I liked the episode but I feel that it wasn’t really possible to adapt “Omelas” to the Star Trek setting, I mean you already have Omelas but without the suffering child in the Federation, there is not much impact in adding another utopic civilization BUT one with the suffering child.
To be fair, they have an example to crib from. New Worlds is more or less The Orville, but without the attempts at wedging in humor, and actually using Star Trek names and lore rather than parodies of them.
I think this is the first time an Enterprise captain couldn’t save the day by blowing up the computer.
A major takeaway was Pike facing his “service and sacrifice” personal credo being applied to a child instead of a Starfleet officer. He is resigned to his destiny based on his personality and the expectations of his culture. It is painful to watch a child do the same.
Sometimes there is a no win scenario.
(Kirk would have blasted the Machine, Pike accepted that he had no authority to do so.)
Once the kid was strapped into the machine, he was as good as dead anyway. Removing him from the machine would have killed him; they made that explicit.
Brave New Worlds made a very bold choice here; the whole time I was thinking, “No way they’d kill the kid.” And they did.
Strange, not Brave.
We all know what you meant,though. 
I had nightmares after watching this episode just before bed. Yeesh!
Questions: Was the First Servant ever fully cognizant of what he would be going through and that it would slowly kill him? I mean, did he give fully informed consent when he accepted “with joy and gratitude”? If he wasn’t totally informed, that’s…dishonest. Did he have any idea how horrible his duty would be?
What if he had changed his mind and said, nope, no way am I doing this…? Would they shove him into the contraption anyway?
A child, regardless of augmentation, instruction, or manipulation cannot give informed consent by our definitions.
For me, at least part of what makes sci-fi interesting is the possibility that other beings might not use our definitions. In such cases we have to decide what to do. What choice we make will likely have drawbacks and consequences. Taking that kind of situation seriously appeals to me. I really like how it played out. Pike was not able to engineer a perfect ending. And who knows whether everyone in that world would agree what a better ending would be.
The ones on Prospect 7 know. They walked away from Omelas.
I was today years old when I heard about that story, and it is devastating.
It was pretty clear when he saw the body of the former First Servant that he had second thoughts and it was not clear to him (prior to that moment) the true meaning of his sacrifice.
I am both sad and glad for you.
Sad because it IS a haunting story and has stuck with me ever since I read it 40 or so years ago (I’m 54).
Glad because it is among the best short-story fiction out there and everyone should read it - especially first-worlders on planet Earth. Were I god-king, it would be required reading in 8th or 9th grade. 13-14 years old sounds about right - possibly colored by when I read it.
My complaint above not withstanding, ST: SNW actually did a damn decent job of translating the gist of the story to the small screen. They just should have credited Le Guin for it.
FYI - I thought the lack of the “Doogie Howser” log entry ending was perfect for this episode.
That reminds me of a similar episode of Stargate:SG1:
One more thing… Just how long does the First Servant last while hooked up to the
godawful brainpower sucker? Those tubes and wires were going into his head, but are they also providing nutrition and hydration?
“Hey, kid… it ain’t that kinda movie.”
Oh gawd…they made another one
That was fun. What do you mean by “another one”?
I thought this had been posted here…but it might be in the Picard thread.
Nice!
Im rewatching some TAS now…the first ep “Beyond the Farthest Star” is solid as hell…and the next ep?
“Yesteryear”? A triumph. Nothing wrong at all. Quality-wise (As far as writing) compared to animation of the time, I’d put it up there with Chuck Jones Rikki-Tiki-Tavi. Animation-wise…well it is TAS. But they have some nice scenery work. And they got Mark Lenard.