I know the moral of this episode was supposed to be ‘gosh, isn’t the Prime Directive wise’. But that wasn’t my interpretation. I’d suggest the opposite – the episode shows that the ‘cultural contamination’ is more a result of not controlling contact, not the contact itself.
Anyway, leaving aside my Prime Directive problems, I was surprised to find myself enjoying this one. Picard’s explanation of technology (‘Clarkes Third Law’ really) was a great conversation, beautifully acted. And the planet side scenes were quite believable (for the most part – the ending wasn’t great).[^1]
Great Star Trek moment: the reappearance of Vasquez Rocks. Yay!
159 down, 578 to go.
[^1]: Although someone hasn’t been keeping up to date on their Star Trek lore when writing this one. The race are described as ‘proto-Vulcans’, and are logical and relatively emotionless. But previous episodes have established that Vulcans were actually quite violent at this point in their evolution.