5.13 — “The Masterpiece Society”
Plot: Scientific explorations bring the Enterprise to a hidden human colony on the verge of being wiped out by a stellar core fragment. Trouble is, it’s a sealed colony with strict prohibitions against outside comings and goings, the better to perfect their genetically-engineered society. The crew has the power to save the colony, but by their presence, will they destroy the society?
Thoughts: I started out feeling very skeptical about this episode, but it won me over.
In style, it is very much a throwback. They just don’t go to planets much anymore. The eugenics theme is very 1960s; as is the idea that people are meant to do one thing, and a perfect society would help everyone find their true role. In real life, people aren’t just one thing, poets or laborers. That’s just a rationale to try to keep people in their place, and deny a liberal arts education to merchants and farmers.
The planet design and photography is a throwback to TNG’s early seasons. In fact, the whole utopian society of self-imposed exiles under threat of destruction is just like the Bringloidi in TNG 2.16, “Up the Long Ladder.” Ronald D. Moore is quoted on Memory Alpha as saying “This is another example of a show that doesn’t really work too well. We sort of show up at a genetically perfect colony – which in and of itself is starting to bore me – and when we get there, it’s ‘Gee, Troi falls in love with one of the people.’ You can’t wait to get up and get a beer.”
That’s a little harsh. Several other series writers complain about “casting problems”–which I take as criticism of John Snyder’s role as the smarmy Aaron Conor. I was drawn in, though, by Troi’s “This is wrong” just before they share their first kiss.
Why wrong? Because they have no chemistry whatsoever? Geordi and Dr. Hannah have a lot more heat. But why wrong? Is it because Troi is on duty and representing her ship? Or because, as Troi says later, she can see they have no future together, because Aaron’s commitment to the purity of the colony will trump his feelings for her?
If the only end Deanna can see is falling in love with Aaron, and being disappointed when they don’t subsequently spend the rest of their lives together, then she is making a mistake. This caught my attention, because it’s a mistake I’d be prone to make in her position. But what if she were to let go of her attachment to long-term outcomes, and enjoy the moment instead? Take some comfort from a kindred spirit, if that’s what he is. Or is this just a deluded rationalization of ultimate sadness?
This is the kind of navel-gazing I like to indulge in sometimes, so I enjoyed the episode. I also appreciate that this is the first episode I remember since TOS 1.19, “Yesterday is Tomorrow,” in which a character reacts to a demonstration of the transporter in the only appropriate fashion: total slack-jawed amazement.
Is it right for 23 colonists to leave the colony, supposedly dooming the precious balance of the society? After all, “Every plant life, every microscopic lifeform is part of a master design.” I don’t buy that woogy bullshit, but at least the concept of figuring out the limits of individual responsibility to sacrifice for the good of the collective is interesting.
3 of 5 turbolift rides of shame.
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