Cheap Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 23: Symbiosis (Video) (Larry Shaw, David Carson, Gabrielle Beaumont, Timothy Bond, Kim Manners, LeVar Burton, Richard Compton, Jonathan West, Marvin V. Rush, Michael Vejar) Price

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Customer Reviews of Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 23: Symbiosis

An entire planet held in chemical slavery
Throughout the history of Earth, when advanced cultures encounter others with a lower level of technology, there is rarely a merging of the cultures to create a new one. The advanced culture generally annihilates the lower one, or at the very least renders it a fraction of what it was. Even today, localized Amazonian cultures are being destroyed as their land is taken over by developers. Therefore, one of the greatest ideas put forward in the original Star Trek series was the principle of the Prime Directive, where Star Fleet personnel are sworn to avoid interference in any culture they may encounter. However, after it was initially put forward, many of the subsequent episodes in the original series tended to ignore it. Therefore, one of the most positive features of the next generation was the change where the Prime Directive was once again taken seriously.
In this episode, the Enterprise is on a routine scientific mission when they receive a distress signal from an ancient freighter. After rushing to their aid, the Enterprise crew finds the freighter crew behaving strangely, more worried about rescuing their cargo than themselves. It turns out that the system contains two planets, Ornara and Brekke, where there is a centuries long plague on Ornara, held in check by a product produced by Brekke. The only industry on Brekke is the production of the "cure" and Ornara is their only customer. After observing the reaction when the victims are treated, Dr. Crusher realizes that the cure is in fact a drug, and the plague was cured centuries ago, something that the Brekkians have understood for centuries, but they have never informed the Ornarians of that fact.
Dr. Crusher vehemently argues with Captain Picard that he must do something to alter this situation, but he refuses, citing the Prime Directive as the justification for his inaction. In order to maintain their market, the Brekkians finally agree to let the Ornarians have the drug on credit, but Picard manages to find a way to alter the situation without violating the principles of the Prime Directive.
It was pleasing to see that, despite strong pressures to the contrary, Picard sticks to the principles of the Prime Directive. He clearly understands that what may appear to be the proper action in the short term can often be a long-term disaster. The short conversation that he has with Dr. Crusher in the turbo lift is one of the classic scenes in the series, where he is speaking as a person rather than as the captain.
The ending is also a classic one, where even though Picard understands that he had no choice, he still dislikes it. I have said many times that Start Trek is at its best when the Enterprise crew is interacting with new cultures. In this case, the interaction is a troubling one, where one planet is held in a state of chemical slavery by another one. Nevertheless, Picard is able to find a solution, although it is not one that leaves a residue of good feeling.

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The martians that say, "take me to your dealer"
Symbiosis......or ....How much for that shipment of Felicium?

In this episode of Next Generation; Picard deals with a dependent culture on drugs. The Ornarans and the Bekkians. The Ornarans are the dependents and the Bekkians produce the "cure" for a disease that has left the Ornaran planet long ago. The only dramatic sequence was when Merritt Butrick's character, "T'Jon" threatens to zap Riker with the electrical powers he possesses. If he doesn't get his dose of the Felicium it's over for our favorite first officer. Other than that there is a struggle between both worlds who depend on the other for survival.

It's one of those episodes that you can live without unless you want to see Merrrit Butrick in a role other than Kirk's son. Judson Scott, from the Wrath of Khan makes and appearance here as the Bekkian leader.

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One of the better Prime Directive episodes of Star Trek
In the Star Trek comic book there were a couple of issues devoted to Jim Kirk being on trial for violating the Prime Directive with characters from various episodes getting their chance to point accusing fingers, sort of like the last episode of "Seinfeld." The moral high ground of the Prime Directive is certainly idealistic in its conception, but it results in a host of Star Trek episodes dealing with how hard it is to obey the letter of the law when confronted with the inequities of the universe. As a drama based on the imperative of obeying the Prime Directive no matter what the situation, "Symbiosis" is one of the best of these episodes.

In "Symbiosis" Picard stumbles upon a con game of interplanetary proportions. Responding to a distress call from an Onaran freighter, the first attempt to transport the crewmembers to saftey results in the arrival of the ship's cargo instead. Yar rescues four of the crew, two Onarans and two Brekkians, all of whom care more for the rescued cargo then their dead mates. The cargo in question is Felicium, a medicine that is the only product produced by the Brekkians for their only customers, the Onarans. It appears the Onarans suffer from a deadly plague and that Felicium, while not curing the disease, is the only thing that relieves the symptoms. However, Dr. Crusher runs her tests and discovers Felicium is not a medicine, but a drug. The Onarans are not ill, they are addicted, and the Brekkians have been exploiting this situation for generations. Even though the payment for this shipment was destroyed with the freighter, the Brekkians give the Felicium to the Onarans, because otherwise the addiction will wear off and the Onarans will finally figure out they have been tricked. Of course, despite Crusher's vehement insistence that they must expose the Brekkians' charade, Captain Picard can not violate the Prime Directive.

It occurs to me that Gene Roddenberry and his heirs needed to learn a lesson from Isaac Asimov when it comes to this Prime Directive nonsense. Asimov, who's work is echoed in the idea that Data has a positronic brain, developed not one but three initial Laws of Robotics, because he knew that one black and white rule was not going to be good enough in a universe of shifting grays. The Laws of Robotics, like the Prime Directive and the Golden Rule, are all based on the same dictum, expressed in the Hippocratic Oath as "first, do no harm." To do nothing in regards to the situation on Onara is to do harm. Silence assumes assent, and Starfleet has assented to too many evils in the name of the Prime Directive. There has to be a better way, but too much water has gone over the dam at this point to really fix the problem. Besides, it is not like Starfleet ever courtmartials Kirk, Picard or Sisko (So why does Janeway keep obeying the Prime Directive while Voyager is stuck on the far side of the universe?). I still think that having a series of rules similar to Asimov's laws, that would require Picard and crew to work out what is or is not acceptable in a given situation, would have been a good idea.