| The Next Generation | |
| 17 | |
| When The Bough Breaks | |
| 41509.1 | |
The Enterprise is tracking a strange trail of faint energy readings. The breadcrumbs eventually lead them to the legendary planet of Aldea! Aldea was thought to be a mythical utopian society somewhat like Atlantis, which was able to cloak its entire planet from intruders. Wrong! After almost no foreplay the Aldean leaders beam themselves directly onto the bridge, and welcome the Federation with open arms. They propose a meeting down on the planet, and beam down Riker, Dr Crusher and Troi without their consent! Beaming without consent is a crime.
Over a prawn cocktail, the Aldean named Jake Blues - a.k.a Radue - turns to Riker and says: "Sell us your children. How much for the little girl?". Riker is somewhat taken aback since he doesn't admit to having any children, so Troi takes over. She says that humans get very attached to their offspring and that there is no way that they will part with them. "Too bad" says Radue and beams the away team back. In return he beams down seven children, including the boy blunder Wesley!
The Aldeans want to know what compensation the Enterprise wants for the loss of its children. I would have thought that they would have been so glad to have got rid of Wesley that they wouldn't mind the loss of a few others. It's a risk they understood when they joined Starfleet...
Riker wants to beam down and knock out the shield generators. If he had said that he wanted to seduce someone I would have been certain that he was doing a Kirk impersonation. Picard and Bev are brought down to "negotiate" to give the rest of the crew time to find a way through the planetary shield. Radue says: "Why do you want them back?", and neither of them can give a satisfactory answer...
As a demonstration of their power, the Aldeans fling the Enterprise out of orbit. Actually out of the entire system by 3 days at warp 9! They might even give the Q a run for his money. The return trip gives Bev enough time to work out that the Aldean's sterility is caused by radiation sickness, since their ozone layer has been destroyed. Oh no, they're eco-vandals!
On return, Riker and Data manage to beam down and lock they Aldeans out of their computer system, leaving the them helpless. Picard smugly tells them that it was not a nice thing to do, and beams the children home. Rather than let them all die a slow and painful death, he offers to help them rebuild their society. They start by reseating the ozone layer! That's a neat trick! I guess it must have just been hanging loose or something. Ugh.
