This episode is fraught with complications, contradictions, and even some controversy. It was passed between six writers because nobody was really sure how to create this masterpiece society.
The Enterprise is tracking a core fragment from a disintegrated star. They are supposed to keep an eye out for any planetary damage it may cause in its path. They come across the planet Moab IV and discover that it's inhabited by humans in a biosphere so they contact them to warn them of the danger. It takes a while to get an answer, but the leader of the colony, Aaron Conor, finally responds and agrees to let them send a small away team down.
They arrive and Conor is very cordial, but his advisor Martin is apoplectic from the start wanting them gone immediately. It is then explained that they are a genetically engineered society; that their ancestors came from Earth and, through controlled procreation and population, they created the perfect paradise of a society. I mean, the first thing that jumps to my mind is that it's an idea that goes back to Hitler and his Aryan ideal race and it's just plain creepy when you know your history well enough to know what a stifling and totalitarian prospect this actually is. Far from a paradise, it would be oppressive and stagnant and not peaceful in the process. Riker explains that the core fragment is heading for the planet and that evacuation may be the only option. Conor knows that their presence there is disrupting the delicate balance of the colony, but he also has everyone's best wishes at heart, so he offers them the help of their top astrophysicist, Hanna Bates. She shows Geordi a tractor beam that she has been working on that Geordi thinks he can modify to push the fragment away from the planet, but he'll need to take her up to the Enterprise to work with her on it. Martin spouts his dire warnings, but Conor allows it.
Picard intimates his displeasure at the concept of genetic engineering, basically calling it archaic and taking all the fun out of life when everyone is pre-programmed to live a specific kind of life, i.e. Aaron was born to be a leader, Martin was born to be the interpreter of the founding documents of the colony, Hannah to be an astrophysicist, etc. Compared to this, even the shifty holodeck science is more believable. I mean, Jurassic Park hadn't come out at this point in the theaters yet, but the book was out there, and it made some pretty good points about how you can't breed out the element of chaos... in this case that you wouldn't have someone one who grows up interested in something else besides what they've been designed for. It's a contradiction to Liberal doctrine that swears to everything they hold Holy that people are just born different, like homosexuals and that it's not a choice that they make and certainly that it can't be controlled. So, Hannah and Geordi are working and when he takes off his VISOR to rub his eyes they talk about how he wouldn't have even been born in her colony, but terminated early on due to the fact that they would've spotted his blindness shortly after fertilization. That brings int he controversy of abortion, but this conversation is actually pro-life as Geordi wonders what right someone else has to take away his chance to live and contribute, especially since the technology for his VISOR is what's going to help make their tractor beam work. So, I'm not even sure what the controversy was except that they'd set this colony up to be a success as an engineered paradise by taking the initiative with their potentially disabled embryos. I could see that being controversial in the early 90's but I suppose it could be congratulated by the left for being way ahead of its time. Not to drag current events into it, but Iceland has nearly aborted away all down syndrome and it's being hailed as a good thing. Anyway, the trouble on the planet starts when there's a small earthquake during a piano performance by a boy that was genetically destined to be a musician. Troi is attracted deeply to Conor and even though they both know that this is disruptive to his ability to lead, neither can resist temptation.
She breaks it off the next day and Geordi needs to bring a huge team of engineers to the surface to set things up properly. Conor can see that all of this extra exposure is more bad influence over the balance of the society like Martin had been warning, but he allows it. Back on the Enterprise, Geordi and Hannah move the core fragment away from the planet and she's elated by working on this new technology. She's not happy when Aaron says they're awaiting her return. She no longer wants to go back now after having seen such advancements in her field.
After the engineering teams are gone, she fakes information about a breech in the biosphere's hull in order to trick Conor into okaying the evacuation, but Geordi can see in his VISOR that no such thing has happened. She's frustrated with the fact that even though she was born to be a brilliant scientist, that her knowledge is limited, proving my point above about growth stagnation. But it's also almost too much for a thinking person to handle when she asks why, if she's so smart, didn't she invent starships or deflector shielding. I really hope I'm remembering that wrong - why didn't she invent starships? Honestly, why would any astrophysicist not consider going into space even from the confines of a biosphere? Did they not know their history? That they had to get to that planet in a starship to begin with and wasn't any of that data preserved? Martin seems to know everything about their societal project. I don't know, it's just bad writing even though the valid point was made about necessity being the mother of invention.
She requests asylum which throws Martin into a tizzy and at last Aaron isn't so willing to give in to this request either. So Picard decides to go down and meet with him personally. Troi confesses to having had a fling with Conor, partly for dramatic effect and partly to reinforce the ways the colony had been affected by the presence of the crew. Conor asks him to leave even though he genuinely understands the curiosity and desire to leave the colony to explore the universe. Picard explains that he can't refuse their human rights, but is willing to stand with him as he calls the people together to ask them to stay. Hannah is obstinate and points out that even if they only allowed a cooling off period with the Enterprise returning in six months, things would just get worse and the people that want to leave would become more restless. Aaron gives in and a small group of people prepare to leave which will consequently throw off the balance of the colony with people missing from all of the predetermined positions. It will make rebuilding difficult and Aaron sadly opts to stay and manage that since he was, after all, born to govern. They take a moment at the end with Picard and Riker to explain that since these were humans that the prime directive didn't apply, but they lament the damage done nonetheless. And it is a pretty good example of prime directive theory. But, you know, whatever.
I actually like this episode a little because the show was definitely at its peak - the characters were solid, the sets and effects were completely believable, the melodrama was nearly nonexistent, and the scripts had a lot of depth even if when they're a little misguided like this one. But for technical merit this episode deserves no more than three stars because the plot holes are too frustrating for me to cope with, making it hard to score it higher for sentimental value.
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