I admit, I don't know this episode as thoroughly as others. I've always been a little bored by it, and I tend to either flip the channel when it comes on or else wander off and do housework while it's playing in the background.
It a Roddenberry classic type episode, but instead of having a lot of improvement, it sort of reminds me of the last two seasons. It's not as bad, but it seems like there's a lot of tail chasing distraction throughout. The Enterprise finds a ransacked Federation out post. They figure out that the people responsible are likely an offshoot of the Acamarian race called Gatherers. So they head that way.
On the way they pick up the Acamarian leader and you get the history of their wars and the way the Gatherers broke away continuing on as savages while everyone else became peaceful. It just seemed to be slipping back into that oversimplification of story again. Picard wants to help the Acamarians reunite with the Gatherers, and he seems to have forgotten that a Federation outpost had just been vandalized with things stolen from it. I mean... wouldn't there need to be some legal repercussions for this that go over the Acarmarian government's head? And then the captain just inserts himself uninvited into their domestic affairs. Too pushy again.
And then when you see this bunch, they seem to be little more than thugs anyway. It's not like the Vulcan-Romulan split that incorporates two equal forces that share common blood and history with complexity and a lot of thought put into it. The Gatherer's broke away a hundred years ago according to this story and it would appear they haven't flourished into anything but roving gangs of criminals. Still, Picard wants to start up some peace talks and brings Marouk down to their encampment... which seems kind of dangerous at the least. I'm just not feeling it with this episode... the believably I mean.
One of the men in the encampment decides that it's time to negotiate and wants to send word to their official leader that this is going to take place. Meanwhile he gets to hang out on the Enterprise and marvel over Wesley being so young and yet a bridge officer. Really? I thought we were over this in the first season. The character of Wesley shouldn't be blamed for this kind of writing, but this is exactly why a lot of people like me don't like him. You also find out he wants to support this reunification effort for his own children's sake even though he hasn't exhibited an ounce of maturity so far. I mean, whatever, man. Like I said, this all smacks of the vapidness of the previous seasons.
It does attempt a little complexity with Marouk's cook. She kills one of the men in the encampment secretly which touches off an investigation into his death. You get a more detailed history of the Acamarians and how they were once divided into clans that all had blood feuds with each other, taking revenge against one another constantly. Then they fill the space with this notion of slavery because Yuta is a very docile and submissive servant to Marouk. Accusations are repeatedly made by the Gatherers about Acamarian slavery. But it's all very vague and the only servant you see, Yuta, isn't badly treated on any level. Riker's flirtation with her is very reminiscent of a Kirk style of romance as he wants her to be less submissive.
But, it really seems like Yuta is only a slave to her own existence as the arm of destruction against one of the old clans; the same clan of which the man she killed belonged too. The science fiction of this and the whole investigation is a little desperate too. At any rate they find out she was around back in the day and she's hunting down everyone from the Lornak clan that all but wiped out her own clan, Tralesta, and she's using her position as Marouk's servant to track down and find the last of them.
The Gatherer's leader, Chorgan, is of the Lornak clan as well and in the end Riker has to stop Yuta from exacting her vengeance by killing her... also reminiscent of a Kirk type of situation. I guess the dramatic display brings both sides to an agreement after spending the entire episode arguing, which is not only like the classic over-simplicity of the first two seasons, but it never really shows it either so we're just left to assume it. It ends with Riker being sad about killing the pretty girl that he was interested in.
Like I said, I don't know about this episode. Two and a half stars seems fair for the attempt as something more complex in the way of cultural development. I don't actually hate the episode either. It's just boring to me.
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