The Enterprise is lured to the mythical world of Aldea, a planet which has used its advanced technology to shield its very existence from the universe for centuries. Now the Aldeans have revealed themselves to the Enterprise, in an attempt to negotiate for something they need...
Children!
No, not because they're delicious in stew (though that would have made for a much more fun episode). The Aldeans cannot have children of their own anymore, you see, so they have decided to snatch a handful of gifted children from Enterprise, including Wesley. Their technology is so advanced that the Enterprise crew have no hope of overpowering them, and the theft of the children is not something the Aldeans are prepared to negotiate about. They will, however, negotiate for compensation - leaving Picard room to stall for time, while Geordi and Data attempt to find some weakness in the Aldean defenses. If they cannot, the planet will return to its cloaked state, meaning that we would never see Wesley again!
Making this the second Wesley-centric episode in which the viewers are actively rooting against Picard...
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: Is... boring. I know that statement will probably draw the ire of a lot of Next Generation fans, but I'm sorry - Picard is about as interesting as linoleum at this point in the series. I appreciate the notion of a slightly older captain, who is less action-oriented and more intellectual in his approach to problems. But even with an excellent actor like Patrick Stewart playing the role, there just isn't anything much there worth watching. Picard talks with Jerry Hardin over the viewscreen. He talks with the parents of the children around a conference table. He beams over to Jerry Hardin's living room to talk to Jerry Hardin some more. Then he beams back to the Enterprise to tell all of his crew members that they're running out of time. Then he beams back to talk to Jerry Hardin some more. I miss Kirk getting it on with every alien chick that crossed his path while getting into hilariously unconvincing fistfights. The next episode might get an entirely different reaction from me with regard to Picard (he has worked in some episodes, and I know he works much better later). But at this point in the series, he is dull.
Dr. Crusher: "Don't give into fear," she says earnestly. "Our children are not for sale!" she declares earnestly. Basically, if a line is attributed to Dr. Crusher at any point, assume that it is delivered earnestly. She even gets to draw the Strained Parallel of the Week, by deducing that the Aldeans' sterility is due to "something similar to what happened on Earth," with a decaying ozone layer. She does not any point appear overly concerned about her son being taken. Perhaps, after the previous 16 episodes, she's had enough of him too.
Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Brenda Strong is Rashella, the last child to be born on Aldea. The last child ever born is a very pretty blonde woman with a nice figure. So it could have been much worse for Aldea. When she tells Wesley that he can have anything he wants, I'm sure I'm not the only viewer who was thinking something other than what was actually on offer... though unlike certain other Wesley-centric episodes, any sexual innuendo was entirely a combination of poor phrasing on the writer's part and my own dirty mind. Lest I make too much fun, I should state that Strong does a good job with a severely underwritten part, successfully presenting a very likable character. It's not hard to see why she, unlike most "babes of the week," actually went on to have a reasonable television career.
SHUT UP, WESLEY!
The Aldeans want gifted children. Guess who is the front-and-center "gifted child" of the episode? Wesley's "specialness" is, fortunately, not too played upon this episode. His response to the predicament is to politely but firmly state that he and the other children have no wish to be on Aldea, and to organize the children into passive resistance. It's actually a good role.
Unfortunately, this episode offers the reverse of the usual problem. In past episodes, it's seemed clear to me that the problem with Wesley has been the writing, not Wheaton's performance. Here, the writing for Wesley is actually decent... but Wheaton's performance is one of his weakest. He's wooden, he's overly smug and obvious when scanning his Aldean "mother" for his real mother's diagnostic, and he just plain doesn't convince as the leader of any group of children. In what should be a rare, good episode for Wesley, it is the actor and not the writing that stumbles this time.
THOUGHTS
What's up with the Enterprise parents? They've just had their children snatched away from them. But instead of reacting with disbelief, shock, or anger, they just sit there like plastic people responding to a plastic situation. There's no genuine emotion, and no sense that any of the "parents" sitting around Picard's conference table have actually lost anything. This is a bad episode - and one of the main problems is that nobody on-hand actually reacts like a human being! No wonder Data can't get a handle on being human, with this bunch as role models.
The Aldeans are also boring. They're a species that we can tell are really advanced, because they have progressed beyond the need for contractions. Jerry Hardin is an actor who has been effective in other roles (notably as "Deep Throat" in The X-Files), but he's woefully bad here, effective neither as a heavy nor as a tragic figure. When he delivers the Sledgehammer Moment of the Week at the end (I guess Picard was tired after the double-sledgehammer of the previous episode), all I could do was laugh at how leadenly unconving both performance and script were.
Though it's a weak episode, it's not entirely without merit. The Aldeans may be dull, but I appreciated seeing an episode in which Picard's adversary is not actually evil. Now if only they were interesting, or if only the episode actually presented its situation with some emotion and conviction, this might have been a worthy hour of television. Unfortunately, the waters are very shallow.
I did love, however, that when Geordi technobabbled the gizmo to beam them through the shield, they didn't even pretend to present this solution with conviction. The suggestion that the children simply be beamed out, rather than crew members beaming in, is dismissed with minimal technobabble and sheer plot convenience.
"It would be more difficult, and riskier." "Why" is apparently not a question Picard is prepared to ask, particularly when the answer is, "If we could do that, then there would be no Third Act."
Finally, no review of this episode could possibly be complete without noting the unintentional double-entendre, as Child Harry discovers that he wants to be a sculptor.
"I like working with the wood!"
Rating: 3/10
Previous Episode: Too Short a Season
Next Episode: Home Soil
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Loved this line from your review: "This is a bad episode - and one of the main problems is that nobody on-hand actually reacts like a human being! No wonder Data can't get a handle on being human, with this bunch as role models."
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