Amac Productions

Thanks for bearing with me through my vacation!

Welcome back!

Let’s talk about this episode that I watched before I went on hiatus. We’re on a planet that we thought was completely uninhabited which is why Starfleet has allowed people to go there and mess with the state of the planet.

I think they’re planning to make it a Class M planet in order to you know, build life there. Their type of life there.

It appears that Class M planets are like Earth. We can live and breath on them.

So perhaps they were planning to drop one of their many colonies there and continue to push the human race out into space. Which I feel a type a way about considering the state of *looks around disdained* everything. And I try to remind myself this is the future and humans aren’t supposed to suck.

However, here we demonstrate that some of them can still suck.

Because we discover there is actually life on the planet. Just a form of life we’ve never defined before.

We find something that is alive but doesn’t quite match our standings of what alive means. So we have to branch out and discover new terms. While also deciding whether or not we’re going to honor the life form we don’t understand.

Love that Picard is basically like, yes.

We have no choice.

It doesn’t matter what Starfleet approved. But things have changed now. We know there is a life form there and we’re supposed to respect life.

We’re not here to terraform planets that are filled with life. We’re not supposed to interact with planets that are not ready to know that there is more to the universe than just themselves. There is a whole rulebook on this.

It comes down to that it doesn’t matter whether or not Starfleet decided something or that we had started the process. It doesn’t matter that the life form killed someone. Or that it doesn’t match our exact definitions of alive.

What matters is that now we know it’s there.

It’s alive.

It has feelings.

It was being killed and it defended itself. Plain and simple.

We don’t get mad at people for defending themselves.

It boils down to we now know that there is something alive and laying claim to this planet. Now, we must deal with this situation as it lays.

Which we come to, we should leave the species alive and alone. As Picard declares that no one should go back to that planet. I can’t blame him for that. I think it was probably the nicest thing he could do to earn their trust back.

Since they arrived without warning and started to destroy the environment and kill them.

Picard discovering them and chatting with them as best he could to allow them to live in peace. Remove the threat. Apologize and move on.

Maybe they’ll never want to forgive Starfleet, but it can’t hurt for them to start to make peace.

Overall, this was a great episode. It decides what life means to them. To Starfleet. Also shows that people are still not perfect. They didn’t realize they were killing things and I’m not sure they cared. At least not entirely.

I love the discussion there.

But I also love that Data and everyone else was geeking out over the process of the terraforming. I loved that. I loved that Data investigated the crazy thing coming to life death that occurred because he could manage it.

This is also one of those times that Deanna is really useful but also illustrates how she can be unhelpful as well. Because she can be tricked by what people believe. They believe they are forthcoming and honest. Which is unhelpful because they can believe anything they want and it still not be true.

Therefore, rendering her ability to read emotions slightly inaccurate.

Which is a convenient plot hole that also kind of works but kind of doesn’t. I’m still not sure if I think it’s clever or annoying. Anyone thoughts?

Overall, not a bad episode. But also not one of the best. It’s a solid episode. Watchable and I like it with an interesting plot to it.

Well, onto the next! Thanks for reading! Until next time!

Spread the love and read on!