This episode has the makings of another turkey, but the subject matter has always interested me and it's a better attempt than the first one in When The Bough Breaks.
The primary story suffers from over simplicity again so there's lots of filler material. And it's Worf-friendly filler material which I liked. After the doctor hides an embarrassing case of measles from everyone for Worf they participate int he Klingon tea ceremony. It would never be used again as much of the early attempts of Klingon cultural development, but it's still a charming notion. Deadly, but honorable. Yes, people were definitely becoming okay with these savage Klingons.
The main story starts with another distress call and it turns out to be from a 22nd century beacon. They hint that something is odd because the ship the distress signal is traced to had been loaded with a mixture of high tech equipment as well as things like spinning wheels. They have to go investigate because log keeping wasn't as thorough back then and discover what they had speculated: a colony of utopia seeking people who wanted to return to a simpler lifestyle before technology. That's cool... by why do they only have a little over 200 hundred people after being there for nearly two centuries? I know I've repeated myself a lot in this season, but this is another case of them relying on the audience being more interested in the drama than the technical aspects of the script.
And it does make for a lot of fun. The Bringlóid expect their livestock to be transported along with them and there's some culture shock. But they're willing to make an effort at assimilating to 24th century living since the planet they'd lived on is doomed because of solar flares. They spend a lot of time on this as expected. There's much comedy and Riker gets frisky with the daughter of the colony's leader. I appreciated the fact that even though they'd been written as growing their culture "backwards" so to speak that they weren't freaked out by interstellar travel or even too surprised at the change in technology. All to often up until now when they'd caricature any kind of past Earth culture they'd made them out to be barbaric and/or stupid. So, I think it's an improvement in that area and it's enjoyable to watch.
It's reported that Colm Meany didn't like they way that Irish people were portrayed. Well Colm, welcome to Liberal Idiocy 101. The Irish didn't go the route of willingly becoming victims that Liberals could exploit to further their causes, so Irish people don't get to be offended. Sorry, we're just the wrong race, ergo, we have no race card. Get over it. I for one enjoy stereotypical humor. Stereotypical humor is what brought us together once upon a time. Then when the participants all died off we were told that it was racist and sexist and like sheep we believed because being a victim is a position of power. At least for a while.
So, after a lot of playing around the Bringlóid leader asks Picard if they'd heard anything out of the other colony which makes them realize that this must be the reason that their were two vastly different types of equipment on the cargo manifest. So they set out looking for them. They ended up at another planet of course. They still had a thing about separating related groups by entire planets or solar systems. But at least in this case it was utilized a little better in the end. They discover that there ended up being only five people in the other colony and they ended up cloning to reproduce.
This is the part that interests me, of course. As I mentioned before, I was interested in the idea of transplanted human societies on other planets being unable to reproduce so they resort to criminal behavior of some kind. I have written a little on it. The solution of cloning is actually a good story and it makes more sense than kidnapping the small handful of Enterprise children, but it's also frustrating because they choose to play it fast and loose with the science fiction. They wouldn't be able to repress the sex drive without drugs I don't think. Even making copies of copies as they were doing. These are all supposed to be scientist and therefore naturally curious, so I think they should've just said it's repressed through drugs all the time. Also the clones would emerge fully grown as indicated by the pods that Riker, Pulaski, and LaForge find after they discover their own DNA had been stolen to make a fresh infusion of clones. Not the best science fiction, but a good idea for criminal activity. Not what I came up with personally and, of course, I like my idea better, but this still made a good part of the story. Lots of ethical discussions to be pursued.
But, like everything else in the first two seasons, the intelligent and philosophical points are shaved down in favor of the drama and still mostly immature comedy. The meat of the story as I see it is rushed and the solution becomes obvious. Since these people started out together, the clone colony would have to use the Irish farmers as breeding stock, which also gives them a place to live. Too predictable, too perfect. And far too easy. The Bringlóid are instantly okay with becoming a polygamist society in order to strengthen the clone colony. And even though he Prime Directive doesn't apply in this case, it still seems a little disturbing that the Enterprise just passed down this judgement without consulting anyone else. I personally never liked the attitude of the clonists towards the farmers even after everything is settled. I understand that they live off the land and that's how they want it, but the idea that the clones don't even want them near the city - that they're not capable of understanding technology after they've proved themselves teachable and malleable - is wrong, especially since this would have to be a cooperative effort. It's how academia and the political elites see the average person in real life and even though my attitude is, for the most part, the same as Danilo's, this is how class-based societies start and I think it may have been damaging in the long run. But, we're not meant to think of things like that. It's a simple story with a simple ending that has no consequences. I guess that's got to be enough.
I can give it three stars though because it's likeable and funny, if overly simple and a step backwards in the quality of writing.
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