Now that WGN has started showing Star Trek: The Next Generation, I've been getting reacquainted with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew. Most recently, I watched When the Bough Breaks, an episode that had always stuck out in my mind because of the prominence of children in it.
The beginning of this episode finds second-in-command Will Riker
(Jonathan Frakes) geeking out over the Enterprise's proximity to a
utopian world called Aldea. Though the planet, a place of peace and
prosperity, is widely considered a fairy tale, Riker is intrigued by the
possibility that it could actually exist but be cloaked. When the
Aldeans suddenly initiate contact, he is especially eager to communicate
with them.
The captain, too, is fascinated, and he readily
agrees to a conference. What the men discover, however, is unsettling.
Yes, the Aldeans have an advanced civilization dedicated to peaceful
pursuits and possessing great stores of knowledge. But something has
happened to make them lose the ability to procreate. Desperate to
preserve their culture, they propose a trade. If the Enterprise will
hand over its children, the Aldeans will share their carefully guarded
information.
When Picard and Riker refuse, the Aldeans resort
to kidnapping, beaming the children down to the planet against their
will. The oldest of these is geeky 14-year-old ensign Wesley Crusher
(Wil Wheaton), and he quickly assumes a leadership role among the
others, who include musical, melancholy Katie (Jandi Swanson); artistic,
rebellious Harry (Philip Waller) and tiny, affectionate Alexandra
(Jessica and Vanessa Bova). While the Enterprise crew try to figure out a
way of retrieving the children, the youngsters plot a way of quietly
resisting their benevolent captors.
The one image that had
really stayed with me from this episode was Harry using a fascinating
sculpting tool to create a dolphin out of wood during his time with a
pair of encouraging artisans. More than any of the others, this boy, who
had recently squabbled with his father (Dierk Torsek), takes to his new
environment, feeling nurtured and appreciated instead of ignored and
pressured. The subject of the fight, incidentally, was Harry not wanting
to take calculus, and I remember thinking that he looked way too young
to be worrying about calculus, but I suppose they teach these subjects
to increasingly lower grades... The character really made an impression
on me, so it's a shame he doesn't show up in any other episodes. Neither
do Katie or Alexandra.
The leader of the Aldeans is a man
named Radue (Jerry Hardin). While he is incredibly invested in the
difference he believes the children will make for his people, he feels
rather uncomfortable around them. Not so Rashella (Branda Strong), the
youngest member of the society, who immediately takes to little
Alexandra, adopting her against Radue's wishes, since a parental match
was already provided for her by the computer on which the Aldeans depend
for every aspect of their daily lives. When Wesley is taken to the
computer, his guardian is baffled by his question about how the machine
works. It soon becomes clear that his zeal for poking around with
circuits may serve him well here.
It's nice to see so much
focus on the children of the Enterprise and how they react to being
whisked away from their families and treated like royalty. The
conclusion seems to be that most children would rather remain with their
loved ones than live a life of luxury among strangers. The episode also
warns against letting one's brain get soft by becoming too dependent
upon technology, and it shows that you don't have to be all grown up to
make a difference. Though it makes little use of the main crew aside
from Picard (who shares a couple of uncharacteristically tender scenes
with the children), Riker and the distraught Dr. Crusher (Gates
McFadden), When the Bough Breaks is an intense and emotional episode that is one of my favorites.
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