Adding 1 to "Masterpiece Society". Same reason as before, with the multilayered scene involving Geordi and realizing the means to deflect the stellar core fragment safely, which is awesome. Conor's line about their ideal existence is not necessarily uninteresting, but the whole episode feels like a hit-or-miss escapade. Especially when they go into how everyone is bred for a purpose and yet, despite a sufficiently-sized population with little risk of death or doodaahs and so on, it still takes precious little to create an irrevocable balance. I also still loathe that ending of Picard's melodrama,
and - of course - where the Federation's flagship's crew made such a big screwup about tectonic treknobabble despite previous seasons of dealing with similar issues and not making such a basic mistake (and ironic that such a masterpiece society couldn't have what amounts to glorified earthquake-proof supports)... and yet all that isn't as bad as the overtly-contrived initial setup.... not sure which is worse, but the bits in the middle aren't bad at all, and definitely more compelling... which might be why I feel the Earth emotion called "disappointment".
(on edit: Strikeout some errata.)
Then again, Conor states his people are all perfectly placed and there's no worry of an artist not being discovered or not finding themselves... perhaps there is a shrouded irony in the episode thanks to the ending. It's quite a biggie as now some people want to leave, not because of the toxic leak thingy but because people see a shiny new way to live and want to see more of it... so much for their all being perfect. Now if that's the point of the episode, it's quite a left turn boomerang...
Also, "Moab" is an interesting name considering its numerous definitions and, of course, as an acronym because this story is almost as much of a "MOAB" as "Ethics" is. IMHO, YMMV.
On edit, some key scenes at the start and end of the episode and there wa:
CONOR: Not at all. My entire psychological makeup tells me that I was born to lead. I am exactly what I would choose to be. Think of it another way. Are there still people in your society who have not discovered who they really are, or what they were meant to do with their lives? They may be in the wrong job, they may be writing bad poetry. Or worse yet, they may be great poets working as labourers, never to be discovered. That does not happen here. It is, for us, an ideal existence. We will not give it up easily.
And then there's this, noting Hannah's reaction to Geordi:
HANNAH: Isn't it amazing after all we went through?
LAFORGE: Yeah. Amazing.
HANNAH: Looks bad. It's cracked well beneath the surface.
LAFORGE: Why are you doing this?
HANNAH: What do you mean?
LAFORGE: There's no breach.
HANNAH: What are you talking about. Look at it, it's right here. I measured the toxic leak. You saw me.
LAFORGE: Hannah, my visor's positronic scan would have detected the leak. Its molecular pattern enhancer would have picked up even the smallest crack.
HANNAH: The damn thing doesn't miss much, does it. Fine. I'll tell them the truth. Will that make you happy?
LAFORGE: Why are you doing this?
HANNAH: I was born to be one of the best scientific minds of my generation, and in the past five days I have encountered technology that I have barely imagined. And I've got to ask myself, If we're so brilliant how come we didn't invent any of these things?
LAFORGE: Well, maybe necessity really is the mother of invention. You never really look for something until you need it.
HANNAH: But all my needs have been anticipated and planned for before I'm even born. All of us in this colony have been living in the dark ages. It's like we're victims of a two hundred year old joke. Until you came, we could only see to the wall of our biosphere. Suddenly our eyes have been opened to the infinite possibilities.
Dang. That makes up for Conor's dumbdeediddlery at the start, and Picard's even more obtuse fluff at the end:
PICARD: Of course we did. But in the end we may have proved just as dangerous to that colony as any core fragment could ever have been.
No Picard, you weren't as dangerous, it wasn't you, and given how often you spout babble about wanting to explore the universe, now you'd rather they all be dead than to see the universe like every other human?! That's almost parody-worthy! The people who set up the colony had more hubris... so yeah, my respect for this episode just went up even more. Despite it all. Time for a full rewatch, methinks...
The Outrageous Okona" - 1
"The Price" - 0
"Transfigurations" - 2
"The Host" - 0
"Galaxy's Child" - 0
"The Masterpiece Society" - 2
"Aquiel" - 0
"Birthright, Part II" - 2
"Bloodlines" - 0