Pen Pals
Unusually, this Star Trek story takes place over a span
of about eight weeks, or more, and takes an appropriate range
of season two's stardates to match. Funky. But that perhaps
gives us scope for greater scrutiny. With all that extra time
to think things through, we won't be able to excuse blunders
as easily in the name of the heat of the moment.
Nicely, the ship seems to behave a bit more like a real spaceship
would in this tale, exploring a sector in more detail than normal,
and putting science first.
Leisurely senior conferences seem to be the order of the day
this time around, with one big one for each of the two main
plots of the story. Each features excessive amounts of dialogue,
as any viewpoint that seems possible with each subject finds
voice amongst one crewmember or another, whether or not it is
relevant or interesting to the audience.
Wesley's leadership plot is up first. Perhaps foreknowledge
of Wes's arc for the rest of the series really makes one wonder
why Riker pushes to have Wes take charge in the first place.
Wes has yet to actually join Starfleet Academy, much less Starfleet
itself. Isn't it a bit premature to be grooming him for a
top spot in the organization? All the talk of why it's good for
a person in general or a proper Starfleet member specifically
doesn't explain why more qualified and specialized personnel
(who you would expect to be on the Enterprise) aren't being
equally considered. Mind you, the leadership issues here are
a very worthy part of the human condition to explore in this
episode. It just feels like too much of a forced fit with Wes
at this time, and it doesn't yield many great scenes anyway.
The second plot has Data secretly communicating with a young girl
of an alien species, which triggers Prime Directive issues once
more. Yet again, we get a full cast conference discussing the
issue, which somehow escalates into a full scale trial of the
Prime Directive itself. That in itself might not be a bad idea,
but this is far from a great discussion of the subject, with
most of the crew simply rambling through different opinions,
and the conference itself losing direction.
Deanna Troi has a good line at one point, basically echoing
a retort that had formed in my mind about two beats earlier.
No discussion about how things are naturally *supposed* to work out
should ignore the fact that the characters observing this
pattern are naturally a part of it. This is the
integrated "Fourth Density" side of
looking at things that mankind is evolving towards.
Trying to remain separate is the old way that we're about
done with.
Doctor Pulaski, a typically underrated character, stands alongside
most Starfleet Doctors in ranking aid first and Prime Directive
issues second. Nice. But predictable.
It's the "what if" questions that are used to punch holes
in Pulaski's view that defocus the quality of the
discussion for me. What if the suffering were caused by a virus?
What if it was a war? Those questions are only useful if you
are considering chucking the Directive for good, and this isn't
the venue for that. Indeed, why would we need to use the SAME solution
for all those DIFFERENT problems, as a matter of policy
and under one big umbrella label?
Today's problem IS a geological threat, and we CAN stick
with that to figure out what we're going to do today
(especially if we've already chucked our most convenient
umbrella label for ethics and started thinking on our feet again).
Ultimately our regulars today decide to stretch against the perceived boundaries
of the prime directive quite a bit,
basically to do a bit of terraforming
as a way of heroically saving a planet.
The science of it sounds a bit hokey,
busting up crystalline dilithium within the planet,
making me wonder if they'll end up disrupting more ecology and geology
than they are repairing.
I'm wondering if they really want to take such a huge risk
with someone else's planet,
while their only contact with the affected people is with one small child.
I would think it's more important to let them have a say in such a risky maneuvre
than for the Federation to hide its existence and be so smug in thinking
that that secrecy is the best way for these people to develop.
What about investigating the possibility of contact with the
society's leaders first? What about negotiating with them whether or not
they want terraforming help? Why not hear their input on the matter?
It boggles the mind that this step was so overlooked...
Not so great a prime directive debate after all.
So... missing some points for not finding the most respectful style here,
but still doing something heroic and noble. Okay.
We also have the cowardly cop-out of erasing the memory of
Data's friend Sarjenka. A huge rubbish. This is the episode's biggest black mark
and loss of points. Nothing heroic here; it's all just backing secrecy
and digging somehow for a way to justify and pretend that it's for Sarjenka's
best interests long term. Not. No way not. But even here, the episode
hedges its bets, and Data steals Pulaski's stone to give to the girl
so she might have a way to remember after all. Not bad. But if you're really
having second thoughts about the memory erasure, how about not even attempting
to do anything so damaging and stupid in the first place.
Let her remember, and let's ask Pulaski if
Sarjenka may have her stone first. Why is it so much harder to get values right
when the Prime Directive is involved?
"Pen Pals" definitely showcases some of the weirdest Prime Directive
sidesteps we've ever seen on the series. Although the eventual
actions by the crew aren't too far from what we might want if
there was no Prime Directive on the show, the episode doesn't
begin to do an adequate job of dealing with the Prime Directive
before it takes its action, and sets a bizarre precedent in
the Star Trek canon. This is still a most enjoyable episode,
one of season two's better ones in fact, but it does really struggle
to find its most relevant grappling points within the mess
that is Star Trek's Prime Directive.
(regular)
