Not just boring. They pretty much take the same plot idea as "Pen Pals", then do the usual season five contrivance of sledgehammering one plot point. Like "Ethics", it's oversimplified and disingenuous, while making the alleged haughtiness of the crew from season one come across like a charming pancake feed by comparison.
The idea that they would engineer people so "precisely" and there's no backup personnel is just as stupid as Doctor Who's "The Seeds of Death" from 1968, except this isn't 1968, this isn't Doctor Who with a limited budget and everything else, and by 1990 storytelling was more sophisticated. Or so people were told. Or at least shown. If the show makers have to say it's more sophisticated, assume the opposite.
Indeed, Picard's dour demeanor at the end of an already overly-contrived episode that feels like it exists mostly to do an incontinent diarrhea dump over "Pen Pals" as abject extreme reaction to its (admittedly overly-schmaltzy and fairytale ending) is actually beyond disgusting and you'd think he was one of the colonists rather than the lead of the flagship from the opposing side. Not that I have any emotions invested in this episode for any number of reasons or anything.
I will say this, even season 5's worst episodes all had at least one good scene of genuine thought. Even "Ethics", which is a shade worse than this one, but I digress. Here's the one from "Masterpiece" that still gives me pause for thought and there's a ton in it that can be extrapolated from:
Interesting argument even before thinking into all of the possible facets, complete with limited use of wallpaper music, and I'll side with Geordi on this. Season 5 is not exactly my favorite, but the occasional scene manages to rise above the drek surrounding it.
