A group of Federation anthropologists are using a holographic "duck blind" on the planet Mintaka III to study a Bronze Age society of "proto-Vulcans" without being observed... until an accident in their base lowers their camouflage and exposes their presence to the aliens. The Enterprise hurries to the rescue, but not before one of the Mintakans spots the base and is critically injured in his attempt to explore it. Dr. Crusher heals him, but her attempts to wipe his memory fail, exposing the entire civilization to a newfound belief in an all-powerful god, The Picard. Now the captain must use all his powers of persuasion to try to contain the cultural contamination.
This episode manages to pack a lot into just 45 minutes. The crew tries many tactics for stemming the flow of a new religion in Mintakan society. After the memory erasure fails, Troi and Riker infiltrate a village in disguise. When one of the injured anthropologists turns up, Troi creates a diversion to allow Riker to spirit him away. When Troi herself is then captured, it's on to Picard's attempt to persuade the village leader in a face-to-face meeting aboard the Enterprise. This evolution of the problem really makes what's happening feel natural and believable.
For the second episode in a row, the series did some filming on location. What's more, they weren't filming just anywhere, but at the Vasquez Rocks, made famous in many classic Star Trek episodes (most notably "Arena"), and re-used for Vulcan in J.J. Abrams' first Star Trek film precisely for this reason. The environment really adds a lot to the episode, and helps drive home the primitive existence of the Mintakans.
Patrick Stewart is excellent in this episode, as is the much of the dialogue written for Picard. He seems truly aghast when one of the anthropologists suggests that the best course of action would be to provide the locals some guidelines for their new religion. The scenes in which he tries to explain things to the Mintakan leader, Nuria, are exceptional. Stewart is able to show the wheels of Picard's mind at work.
There are some good guest stars in the episode too, but the one most likely to make the fanboys take notice is Ray Wise, who plays Liko, the alien who puts the whole mess in motion. Wise is known for Twin Peaks, a villainous run on 24, and playing the Devil himself on the short-lived Reaper. He gets to play a different type of role here, earnest but misguided.
Ron Jones provides a fantastic score for this episode, infusing the music with strains of tribalism. The sequence in which Riker abducts the wounded anthropologist may well work only because of the wonderful action music Jones wrote; without it, it would be almost infuriating how many rocks Riker ducks behind before he decides it's finally safe to signal for a beam up.
But this time around, what I noticed most about this episode is how it pulls no punches in its characterization of religion. My own thoughts on religion have developed a lot since this episode first aired in 1989. And it certainly feels to me like religion is a more hot button issue in American society since then. Still, even though Star Trek has never hidden the fact that Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future is one without religion, some of the language used to convey that in this episode is striking. Belief in gods is lumped in as "superstition" (along with belief in ghosts and astrology), and Picard characterizes moving beyond it as a societal "achievement."
Other observations:
- Vulcans have a good propaganda machine going somewhere. In this episode, the bridge crew is fawning over what a distinguished and peaceful development they had as a culture, but classic Star Trek established that their primitive society was actually very warlike, which is what led to their rejection of emotion.
- There's a nice bit of continuity when Picard orders Crusher to wipe Liko's memory, referencing when the same thing was done in the episode "Pen Pals." But the best part about it is that Gates McFadden conveys just the perfect amount of snottiness when mentioning Dr. Pulaski by name.
- There's a little weirdness in the climax of this episode. Liko, fearful of and pleading with his perceived god Picard, suddenly decides to attack the captain instead. (Huh?) Picard decides that if the Mintakans see him die, they'll stop believing that he's a god; which might make sense, except that he then does not die, and in fact returns to say goodbye to them! Somehow, they're still persuaded of his mortal status. (Huh?)
- Liko must be known throughout his village as an archer of Robin Hood caliber. When he is going to shoot Troi, he takes aim from several feet away, and her guards show absolutely no concern of being hit while they hold her in position.
- At the close of this episode, Picard is given a tapestry by the Mintakans, a token to remember them by. In a nice nod to continuity, this tapestry can be seen sometimes throughout the run of the show (and in most of the movies), hanging over the back of his ready room chair.
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