Symbiosis

This was a great early episode of TNG with Picard facing a difficult choice. Better acting than most of the S1 episodes. Unfortunately it features what is possibly the worst scene in Star Trek history when Tasha gives Wesley the "drug talk". Nancy Reagan should have got a writing credit.

This episode of TNG brings the Enterprise to a pair of planets humanoid inhabited who have a strange relationship. One of the planets is where the population is quite healthy, but the other has been suffering a plague for generations and is completely dependent on the other to give it medicine, for an exhorbitant price. It's economic bondage.

It's worse than that. The medicine is a narcotic and you have planetary wide addiction.

Dr. Crusher weighs in as this is a medical issue. She wants an intervention, but Captain Picard is sticking by the prime directive. Personally I'm with Gates McFadden here. I think the usually wise Patrick Stewart is dead wrong.

You'll have to tune in to see how this is resolved.

Even maybe a top 3 Symbiosis is a great story, entertaining and simple. Not the best ever, far from it, but you will have a good hour of tv, a solid 8.5/10 Star trek season 1 have been the weakest by far, but not without some very good one, like the Paris one of skin of evil, to only named them.

Quite enjoyed this one, may need to watch it again as I need to mull over the prime directive conundrum....and also I'm not sure why picard couldn't have just kept the drugs, after all they beamed the drugs on board the enterprise without asking permission first. Surely the prime directive has something to say about facilitating the supply of drugs to other planetary systems.

The distress call reminded me of working on an IT Helpdesk, hilarious, whenever someone is that vague about what the problem is you know they know exactly what the problem is, they don't want to tell you they've made some fat finger mistake.

Overall this is quite a funny and enjoyable episode.

Enterprise receives a distress call whilst observing a sun.

This is a solid episode focussed on the prime directive and has some effective guest characters.

The story is a simple but effective way to show how the prime directive is observed by Federation starships. It puts Captain Picard in a difficult position and under pressure from characters whose interests conflict.

Underlying the above are some fairly clear themes on capitalist systems and drug addiction. This gives the story a bit more relevance to real life issues, particularly during the 1980s when it was written. It can be a bit heavy handed at times, especially during one scene of dialogue between Tasha Yar and Wesley Crusher that feels terribly forced.

For me it is concluded in a refreshing way by a decision where we see the reaction of the individuals it impacts and then left to ponder what might become of the situation. It's not particularly cinematic, but the acting is strong enough to make it work well.

There are some decent visuals, particularly at the start where we see the solar flares. The costumes are a bit naff, but do tell you everything you need to know about the differences between the Ornara and Brekka. The effects that depict electrical powers also hold up well.

All performances are solid with Patrick Stewart standing out as always. Gates McFadden has a decent episode and all the guest actors play their parts well.