(started this yesterday, got sidetracked, tried to be Grizzly Adams in taming skunks but that backfired and how many of today's audiences would get that reference anyhoo...)
I think the story has some good acting and
trying to elevate a decidedly mixed bag of ideas, such as bringing up the prime directive and why they cannot use it, along with the usual TOS trope of having to haul a critical substance to another planet before the countdown timer ends and they all die from whatever ailment it is. (What does ENT's finale have, apart from another bookend for the TNG crew? Nothing memorable, certainly.)
One comparatively subtle issue is how Picard opts to threaten the entire population by launching and detonating photon torpedoes across the atmosphere, which is not the best way to introduce the story theme. While the goal of the story is to show technologically- and rulebook-superior Picard having double standards for his code of honor (the prime directive) while the non-technical Luton is devout in his, the execution of this by Picard acting like this does him no favors and we're only into the third full story of the first season. The
idea is there and has potential if done right, but the execution is horrendous and couldn't have been done any worse -- unless Picard actually ordered the torpedos to hit the ground or buildings, good grief.
Along with not knowing what to do with half the characters, or doing them well, this is another example - albeit only partially successful - for Yar and her being devout to her career a Security Chief. But more on that later as where the story fails is regarding what has been established for her character and how out of character part of this story is...
The story also plays fast and loose with some medical terminology, which is never good for sci-fi, but in this story both "vaccine" and "antidote" are used
interchangeably, except a vaccine reduces/prevents the person from being infected by the cooties, and an antidote heals anyone who's been infected by the cooties. This is high school-level stuff, even by 1987 standards, but the story otherwise uses this subplot as a crutch and nothing more, so let's switch to an element that DID work:
Well, mostly: Despite her name having as much creativity as if I were to create a competing pencil brand and call it "Pencilbrand", I like the character of Yareena. She's well-acted, has some dramatic as well as story weight, and - yeah - the fight scene between Yareena and Yar is actually pretty good, especially for the time. The ending when Dr Crusher beams them aboard and gets
a vaccine an antidote delivered in miracle worker time. Some dialogue has that ever-special season one hokeyness, such as the following (albeit truncated and condensed):
PICARD: We need to know as much as possible about Ligonian armaments. Data, especially important is an analysis of their combat capabilities. Geordi, concentrate on their cutting edges, wherever applicable, durability, composition, weaknesses of material.
LAFORGE: Aye, sir.
DATA: From any particular point of view, sir?
PICARD: From the perspective of Lieutenant Yar using them in combat with Lutan's wife.
DATA: Most interesting. Could this be human joke number six hundred sixty three?
LAFORGE: Negative, Data. That's a Captain's order.
DATA: Which makes it important to know which of these weapons are to be used.
PICARD: And that won't be known until combat begins.
(LaForge and Data return in the next scene)
LAFORGE: The weapons in that room, Captain, are surprisingly flexible, durable, and deadly.
DATA: And light, as if they were made for women to use.
LAFORGE: Some of them still have traces of blood and poison.
PICARD: Poison?
LAFORGE: Alkaloid base. Lethal.
PICARD: What about those lengths of metal in the yard outside?
DATA: Uncertain, sir. However, joined together they would make a rectangle or square enclosing one hundred twenty one square metres. If put end to end vertically, they would make a pole forty four metres high, or two of twenty two.
PICARD: Thank you, Data.
Surprisingly generic and otherwise mostly pointless insight by Data and Geordi, by stating what was obvious (for edification of any of the audience tuning in last-minute?), and no pun intended. Which makes me second-guess condensing that earlier scene, so I'll put it back as it lends to yet another point and problem:
PICARD: And that won't be known until combat begins. You're right, Data. It does sound like a joke. With the power of the Enterprise, we could overwhelm this place easily, just take what we want.
DATA: I may not understand human humour, sir, but I am a Starfleet Academy graduate.
PICARD: Which means, of course-
DATA: understanding the Prime Directive, sir.
PICARD: That is, ironically, what this is about. By our standards, the customs here, their code of honour, is the same kind of pompous, strutting charades that endangered our own species a few centuries ago. We evolved out of it because no one else imposed their own. I'm sorry, this is becoming a speech.
TROI: You're the Captain, sir. You're entitled.
PICARD: Not entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows.
Picard's first line not excepted (or accepted as it's even more juvenile dialogue for him as cypher for the audience that already knows this), I'll stick to the point, but first a short rambling preamble: There is a problem regarding our crew, for which Yareena gets a genuinely terrific moment - as if the writer wanted to write something more polished and intriguing instead but couldn't due to editing or what not. See, Yareena gets to admonish the holier-than-thou Yar with "You are on our world now!!" and rightly so, noting how season one has a form of arrogance (and cliquishness) amongst the bridge crew that surely can't be typical of these "evolved", "enlightened" 24th century humans who condescend to everybody, even the audience at times. 24th century humans are so pompous that they think they can just go anywhere in the galaxy and strut, it's no wonder Azetbur in ST6/TUC made a quip about "in alien, the very term is racist." By then, that's season 5 of TNG when characters and situations were more refined (if not more boring), but the uneven nature of season one makes it too easy to mention.
Hmmm, make that two problems: Even by 1987, most audiences knew of the Prime Directive. This story is early on in TNG and might be taking into account general/unestablished fans who do not know of the Prime Directive, but it's a tricky situation requiring care to weave these factoids into story narrative. Something the story keeps tripping itself up over time and again.
There clearly was a series bible and background conditions for the crewmembers, so it is out of place for Yar to be so brazenly drooling over Lutan, or Data in the previous episode, or anyone else, without proper time in the story to actually go into character depth, which this episode basically did not and thus hinges on previously told character traits - which is sometimes doesn't. But Tasha's statement is more or less a single entendre, as to why she didn't want to stay with Lutan --
she's career first and only. While TNG
could have waited an episode or two to help define that trait more solidly, especially after her premiere and followed by "The Naked Now" of all episodes, that didn't happen and now all the audience gets is a muddle of messages that's more incongruous than most of my prose. Early TNG had so many character inconsistencies thanks to the rewrite of "The Naked Now" and then some dumb dialogue for characters in later stories, especially "Justice", that does Yar one of the worst disservices ever. Ditto for Wil/Bill/Willy/Wilhelm/Whatever as season one also had character names inconsistently thrown around as well, but I digress: It's amazing how season one had some interesting ideas about the prime directive, but then wrote around those ideas with such incredible sappy shlock. And, yeah, we only hear William called "Wil" or "Bill", not "Willy" or the others... but, yeah, character consistency also renders the "She's also horny for Lutan" pointless and misplaced.)
And that's just what I remember off the top of my head right now.
And yet, this story still has more depth and potential to it than TATV, no matter how botched or misplaced. But, yeah, it's a flop on almost every count, due to thoughtless handling and a novel paradoxical issue it's wanting to present.
