# Most didactic episode of Star Trek TNG **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2018, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381 "2018-10-23T13:06:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/41 "2018-10-23T21:06:51Z")
Yeah, I remember watching the second season as a teenager and having the epiphany that the first seasons of shows were gonna suck. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/42 "2018-10-23T21:09:37Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I think episodes involving the Prime Directive. I remember one where data heard a distress call from a child and, upon investigation, discovered that the planet was being destroyed through natural causes. Since the PM dictates that there be no contact with pre-warp drive civilizations, the conflict was pretty strong. > > It was resolved when the Enterprise was able to reverse the process without anyone on the planet knowing it was them except the girl, and then they erased the girl’s memory of the event. I remember that episode. Data asks the Captain if the _Enterprise_ can help, and Picard turns him down on the basis of the Prime Directive. So Data pipes the little girl’s distress call into Picard’s private quarters. The next scene should be Geordi in Engineering, installing a new positronic ass on Data, to replace the one Captain Picard chewed off. But, of course, Picard goes all Captain White Hat and rides to the rescue. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/43 "2018-10-24T02:06:00Z")
The PD is a joke…supposedly the most important law…but the Captain is constantly having to explain it to people. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/44 "2018-10-24T06:20:56Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I loved “I, Borg”. I think the one that was most ridiculous was “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, where the people with a face that was white on the left and black on the right hated the people with a face that was white on the right and black on the left. It was actually worse than that. When Spock mentions the location of their star system, Kirk says “isn’t that on the southern side of the galaxy?” Or something incredibly ham fisted like that. I haven’t seen it in decades though. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/45 "2018-10-24T06:43:21Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > It was actually worse than that. When Spock mentions the location of their star system, Kirk says “isn’t that on the southern side of the galaxy?” > > Or something incredibly ham fisted like that. I haven’t seen it in decades though. That’s true. I still like the episode myself. The absurdity of their prejudice - black on the left v black on the right - makes the point despite the heavy handedness, rather than itself being heavy handed. In my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/46 "2018-10-24T09:06:28Z")
there was a tng episode that was basically snark on the ufo phenomena they find a unknown planet that’s pretty much the world in the mid 90s so they go down collecting info with out breaking the rules ie no contact no traces but one one of them gets hurt and taken as a john doe to the er the security chief is xenophobic trying to catch them and causes a panic and gets killed the er nurse helps them out and picard and their version of the prez basically decide there not ready for contact …although the prez is starting his own nasa so picard creates a no fly zone someone even comments it reminds them of roswell… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/47 "2018-10-24T13:20:28Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > It was actually worse than that. When Spock mentions the location of their star system, Kirk says “isn’t that on the southern side of the galaxy?” > > Or something incredibly ham fisted like that. I haven’t seen it in decades though. Charon is in “the southern part of the Galaxy,” not side. This script likely morphed from another of Roddenberry’s “springboards,” in which the alien civilization was made up of blacks who enslaved whites. Such a story was apparently written, but never put into production. In the third season, a lot of rejected scripts were pulled out of the wastebasket because of budget cuts. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/48 "2018-10-24T13:30:51Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The “lesson” was that the principles of the Constitution must apply to everyone or they mean nothing at all. Also, bacteriological war is a \*\*bad \*\*thing. Bad, bad, **BAD!** :mad: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/49 "2018-10-24T13:37:51Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Charon is in “the southern part of the Galaxy,” not side. Plus, it was a planet that had isolated itself from the Galactic community, just like South Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/50 "2018-10-24T13:38:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To be fair, most folks at that time, even those who were supportive of rights, didn’t really grasp that “gay” and “trans” were two different things. Yeah, but it takes a special kind of bungling to pick a ‘weird alien property’ that happens to line up with one when you’re talking about the other. And it highlights just how local a lot of SF is. The concept of someone’s gender not matching their biological sex as so weird Star Fleet is not quite sure how to deal with it, but there were actually people like that on Earth. And the Universal Translator is supposed to be able to deal with completely alien beings, but (if I’m remembering how it dealt with gender in the episode) actually wouldn’t be able to handle something as close to home as Native languages, since a number of them included vastly different gender categories than 20th century English. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/51 "2018-10-24T13:46:19Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > I think “The Outcast” gets honorable mention because it handled the thing it was being didactic about so clumsily. It was trying to be an episode about gay rights, and tried to make a fictional allegory on the topic, but the allegory ended up being directly about the real phenomenon of transgender people. Ignoring the unintentional slamming into trans issues, the episode handled it’s material clumsily all along, and having it end with gay conversion therapy working on the character really muddles whatever it was trying to say. I know that what bothered a lot of people about “The Outcast” was that there had been a lot of fans wanting _Star Trek_ to be inclusive of gays. I think it irritated folks that rather than doing this by simply including a gay character, TNG did a “very special episode” in which they treated the issue _metaphorically_. In the process, as has been pointed out, accidentally getting into issues of trans- and genderqueer identity instead, while really saying nothing about gay people. The episode is so clumsy that it’s kind of hard to tell what we’re supposed to think. I’ve run into people, honest to God, who think that the message of that episode is “Don’t pretend to be the gender you’re not. It only leads to disaster.” ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/52 "2018-10-24T14:43:14Z")
Lt Hawk from the First Contact movie was supposed to be gay as well but a lot of the character development got excised from the movie due to time restraints/studio interference/whatever the reason. Star Trek gets a lot of credit for pushing for progressiveness, as it should, but Roddenberry and the other show runners weren’t perfect either. > **[Hawk (Lieutenant)](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Hawk_(Lieutenant))** > > Hawk was a Human male who served as a Starfleet officer during the late-24th century. In 2373, he held the rank of lieutenant and was assigned to the USS Enterprise-E as the ship's conn officer. In that capacity, he served on the bridge of the ship... > **[Things that you didn't know about Lt. Hawk.](https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/25216/)** > > \--- Lt. Hawk was the new officer that appeared in 'First Contact'. His first name wasn't established, though fans call him Neal, like the actor who plays him. > > \--- A Starfleet officer assigned to the crew of the Starship Enterprise-E in 2373. Hawk... > **[Ex Astris Scientia - Homosexuality in Star Trek](https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/homosexuality.htm)** > > Essay about the struggle to get gay characters on Star Trek ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/53 "2018-10-24T15:12:19Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > atrocious acting of Marina Sirtis In more fairness, nobody was watching her for her acting ability in the first few seasons… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/54 "2018-10-24T15:17:49Z")
> [@bump](#): > > In more fairness, nobody was watching her for her acting ability in the first few seasons… … And then Jellicoe put her into a regulation uniform. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/55 "2018-10-24T16:52:48Z")
> [@bump](#): > > In more fairness, nobody was watching her for her acting ability in the first few seasons… Supposedly Dr. Crusher was also originally given the same type of miniskirt uniform that Troi wore in the TNG pilot. Gates McFadden flatly refused to wear it and the costumers put her in more sensible slacks and lab coat. Marina Sirtis claims she didn’t know she could have asked for a more covered-up look. I suppose it took her six seasons to figure it out.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/56 "2018-10-24T17:01:46Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Lt Hawk from the First Contact movie was supposed to be gay as well but a lot of the character development got excised from the movie due to time restraints/studio interference/whatever the reason. Star Trek gets a lot of credit for pushing for progressiveness, as it should, but Roddenberry and the other show runners weren’t perfect either. > > [Hawk (Lieutenant) | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Hawk_(Lieutenant)) > [https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/25216/](https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/25216/) > > [Ex Astris Scientia - Homosexuality in Star Trek](http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/homosexuality.htm) And look what happened to Hawk. There they go again, undercutting their own message. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/57 "2018-10-24T17:03:29Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > The PD is a joke…supposedly the most important law…but the Captain is constantly having to explain it to people. Because it was a stupid black and white rule in a shades of gray galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/58 "2018-10-24T17:04:45Z")
_The Outcast_ definitely but _Justice_\* is a close second. Basically it is the Federation paying lip-service to another planet’s laws unless they disagree with the laws then applying Federation morality and forcing the natives to accept it is the right thing to do. Always saw this as a metaphor for the US attitude towards other countries. \*Wesley is sentenced to death for breaking a greenhouse. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/59 "2018-10-24T17:48:11Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Because it was a stupid black and white rule in a shades of gray galaxy. But the PD is black on the left side! ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381/60 "2018-10-24T18:44:56Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > … And then Jellicoe put her into a regulation uniform. :mad: The camera still leered at her even then. For example, there’s a 7th season episode where when Picard and Data go down a ladder, the camera just follows their head and arms but when Troi comes down, the camera stays still so her whole body moves passed the camera. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-didactic-episode-of-star-trek-tng/823381.md?page=4)