Finally an episode that really underperformed my memory. I remembered this as being quite a strong story about medical ethics, with a dark ending Trek would never touch. And while those are both true, I didn’t remember the terrible characterisation on Franklin required to get there, and a weakfish child actor.
Franklin is borderline irredeemable from this episode. He’s arrogant well past the point of fault, obsessed and unwilling to listen. The episode would have done better to turn all these traits down a little – could have got to the same conclusion, but with more of his character intact. Why would a character fascinated by different alien races be so unwilling to listen to their beliefs?
The best part of the episode is the sequence with visiting all the different ambassadors. There’s good writing and performance in all of these scenes, and while they don’t tell us anything new about the characters we at least get some good reinforcement of what we already know.