Justice

Dear God I hate the character of Wesley. Nearly every episode he is in stops the flow of the story.

The Enterprise arrives at the seemingly perfect world of Edo, a world where its resident wear as little as possible and run everywhere for some reason. While the away team try to contain Riker's frothing loins, Wesley falls foul of their stringent laws which places him under plenty of death.

Another episode that feels needlessly sexualised thanks to Roddenberry, the episode is little more than people wearing costumes so ridiculous that I felt sorry for them while trying to say something about the relationship between the law and justice. But it's impossible to take seriously and undermines its own story-telling by being simply ludicrous.

So many upset reviewers here. I never knew until now that nerdish incels could be such drama queens. Perhaps if you put on your Spock ears and keep repeating to yourself, "it's only a TV show" you might feel better. I realize that seeing so many scantily dressed actors in this episode made you want to do odd things when you're alone later, but try to contain yourself until then. This episode wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't the worst either as some would have you think. It brought to mind the young, blonde eloi race featured in The Time Machine. Maybe Gene Roddenberry got the idea for the edo from that book/film.

If you didn't know this already, Gene Roddenberry was kinda sleazy. TOS is filled with scantily clad women and dodgy scenarios. Justice isn't even the first "sexy" TNG episode but it's probably the most explicit one. Thankfully, seeing a planet full of fit, blonde haired people making out is absolutely hilarious. The outdoor scenes were already cracking me up but i lost it when they entered the one building they have.

Aside from being funny, this episode also offers a solid moral dilemma - with a twist! This is Star Trek at its, well, maybe not finest but it's pretty good. The concepts of justice and civilisation, the Prime Directive, the needs of the many - it's got it all. Justice serves as a template for later, more respectable episodes dealing with these things.

This also has Wesley's infamous line: "I'm with Starfleet and we don't lie". Unintentionally hilarious is the best kind of hilarious.

Typically ham-handed, but Roddenberry always had a weakness for that -- as he did for scanty costumes. "Justice" is probably the peak of both issues, and there's something to be said for a screen full of fit, young bodies. But this is Star Trek, and first-season TNG at that, so it's another round of superficial assertions on deep subjects that ultimately ends with a deus ex machina solution (rather literally in this case).

Most of the acting isn't bad, so it's almost good ... if the premise weren't quite so flimsy, nor the denouement rather anticlimatic. Special bonus points go to the female guest lead's earnestness, which actually makes this episode fairly believable. Also, Gates McFadden is quite convincing, while Marina Sirtis seems rather uncomfortable with the whole premise. Special groan to having Data (a machine) be 'unconscious', and administered by medical personnel instead of engineers.