TNG Flashback: Justice

I was almost dreading to watch The Next Generation episode "Justice" again. I remembered it being pretty awful when it wasn't just outright silly. And make no mistake, it's no prize. But I was pleasantly surprised to find it much better than I recalled.

The Enterprise crew is exploring the option of shore leave on a planet populated by the Edo -- a primitive society of highly sensual humanoids. It turns out the only thing they view harsher than modest clothing is lawbreaking, because when Wesley falls in a flower bed, they want to execute him. (Just go with it.) The Prime Directive, forbidding Starfleet interference with another society, prevents a simple rescue in principle. And, in a less abstract complication, an orbiting alien vessel the Edo regard as their god wants to force the crew to live up to their own ideals.

Basically, I think you can divide this episode in half. The first half is ridiculous. It's an excuse to put super-buff and super-thin extras (Riker just calls them "fit") in the skimpiest clothing 1980s broadcast standards will allow, then making lots of weak sexual single entendres. Sure, there's eye candy for all (assuming you like blondes, anyway), but I really hope you're not watching a Star Trek episode if that's what you're in the mood for.

The thing is, if you can just get past the stupid setup -- including the fact that Wesley's ridiculous transgression takes place in the one place on the entire planet we're told is having random law enforcement today -- the rest of the episode isn't too bad. The dilemma itself is an interesting one, and the idea of a society that has taken capital punishment too far (exposing both the possible benefits and drawbacks of that) is a compelling science fiction premise. Plus, the speechifying is a bit more eloquently written here than in past episodes; the characters don't look quite so far down their nose at antiquated 20th-century values because they're trying to be diplomatic with an alien society at the same time.

The acting from the main cast is really quite solid. Picard has to do a lot of moral hand-wringing in this episode, and Patrick Stewart's Shakespearean background makes him well-suited to making it all compelling. Gates McFadden is also very good, having to balance professional demeanor, military protocol, and maternal instinct sometimes all in one scene; some of her dialogue isn't the best, but she really does well with it. Michael Dorn scores with the first of Worf's dry one-liners: "Nice planet." Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes share a fun moment as a disapproving Troi chastises a horndog Riker early in the episode. Even Wil Wheaton gets in a good moment near the end, when Wesley decides he might just want to face the music rather than risk the wrath of a vengeful god on the rest of the Enterprise crew.

Other observations:

• In an attempt to gather more information on the alien god vessel orbiting the planet, Picard sends Geordi to go look out a window, to gather more information with his VISOR. A clever thought, and if my memory serves, they don't use this nearly as often throughout the show as would have made sense from an internal story standpoint.

• Although young Wil Wheaton does nail the solid acting moment I mentioned earlier, he had to pay for it with a horribly awful moment written for him earlier in the episode, when Wesley informs a flirty Edo girl that "there are some games I don't quite know yet." Ouch.

• Somewhere after this episode, the exact nature of the Prime Directive and Starfleet's non-interference protocols would be better refined by the writers. The Edo don't even have space travel, never mind warp speed travel, so in retrospect the Enterprise shouldn't have gone to their planet at all.

• Just a few episodes earlier in "Code of Honor," the writers stole the ending of the original series episode "Amok Time" and resolved a deadly scenario by having advanced medicine revive someone killed by poison. With this experience fresh in the crew's minds, you'd think someone might have at least floated the possibility of whether they could let the Edo poison Wesley and then revive him back on the ship. (Of course, the writers wouldn't want to steal from themselves stealing from themselves.)

Yes, the first 15 minutes are dumb, dumb, dumb. Dumb. But there are enough redeeming qualities in the rest of the episode to pull it well back from the brink. I give "Justice" a C+.