“She has never seen a bow!” I hated this episode when it first aired, and I actually hate it more now. I’ve often seen it cited as a favorite of the third season and of the show in general, and to this day I will never understand why.
We start on the wrong foot when Troi and Picard carry on about how rational the Mintakans are, which only makes sense because their evolution has paralleled Vulcans. Except, as established way back in “
Balance of Terror,” and reemphasized any number of places, most notably “
All Our Yesterdays,” Vulcans used to be savage and brutal, and only within the last few thousand years adopted logic and suppressing of emotions—not because they’re an orderly, rational people, but because they most assuredly
weren’t.
The episode continues in an unsubtle and unconvincing manner, with the characters falling into the old first-season habit of describing themselves like they’re reading from a textbook about their culture rather than talking about their own lives. Worse, is the constant use by the Mintakans of the word “reasonable,” employed as a cheap substitute for “logical” to show that they’re just like Vulcans but not quite.
This episode firmly makes clear that
TNG‘s interpretation of the Prime Directive will be a little too absolute and all-encompassing, to the point of absurdity. Picard asks Crusher why she didn’t let Liko die, dismissing her point that it was their fault he was injured, an appalling and despicable lack of compassion on the part of our theoretical hero. Several times, Barron points out that the cultural contamination
already happened, so Picard’s obsessive insistence on avoiding any appearance by Federation technology from that point forward borders on the ridiculous (especially given that it endangers the lives of both Palmer, who needs medical attention that’s delayed by this insistence, and Troi, who is held prisoner).
Both the rush to superstition and the reversal of it happen so quickly that the gears are stripped from going into reverse so fast. Barron’s claim that the Mintakans will inevitably descend into holy wars and inquisitions because one guy in one village thinks he saw God is incredibly specious, especially coming from someone who’s supposed to be an anthropologist, and therefore should know better than to speak in absolutes. Admittedly, plenty of religions have been born of less, but a lot more became short-lived cults that burned out in fairly short order.
The one place where the episode shines is when Picard brings Nuria to the
Enterprise. Scott beautifully plays her wonder and amazement, and Sir Patrick Stewart does magnificently in explaining
Clarke’s Third Law to her.
Finally, how seriously can you take an episode where one of the characters (Liko’s daughter) has a name that sounds like that of the girl on
Magilla Gorilla?
Warp factor rating: 3 (out of 10)
