When Starfleet's contact with a terraforming station becomes more and more sporadic, the Enterprise is directed to check in on them. Mandl (Walter Gotell), the station's director, tries to get Picard to move on, brusquely insisting that they are at "a critical stage," and that any visit by the Enterprise crew would be unwelcome interference. Picard overrides him, insisting on an Away Team.
One of the station techs is then killed in the course of seemingly routine operations. When Data investigates the apparent accident, the same laser drill that killed the tech fires at him - and adjusts its firing tactics to try to destroy Data. It is clear that the drill was deliberately programmed to kill. The reason why will lead the Enterprise crew to a shocking discovery.
"Ugly, giant bags of mostly water... A state of war exists between us!"
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: A much, much better outing for Picard than the last few episodes. We see a highly pragmatic side of Picard. After the murder, he deliberately antagonizes Mandl in order to gauge the man's reactions, and Troi's reading of his reactions. When it becomes clear that the life form is intelligent, and attempting to communicate, Picard makes an effort to establish communication. But when it becomes clear that they are locked in a conflict, he also does not yield and is willing to destroy the life form, if necessary, to protect his ship... Which makes for a far stronger characterization than, "I surrender unconditionally." He is still an ugly bag of mostly water, mind you.
Geordi: Geordi, often left to the background, finally gets a fairly strong episode here, and Levar Burton gives by far his best performance to date. Other episodes have already paired Geordi and Data in the background. Here, that partnership is allowed to carry a large portion of the episode. The nature of Geordi's vision is particularly well-used, as his observations of light spectrums and energy allow him to observe the mysterious life form.
Data: His unique capabilities allow him to survive the trap with the laser drill. He and Geordi make a strong team, right down to all but finishing each other's sentences as they analyze the life form's weaknesses. Brent Spiner plays very well opposite Levar Burton, and it's good to see that even at this early stage of the series, the producers have recognized that. Oh, and he's not technically a bag of mostly water - though given that we've been told he does have organic components, I'm assuming he's a bag of at least some water.
Dr. Crusher: When the life form is able to have an effect on the protective fields in sick bay, she is the first to recognize that this makes it dangerous. When Geordi proposes weakening the defenses around sick bay in order to regain visual contact with the life form, Dr. Crusher is the one who effectively vetoes that decision. This shows a refreshing wariness from her. She may be the compassionate ship's doctor, but her compassion doesn't extend to naively trusting in the goodness of everything.
Hot Terraforming Space Babe of the Week: Elizabeth Lindsey is Luisa, the only female specialist among the terraforming team. It's her role to drop a huge load of exposition right after the credits, and to be decorative. Lindsey is attractive, but a poor actress, delivering all of her lines in the same flat monotone. She says, "It's exciting to have you here," in the exact same tone of voice, with the exact same inflection, as when lecturing Riker about terraforming; "The first phase involves selecting the planet. It must have the right mass and gravity, a correct rate of rotation, and a balanced day and night." She even gets morally outraged - "Why wasn't I told?" - in that same exact tone, with those exact same inflections.
SHUT UP, WESLEY!
"Whatever it is, it's beautiful," Wesley sighs while observing the life form in sickbay. It's a dreadful delivery of a not-very-good line, but Wil Wheaton does get credit for delivering his line better than Elizabeth Lindsey delvers any of hers. Given that this line represents a very high percentage of Wesley's total dialogue for the episode, it's hard to dig out too many "Wesley" brickbats for this outing. He is, however, an ugly bag of mostly water.
THOUGHTS
After a pair of truly dreadful episodes, Home Soil sees Next Generation fulfilling some of its promise as a series again. While by no means flawless, the script has an intriguing science fiction concept, one that utilizes the more intellectual nature of this series' characters to deliver something interesting. This is not a subpar TOS knockoff, nor some bit of generic filler. Of all the Trek shows, Home Soil could probably only truly work as an episode of Next Generation - and that alone merits a certain amount of praise.
The script gets additional praise for actually providing a hook for the viewers from the start. The precredit sequence establishes that there is a secret. Then, after delivering some basic exposition about the terraforming project, we are presented with a murder mystery (with a bit of decent action - an early TNG rarity) to keep our interest building. Indeed, for the first twenty minutes, this seems on track to being an "Agatha Christie in Space" template, with some of the planetside visuals even reminding me a bit of Doctor Who's Robots of Death. This is effective misdirection, preparing the viewer for one type of episode before switching gears and delivering something even more interesting. It's also a good way of making the first stretch of the episode, the part that's burdened with establishing the backstory of the project, dramatically interesting long before the life form shows up.
As the episode raises the stakes, to the point where the Enterprise is actively in danger from the life form, the script and cast manage to actually make it feel as though there is some danger here - a relative rarity, for this series at this stage.
There are still problems. The "murdery mystery" element helps to make the exposition more intriguing than it might have been. But too much time is spent on this portion of the episode. This doesn't leave enough time to focus on examining the life form, and then attempting to communicate with and then outsmart it. As a result, the climax is horribly rushed. There is barely enough time to establish the level of danger the Enterprise is in before Geordi and Data work out a solution.
We then get another of those sledge-hammer sermons, in which Picard and the alien moralize to the audience about how humanity is "arrogant" and "not yet ready" (Q would probably love this). Picard gets that smug, moralistic look on his face, as all the dramatic tension drains off into the floor. That's not even mentioning all the times that a character will report with something along the lines of: "Come to sick bay, there's something you've got to see here." At one point, Geordi says something vague to Picard, earning the reply, "Be specific." This reply could have applied to at least three such reports during the episode. These are highly-trained officers delivering reports to their captain. They shouldn't really have to be told to be as specific as possible, should they?
Despite these issues, Home Soil is a vastly better episode than at least half of the TNG episodes I've reviewed to date. It has an interesting science fiction premise, and attempts to explore it in an intelligent manner while still offering solid television entertainment. I find myself hovering between a "6" and a "7." Given the weak finale, though, I think I'm going to have to go with...
Rating: 6/10.
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"The Devil in the Dark" did it better, but it's such an interesting and worthwhile premise for an episode that even a less-good version of "The Devil in the Dark" is better than most of what TNG has had to offer so far.
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