alien worlds because of the transporter's bio-filter and the advanced medical technology available. The Boralans, on the other hand, could potentially die from diseases that the native life forms have developed natural resistances to over time.
Secondly, did they really expect the Boralans to just accept the new animals and plant life located (from their POV) a few hundred kilometers from where they were? To relate it to our terms, say a group of Aztecs were caught up in a similar situation and migrated to a planet where targs were present. Would the society really accept that?
Also, Nikolai's whole argument about preserving a culture is dubious at best. The Boralan's world is gone. That world helped to shape the beliefs of its people, just as their new one will. By planting the seed of that new villiage, they're effectively saying goodbye to that culture. Assuming they survive and prosper, the society present there a decade from then could be expected to be vastly different than the one they tried to save.