“Symbiosis”

I just watched the Symbiosis. It's the kind of prime directive episodes which just don't seem to be well thought through. I meen, if the prime directive would really claim all kind of information and trade with less developed civilizations wrong, then it would basically mean abandoning all kind of trade and exchange.

Not to mention Wesley Crusher beeing more annoying than ever when discussing drugs.

However, I think you mixed up the alians. The Brekkians were the bad guys and the Ornarans the unaware drug junkies.

In "Symbiosis", it makes no sense that the Ornarans would simply start pumping their newborn children with felicium before giving them a medical exam to determine if they really do have a plague. If the Brekkians were able to conclude that they had recovered from the plague when they did, why not the more advanced (by the script's own reckoning) Ornarans? The Ornarans as presented here seem far too stupid to be the race that provides all of the resources (other than the felicium) for both systems that dialogue claims they are. The disconnect is high fail.

Talk about trying too hard and fail miserably. With a plot full of logical holes, the overall 'message' of the ep is too obvious to be taken seriously. I think it'd have been more interesting if it was about Tasha experiencing a relapse or something, instead of dropping a single suggestive line about her past. But we all know now her character was actually on her way out of the series.

Nice Afterschool Special, there...

Yar's performance is great, but... until season 5, TNG would rarely be so one-dimensional and excessively preachy.

The baddies are indeed nasty pieces of work and I like the ideas, but the execution is simplistic.

Still, the use of solar flares to knock out electronic equipment is a nice bit of realism...

2 of 4

I agree with Jammer's rating (2 stars). I think the general story had promise, but too many logical plot holes to be a 4 star outing. The previous posters mentioned some of the more obvious problems, such as injecting newborns with felicium before determining do they have the disease.

Also, the Brekkan's total lack of preparedness in case the trade with Onarrans ever goes south (war, ship problems, etc.) where they can't even take care of themselves (foodstuffs, clothes, etc.). Remember we are talking about an entire PLANET. They must build their homes and recreation facilities, right? Surely there's a construction industry on Brekka! But the Brekkan woman clearly said "We have no other industries" - not even service industry? The episode over-simplified the issues. That may have been intentional by the writer, but it's detracting in this case.

I did enjoy the humor when the Enterprise tried to save the Onarran ship but was flabbergasted at the Onarran's incompetence (Picard's increduluous look when the Onarran captain said he had been captain for 7 years was a nice touch).

There are two outright terrible scenes in this episode which move into so-bad-it's-good territory:

1) the scene where the Brekka holds Riker hostage in stasis with his energy beam. The look on Frakes' face is one of the funniest things in the show's history. It's made even better by the utter lack of necessity for the sequence at all. Nothing necessitated a hostage situation in this episode; and even a hostage situation was required, giving the Brekkians & Ornarans poorly F/X'd electro-powers is totally unnecessary. I get that they were trying to be imaginative and use sci-fi tropes, but it just looks ridiculous. Riker's eyes! Hee.

2) The Tasha/Wesley scene discussing drugs is, of course, infamous and for good reason. I think both characters can be used well (Yesterday's Enterprise and The First Duty are both stunning episodes, for example), but Tasha and Wesley are the characters the show struggled the most with in season one, and they are both at their worst here -- Wesley's dopey inability to comprehend human behaviour because he's so gosh darn naive, Tasha's casual discussion of a lifetime of trauma delivered unconvincingly by Crosby. In addition to all the obvious reasons this sequence fails, it is deeply inappropriate in THIS episode for Wesley to start asking why anyone would become addicted to a chemical when the episode is about people being tricked into addiction under the premise that it is medicinal. Wesley does mention that he gets why the Brekkians started taking the drug, so he gets that what he's saying is irrelevant to this situation -- so, um, why say it? It's like hearing about someone being murdered, and then wondering allowed why anyone would commit suicide.

Anyway, these two scenes are unfortunately the most interesting thing about the episode. I don't mind the premise behind it -- the idea of using medicinal needs to addict people to a substance is relevant. (Addictive drugs are often presented as some kind of solution to some problem or another first and foremost.) And if the episode were not so insistent upon the drug behaviour, down to pothead-like behaviour of the Brekkians, it could also serve as a loose allegory for various systems of exploitation between two classes. Still, there's no real subtlety here and the episode falls apart.

What I do like is the Picard vs. Crusher conflict here -- Picard's duty is to abstract principles, Crusher's is to humanistic values of protecting people from pain. It's the first time these two are in opposition in any real way, and it's a good dynamic (though Stewart is the stronger actor and delivers his side with more conviction). The compromise Picard makes -- in which he removes his 'interference' entirely in order to prevent the Enterprise crew from *helping* the exploitation continue -- is a smart one as well as one that hints at the vagaries of the way the Prime Directive is interpreted (and the way people often just interpret it however they want -- but are still guided by it as a principle). On that level, the episode is far better than the other Prime Directive episodes this year (Justice, Angel One), though it's not hard to be....

Somewhere in the 1.5 - 2 star range.

My first post on this site! Anyway, It looks like I'm in the minority here. Overall I enjoyed the episode and though the two scenes mentioned above were cringe worthy, they were classic TNG cringe worthy in the best TNG way. I'm often distracted by the inappropriate to the situation looks on Rikers face but those eyes wide open in the hostage scene were at least comically entertaining.
Beyond all of that I really enjoyed the Picard/Crusher moral duel and the ultimate resolution that Picard decided on.

For me this wasn't a great episode but enjoyable for its attributes. 2.5 stars for me.

I agree, that although the drugs chat was a bit forced, it was a tidy example of discussion and application of the prime directive and a neat solution by Picard. Perhaps the story was a tad lacking but not truly awful... 2.5 at least.

I found this episode really fun and well-paced. I objected to the preachy, cloying morality tale aspect deeply (this is the one aspect of Star Trek that I truly despise) but by the time that element reared its head, I realised that the episode was nearly over and I'd enjoyed the rescue sequence and subsequent conflict so much that I hadn't noticed the time.

A couple of commentators have questioned the logic of the Ornarans giving the 'medicine' to newborn babies. I guess they are not aware that, for many drugs, babies of dependent mothers are born with the same dependency. Even if they weren't in this specific case then they would still likely become addicted due to breastfeeding. I'm assuming the Ornarans are mammals, here, of course.

Also I don't think the Ornarans are required to be stupid to not have 'figured out' that they don't have the plague. They are drug addicts and there would be no benefit to them (as far as they can see) in making this discovery. The drug makes them happy. They have a socially accepted reason for taking it. They can afford to keep buying it from the Brekkan - their resources could be better spent, no doubt, but that's not how they see it. The Brekkan, in contrast, perhaps had to recover from the addiction because devoting their resources to producing the drug for themselves really was crippling their society and so it had to be addressed.

One of the saddest things about this episode is seeing Merritt Buttrick (at age 28!), both with the memory of how he looked in STII/III and with his death from AIDS coming only a year later.

As ever, this is a well-meaning episode that doesn't really work, and feels a bit too much like a "very special episode of TNG" (albeit not as bad as "The Outcast").

Good catch on the relative closeness of this episodes release to Buttrick's death, Josh. It's too bad Merritt couldn't hold on a few more years for the much better medications that came out and of course for the endless revenue stream he would have found with his place in star trek lore.

In re-watching old trek episodes, one of my favorite things is seeing who the guest stars will be. I was too young to recognize a lot of them the first time through, and, of course, we didn't have imdb to quickly find out exactly who everyone was.

In any case, it was great seeing both of the "sons" from Wrath of Khan in this episode.

"As ever, this is a well-meaning episode that doesn't really work, and feels a bit too much like a "very special episode of TNG" (albeit not as bad as "The Outcast")."

The problem with "The Outcast" is that the moral question which the story allegorises is blatantly hypocritical out of universe (the producers refused to add a gay or transgender character). I don't see that being the case here -- I agree there are some execution issues (the evil grins and lack of subtle characterisation in general), but there isn't anything wrong with the premise at all. It's obviously an allegory for the Drug Industry, pumping up the effects of real "medical" drugs which inhibit symptoms while creating dependency (we've all heard about the refusal of the FDA to approve new drugs which actually might cure diseases, rather than perpetually treat them and continue to collect payment for the manufacturers). We tend to draw a very distinct line between addictive narcotics which provide euphoric highs at cost to one's health and livelihood, and prescription drugs which minimise preventable maladies for a similar cost. One is the individual's fault, the other a necessary evil in society. By conflating the two ideas, this episode correctly blurs that line.

Picard's speech at the end should have been required reading at the Academy. Just fantastic.

I'd probably give it 3 stars. The later half of S1 is better than I remembered. I'm actually enjoying much of it.

Why were they portrayed as incompetent regarding starship operations? They never seemed to pay that off in the story. The backstory was that they were technologically advanced enough for space travel. Seems like something got cut out of the episode.

Elliott, I don't normally agree with your posts but in this case I think we're among the very few who legitimately enjoy this one.

This one is hamfisted, yeah, but I think it pretty much works on all of its cylinders. There's nice tension at the beginning and the slowburn of the true nature of the plague was surprisingly compelling (I still recalled the twist from decades ago, but still enjoyed the plot workings). Picard has a nice speech and I think his "solution" is a reasonable and cathartic one.

I'm going 3 stars with this. Pretty decent.

It's actually the fifth "winner" episode in a row (2-1/2 stars or higher - hey the bar is pretty low after all) and the seventh out of the last eight that wasn't embarrassing. Elliott, you're right that the second half of S1 is much stronger than the first. The first 13 episodes contain about 7 or 8 bottom-of-the-barrel shows, but the last 12 (starting from "10011001") are a lot more solid (with a few exceptions). I don't know much about how much in advance shows are written before they're produced, but it looks a lot like the producers saw how terrible the show was and were actively smoothing out the air bubbles.

As Season 1 goes, I actually liked this one. Is some the acting a bit cheesy, yes, and is the plot line that entire society has unwittingly become drug addicts for 200 years a bit tough to swallow, sure. But I like that it put Crusher and Picard at odds over how to interpret the Prime Directive. This is exactly what the PD is all about, and I loved the end which was unexpected, where Picard refuses to help the Ornarans with new engine components. He knows full well that this move will in the long run help the Ornarans, and he's not violating the PD. I also love his line to that Brekkian snob when he says "oh, you didn't think so when it worked to your advantage." Great stuff, an easy 3 stars for me.

Ahh, TNG's Just Say No episode. So in the 24th century, Romulan Ale is in but any other drug is still out. Suspiciously like the USA of our time, although that is changing as I write this.

Something tells me this hypocrisy will be long buried by the 24th century, however drugs - including alcohol - are viewed by then.

A fairly heavy-handed morality tale on the perils of drug dependency. But unusually when confronted with Prime Directive questions it wrestles with an insoluble problem and can only provide a morally ambiguous outcome - and that is worthy of note in a series where issues have up to now been wrapped up tidily in seconds at the end of the episode.

In does suffer from having the rescue drag on too long, and then seemingly interminable "our medicine" "no, our medicine" arguments, and of course the extraordinary Wesley/Yar drugs discussion scene that seems like it's jumped in from a school educational film. But that doesn't detract too far - 2.5 stars.

It's been a long time since I've seen the episode, but from the review and from what I do remember, this, for me, represents one of the cases where the Prime Directive just starts to seem stupid and counterproductive.

For starters, it's not as if the Ornarans are a completely isolated society - they have space travel, and they clearly know that other species exist besides themselves and the Brekkians. Maybe their quality of life is below the level of most Federation worlds, but why does that preclude Starfleet from offering them a cure from drug addiction? That's like saying it's wrong for groups like Doctors Without Borders to go to an impoverished society to provide medical care that the residents couldn't otherwise get because it "interferes" with their civilization's development.

And even if you assume that the Ornarans would be better off in the long run if they devised a cure themselves, why does the Prime Directive prevent Picard or anyone else from at least *telling* them that the Brekkians are scamming them? The Brekkians are essentially committing a crime here. If the Brekkians were planning to nuke an Ornaran city, would it be "interference" to warn the Ornarans to evacuate?

Carl said:

"
Also I don't think the Ornarans are required to be stupid to not have 'figured out' that they don't have the plague. They are drug addicts and there would be no benefit to them (as far as they can see) in making this discovery. The drug makes them happy. They have a socially accepted reason for taking it. They can afford to keep buying it from the Brekkan - their resources could be better spent, no doubt, but that's not how they see it. The Brekkan, in contrast, perhaps had to recover from the addiction because devoting their resources to producing the drug for themselves really was crippling their society and so it had to be addressed. "

Some of this might be logical, but it's all negated because it can all be applied to the Brekkians too, yet they still overcame the addiction.

I'd give this episode ZERO stars and consider it as a contender for worst episode of the series, it's boring, annoying, badly written, badly cast, with not 1 but 2 actors from The Wrath of Khan you can't help but watch this episode remembering the film that was great, which would be fine if this episode was great, it's not, it's obvious, people take drugs, didn't need Star Trek to tell me that!

A very amusing bit of watchable trivia -- this was actually the last episode that Denise Crosby filmed ("Skin of Evil", where Tasha dies, was filmed before this one). So, her very last moment on a Trek set was near the end of this episode, during the scene in the cargo bay. As Picard and Crusher are leaving the cargo bay and the door is closing behind them, you can see Tasha jumping up and down in the far background and "waving goodbye". Very funny -- check it out.

Bad episode, bad morale story.

The prime directive does NOT work this way.
-one shall not contact civilizations pre-warp
(exeption, if they actively use impulsedrive to contact other worlds and succeeded in doing so)
-every civilization has the right to make it's own laws, order, and rule over it's own property how it sees fit.
*when it is a warp-capable civilization, it IS allowed to criticize other cultures and laws, and stimulate chance from whiithin. However one may not supply outside weapons or technology to force this chance.

Exception General : the prime directive excist to PRESERVE the development of races and cultures, logically it IS allowed to take actions that help towards this goal, it never is ment to taken so litterly it actually contradicts it's own prime reason for existance.

In this regard it was totally legal to inform the junkies of their addiction, as it would not be information above their own technological level of understanding, and beneficial to their own development.
it would also be allowed to offer them the means to break the addiction.

However it would be THEIR chooice if they believe this, and if they want any help.
if they not want any or not believe the intell, than you would be bound by the prime directive to do nothing more.

If enterprise really wanted to play the hardline prime directive (not as inteneded) they should have beamed the two dealers, the two addicts and the drugs back into the sun, as without them interfearing, none of it all would have made it to planet crack.

In a further reasoning.. enterprise did allow for the drug to be delivered by resqueing those people and their cargo, if they really would not want to interfere they would have beamed them all back into the sun to be killed and destroyed, just how they found them.

Now as for the morale-story :

the people aboard the ship acted as idiots, every vieuwer noted those two were crack adics 5 seconds into the story, it took far to long for the crew to notice, it is not believable the elite of the 2200 space navy is that dumb, blind and guilllable.

ilikewise the "let them rot and just lets just move away to a better neighbourhood far away from the junkies" attitude does not set a good morale play from that end of the equation.

overal felt more like a very dumb and scientifficicly unsound "drugs are bad mkay" add..

Yes, the episode is heavy-handed and oversimplified but I think it does provide a good example of the Prime Directive in action.
Thought it was an interesting episode that Picard's character came through well. It was good to see how the disagreement between him and Crusher played out and the end action of not helping the Onarans with their coil provided another take on the PD which worked out well.
I'd rate it 2.5/4 stars - an interesting premise with decent examination of the PD although oversimplified.

This is actually one of my favorite episodes of season one. I enjoy the stand off between Crusher and Picard. Crusher wanting to help the Onarans there and then and do what's best for the "sick" people while Picard won't let her interfere. I found myself inclined to agree with Crusher for most of the episode only to be persuaded by Picard by the end.

Sure, the episode isn't perfect and it's a bit overdone in places but the final resolution works really well. By not helping and causing short-term suffering they will create a positive over the long term is an interesting end to the story which works much better than any alternative (e.g. telling the Onarans the truth or letting the trade continue). The use of the engine parts was unpredictable and provided a nice solution to the problem.

For all of its faults, the overall story works well and we get to see a genuine and well played out stand off between Crusher and Picard. Personally I'd give it 3/4.

I'd happily take this over any of the inane Q episodes or slow and boring Klingon episodes.

Execution was shaky, but it's one of the better "Prime Directive" episodes in concept. They actually come up with a great way to solve the situation without technically breaking the rules. Usually they just make a big moralizing speech about why the rules aren't as important as The Right Thing and then flout the rules completely, or something else comes up to save them, or they use a trick to fool the less-advanced aliens.

But "We can't intervene to stop you - but we won't intervene to help you either" was a good way to handle it.

TB's first 2 paragraphs summed it up very well.

So: The Ornorans loaded their wobbly freighter with goods to barter for the drug, and flew to Brekka . There, Brekkans loaded the drug onto the freighter but somehow forgot to offload the Ornaran goods. Then the Brekkans climbed aboard the deathtrap ship themselves for a ride to Ornora. We're not given even a throwaway line to explain any of this.

I remain confused also by how the two cultures are portrayed. The Ornorans have spacefaring technology but are dumb as Pacleds about maintaining their ships. They also wear clothes that look rustic and threadbare. What's the message: Are they stupid? Drugged to the point of incompetence? Impoverished by the predatory Brekkans? None of these options make a lot of sense. Meanwhile the Brekkans are wearing the latest in metallic fashions - presumably manufactured in Ornoran factories. And for all their apparent riches and leisure time, they've been content to remain technologically behind the Ornorans they look down on - and are okay with completely dependent on them and their crumbling ships?

I am going to stop thinking too much - and just get back to enjoying the bizarre face of Electric Riker. I could look at that all day.

I didn't mind this episode. While I agree with the criticisms, and the fact that it was definitely heavy handed, I also agree with many of the commenters that it was nice to have a strong prime directive episode. The first season has a lot of scenarios where they quote the prime directive, but the viewer questions whether it really applies.

One thing that bugged me about this episode, more than anything else was:

Picard was initially willing to just hand over some ship coils to help them repair their ship. So this shows that he is willing to trade resources as long as it's not advanced tech and it doesn't screw up the status quo of their society.

So then why did Picard not ask the Onarans what the payment was supposed to be for the cargo? If it was something that could have been easily replicated on the Enterprise then Picard could have payed the tab for this shipment, resolving the dispute, and restoring the status quo.

The enterprise can replicate a lot of materials and resources that would be considered valuable on other worlds. That's one of the reasons why Federation technology is kept under lock and key. Even if it turns out they couldn't replicate whatever the payment was supposed to be, why not ask at least? It could have easily been covered with some throw away dialogue.

*Sigh* In the end they had a satisfactory solution. But up until that point I couldn't stop thinking about this one issue.

This is a decent episode if you just turn off your brain and let it flow over you. That's what I did last night. And except for the stunningly awkward Wesley/Tasha drugs chit-chat on the bridge, I was mildly entertained.

However, the more you think about the episode (and read the reviews noting plot holes on here), the more it just falls apart.

I think "Symbiosis" is best watched under the influence of a few bong hits (which I did not do) or some general post-Christmas, brain-tired malaise, which I did do.

As for Merritt Buttrick, that was very sad. In hindsight, you could see the effects of HIV on him already. I didn't pick up on it at the time. Like someone else said, if he had just a few more years in him, he might have made it to the era of effective antivirals. Poor guy may not have even been aware of his medical condition at the time.

My favorite part is at the end of the anti-drug scene between Wesley and Tasha, when Tasha says, “And in conclusion, always remember to floss.”

Wesley looks her dead in the eye and replies, “We always floss. We’re Starfleet.”

Powerful stuff. Giving me shivers even now.

I think this is the only episode where Tasha speaks at length and doesn't talk about her evading rape gangs. She never says if they ever caught her, but I suspect you would to get captured a time or two. I know it is wrong, but catching Tasha at least once would be kinda sweet.

This is yet another episode where the Prime Directive makes no sense. If you can't warp to the other side of the galaxy, you are just a backwoods rube of a civilization. The city where I grew up, didn't have public transportation to the Southside, so I never went there. Was I less of a person because I didn't have a vehicle capable of making it to the Southside of town? I would be denied the use of city resources because I wasn't worldly enough to reach the South or points beyond? I would be denied legal advice or new technology because I wasn't smart enough or rich enough to build or buy a vehicle capable of reaching the outer rim area of my city?

These two worlds seemed to have a high level of technology, other than the fact the knew nothing about how to repair their ships or owning space capable ships at all. For that they are treated like 5th graders who can't be told about the ways of the universe. I'm sure they would have an incentive to develop warp capability if they knew about places like Risa, or Dabbo girls on DS9.

The Prime Directive is far too rigid . I can see if a civilization still lives in caves, or don't even have the internet. But to not clue them in that they are being played and taken advantage of just because they don't know how to build or add a turbocharger on their ships, is very cruel.

The first few minutes were fun, listening to the freighter captain being a total idiot, whacked out of his mind on drugs. When asked how much time before the ship explodes, Worf should have said "4:20".
The Public Service Announcement about Drugs. Are. Bad. to Wesley was AWFUL. What ridiculous lame writing. Do they really need to beat viewers over the head with a sledgehammer with that point?
Nice concept, but terrible writing, terrible acting, and it became all SO BORING!

This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? Fade to black

The beginnung was fun. The conversation between Picard and the freight captain was something else. Really entertaining.
Poor, Picard. Lol. He couldn't get over the stupidity of the caotain. The way he delivered the line, "yes. I Think that's best," was gold.

Really, Dr. Lazarus? rape fantasies?

It is with regard to Tasha that I want to speak up for this episode because for the first act she is suddenly competent, rather than being a helpless bridge bunny, and that was long overdue. Still too little, too late.

This is an episode that is weirdly both dated and ahead of its time. The "don't do drugs" speech is so incredibly 80s, but at the same time, the stuff the episode is actually an allegory for - painkiller addiction and fair trade between wealthy and developing nations - were not significant issues yet at the time the episode was made.

It's a good test case if you want to talk about the death of the author, at least!

I hope The Orville decides to remake this episode. One of their mistakes is redoing good Star Trek episodes that are hard to improve on, instead of bad ones that could easily be upgraded.

Just Say No to this episode.

The best part of this episode was the clever way that Picard used non interference to interfere with the horrible relationship between the two planets. Otehrwise ho hum
6.5/10

Nobody's mentioned this episode's great opening scenes. We open with the crew all hyped up and happily exploring a sun and various solar anomaly, complete with neat "solar flare" special effects. We then get a fairly good rescue sequence, as Picard tries to save a doomed ship. No flashy FX, no strained attempts to drum up drama; just Picard standing and speaking to a static-filled screen whilst dropping some beautifully banal, methodical dialogue.

The episode also ends on a great scene, Picard and the crew randomly picking a segment of the universe to boldly explore. These bookends really convey a sense of science and exploration as a giddy, fun impulse.

Another thing: I believe no episode in TNG is more packed with extras and darting about background characters. The bridge and Enterprise is far more busy than usual in this episode, crewman and women always zipping about in droves. I like this, as it really conveys the idea that this is a huge vessel.

I've noticed that the comments on this site, particularly for TOS and s1 of TNG, get less harsh as time goes on; people seem to become more forgiving and/or begin to find several dated aspects to be kind of charming and retro. The new HD transfers of TOS and TNG may also be an influence; this episode, with the twin planets, and sunlight glinting off the Enterprise's hull, looks great.

Beyond this, I thought the core storyline of this episode was good, at least in theory. The idea of a simbiotic/parasitic relationship between a planet of addicts and drug dealers is a great concept, and still relevant (such parasitic relationships apply to goods/products/trade-deals far outside the realm of narcotics). But as Jammer mentions, several sanctimonious, on-the-nose speeches tarnish the episode badly.

In a comment above, Elliot praises Picard's elevator speech. It always rubbed me the wrong way. It's wonderfully acted and staged, and I tend to defend the Prime Directive's non-interference policies in some other episodes, but here it's surely wrong (?). You have a planet of drug dealers essentially going into a community, lying to a group of people, getting them addicted, and then exploiting them for profit. Surely one has a moral duty to stop this, and explain to the victims what's going on. To me it just seems like one of Trek's more stark and clear dilemmas, and something that demands swift action.

On the flip side, what I always like about these early PD episodes (there've been at least 3 so far in season 1), is how Picard "always finds a way". He kowtows to the PD, but manages to find a loophole in which (what I believe to be) the moral is never-less arrived upon. It's a kind of intellectual game of chess, and Picard shines as a character when he's asked to navigate these dilemmas.

Yes this episode can be cloying and I’d like to smack the Brekkans. But that aside, has anyone ever noticed that drug thing is a plasma injector conduit in other episodes?

Eh. It was ok. Well cast, on the guest star front, as the Brekkians couldn't have looked or acted more obnoxiously snooty and fake, and the Onarans couldn't have seemed more pathetic and desperate.

The episode isn't so much about drug addiction as it is about the Prime Directive and making hard choices - not doing the easy thing or seeking instant gratification.

The scene where Yar explains drug addiction to a clueless Wes was awful.

More fuel added to the Picard/Crusher mutual attraction thing, though knowing this is going nowhere, it just makes me sigh.

Watching Star Trek TNG for the first time starting with season 1 episode 1, and I found this episode ridiculous and terrible enough that I had to do an internet search to confirm that I had just watched something so poorly written and thought-out.

None of the premise or explanation of this episode is rational or believable:

- A planet which has figured out space travel hasn't figured out how to examine and understand chemical compounds and has no conception of what drugs are?

- An entire planet is addicted to a drug and nobody on it has even been separated from the drug long enough to realize that withdrawals pass? Nobody on this planet ever gets lost in the wilderness, doesn't have the funds to acquire the drug, or any of many other scenarios where they'd inevitably get over the withdrawal period? How do newborns come to be addicted to the drug? Nobody ever just wilfully refuses to take it either out of protest or with a goal to suicide, or some other motivation?

- Picard and his crew violate the "prime direction" worse than speaking simple truth to these people all the time. And Picard violated the prime directive worse than telling the 'drug addicts' the truth when he saved them from their decaying ship - that interventionist action ensured that the entire planet would continue to be drugged, while if Picard hadn't done that they would have been forced to go through withdrawal with no alternative. Picard obviously violated the "prime directive" to save Wesley Crusher... but he wouldn't save an entire planet filled with teenagers of Wesley Crusher's age, and of children and babies younger than him?

- Picard gives utmost hypocritical speeches on the prime directive and how critical it is in an episode where he violates it multiple times, including wilfully and knowingly by giving the inhabitants of the drug-using planet the coils they need to fix their cargo ships. Picard later reverses that decision, but not for the sake of the prime directive, but because he wanted to cut their supply of the drug - and he openly acknowledges that he's flip-flopping and being selective in where he applies the prime directive by responding to the drug seller's "that's absurd!" comment by saying, "you did not think so when it worked in your favour". There is just 1 minutes and 50 seconds between Picard selectively applying the prime directive as a tool for ulterior motives and openly acknowledging that he's doing so, and him giving Dr Crusher a lecture on the prime directive's importance in the elevator. This is stupid.

- The planet that makes and sells the drugs to the other is 100% filled with evil persons who eagerly exploit the other planet's people and feel no compassion or sense of humanity towards them? Not one of the people on that planet cared to send a message to tell the other planet that they're just addicted? An entire planet's population has no compassion, doesn't regard other people are equal to themselves? How could that planet then care for each other? They couldn't, they would inevitably rationalize betrayal of each other just as they do the people on the other planet.


These are just some select major issues with the episode, while I think I could point out a dozen more. This whole episode's premise and execution was completely stupid, and it shouldn't have been done. The episode also is entirely ignorant of the topic of drug use and portrays out-dated (were they ever in-date?) tropes of people who use drugs, and is like watching a very old film that features extreme racial prejudices that were normal at the time, but which reeks of ignorance when watched today.

I would not be surprised to find out that this episode was sponsored by the US government or some other third party - though, the DEA seems a very likely possibility.

I just got out of rehab for heroin and they had the TNG box set there, everyone loved this episode lol

Words matter and so do numbers. The Yark speech to Wesley was maybe 2 1/2 minutes long. The problem with the exchange was not so much the dialogue as is the fact the dialogue was being exchanged between what were the show's two weakest characters at that point (and hardly the two best actors).

The Prime Directive, earlier in the season (I am thinking of "Justice" in particular) seemed to be used as a way of hamstringing the crew, for the sake of contriving drama (really? Not allowing Wesley to be executed, when the Edo basically told the Enterprise it could beam away with Wesley in tow and the world would go on, was interference with a developing world's beliefs? It was, as Picard said in a later episode, imposing a set of commandments on the Edo? Please). Here the Prime Directive was used with a nod toward reality and sanity. The Ornarans asked for help to install the coil. The show never told us what the exact contours of the Prime Directive were, but providing the installation help didn't seem an infraction. Later discovery of additional facts caused Picard to realize that "non-interference" as a principle was best-served by doing nothing and letting the parties stew in their own juices. The execution may have been wanting, but the premise here was sound enough

I’d suggest to the people who don’t like this episode because it “incorrectly “ portrays the Prime Directive, or because Picard selectively applies it, or because “The Prime Directive is stupid” the following:

The Prime Directive had never, prior to this episode’s airdate, NEVER been described in the show in the amount of detail necessary to make your arguments valid, or invalid. As of the airing of this episode, to the extent the PD has been defined at all, it has been defined for expository purposes, I.e., by Kirk in Bread and Circuses.

Who Watchers the Watchers and the episode First Contact finally gave us more detail. But those episodes of course cam after the this one.

Also, in reality, a corollary to “Just Say No” was that, if you did not say no, too bad f o you, you are weak and you should be incarcerated. This episode did not blindly parrot Nancy Reagan; taken as a whole the episode was somewhat sympathetic to the Ornarans, definitely vis a vis the Brekkians. The episode, to me, was more of an indictment of the untrammeled capitalist mentality that allowed the symbiotic relationship to flourish In the first place.

I realIze my comments go against Official Interpretive Orthodoxy.
So maybe I should be stoned



No pun intended

Tara
Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:20pm (UTC -5)
"So: The Ornorans loaded their wobbly freighter with goods to barter for the drug, and flew to Brekka . There, Brekkans loaded the drug onto the freighter but somehow forgot to offload the Ornaran goods. Then the Brekkans climbed aboard the deathtrap ship themselves for a ride to Ornora. We're not given even a throwaway line to explain any of this."

"I remain confused also by how the two cultures are portrayed. The Ornorans have spacefaring technology but are dumb as Pacleds about maintaining their ships. They also wear clothes that look rustic and threadbare. What's the message: Are they stupid? Drugged to the point of incompetence? Impoverished by the predatory Brekkans? None of these options make a lot of sense. Meanwhile the Brekkans are wearing the latest in metallic fashions - presumably manufactured in Ornoran factories. And for all their apparent riches and leisure time, they've been content to remain technologically behind the Ornorans they look down on - and are okay with completely dependent on them and their crumbling ships?"

Amen to that! I didn't even think of the logistics of this particular journey and why the Brekkians were even on the Ornaran ship in the first place. I was also confused about why the Ornarans were so incoherent and incompetent in the beginning, and never really thought it might be because they were high. If that was the case though, how would they have the wherewithal to sustain a manufacturing base, not to mention space travel? None of that was paid off in the episode.

What really got me is that the Brekkians have no industry other than felicium production; the Ornarans provide everything they need. Ok, whatever. It would make more sense if they were transporting just the raw plant and not the finished product, since the Ornarans have all the industrial capabilities, but then they couldn't take the drug on the ship. Anyway, I guess they're trying to convey that the Ornarans have to give the Brekkians every last little bit of their industrial production to pay for the felicium, leaving them nothing but threadbare clothes and broken-down ships. Except they only had one functional ship left. Are we to believe that the Ornarans were able to transport ALL the Brekkian's goods in that one ratty ship that only ever made three or four journeys per year? This really is sloppy.

It might work if they didn't dumb down the Ornarans so much. Make this just one run out of dozens per year with different ships. It can still be critical to a large percentage of the population. Or maybe a previous shipment was lost, tainted, or whatever. The Ornarans should be more like the Malon from Voyager. Sour, dirty, doing what they have to do, but still basically competent, if not single-minded and ruthless. I guess that wouldn't play into the "drugs are bad" message.

One thing I did not see mentioned which made the moral dilemma all the more interesting in this episode: this "symbiosis" made the Brekkians just as dependent on the Ornarans as the other way around. Their society has become so accustomed to the Ornarans providing everything for them that, by their own admission, it does not produce absolutely anything but the drug.
If Picard and crew helped the Ornarans to (relatively) quickly overcome their addiction, it would have doomed the Brekkians as a whole; surely not all Brekkians would have deserved such a fate. What makes Picard's decision smart here in my view is that it does not turn the situation on its head, but lets both races know that present arrangements cannot continue in the long-term: the Ornarans can no longer maintain their vessels, thus the drug trade WILL eventually stop - but it gives a chance for both races to prepare and, hopefully, arrive at a better solution.

As clunky as the Tasha/Wesley scene was, it was not as much ripped from a school anti-drug film as it may seem, at least not where I lived. I was a teen and it was eye poppingly informative. All the anti drug stuff I had seen pretty much went direct for the pure hell of heroin or whatever addiction. What was NEVER presented was that it might just FEEL GOOD. So, as goofy as Wesley’s aww-shucks thing was, for many of us in the real world, it was reality.

I’m assuming the powers that be, at least where I lived, never explained the “positivess” that drug use had because it would seem like promoting it or something. I don’t know though, because you would see someone smoking weed or something without the extreme consequences of worst case heroine abuse or whatever, and it’s a pretty quick leap that you were being lied to, so I question this rationale.

Anyway, they could have played this scene better. It would go a long ways if Wesley had just nodded in befuddledment, rather than the aw-shucks thing they went with.

I loved the solar flare opening with the crew enjoying themselves, and the hysterical dialogue between Picard and the absolutely stoned Onaran captain.

I felt Picard's frustration after dealing with these two planets' problems. There was no real win here, plus he and Crusher ebded at loggerheads. It's going to be difficult for both worlds going forward, although the solution with the coils was novel. At the end, Picard's weary realization that he didn't care where they went, as long as he could put this one behind them, was palpable. Stewart's line reading was great. His voice actually cracked a little as he repeated, "I don't care." Good stuff.

Back to the opening scene. Was this the first instance where we see a Picard face palm? Those never get old.

I did not relaise the connection untile the very end. One of "Enterpise" best episodes is "Dear Doctor". So many hndread years ago Phlox already faced a simililar situation and Archer took basically the same desicion even without the primary directive. I just wonder, why did not Data manage to retreive this information from the Archives? That would have helped Picard and Crusher.

This was not as well plyed as "Dear Doctor". The story was not so clear until the surprising resolution. Until then I was as upset as Dr. Crusher. First then I realised the connection. I would say the plot was one of the better and the acting standard TNG.

I doubt this is an original opinion but I"ll write it anyways - the Prime Directive annoys the hell out of me because we see endless instances of it being ignored until the plot demands it.

It's cool to beam drug dealers and addicts onto the ship but preventing an entire population being unwittingly held hostage by drug dependence in the guise of a plague is peachy-fine?

I get where it makes sense with regards to populations who lack the technological advancement to discern the Federation from gods but the way the Prime Directive is invoked almost always elicits an eyeroll from me because it's clear that it only matters to the writers when the plot demands.

"the Prime Directive is invoked almost always elicits an eyeroll from me because it's clear that it only matters to the writers when the plot demands"


Yep, it's the plot driven inconsistency that bothers me the most.




There is an interesting moral dilemma it this episode, but the setup is too implausible.


Problems:

1) The drug addicted planet isn't plausible because the populace seems to have devolved to the point that they have the intelligence of Pakleds. I suppose this was done to explain why they were incapable of figuring out what was really going on with the "medicine" but it makes their society seem unrealistic.

2) The drug dealing planet isn't plausible either, because if they are smart enough to run this scam for this long they are smart enough to realize that they can't depend on their customers for transportation.

3) The scale is way off. An entire planet is being supported by what can be carried on three cargo ships?


With a little tweaking (ahem) the plot could have worked.

What if the drug addicted planet knew the "medicine" was nothing more than dope, and just didn't care? Or, at least, weren't willing to go through the pain of withdrawals. Change from two dimensional drug pushers to three dimensional characters who are dealers but who also have some shreds of guilt over being enablers; deep down they are still doing what they do for selfish reasons, but they rationalize it as doing it to "help" their poor neighbors.

Picard's dilemma would still be the same: do the right thing for planet B and there will be unknown and potentially disastrous consequences for planet A. Except now you don't have an easy situation where it feels like the villains are simply getting their just deserts and the addicts aren't simply blameless victims.


As it ends now it feels like a cheat. Picard will be able to stick to the letter of the PD, and still give Crusher what she wants; the drug addicted planet will overcome its addiction. The good guys win! The problem is that it's going to cause the exact same problems that Picard was worried about: there will undoubtable be dire consequences for the drug dealing planet; their entire way of life will be destroyed. (Question: Was the entire populace in on the conspiracy?) Heck, there could even be war between the two planets. Who cares? Picard just orders the Enterprise to haul ass out of there and doesn't look back.

If that is an acceptable outcome, then why did Picard "interfere" in the first place by saving the crew of the cargo ship? The only difference is a matter of scale.


Wouldn't a better ending be one in which the Federation agrees to help both planets? Help planet B kick its habit, and agree to send economic advisors and trade negotiators to planet A to help them overcome the upheaval to their economy? At best, you save a lot of lives and gain two new allies. At worst, you have a situation that is still better than the one Picard ultimately left them with.

Well said Different Bob.

Honestly, there's just something about the Prime Directive that sort of romanticizes the idea of a society pulling itself up by its bootstraps while ignoring the very real suffering that must take place.

Imagine a Federation type organization was monitoring earth during WW2 or the Bubonic plague. Untold suffering allowed to go on for centuries without intervention because of this absurd idea that a civilization cannot take a shortcut.

Better to let children suffer from parasites that eat out the back of their eyeballs than to maybe disrupt a society built around backwards beliefs and woefully inept medical capabilities.

Agreed with last two posters. There are problems here that could have been fixed. Buttrick’s stoned Captain thing was pretty surreal and funny but the Ornarans aren’t high, so why did they not do something?

The Prime Directive is problematic as ever, but at least it had the unusual angle of two other parties.

But, what if Beverly or Picard just told the Brekka they were just druggies? It wouldn’t matter, they would be “yeah fine whatever.” It’s naive to think they don’t know. They may even be perfectly happy with the situation.

And technically, Bevs doesn’t 100% know that they don’t legit medically need the drug.


Still, all in all, it was a pretty good episode for season one. That a hand full of people represent a planet was always a limitation of the show simply because that’s all you can do on a weekly show with 20+ episodes a year.

Nauseating hypocrisy from Picard.

He was very keen for Q to “interfere“ to prevent Starfleet and Earth being assimilated by the Borg - but when begged by Dr. Crusher to give the Ornarans something that could break them of their addiction, he preaches the Prime Directive, which he construes as forbidding interference, at her.

Apparently the PD does not apply when a member of Starfleet is in danger of getting the chop for committing a crime on an alien planet - far from letting the Edosians execute Wesley, Picard‘s adherence to the rule of non-interference that he praises so highly in Symbiosis is allowed to be put on one side. The PD is clearly absolutely binding for Picard - except when it’s not convenient. Millions of strangers can suffer for his inviolable moral principle, the PD - but stuff the PD if it endangers people he cares about. Then it magically (that being the apposite word) ceases to be inviolable. And, as magically, becomes inviolable again when he wants it to be. Bare-faced callousness, though ugly, is at least preferable to callousness masquerading as moral high-mindedness and principle.

His hypocrisy would be nowhere near as offensive if he did not set himself up as morally superior to us 20th-century barbarians. The self-righteous self-congratulation of characters in TNG is one of its more unattractive features. If the members of Starfleet are such moral paragons, why do they lack the wisdom to reject our hypocrisies, instead of copying them ? Picard 0 - Dr. Crusher 1

It’s no wonder he was in a hurry to leave that system - he probably had an uneasy conscience.
To Picard’s credit, he does lose some of his tendency to self-righteous posturing in the course of the series.

I think Jammer was right - 2 seems a fair mark for the episode.

Fab - Picard saying go on just keep electrocuting him...can't help wondering if Riker was just thinking 'lower...lower...lower...'

Awful, boringly preachy episode. Poorly paced, badly staged, ridiculously obvious and clunky dialogue. The scene where Tasha explains drugs and addiction to a wide-eyed Wesley sums up the bottomless pit of just how bad this is. As for the opening scenes where Picard tries to debate with the Ornarans what their problem is, instead of taking immediate action to rescue them... unbelievable!

You know, I used to think the upcoming Skin Of Evil was the worst episode, but now I’ll reserve judgment - it will have to go a long way to beat Symbiosis.

0.5 stars, if that.

@petulant

I agree, 100%

@Prince of Space

Uh? I just watched this on Netflix and there was no reference to flossing. If there had been, I’d have at least got a good laugh.

@William B

Yes, the look on “electrified Riker’s” face was indeed “so bad it’s almost good “!

I have seen this episode at least five times over the years, and until reading someone else's comment here, I've NEVER thought about the massive plot hole that is both the drug and the payment for said drug being on the same ship.

Like... what? Why?

So the Onarrans loaded the payment onto the ship... flew to Brekkia... picked up the drugs... AND two Brekkians for some reason... and then flew back to Onarra with both the drugs and the payment on board... for what reason exactly?

I can't come up with any reasonable explanation for why that scenario played out the way it did.

It's not that big of a deal, clearly - I mean I never even picked up on it until someone else pointed it out - but it's the sort of thing that, once you realize it, it's just mind boggling.

Other than that this episode is alright, definitely one of the better S1 outings. I appreciate how delightfully evil the Brekkians are portrayed, and how much they seem to enjoy being bastards - especially the woman, she's just so smarmy.

2.5/4, maybe even 3.

Sorry to double comment, but I just had another thought:

Yes, Tasha's conversation with The Boy is heavy handed and wooden, and yes, Wesley's "aw-shucks-gee-wiz" naïveté frankly, well, sickens me, BUT...

That doesn't make anything Tasha says untrue, and honestly the point she makes is fairly progressive for 1988. Her point is, "drugs are bad because it's easy to get stuck in a cycle of addiction and dependence," which, after eight years of Nancy telling the whole nation to "Just Say No" comes across as a much more nuanced approach to discussing addiction than the writers might have otherwise taken.

I mean it's taken us as a society the last thirty years to just begin to come to that understanding and base treatment around rehabilitation rather than punishment. So, I think the episode deserves credit for that.

The moral of this story is less "don't do drugs" and more "it's morally reprehensible to exploit other people's ignorance for your own gain." That's hardly a hot take of course, but, it's less "after school special" than it could have been.

Many episodes play much differently (i.e. worse) since the onset of the pandemic, notably "The Naked Now" and this one.

PICARD: Do you think we are in danger from this plague?
CRUSHER: Again, I need more time.

Okay, so you don't know yet whether their disease is contagious, and yet you didn't quarantine them or take any steps to prevent the spread of this disease? HELLO!

I actually agree with the principle of the Prime Directive. Unfortunately, it's very hard to dramatize and isn't applied consistently throughout the series. Isn't the simple act of saving the four people on the freighter interference in itself? One interpretation of the Prime Directive would be that Picard shouldn't have answered the distress call in the first place, in which case we would have no episode.

I'm also confused as to why Picard originally plans to give them the coils, only to later change his mind. Does that violate the PD or not? He seems awfully confident that not giving them the coils will eventually free them of the drug, but if the Brekkians are smart at all (which, admittedly, they may not be), they would offer to fix the Ornarans' ships in order to preserve their business. The felicium must flow!

"I'm also confused as to why Picard originally plans to give them the coils, only to later change his mind. Does that violate the PD or not? "

When it comes to spacefaring races, it appears the PD is less rigid than with prewarp cultures. It is permissible to render emergency or other aid (helping a crippled ship with repairs, rendering emergency aid etc...) provided doing so does no explicitly influence for fundamentally change their culture.

So fixing their ship was fine as long as it was just the equivalent of a roadside tire change - not fine when Picard realized it would be fundamentally altering the course of their culture by perpetuating this drug addiction that otherwise was going to end once supply of the drug was cut off.

To use another example, helping defend Gowron's flagship from pirates would probably have been fine, but not against other Klingons in a civil war like in Redemption.

It's admittedly really murky but there is some kind of logic to it if you look hard enough and ignore some episodes.

I don't know if they always were firm on that policy but as far as I understand it, it means that the Federation is invisible to pre-warp civilizations and otherwise follows a policy of non-interference.

Jason outlined quite nicely how that works.

This ep is a good concept with the execution of an after-school special, which it feels like, especially in Ensign "Shut Up Wesley" Crusher's chat with everybody's favorite soon-to-be-killed blonde.

Everyone gives S1 a bad rep - but this episode was very good.

"You must give us back our cargo!"

Picard: "it's not my decision."

"We need some now! NOW.! I don't care if it's your decision. Get us some! Our people need it! And if you don't give it to us you will be a party to the murder, not only of us, but also of an entire civilization!!"

That escalated quickly! Lmao

Maq: So many hndread years ago Phlox already faced a simililar situation and Archer took basically the same desicion even without the primary directive. I just wonder, why did not Data manage to retreive this information from the Archives?

You're teasing, right? Or you somehow forgot that this show was made 14 years before Enterprise?

Whoever explained the huge plot hole about the Brekkians AND the Ornarans AND the drugs AND the payment all on the same ship at the same time, bravo! I never thought of that and you're right, it's a mess. Added to the mess that was the rest of the episode.

NONI says: That doesn't make anything Tasha says untrue, and honestly the point she makes is fairly progressive for 1988. Her point is, "drugs are bad because it's easy to get stuck in a cycle of addiction and dependence,"

Yeah, it was cheesy, but the point was good: that drugs are often the result of other problems and suffering and it doesn't mean that everyone who went through those things and looked for drugs as a way out is a bad person, and that most of humanity doesn't grasp this any more only because we're so much better off that people don't usually end up in that situation.

And the ending of the conversation never gets enough credit. Basically...
Wesley: I still don't think I get it.
Yar: And I hope you never will.

It is also a rare time where Tasha is well used. No other member of the main cast could have delivered that message without it being way out character.

I like this episode. I think when it first came out, when I was in my young teens, I didn't get all of the intended message with some subtle shows. This one clearly shows the harmful effects of drugs, and I personally like the conversation between Wesley and Tasha on the subject. I don't understand why people are so jaded that a frank discussion like that is seen as "cringey" Of course Wesley would not have been exposed to harmful and addictive substances! I think if I would change anything, I might replace Tasha with his Mom, but still, a respected motherly figure kindly explained some things to the boy-what's wrong with that? Especially since Tasha's upbringing means that she understands the powerful draw of such bad substances

I understand the frustration other commenters have had, over the years, with the everybody-on-one-ship issue, but I think I always assumed that the Brekkians had so concentrated their entire economy on producing felicium that they had no ships of their own. The drug dealer doesn't deliver; he hangs out on the corner, and the junkie has to come to him.

I'm guessing that the ship arrives at the Brekkian homeworld loaded with everything the Brekkians need to support their life and a fairly comfortable lifestyle: food, clothing, household appliances, fuel to produce energy to run the appliances, devices for communication and entertainment, medicines for real diseases, etc., mostly things the Onarrans couldn't afford to keep for their own use because they were giving it all to the Brekkians (hence the crew's threadbare clothing in contrast to the Brekkians' stylish outfits).

I'm guessing that the container of felicium is beamed aboard along with a couple of Brekkians whose job is to verify that the agreed-upon goods are in the cargo holds, then the goods and the Brekkian officials are beamed to Brekka.

It's true that this series of events has the Brekkians allow the felicium to be beamed up before the the payment for it is beamed down, but I can see how that might have developed as their custom. Somebody has to be the first to hand over their part of the bargain, and this relationship has been running smoothly for so long that the Brekkians are willing to trust that the Onarrans will not risk the collapse of the trade agreement by reneging on their part of the deal. But this time, something goes wrong with the ship in between the arrival of the felicium and the departure of the goods that were supposed to pay for it. An unprecedented trade dispute ensues.

This scenario would suggest that they are closer to Brekka than to Onarra when the mishap occurs, close enough to have transported the Brekkians and the felicium aboard. Perhaps the goods are headed to the opposite side of the planet from where they beamed up the felicium, so there was going to be some time between the two? Or perhaps the Brekkians bring the felicium aboard, but the goods are not to be beamed down until everything has been counted to make sure it's all there as agreed?

Am I missing anything that would make that explanation unworkable?

Jammer, I think you've got the Brekka vs. the Ornara backward in the review—the Ornarans are the ones who are addicted to the drug.

I do wish people wouldn’t put spoilers about future happenings in these comments as I can’t be the only one watching in sequence for the first time.

@Ken L, the series aired more than 30 years ago. Coming to this forum now and expecting no spoilers is a very unreasonable ask.

Ken, you're literally the last person on Earth to watch this. BTW, Tasha is instrumental to this show's success. As is red light Data.

"I do wish people wouldn’t put spoilers about future happenings in these comments as I can’t be the only one watching in sequence for the first time."

As others noted you literally are the last one in the world. But we don't say it to be glib or demeaning - we're all envious that you get to watch it for the first time.

The biggest problem with the episode is how forced the premise is. As others have mentioned, the whole set-up is nonsense.

Instead of having a show with villains and a debate about the Prime Directive, I think it would have been better to focus on the problems of dealing with someone with an addiction. Should you help them? How? Do they want your help? Will they abuse your generosity? Should you let them help themselves? Is it your place to help? These are real world problems that millions of people have had to deal with that I think could be incorporated into a TNG plot quite nicely.

Instead we got two villains who look like they walked off a soap opera on Alpha Centauri and Wesley saying "Golly gee, I guess only dopes use dope, Tasha.'


P.S. While taking some screenshots, I noticed that Frakes had lost a lot of hair at this point. You can see it in the scene where the junkie zaps his moob and he collapses.

No real point in mentioning that. Just one of those things you didn't notice until HD.

Better than I remembered. I don't think it's as bad as 2 stars; I would have given it 2.5 stars. But let's not quibble over half a star... It is a bit far-fetched that an entire planet could be addicted to a narcotic, and it's clear the writers forced this implausibility to make the story work. But I can look past that, as there are some good moments in this episode. My absolute favorite is when the Brekkans yelled "absurd!" to Picard refusing to give the Onarans the coils, to which Picard replied "oh, you did not think so when it worked to your favor". That was a moment all those years ago for me where I said "I like this bald captain's style!".

When that final batch of drugs runs out, and it dawns on the Ornarans that no more is coming this time, how many will commit suicide rather than face a prolonged agonising death by plague? Thousands, maybe millions. Who'd want to be a Starfleet captain?

Did they finish their study of that star?

“Users are losers
And losers are users
So don’t use drugs
DON’T USE DRUGS!”


Okay, it’s a bit unfair to associate “Symbiosis” with that infamous and admittedly catchy 1980’s McG(ruff!) ballad, as it does have some complicated nuances inherent in its message that actually made it very adult and progressive for its time. Still, it’s “Symbiosis” that made me think of the song in the first place, so there’s that.

The druggies in “Symbiosis” are actually never blamed at all, unlike in that song. They’re treated as victims of circumstance, not criminals. A key thing to remember here is that this episode is more concerned with the root causes of addiction, and not the drug use itself. In 1988, it was making some pretty forward-thinking points about how folks can become addicts through no fault of their own when the drugs start out by being prescribed to them. Particularly, just look at the opioid painkiller crisis which this episode, in a prescient way, references.

The freighter’s name “Sanction” is perfect, because the word is a contranym. A sanction means “a permission,” but then it also means “a penalty.” Considering the complicated nature of drug use as a subject, the writers may have been trying to say something subtle here. Drug use, after all, is sanctioned by criminal penalties, but contradictorily sanctioned by local governments’ harm-reduction and needle distribution programs. Largely, it’s simply a mess.

Yar has an interesting Big Sister moment with Wesley on the Bridge, where she brings up her experience of growing up on her shithole planet while explaining to him why folks might start using drugs in the first place. In so many words, drugs provide *relief from pain*, whether it be physical or psychological. It’s actually a good thing that Wesley really can’t fathom how anyone could become a drug addict, as it means that 24th Century humanity has largely put this problem in the rearview mirror (except for Yar’s planet of course). Denise Crosby’s line delivery is dreadful here, as she comes off as an Afterschool Special mouthpiece, but the message itself is clearly intending to show that the “Just Say No!” movement of the time was far too simplistic and unhelpful. It’s also a nice moment for Yar; I think this is the first time we’ve seen such a caring, nurturing side of her.

Speaking of which, I haven’t brought this up before, but it seems especially relevant in “Symbiosis”: Just what the hell happened on Yar’s home planet? Wasn’t it a human colony? So, what, the Federation never intervened to take control of the situation and end the horrible poverty and crimes there? Wouldn’t the Prime Directive not apply to *humans*? I’m hoping we get some kind of explanation in a future show, because this seems like a glaring omission. Maybe this is simply my theory of the Federation being made up of bloated bureaucratic buffoons holding up again.

The Prime Directive seems to be, as Picard put it in “Justice,” “an exercise in exceptions.” It’s not particularly clear who gets help and who doesn’t. For starters, I can completely get behind Picard’s familiarity exception. As in, if it’s a member of his crew who’s in trouble, Picard will break the rules to help them (Wesley, for instance). But if Picard doesn’t know you personally, you’re shit out of luck. Okay, that’s fine: we take care of our own. Riker, meanwhile, was unable to take the human Ramsey and his crew off of Angel One by force — but still meddled in the legal affairs of his paramour and her council. So even the *level* of interference isn’t exactly clear. What’s the harm, for example, in Picard telling the Ornarans that they’re being scammed and controlled? It would be entirely up to the Ornarans what to do about it. For all we know, T’Jon and his people would decide they like getting high, and nothing would change. On the other hand, they could start to make a concerted effort to break their addictions if they realize it wasn’t a needed medicine after all. Or, perhaps some would be inspired to change but others wouldn’t be, and the Brekkians would still be drug pushers, just not for as many people.

This brings up another point: the Star Trek trope of an entire planet being represented in microcosm by four or five people is alive and well in TNG. I get the budgetary constraints and storytelling simplicity, but in this one case, it’s vastly oversimplifying the problem it’s trying to critique and actually works against the message. In the case of addiction, it’s somewhat damaging to throw entire groups of people into one box.

And how funny was Beverly Crusher getting up on her high horse. Gates McFadden really laid into the hysteria again, especially her hideous, preachy rant about the Brekkians right in front of them. She doesn’t like this Prime Directive nonsense at all, does she? Funny, remember how Picard told Joachim (but I kid), “You did not think so when it worked in your favor?” He should have said the same damn thing to Beverly, considering he probably broke the Prime Directive to save her son’s life (though of course it wasn’t really clear what laws he broke there, considering Liator was willing to let bygones be bygones—God, that was another hopelessly mangled episode). Beverly even makes a scientific mistake if you want to nitpick: “This isn’t a symbiotic relationship. This is exploitation!” Actually, “parasitism,” where one organism benefits at the expense of another, is a valid form of symbiosis, so suck it, Bev. And calm down.

On another note, I was heartbroken by Merritt Butrick as T’Jon. He delivers a brave, vulnerable and extremely competent performance here, but at the time “Symbiosis” was filmed, he had about a year left to live, dying of AIDS in 1989. In this episode, I think it’s clear that his body is already showing signs of the disease ravaging through him. Compare him in “Symbiosis” to his scenes as David Marcus in Star Trek II and III. He’s frail here and looks like he’s aged fourteen years rather than four. Ironically, this makes him perfect as haggard, drug-addicted T’Jon. But it’s still sad. As a father, I got choked up at the scene in Star Trek III when Kirk beams down to the planet and walks over to David’s body in a distant wide shot, kneeling down and wordlessly placing his coat over him. That moment takes on additional real-world significance, considering that the actor also died young. Butrick certainly did make a lasting Star Trek mark, and “Symbiosis” in particular showcased his considerable talent.

“Symbiosis” has some worthwhile things to say but hasn’t really figured out *how* to say them. It’s also oddly paced. However entertaining it was with the Ornarans so haplessly high during their ship’s crisis, those scenes went on for far too long. Also, the economics of the situation were somewhat muddled. What exactly was the “payment” that the Ornarans made to the Brekkians? Seems to me that they wouldn’t be traveling back to their home planet in the first place unless they had already paid for their cargo. Were the Brekkians waiting to receive their pay for some reason? It’s also extremely convenient that the Brekkians’ “only industry” is drug pushing. Come on. That’s ridiculously blatant.

Lastly, I don’t blame Jammer one bit for actually confusing the two groups in his review. They’re *that* uninteresting as people (merely only ciphers and cogs) and to add insult to injury, budgetary restraints aside, they look exactly the same.

“Symbiosis” was another typical episode of TNG with lofty story goals but muddled and preachy messaging. I’m with Picard: you can’t get me away from those two problematic planets fast enough.


“Winners don’t use
And users don’t win
So don’t use drugs
DON’T USE DRUGS!”

“Users don’t win?!” This is palpably untrue. Steroids have helped plenty of athletes slay the competition, and cocaine keeps many a film editor up all night to meet their deadline! BUT I KID.


Here’s a link to the “Winners Don’t Use” song in all its glory:

https://youtu.be/DR8mso4eMh0

The comments section for this video is *priceless*, by the way. I had lots of good laughs.


Speak Frankly:
T’Jon -- “It’s all, you know, dead, I guess. It’s all shut down?”
Picard -- “Well, that is a little vague.”


My Grade: C-



NEXT TIME!!!!! ON STAR TREK!!!! THE NEXT GENERATION!!!

The Ghost of Christmas Future drags Riker down to Hell.

I'll admit I had to rewatch the episode just to reply to your review, PCP. I always skip this one when visiting TNG eps, and the plot is so monotoned and slow that I imagine I'll continue that practice going forward.

That being said, there's a bunch of imagery thrown around in the episode that doesn't have any automatically clear significance. Let's start with this:

PICARD: All hands, this is the Captain. As you may know, the sun in the Delos system is undergoing large-scale magnetic field changes, producing violent, gigantic flares. Now, we shall be studying this star at close range. Even though we shall be running with full deflectors, the closeness of this event and its severity are going to create problems.

And then the ship proceeds to get blue lightning blowing up all the systems, they go to yellow alert, and Picard says they'd better get even *closer* to get a better look. Even though the ship is getting fried and Wesley can't even use his bridge terminal anymore! So right away this is a jarring and nearly inexplicable start. Why is it so important to risk the ship to get physically closer to this aggravated star?

We also have the two races themselves, who can apparently both use yellow lightning on each other. Riker and Yar wonder whether living in this system has something to do with these abilities. And are they even two races?

DATA: Beginning several thousand years ago, the two worlds took different paths. Ornara became technologically sophisticated, Brekka did not. Then two hundred years ago, Ornara was stricken by a devastating plague.
RIKER: Their advanced technology could provide no solution.
DATA: Somehow, and there is limited information on this point, the cure was found in a plant indigenous to only Brekka, and which resisted all attempts at cultivation on Ornara.

They seem to have the same physiology, were cured by the same medicine, and have the same Sith lightning, so I assume they're the same species. So did one colonize a new world only to become anti-technologists? The script doesn't bother to elaborate, but just says that Brekka remained technologically primitive. Just so we're clear, the primitive race is the one that by fluke found this miracle cure - an actual cure! - that saved both planets from a plague. Becoming pushers was just opportunism, presumably unplanned. And it's the advanced race that couldn't find a cure, since they didn't have the plant.

And then of course there's the don't do drugs message.

But then we get quite a lot of dialogue about the PD which ends up dictating the story's ending. So the Federation's relationship to this situation is an important part of our story.

So why is their sun so upset? What's with the blue lightning messing up the ship? At first it looks like an attack or invasion or something. I guess the sun 'flaring up' is supposed to be some kind of metaphor for the fact that the situation between the two planets is about to flare up, like a prophetic sign.

Then we get the Sith lightning, which is maybe borrowed in concept from Let That Be Your Last Battlefield? In fact the entire story feels borrowed from it, including the two sides having unresolvable issues. This is perhaps like what Cheron was like in the events leading up to both sides trying to kill each other for eternity. Except at least the cast in that one were....feisty. Here we have the unfortunate situation of seeing the addicts as pathetic, and although this is quite effective, perhaps too effective, it makes things somewhat unenjoyable to watch. It's kind of no fun watching people just suffer and suffer and suffer. I know it's making a point, but did it have to be this literal? And the Brekkans seem to have no legitimate grievance, as their initial position was a complete hoax. It might have made us care for them more had their position as pushers somehow come as a result of being forced into that role somehow. Or maybe they could have at least explained that since they have no real technology, and Ornara won't share their technology with them, the only way *they* can survive is by pushing this drug, creating a catch 22. That would have set up a PD situation much more clearly, since then you have a knot that only Picard can untangle, rather than a villain he has to let go on with it. The stunt he pulled by keeping the coils was clever, but also a cheap contrivance that they wrote into the plot so that the bad guys would lose.

If the PD is supposed to matter so much, then the issue really should have been portrayed as both problems on both planets having been caused organically by events chosen by both sides, and now been entangled in complications, the Federation can't just reset their words and tell them how to live. I do indeed think that would be horrible. And although on a humane level Beverly's arguments sound valid, if the additional fact had been added that withdrawing the drug would have saved the Ornarans from the addition, it would have also caused Brekkan civilization to collapse, and the Federation cannot be the cause of that. Interfering is wrong no matter which way you cut it. But the way the story went there's no logical answer one can give to Crusher, just the myth that if you follow these principles it's better somehow.

So in the end I guess the sun was really pissed off, to mirror the Brekkans being pissed off, and the possession of lighting powers by the races and the sun indicated instability in the star system. The ony funny thing is that Picard needed to get the ship closer to inspect it, and the analogy is getting closer to these people to inspect their problem, even though in fact study it is all he could do. Seems like it would have been better altogether to just back off and leave when the sun started messing up their ship.

--- @ Peter G.: "Although on a humane level Beverly's arguments sound valid, if the additional fact had been added that withdrawing the drug would have saved the Ornarans from the addition, it would have also caused Brekkan civilization to collapse, and the Federation cannot be the cause of that. Interfering is wrong no matter which way you cut it. But the way the story went there's no logical answer one can give to Crusher, just the myth that if you follow these principles it's better somehow."

Thanks for your comments! I think "Symbiosis" oversimplifies everything, much to its detriment. They actually did hint that saving the Ornarans from addiction would "cause Brekkian civilization to collapse," because drug pushing is the latter's only industry, *and* they aren't technologically sophisticated in any other way (fundamentally contrived, and fundamentally stupid). This was the only way to make the Prime Directive angle make sense. Otherwise, ending the Ornarans' addiction would only have been a minor hit to the Brekkians' economy, but nothing devastatingly transformative. What's *really* stupid is that we see that the Ornarans are idiots when it comes to repairing their ships, but they're supposed to be the technologically advanced ones! So, in a sense, Picard's non-interference will achieve the same result (ending the Ornarans' dependency), just way more slowly. I guess the difference is that the Brekkians will have to think of a solution that keeps their society functioning, rather than that decision being immediately forced on them. It's still completely simplistic that this is even an existential issue for them. But that's foregoing logic for the sake of storytelling drama, I suppose.


--- "So in the end I guess the sun was really pissed off, to mirror the Brekkans being pissed off, and the possession of lighting powers by the races and the sun indicated instability in the star system. The ony funny thing is that Picard needed to get the ship closer to inspect it, and the analogy is getting closer to these people to inspect their problem, even though in fact study it is all he could do. Seems like it would have been better altogether to just back off and leave when the sun started messing up their ship."

I liked your theme throughout your post of likening the solar flares to the erupting situation between the two groups. In fact, the prelude in this episode went so over my head that I found myself wondering, "So what was the point of all that solar nonsense before they encountered the ship? That was a completely needless effects expense."

You know what they sometimes say about curiosity! Perhaps Picard should have left well enough alone, for the sake of his ship's systems. Ironically, because of the silly contrivances of this episode, he ultimately "leaves no trace," which is about the only decision he could have made in this Catch-22 situation. It's as if the crew was never there in the first place, because the Ornarans never got that new coil.

Since their children clearly would not be exhibiting any symptoms when they are born why are they giving them the drugs to get them hooked? Are they just stupid? You'd think after 200 years someone would have figured it out. Also if the Onarrans can't even fix their own broken down ships how are they producing anything of value in exchange for the drugs? Clearly technology is no longer their strong suit so what are they even manufacturing? I really hated the woman and her smug expression. Kind of hard to believe that an entire planet would be all in on this narcotics scheme. Not a single Brekkan has a hint of morals, none of them object to what they're doing? Come on.

As for the weird situation of both the Brekkans and Ornarans being on the freighter here's how I'm guessing it went down. The Ornarans flew to the Brekkan planet with their cargo. The Ornarans beamed up to the freighter with the drugs to make the exchange. The ship breaks down and begins to deorbit. Picard comes along and beams them all off the ship before it is destroyed. I can't think of any other explanation that makes any sense.

"Since their children clearly would not be exhibiting any symptoms when they are born why are they giving them the drugs to get them hooked?"

They probably inoculate their babies as soon as they're born for fear of them catching (and likely dying from) this disease that the drug was originally made to treat. Newborns are super vulnerable.

"Also if the Onarrans can't even fix their own broken down ships how are they producing anything of value in exchange for the drugs? Clearly technology is no longer their strong suit so what are they even manufacturing?"

I agree it seems implausible that the Ornarans can supply all the material comforts of the entire planet of Brekka with a couple rickety ships while they can't even properly clothe themselves. That said, perhaps they're a lot more competent when they're not having withdrawal symptoms, but the scale of this whole situation was not very well thought out. Maybe each planet only has like 10,000 people.

"The Ornarans flew to the Brekkan planet with their cargo. The Ornarans beamed up to the freighter with the drugs to make the exchange. The ship breaks down and begins to deorbit. Picard comes along and beams them all off the ship before it is destroyed."

Yeah that seems plausible. A face-to-face meeting to at least try to ensure that one party doesn't just bolt away after only half of the exchange was completed.

It’s well documented that season one of TNG has some rough edges, to be kind. But there’s a certain ambition undergirding many of its stories, an effort to create difficult, if not impossible, dilemmas that relate to the “real world” in the grander tradition of science fiction. Even some of the more ghastly stinkers like Code of Honor or Justice are at least trying to push buttons and make a point, the principle failures lying in execution rather than core concept. While the final products in this first collection of episodes are generally subpar, I can respect the attempt, if not the actual experience. Perhaps no episode embodies this more than Symbiosis. Here, Trek takes on drug addiction and the pernicious cycles that drive it. And once again, the basic mechanics of this outing fall short, mostly in the central plotting. There’s confusion, incredulity, and oversimplification in equal measure built into a script that feels loosely stitched together.

As to the confusion, right off the bat I found myself baffled as to why both Brekkans and Ornarans were on the disintegrating Ornarian ship. It could make sense if the ship was orbiting Brekka, with the Ornarans having just beamed up their drugs along with two Brekkan representatives to oversee the transaction, but before the Ornaran cargo could be sent to the Brekkan surface in exchange KABLOOMERS, electromagnetic chaos! But if this were the case why wouldn’t Picard seek to include the Brekkan homeworld in the dispute? I mean, they’re *right* there! Every other scenario explaining the Brekkan’s presence are pretty much nonsensical.

For the incredulity, I was next befuddled as to what the Ornarans were actually trading. Given that their very lives(at least that’s what they believe) depend on their cargo ships, and those ships are crumbling into space before them, I can’t imagine they’d be capable of making much else of value. It’s difficult to imagine them providing for all of the needs and wants of the Brekkans to the degree that the entirety of Brekkan civilization is now bent towards manufacturing kick ass drugs. This strange arrangement makes it difficult to transpose this story into any real world scenario.

And then of course there’s the oversimplification, best expressed by the scale of all of this, an entire planet of people hooked on drugs, scrabbling for their preeeecious felicium, and a corresponding planet of heartless pushers. Both societies seem wildly unlikely. But more importantly the dynamic is too all encompassing. By setting everything up in such odd, stark ways what we end up with is a dumbing down of a rather complicated, messy issue. We need more nuance to drive home the decidedly forward thinking perspective of compassion for addicts that the episode is espousing, but instead the Ornarans are positioned as simple victims, the Brekkans as heartless exploiters, and the point of the outing somewhat flounders.

While all these negatives might seem like plot hole nit picking, I think in this case the faults of the episode really undercut what the story is trying to say. Matters aren’t helped when Tasha and Wes slop down some major ham by going full on D.A.R.E. all over the place. A sequence that’s particularly odd due to Wesley’s off base question. I mean, he’s asking “why” drug addiction happens, but in this case it’s because of a highly addictive treatment for a very real plague in which the addiction outlasted the disease. That’s why Wes. I suppose perhaps he’s just curious about drugs in general, but that causes the scene to sort of hover as a bit of a nonsequiter, and subsequently land with all the grace of an after school special.

Lastly, there’s the philosophical meat of the story in the prime directive debate, pitting Picard’s high minded, deep thinking Starfleet ideals against Crusher’s more immediate, practical, and humanitarian views. These two form a sort of id vs ego clash that I began to think was meant to reflect the conflict that occurs in us all when we see the unpleasantness of drug addiction playing out in the peripheral alleyways and other dark corners of our lives. Perhaps an admonishment of the dismissive “just say no” approach championed by some in the Reagan era. Except, Picard’s solution in the end is essentially to…just say no. So, I’m not sure what to make of all that other than I’m still a little uncertain about the parameters of the prime directive in general.

I guess it’s no surprise that an episode featuring tripped out space junkies going through withdrawal and their smug yuppy drug dealers might not be a ton of fun at the end of the day, the episode does a pretty good job of conveying the gross misery of our electro-handsy strung out space truckers, and if this outing wanted me to feel contempt for the wicked “just say yes” felicium peddlers, well, mission accomplished. But I can see what the episode is trying to do and I respect it. I just doubt I’ll rewatch this one very often.

Thoughts and observations:
-A very exposition heavy captain’s log, kinda clunky.
-right off the bat Troi comes in swinging with the super obvious: yeah, tension *IS* rising on the ship that’s in serious peril, gee thanks for chiming in.
-warp two to intersect with the freighter? Aren’t you already in the same star system? Kind of a rare science flub for TNG. Also the freighter is named “sanction”, that feels likely salient to the episode’s fun with drugs theme.
-it’s quite bittersweet to see Merritt Butrick here, bitter that his end was too soon, but sweet in that he left his mark on the world of Trek.
-I think these are the first nose ridge aliens in TNG.
-poor Riker just can’t get away from electro-zappy stasis situations lately, this time in the form of a potentially lethal titty twister! Knowing Riker tho, he was probably kind of in to it..

2/4 space stoners too blissed out to care about their own impending demise.

The best part of the Just Say No messaging in the episode is that a serious attempt is made to portray the drug dealer as being sympathetic because if they stop pushing then they'll be out of a job!

Job security is a pretty good reason to endure interminable disputes over who’s the rightful owner of the “stash”.

Josh (Mon, Mar 24, 2014) re: "One of the saddest things about this episode is seeing Merritt Buttrick (at age 28!), both with the memory of how he looked in STII/III and with his death from AIDS coming only a year later."

Fret not, Josh. Merritt was yet ANOTHER minor celebrity who did not actually die of....."AIDS".

Elliott (Mon, Jun 30, 2014) re: "the producers refused to add a gay or transgender character."

Golly, that sure does sound tragic. I'm sure we all, like, totally-totally-totally-totally missed out without such characters!

Should EVERY mental illness be represented on EVERY show, Elliott??! Did TNG need someone with Tourette's? Should The Facts of Life have featured a deranged sociopath with a brain lesion? Should Punky Brewster have had Down Syndrome.....??

Eric, do you see yourself as a man, and are you attracted to women?

They couldn't send a probe to do these observations? Why are they even there, the Enterprise isn't a science ship.

Also it's a shame there is no moderation on this forum, with ignorant bigots like Eric free to spew their filth.