On a technical level this episode is an improvement. But I can't help but being offended and terribly uncomfortable with it.
Scientists are studying a Bronze Age civilization related to Vulcans. Their observation booth is hidden by a holographic blind in a rock. The research station is having technical problems and they need repairs which attracts the attention of one of the natives who sees what's going on and is injured by an explosion within.
Crusher decides not to let him die, but heal him and try to wipe his memory like they did with Sarjenka in the episode Pen Pals from the second season, but it doesn't work and he goes back to his people spreading the news about a "god" that brought him back to life.
This episode was a reworking of the episode Justice from the first season. In Justice, the civilization on the planet knows about space travel, yet worships an orbiting vessel as their god. It didn't make sense on that basis alone, but it didn't have to since the primary focus was attacking religious people as being stupid and irrational. The difference is that in this episode, the people are primitive and know nothing of space travel or science, so it's very likely that Liko would be freaked out enough to think that this science is the magic of a god or demon. No problem so far.
One of the scientists turns up missing in the explosions because the terrain is full of caves.... must have been Missouri... LOL! See, I have a sense of humor about it. They send Riker and Troi in under cover to find the missing man. Riker escapes with him but Troi falls behind and they capture her.
Meanwhile Picard takes one of the town members who is skeptical of Liko's story up to the Enterprise to try to explain the truth to her by logical reasoning. He shows her that his people can die too and that they are not all powerful and immortal. This is all fine. This is actually good stuff. A terrible accident screws up a scientific study of an early civilization. The Prime Directive has been violated on accident and some chaos would definitely ensue. It's a good solid plot.
Liko is about to sacrifice Troi to Picard and Picard comes down personally to try to explain things to him. The only proof he'll accept though is Picard's death which is only prevented because his daughter knocks his aim off. Still, the evidence of his injury is enough, so Liko comes to his senses. None of this is a problem. This is a feasible situation given the societal development of the people and the choice to be honest rather than make things worse by pretending that humans are immortal or even doing nothing at all.
In fact, all would've been fine if not for this scene. Faith is the dark ages. Faith cripples societies. And I'm not out of line in presuming that these bits of dialogue are leveled at Christians only since Christianity is the only religion under attack in America. Of course, as I pointed out in Pen Pals, Liberals have no problem with gods as longs as it is they who get to be the gods... in that episode they were speaking of allowing the civilization to die as they height of hubris and wondering if there was a cosmic plan in which they were meant to be the saviors of the planet. I suppose you could say that there's an improvement in this episode on the point that Picard doesn't want to play god - but only because he doesn't want to play their god. I'd call it hypocrisy. They stop caring about that kind of continuity in order
to get these attacks in though. They also stop caring whether or not they make sense - these people were supposed to be in a Bronze Age type of civilization.
Everything was superstition in this time period and, realistically, they wouldn't have "advanced" beyond
belief in the supernatural by this time in their history. But there's no need for practicalities like that when we're trying to propagate the fallacy that religions are the cause of all wars and tyranny.
And at the end the town is relieved to have been saved from religion and wish the humans could stick around and continue to study them because they're such nice people for showing them that there's no such thing as their Overseer god. Uh... no. Even if they'd been convinced that humans weren't immortal, they would've been hell bent on keeping them there - How could you just watch while we've had plagues without curing us? How can you watch us toil and suffer and not offer us new technology? Those would be the real concerns and demands after finding out that an advanced civilization has just been watching them for who knows how long. No, no... all that matters to them is that their lives are somehow better knowing once and for all that gods of any kind don't exist. So whether or not these strange aliens may have been watching them bathe in the rivers is of no interest to them... a return to a belief in the supernatural would've been the least of the damage done to this society. But, I guess if you're going to stop making sense you may as well go all out.
Obviously I can't give this episode a good rating. The technical merit is good. The sets are great. The base story is solid. But, it's just more thinly veiled slanders of faith in general, Christianity in particular. Two stars.
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