Put a clothespin on your nose, pick your feet up and get ready. Things are about to get bad.
Cold open:
Picard gives us the opening log entry saying the Enterprise is in orbit around a planet containing a starbase for a meeting with Fleet Admiral Nechayev (always a pleasure) and to also pick-up another passenger, a beloved family member.
The other passenger is Wesley Crusher on break from the academy and apparently the emo-phase hits people in the 24th century when they’re in their early 20s because Wes here has issues which is immediately apparent as he mopes around in his scenes and barely shows any enthusiasm over seeing his friends and family again. Beverly, winner of the Over Protective Mother of the Year award since 2350 makes passive-aggressive comments about the 20-something Wesley wanting his own quarters during his visit rather than stay in Beverly’s quarters. Seriously, she handles it with all of the subtlety of a Jewish mother in a sit-com. Wesley placates her, promising he’ll spend time with her during his stay he just wanted his own room.
Geordi and Data visit to rib Wesley a bit on him staying and not offering to work. Wesley, emo-ly, takes their ribbing and promises to help if/when he can. When everyone is gone he sets his luggage down and slumps on the foot of his bed and asks the computer to play some Fall Out Boy.
Picard prepares a brunch or light-lunch of sorts for the visiting Admiral, telling Riker he’s trying to create an atmosphere of friendliness and openness for the usually combative Admiral Nechayev, Riker is dubious as to both Picard’s motives and whether or not it’ll work. The Admiral comes into the room with her escort and immediately demands Riker leave; which he does while shooting Picard back a, “See? She’s a bitch and didn’t fall for it.” Sort of look.
Nechayev begins talking about a problem along the Federation/Cardassian border but doesn’t get very far into it before noticing the tea and sandwiches Picard has laid out in the Observation Lounge table; she drops her shields a bit to sit with Picard to discuss the situation in a more civil manner.
I’ve to say, I really love this woman and character and the way the actress plays her. She really does seem like the no-nonsense sort-of boss you’d struggle to work with (regardless of gender) and try very hard to get through the shell in order to have a working relationship. If Janeway had been more like her, and consistently written, in Voyager that may have been a very different, and better, show worthy of the praise and such Janeway tends to get.
Anyway, the Admiral explains about a new treaty that’s been developed between the Federation and Cardassians and their border, the border’s boundaries have been redrawn and a dematerialized zone has been established along the border as well, the solution wasn’t an ideal one but both sides have given and gained in this.
The unfortunate effect is that the redrawing of the border has shifted some colonies into the space of the other side. Picard’s mission is to visit one planet in particular and aid in their relocation, forcing it if necessary. The planet is a colony of Native Americans from Earth; 200 years ago a group of Native Americans left Earth in order to re-establish themselves and their culture on other planets; this particular colony has only existed for 20 years.
Picard is concerned about this mission since it puts these people under “another” forced relocation orchestrated by a distant government largely made-up of a different race. The admiral understands the objections and said she had made them herself when the plan was set-up but it’s felt this is the only solution. If Picard cannot do the job she’ll find someone who will; Picard assures her he’ll do it; as she leaves the says she appreciates Picard’s attempts at making her feel welcome.
So, already I come to a couple issues with this episode. The first one being that the Admiral and Picard both refer to the colonist as “Native American Indians;” which is a strange for them to say in the overly-PC 24th century where it seems unlikely they’d call the Native Americans by the incorrect term of “Indians.” Yes, yes, it can maybe be argued that the misuse of that term over our own last couple hundred years changed its definition to encompass using it to refer to not only residents of India but to Native Americans as well; but that seems unlikely in Picard’s time. You’d think they’d simply say, “Native Americans” or “Tribal Americans” or something I dunno.
The other problem is with Picard’s objections. First of all, he’s concerned over the forced relocation which from his point of view occurred 700 or more years ago. This is like us today being upset about any forced relocations that occurred in the 1300’s. It seems unlikely the temperaments and such of the people back then would impact our decisions today because society has changed so much in that time.
You’d almost think that the sense of “Native Americans” wouldn’t wholly exist anymore because humanity had broken down the racial barriers that divide us today. It’s one of the reasons why Roddenberry was against their being “conflict” with the human characters the notion being that humanity had solved all of that nonsense and that the conflict should come from alien cultures and be used as an allegory of sorts to present-day problems. Making an episode about forced-relocation is all fine and good, but making it about forcing the relocation of humans, particularly a present-day minority, is a bit too on the nose. Besides, haven’t we done a forced-relocation story several times already in this series? And, shit, we’ll do it again in one of the movies!
Picard also speaks about the “forced relocation” performed on Native Americans by the early settlers there, saying, “now they’re being asked to move again.” Which… the colonists didn’t exactly “ask” anything we kind of forced it. It was also done over greed, the expansion of territory and just pure racism of white-man being greater than all others.
Here a group is being asked to relocate because a hostile alien race is about to have control over their planet and it’s in the best interest of their own safety they move somewhere else. This is not too much different than if we went to a Native American Reservation today and said, I dunno, “Hey, there’s a big fuck-off tsunami headed here, or an earthquake, or some other looming disaster so we think it’s in your best interest to move to another location where you can keep on keeping on. We’ll help you move and then piss off, never to bother you again.” That’s a lot different than saying, “This is ours now, go the fuck away!”
In Engineering Wesley, wearing a vest that’d have Chandler Bing making fun of him, slump-mopes through the corridor along the Master Systems Display and is soon called over by Geordi. Wesley, with all of the enthusiasm of going to a proctology exam, goes with Geordi to some panel where Geordi talks about a new techno-greeble he built that’s similar to something Wes and Geordi had once talked about.
Wesley frowns at the thing, criticizes the engineering of it and saying it’ll never work and begins questioning various aspects of it. Geordi tries defending it but quickly gets a whiff of Wesley’s attitude and tells Wes to piss off. Wesley says, “Whatever, man,” and the put’s his iPod earbuds back in, pulls up the hood on his hoodie and slump-walks out of Engineering.
Picard is talking with the NA leaders on the planet and it’s practically treated with all of the subtlety of a minstrel show. Keep in mind that over the course of Trek we’ve seen characters from all sorts of cultures from Earth and, with some exception, they’ve all been treated with subtlety and respect. We’ve had Indian characters, black characters, Hispanic characters, characters from Asian origins and they’re all presented as if their cultures adapted and grew with the rest of humanity into our futuristic setting. Now, we can agree the Irish characters from a S1 episode were as subtle as brick to the head as well as the ones at the Crusher colony a couple episodes back; but both Crusher and O’Brien were also treated with a degree of respect. Hell, Scotty spoke with a rather comedic Scottish accent and had a penchant for boozing but he still seemed like a character in this modern setting.
But, here we have Native Americans and the room they meet in looks like it was decorated by someone making an NA-themed tourist trap somewhere in the Mid-West, all of the NA council members naturally have long hair with strands of beads, and with rather stereotypical NA clothing and appearances. Of all of the cultures that’ve adapted to the 24c, it seems this group decided to GO back a couple hundred years from where we are today.
The leader of the colony us unwilling to go along with this relocation plan saying his group traveled for a long time to find this planet and no other planet will do. This particular planet made a more “spiritual” connection to their group because, Native Americans, and spirits connected to environment and the five elements or whatever.
It’s, in effect, pretty damn clichéd. Now, maybe I’m just jaded when it comes to my views on spirituality and religion and belief. And I admit to not knowing a whole lot about present-day NA culture, or even that much about past culture. But the depiction here seems rather stereotypical and clichéd. Maybe not quite on an offensive level; but certainly on an insulting one. They certainly could have created a conflict for the NA to not want to leave the planet without bringing spirituality into it.
Crusher speaks with Wesley about the incident in Engineering, saying that ever since Wesley’s been on board he’s been insulting and moody, implying the encounter in Engineering wasn’t an isolated incident, and that it’s not appropriate for him to behave that way to the officers. Which… Maybe if he was on duty and in uniform but…. What about when he’s not on duty in any form. Isn’t an officer or anything on the ship and he was in civies? Does he still have to salute and sir?
Wesley sort of has a little emo-fit about how everyone is being toats lame towards him and this is all just harshing his calm. So he storms out…. Of his own room.
There’s a reception in Ten-Forward between the Enterprise crew and the NA colonist, Picard and the colonist leader have some discussion about the situation they’re in, the history of the colonists and their travels and ultimately about the importance, spiritually, about knowing about your own family’s history -and what advantage that knowledge can play in any confrontation between two people. As they talk Wesley storms into the room wearing his cadet uniform. Oh boy.
His passes by his mother and offers an apology; she says they’ll talk about it later and he sits down at a table. One of the NA colonists calls his name and Wes turns around and looks at the man staring at him, rather creepily, and he creepily says he knows who Wes is and why he’s come there as he saw Wes in a vision and that he’s about to get all of the answers he seeks. Wesley does NOT yell stranger-danger and runs to his mother. Infact, he seems intrigued by this guy.
Crusher speaks with Picard in his quarters about Wesley and her concerns about him. Picard dismisses it as him simply being a young man finding his own identity. She goes on to explain that Wesley’s having trouble at the Academy as well and is close to washing out. Which…. That strikes me as privileged information that she shouldn’t be able to get without Wes’s permission but, whatever, she pulled some strings. She wants Picard to speak to Wesley as a male role-model/father figure but Picard isn’t sure he’ll be of any help at this time. Wesley will come to them when he’s ready to need help.
On the planet Wesley meets with the man he spoke with in Ten Forward saying he’s there to get these answers. The man only offers riddles and platitudes. As well as spiritual mumbo-jumbo because, Native Americans. The man says Wesley is sacred to the colony.
Wesley seems to take the guy’s meaning, realizing he hasn’t had much respect for himself recently; the man says Wesley is ready for his “vision quest.”
Picard lays it out for the colony leaders, saying he’ll be forced to remove them by forces is necessary, the council leader begins speaking about fate and such, saying Picard was sent to them for a reason (because, spirituality and all things are connected) and it has to do with something in his past and he drops the name of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Before Picard can say whether or not he’s aware of it, Troi says she’s familiar with it (because why wouldn’t a half-alien woman know about a revolt that happened on earth 700 years ago when most people today wouldn’t know about it?) She says it’s a battle where NAs successfully defended an area now known as New Mexico from Spanish conquerors. Considering it’s called New Mexico and not something related to NAs it’s clear that that revolt didn’t hold. But anyway… The leader says that shortly after this revolt the conquerors returned and this time brutally slaughtered the NA there and they were led by one of Picard’s ancestors. The colony leader believes Picard is there to fight FOR them to make up for the sins of greatx23 grandfather.
Which… You’ve got to hand it to the Mormons, I guess they really hung in there with their genealogy work considering that there exists enough records and information to connect a man living in 2369 to a man who lived in 1680. And… Picard’s ancestor was… Spanish?
In the colony street, Worf is there and there’s a stir in the crowd as a group of Cardassians have arrived and their leader wonders why the colonists are still there, that the evacuation should be well underway. Picard pulls the Cardassian aside to get to the bottom of this, they still have a few weeks before the transfer happens and Picard was supposed to have that time to carry out his orders. The Cardassian claims to be there to take an inventory of the buildings and any equipment to be left behind. Picard seems to accept this and tells the Cardassian commander to carry out his job without interfering with the colonists or Picard’s duty as the planet is still under Federation jurisdiction.
Wesley and The NA man arrive in the attic of one of the buildings which, apparently, is where this sacred place is where a ritual is performed for a person to speak to their inner spirit or whatever. The man spreads some sand on the ground around a fire pit speaking about how the spirits of numerous other species (animals, alien) have been here in this quest and it’s time for Wesley to step through the door to get the visions he seeks. Because, native Americans.
