The High Ground

While visiting a planet in the midst of an upsurge in terrorist activity, Dr Crusher is abducted and held hostage. While Wesley assists in trying to combat a unique teleportation device deployed by the terrorists, his mother witnesses the casualties of war first-hand and tries to appeal to their fanatical leader, Kyril Finn.

It may have taken two and a half seasons but Dr Crusher finally gets the spotlight, allowing McFadden to demonstrate her talents as an actress. Unfortunately, the episode is a fairly forgettable effort that asks the question about the difference between being a terrorist and an instigator of political change with some alarming points made. Frankly, none of the supporting cast do well in a number of unlikeable roles and the episode never feels like it gets going. Still, at least Dr Crusher has a personality now - even if it is a dumb one.

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.

As of writing this in 2025 this is as topical as ever. The chief freedom fighter was excellently portrayed and the standout of the episode. All of his actions and the development of the plot felt consistent and reasonable to his character.

Prior to now we have always seen the federation be neutral, reasonable and questioning of potential immoralities in civilisations they encounter.

Here, it felt that compared to their usual selves 'our heroes' were too quick to side with the ruling powers, they were not skeptical enough of the ruling powers nor seemed to consider the rebel cause for a moment. Finn getting his request raised to Troi fulfilled would have felt like the happy ending.

However, that wasn't the ending we got, and the position the federation took throughout makes you understand why the Klingons, Ferengi and Romulans view them in the way that they do, making this a great episode.

The negatives, I'm still not convinced by Doctor Crusher as a character. More romantic hints at Picard, more mother scenes with Wesley, illogically disobeying orders with no subsequent discipline. I'd much rather Pulaski back.

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.

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.