Unwatchable: "Justice"

[Nebusj]

It's more that Picard is -- in ``Code of Honor'' and in ``Justice'' -- going along with the locals' laws even though he could just beam everyone up and escape; he's not compelled by physical danger to act. It's rather the same way that in ``Bread and Circuses'' there's no pretext Kirk or Scott can use to attack the Space Romans.

That ought to be a more mature character trait. For one thing it admits, for example, that in ``Code of Honor'' there's a larger goal which requires not offending the locals' sensibilities to achieve, although it doesn't quite play that way.

There's scenes of Picard quipping about how ridiculous it is there's these nitwits on the planet he has to kowtow to, but it just has this G.I.Joe tone to it.

Wil Wheaton's blog review of this episode was rather interesting and surprisingly positive. I don't quite agree with him, but I think he makes a fair argument that the episode is in the stronger set of first-season episodes.

 

[Grandpa]

The episode was good as showing the dramatic shift from Kirk's complete disregard for the Prime Directive-- but this and "Code of Honor" are also perfect examples of Picard following the prime directive to the point of being ridiculous.

0

Huh? This is one of the few episodes where he DIDN'T. He violated local law to save Wesley - even as the Edo's god-like overseers looked on. Remember Data and Picard's concern? The aliens might judge them unfavorably, seeing their act as disregarding their own laws. That could have put the entire ship in danger. This was no easy decision on Picard's part.

 

[Danoz]

Nebusj said:
It's more that Picard is -- in ``Code of Honor'' and in ``Justice'' -- going along with the locals' laws even though he could just beam everyone up and escape; he's not compelled by physical danger to act. It's rather the same way that in ``Bread and Circuses'' there's no pretext Kirk or Scott can use to attack the Space Romans.

That ought to be a more mature character trait. For one thing it admits, for example, that in ``Code of Honor'' there's a larger goal which requires not offending the locals' sensibilities to achieve, although it doesn't quite play that way.

There's scenes of Picard quipping about how ridiculous it is there's these nitwits on the planet he has to kowtow to, but it just has this G.I.Joe tone to it.

Wil Wheaton's blog review of this episode was rather interesting and surprisingly positive. I don't quite agree with him, but I think he makes a fair argument that the episode is in the stronger set of first-season episodes.

In "Code of Honor" he put his security officer's life at risk for no reason and delayed saving hundreds of people from a terrible illness when their leader acted aggressively by kidnapping her. In "justice" he left Wesley in captive hands for far too long, they could have easily carried out their sentence while he considered the prime directive.

As for "homeward", I like to imagine the writers completely forgot the character the had been writing-- because Picard's lack of care (in the name of the PD) for the "natural" annihilation of a civilization was ridiculous. I agreed with Beverly that INACTION was an malicious action in itself.

 

[Trekker4747]

In Justice, I wonder why didn't just simply let them inject the posion in Wes, beam him up, and then cure/revive him?

 

[Nebusj]

Danoz said:
In "Code of Honor" he put his security officer's life at risk for no reason and delayed saving hundreds of people from a terrible illness when their leader acted aggressively by kidnapping her.

Of course, seeing as how there were millions of people with the plague, yanking Yar back and heading out with the sample to save hundreds of people while leaving the Ligonians implacably opposed to ever delivering another drop of virus could be perceived as a slightly less than optimal solution, in kind of the way that the American invasion of Korea in the 1870s was less than a blazingly great triumph for American interests.

In "justice" he left Wesley in captive hands for far too long, they could have easily carried out their sentence while he considered the prime directive.

Outrageous, isn't it, to let a person who's broken the law be kept under surveillance by the local police, even when the police are themselves being watched by your own Away Team. Really quite barbarous, these natives, agreeing to delay the sentence given to any confessed criminal for no reason other than perhaps to curry favor with the visitors, and to allow a trade of hostages to keep their promise of a delayed sentence.

As for "homeward", I like to imagine the writers completely forgot the character the had been writing-- because Picard's lack of care (in the name of the PD) for the "natural" annihilation of a civilization was ridiculous. I agreed with Beverly that INACTION was an malicious action in itself.

Well, ``Homeworld'' is just the second-most-evil ``Perverted Prime Directive'' episode of all Trek. No squabbling about that.

 

[Who_Trek]

I like this episode for the eye candy, if nothing else... I found Dr. Crusher fairly emotionless however, considering her son was going to be executd.

 

[jimbtnp2]

Great episode

beats 98% of post S3

 

[euphorik]

jimbtnp2 said:

...beats 98% of post S3

change that to "90% of post S4" and i'll agree with you 100%. i'll take a random season 1 episode over a random season 5 any day of the week.

 

[jimbtnp2]

euphorik said:

jimbtnp2 said:

...beats 98% of post S3

change that to "90% of post S4" and i'll agree with you 100%. i'll take a random season 1 episode over a random season 5 any day of the week.

agreed

but i'd say mid s4 on really started going down

S1 is my fav, followed by s3

 

[ChooseSlack]

"Shades of Grey" was much, much worse.

 

[Gojirob]

One thing I might do : Be a lot more selective about who you tell about the Prime Directive. Adhere to it, debate its finer points, keep it here, break it there, or painfully abide by it over here. But don't make it a habit of telling every single alien race about it. I'm only saying this because of the tendency of the malevolent or the fervent/maniacal to essentially go 'na-na, you can't do anything cause of the PD!' The cleverness the crews often display to turn the tables later on nonwithstanding, I would argue the PD should be presented as an un-codified attitude of the crew until things are more settled.

There are times when being upfront would be necessary. When Riker's FC mission went bad, Picard needed to reassure the planetary leader that they would leave. I know Starfleet is about being upfront, but this law should be more operational than ornamental, til they know who they're dealing with.

The Edo and the ep do annoy me at times, though I wonder if the 'God' wasn't using the TNG'ers to re-intro the shades of grey their imposed laws took away from the Edo. 'Why did God allow the alien criminal to live?' would provoke sharp debate and cause some small changes in the Edo as time went by, if nothing more than making all visitors fully aware of the law.

Besides, in terms of provoking my ire, nothing in S1 could ever equal 'When The Bough Breaks'. The Edo have nothing on the Aldeans. I would have at least liked to have seen one of the parents look at the wannabe parents and say 'I hope you regain the ability to have children, and I hope when you do, no one ever does to you what you did to us. And I say that with some difficulty.' Adds Picard : 'Desperate and Dying is a reason for us to forgive your actions, not an excuse for you to engage in them.' But nope, they were all about the deference. Imagine if one of those kids took something after being told they couldn't have it.