The High Ground

The Enterprise crew get caught up in the internal politics of a planet suffering from terrorist activities.

This is a reasonably good episode that tackles a relevant subject in a fairly simplistic way. There are however a number of decent moments for the regular characters, particularly Dr Crusher.

The plot is quite simple with Crusher being kidnapped whilst Picard and the crew work to rescue her and battle terrorists. It starts off with a relatively unremarkable first half, but it gets more compelling later on as they direct their hostilities towards the Enterprise. There is nothing particularly memorable in what is presented on the subject or terrorism, other than that it's bad and this is underpinned by what becomes of Finn. Saying that the Northern Ireland reference does stand out, but more for the fact that it was controversial at the time of production and now because it's looking to be an inaccurate prediction.

Speaking of Finn and the guest characters, they are not particularly memorable for me. I do not think he is written particularly well and feels like a caricature. Devos is slightly better and she has a decent chemistry with Riker.

The main characters have a number of good moments. Dr Crusher holds firm on her ethical beliefs throughout the episode and has plenty of solid screen time. The likes of Data, Geordie, Wesley, Worf, Picard and Riker also make their own contributions to the resolution of the story.

The visuals are fairly good, particularly the action sequences. The sets are okay, but largely forgettable.

Performances of the regular cast members are all good, with Gates McFadden standing out with what I think is her best performance so far. As for the guest stars, Richard Cox does not convince me as a terrorist leader at all, but Kerrie Keane is fairly solid.

For me this one is a 6.5/10 but I round upwards.

Intelligently written, doing what good science fiction always does, and what Star Trek sometimes excelled at. Using the backdrop of fictional situations to illustrate the more contentious issues and aspects of contemporary societal and political life.

And it manages to do this while maintaining the tension within the plot of a good story.

Yes it features the Crushers, but long gone is the somewhat mawkish relationship between mother and son of the first series.

The writer even manages to work in an old fashioned fist fight in the final act.

Sorry, no Buck Rogers stuff here for the space cadets, just a well executed, thoughtful allegorical tale of what happens when a division of a society is marginalised to the point that they are driven to extremism.

It asks questions that are very relevant, especially now, and doesn't attempt to answer them, and nor should it, to do so really would be preaching.

It's obvious that this episode is based on various terrorist organizations of the day--such as the IRA and PLO. This isn't surprising, as all the Star Trek franchises have a history of making episodes with contemporary parallels.

In this episode, the Enterprise is visiting the Ruthian planet--a place which has been plagued with terrorist attacks for many, many years. It seems that the Ensatan separatists want their own homeland and they seem willing to do just about anything to bring about this change--including kidnapping Dr. Crusher. But there is another reason for taking her prisoner, as the Ensatans are experiencing serious genetic damage due to their use of dimensional shifting--a practice long abandoned by the Federation since it will eventually kill those who use it.

Naturally the Enterprise want the Doctor back but they also don't want to be picking sides or get pulled into the conflict. Unfortunately, the Ensatans don't see it that way and soon are targeting the Enterprise and its crew.

Overall this is a decent episode, though some might be offended at the moral relativity. In other words, terrorists and those fighting them in this one are basically the same. This is sometimes true...sometimes not in real life. But its message is compelling nevertheless.

This is another annoying, non-sequiteur episode that has nothing to do with the wider conflict within the Federation. The ridiculous capturing of Dr. Crusher was just annoying beyond belief.

I couldn't watch this episode because of the heavy-handed way of preaching and trying to make me swayed to a particular view-point.

This episode deals with the repercussions of terrorism. Not on its victims. But on the not inoccent-at-all bystanders: .

The crew of the Enterprise.

It poses the question of whether we should intervene in local affairs. Nowadays it can be seen as a commentary on the Israeli occupation, and annexation of the West bank,

or the Northern Ireland situation.

Hereby SF fullfills it function as social commentary on present day. This can be seen as Sci-Fi function to society. It is a mirror to our present day society.