As the episode opens Riker is rushed into an emergency treatment room in an alien hospital, as the alien doctors begin working on Riker they point out various oddities in his physiology (the look of his hands, placement of his heart, number of ribs he has) standing back in awe wondering what he is. As Riker comes to and talks to his doctors he covers up his physical oddities as being birth defects and requests to leave to seek out his "own doctor" but is told his injuries are too great and he must recover.
Meanwhile, an alien scientist is talking with her leaders about an upcoming test of their first warp-vessel, a remarkable achievement in what seems to be a very traditionalist society until fairly recently under their more forward-looking leader. Though she is met with some resistance by another leader, a security minister, who prefers they stick with their more traditional values.
That evening the scientist is greeted by Picard and Troi as they beam down to make "first contact" with an alien world, they offer to bring the scientist aboard ship to show her they are telling the truth. After the visit the scientist introduces Picard to the planet's chancellor who is also welcomed onto the ship and shares a drink of Picard Wine in the Ready Room as Picard and the alien leader discuss what the Federation is and the role they'll play (if any) in the alien culture's development as they embark into space.
Meanwhile on the planet, Riker puts into action an escape plan from the hospital but is ambushed by hospital staff and has his injuries amplified to the point of putting him critical condition. All of this goes on with the knowledge of the security advisor who revives Riker for questioning, putting Riker's health at risk. The advisor attempts to martyr himself by staging an attack by Riker using a phaser. (Not knowing the weapon is set to a non-lethal setting.)
Once learning of Riker's (and other Starfleet observers) presence on the planet the chancellor is initially angry but still sees the reason in it, and trusts Picard, allowing Riker to be released into the care of Doctor Crusher.
Riker and the alien advisor survive their injuries but the actions of the advisor convince the chancellor that his people are not ready to accept the existence of an interstellar community and declines any further contact with The Federation and delays the warp program. The alien scientist asks to be allowed to stay on the Enterprise which Picard allows offering a friendly parting to the alien chancellor as the the ship leaves orbit.
Another episode that is one of my favorites and also one with a pretty strong focus on non-Enterprise characters as, really, the only members of the main cast that get any meaningful moments are Riker and Picard (Data, Worf, Troi and Crusher are all pretty secondary) and their experiences with the aliens (Riker with those in the hospital, Picard with the alien leader(s).)
As it's not likely there's very many cases of a Federation ship encountering a planet right on the cusp of warp travel it's an interesting look at how such a situation is handled and down the road interesting to contrast it with what we eventually learn about Earth's first contact with Vulcan through the movie First Contact and in "Enterprise."
In some way its understandable why the alien leader would be so unnerved by learning that the Federation had observers in disguise on the planet. We already know that the Federation observes pre-warp cultures using hidden duck blinds and we learn "cloaked" people are used in "Insurrection" but here we see that the Federation takes on a slightly more sinister role in gathering information by having specialists disguised as natives on the planet. While they're certainly not brain-washing or trying to indoctrinate the citizens and are purely being observational it certainly can come across as compelling.
A couple times in the episode the native characters say their society believes themselves to be "the center of the universe", it's probably very unlikely they think this to be literally true if they've been doing any astronomical studying whatsoever, but it's still an oddity if they've had any kind of meaningful space observation where they've likely observed stars in the sky similar to their own and, hell, even if they have telescopes and such equivalent of what we have today on Earth they could observe stars likely harboring planets that contain life.
Also interesting to note the social level the aliens in the episode are at when they are on the verge of warp travel and compare that to where humanity was when breaking the light-barrier.
This is a good episode that's always enjoyable to watch, particularly nice is the interaction between Picard and the alien leader as well as the conflict between the more idealistic alien leader and the traditionalist alien security minister.
GOOD MOMENTS:
Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith Crane on Cheers) as an alien doctor/nurse who offers to help Riker escape in exchange for his, ahem, "services."
Riker trying to talk his way out of this situation.
Picard shares the bottle of wine he got from Robert at the beginning of the season with the alien chancellor. (I don't think that's what Robert meant, Picard!)
INTERESTING NOTES:
The very 20th century look of the alien hospital including regular doors with even the sheet-metal push guards and strike panels.
The alien scientist showing a degree of embarrassment over The Federation learning of her people by watching their tv programs and listening to their popular music.
ODDITIES:
Riker says he'd be in better care under his own doctor, but when asked who that is he uses Crusher's own name. An odd thing to go considering Crusher doesn't seem to have a name that matches that of the natives and he had to know they'd look up such a person and wouldn't find her.
The chancellor's receptionist seems pretty uninterested over the intercom over having seen AN ALIEN come up to be buzzed into the office.
The alien nurse's suggested exit route to Riker apparently took him past a nurses' station.
GOOD LINES:
"I'll call you the next time I pass through your star-system." - Riker, after being asked by his alien lover if she'll ever see him again.
