Whenever the writers decided they are going to take on a moral issue they are treading on dangerous ground. When the moral issue they go after is actually complicated and still being fought over like genetic engineering they are really in potential trouble. I think the low point in this episode is when Geordi is having to defend being alive and blind and they then immediately figure out that tech from his visor will somehow save the day. It is super hamhanded and just dumb. The issue of what to do with colonists who want to leave such a carefully balanced society is more interesting at least, but lets be honest, I don't think it is our genetic failings that make humans not work well in such closed societies.
While tracking a stellar core fragment that is going to impact an unoccupied planet the Enterprise discovers a colony of humans living in a sealed dome. (Stupid 90's obsession with planet simulating domes at work here I suspect.) The colonists refuse to beam to the Enterprise but are willing to allow a team to beam down to them after they hear about the impending disaster. The colony has been genetically engineered (although it sounds more like selective breeding which isn't exactly the same thing, but whatever) to function like clockwork. Deanna really hits it off with the colonies leader and they end up falling in love. Meanwhile Hannah Bates, an astrophysicist (really probably an engineer but the writers don't seem to know the difference) beams up to work with Geordi on a plan to move the fragment.
Down on the colony not everybody is happy to be working with the Enterprise, especially since it looks likely that they will have to evacuate and lose their entire way of life. Back on the ship Geordi and Hannah figure out a way to move the fragment using all the ships power but it will be close. To survive the colony is going to need to have additional shield generators install and the leader agrees to let that happen after a teary fair well with Troi. Earthquakes have started and everybody seems to be taking it seriously. The effort to move the fragment cuts it close but they manage to move it just enough to save the colony. That plus the reinforcing seems to do the job.
But when Riker leads a team down to check on things before leaving Hannah reports that there is a problem and radiation is leaking into the colony. When she is alone with Geordi he demands to know why she is making up this story. She explains that she has been bred to be a great scientist and can't do it stuck on this dome and she wants to leave. This sets off a crisis as the leaders insist they can't leave but since they have asked the Federation for asylum Picard can't really say no. There is a lot of fighting since the colony depends on every member but in the end 21 colonists leave and Picard wonders what they have destroyed. I guess the writers don't realize people have tried crap like this over and over and it is always a disaster, but whatever.
Review: The dream of utopia seems to have been alive in the hearts of some of the writers, but they simultaneously couldn't get over the terror of genetic engineering. This makes for an odd episode that is at times way to preachy for my taste.
4 out of 10
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