(And even the Ferengi were the subject of gossip and whispers to the point where Data knew enough to label them “Yankee Traders.”)
#REVIEWS OF MOVIE WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS CODE#
Sure, we met the Ferengi for the first time in The Last Outpost, but the worlds of Code of Honour and Angel One, were clearly known to the Federation. There’s never quite the same sense that Picard and his crew are as isolated as Kirk and Spock seemed to be, and very few of these early episodes revolve around first contact. It seems like the ship is generally always close enough to stream a live conversation with Starfleet, and only a few days away from the nearest starbase. The depiction of space as an inherently hostile environment at the start of The Naked Now and throughout The Battle are very much outliers as far as The Next Generation is concerned. We haven’t encountered the Romulans or the Klingons yet (though Q implied the Federation “defeated” them while goading Worf in Hide & Q and that Romulans did threaten the Federation during Angel One). The galaxy, it seems, is a far friendlier place. The fact it’s a television show demands a weekly adventure, but it seems like the ship isn’t so much taming the great expanse of space as it is delving into the mysteries of the universe. More than that, though, The Next Generation doesn’t take place in the same wilderness that we say in the original Star Trek. The show didn’t feel that it needed Scotty cobbling together the inside of the ship. Indeed, the first season all but acknowledges this in its refusal to provide a consistent Chief Engineer. It’s very clearly meant to be a lot cleaner and a lot safer. For one thing, The Next Generation has a very different fundamental aesthetic than the origin Star Trek. While episodes like When the Bough Breaks might emphasis why it is a silly idea to allow children on a ship probing the deepest recesses of space, I quite like the idea. However, things are different in The Next Generation, and the ship is more of a floating city than a warship. After all, Kirk captained a ship manned by military staff – the closest Kirk came to allowing a family on board was officiating a wedding at the start of Balance of Terror, as set-up for the predictable (if no less effective) dramatic blow at the end of the episode. Indeed, the central premise of the story (the kidnapping of the children from the Enterprise) would have been impossible on Kirk’s ship.
When the Bough Breaks doesn’t really have a direct progenitor in the Star Trek mythos. You can probably guess which one of the two episodes I preferred, and while When the Bough Breaks is never as bad as it could be ( a story focusing on Wesley and other child actors?) it’s not necessarily good, either. In contrast, Home Soil starts with a premise that owes a considerable debt to a very specific episode of Star Trek, Devil in the Dark, but finds a way to approach it that emphasises the differences between the two shows. I’ve complained before about how the first season of The Next Generation had a great deal of trouble finding its own identity, and When The Bough Breaks feels like a conscious attempt to do a story in the style of the original Star Trek, even if most of the elements are fairly original.
When the Bough Breaks and Home Soil are an interesting two episodes of the first season of The Next Generation, if only because they seem to contrast each other so well. To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also next year’s release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I’m taking a look at the recent blu ray release of the first season, episode-by-episode.