118 "When the Bough Breaks"

(airdate: February 15, 1988)

Writer: Hannah Louise Shearer
Director: Kim Manners

Stardate: 41509.1

Captain's Log: The Enterprise receives a signal from the mythical planet of Aldea, a place said to be peaceful and incredibly advanced, hidden behind a planet-sized cloaking device. The Aldeans initially come in peace, but it soon turns out that they've kidnapped the best and brightest of the Enterprise children: the Aldeans have gone sterile, so they need to replenish their population. Aldea's technological superiority prevents the Enterprise from retrieving the children, forcing Picard to negotiate with Radue, the leader of Aldea. Dr. Crusher surreptiously scans the Aldeans and learns that their sterility is due to the radiation caused by the cloaking device's destruction of the ozone layer. Once Picard confronts the Aldeans with this (combined with a hunger strike among the children instigated by Wesley), Radue agrees to return the children, while Dr. Crusher treats the Aldeans; however, they can never use their planetary shield again.

Whoops!: Perhaps this is an example of alien cultures not thinking like we do, but why is it so imperative for the Aldeans to take the children right this minute? They could have negotiated for full families to emigrate to Aldea instead (perhaps with some stipulation that everyone must learn Aldean traditions) and avoided the whole thing. Of course, then they might not have learned their shield was killing them, so I guess this way worked out. But it's still surprising just how impatient they are. [Maybe a lifetime with the Custodian at their beck and call has made them accustomed to instant gratification.] Oh, and independently: how, exactly, are a mere seven kids going to help the Aldeans perpetuate their species and culture?

Library Computer: Aldea is a orange-and-yellow striped planet [similar to Jupiter] in the Epsilon Mynos system, with a purple sky. Aldea was believed to be a legend: an advanced, centuries-old civilization with its citizens' daily needs taken care of by incredibly sophisticated technology, allowing the inhabitants to devote themselves to art and culture, and one that protected itself by cloaking its entire planet, shielding them from would-be marauders and plunderers.
     In actuality the legends were largely true. Aldea was a real place and did indeed have a planetary cloaking device, part of an electromagnetic shield that included a complicated light refracting mechanism that bent light rays around the planet. This shield was virtually impregnable, although there was a fluctuation in the shield that could allow someone to beam through it. In addition, the Aldeans had the ability to transport themselves through it. (The Aldeans all wear small devices on their right upper arm, meant to help them interact with their planet's computer, the Custodian, and to transport around.) However, the shield had slowly destroyed Aldea's ozone layer, leaving the population exposed to their sun's ultraviolet radiation and thus causing chromosomal damage. By the time the Enterprise arrived, the Aldeans had developed a sensitivity to bright light, a lack of appetite, extreme pallor, and, most seriously, had become completely sterile, with Rashella, an Aldean woman in her late 20s, being the last person born on their planet.
     In order to stave off extinction, the Aldeans devised a plan to bring a starship to Aldea, in order to trade technological information for children. However, the Aldeans were desperate, and when the ship they revealed themselves to, the Enterprise, refused to the terms of this deal, the Aldeans - led by Aldea's First Appointee, Radue, who was an older man with pink skin and dark hair - kidnapped a group of seven children anyway: ones they had previously scanned and decided were "special". This group included Wesley Crusher; a young blonde girl named Katie who had a talent for music; a young brown-haired boy named Harry Bernard who had a hitherto-unknown talent for sculpting; a young red-headed girl named Alexandra, who Rashella takes a liking to; a slightly older, curly-haired girl named Rose [this is in reality makeup designer Michael Westmore's daughter McKenzie]; a younger girl in a blonde ponytail named Tara; and a slightly older boy with short spiky hair named Mason. [These last two are played by Wil Wheaton's siblings, Amy and Jeremy. Incidentally, the names of these last three characters are taken from the script.] Their plan was to use these children to help repopulate Aldea, since they believed their sterility was a genetic condition, not an environmental one. However, when Dr. Crusher proved that the Aldeans were suffering from radiation poisoning as a result of the destroyed ozone layer, the Aldeans returned the children and shut down the power source that ran their planetary shield. The Enterprise was able to reseed Aldea's ozone layer, while Dr. Crusher and her team were able to reverse the radiation damage that the Aldeans suffered from.
     Part of the reason that the Aldeans were unaware that they were suffering from radiation poisoning was that hundreds of centuries ago their forebears (whom they referred to as the Progenitors) had created an extremely advanced computer known as the Custodian, with controls very different from those on standard Federation computers. The Custodian was designed to take care of all Aldean needs, letting them devote themselves to other pursuits instead. They had also developed protection such as the aforementioned planetary shield and a repulsor beam that could push a starship three days away from Aldea, using just a fraction of the beam's power. The power source for this was a huge, cylindrical generator, capable of producing incredible amounts of energy. All this technology meant that over time, the Aldeans had become so used these protections and to the Custodian that they simply acknowledged it as a part of life, having forgotten how to maintain the Custodian or even what its power source was; consequently, they never considered that their planetary shield was the source of their problems, believing that to be an inherent genetic condition instead.
     The symbol for Aldea resembles an abstract nautilus shell surrounding a six-sided shape, divided vertically down the middle with small lines next to the divider on the lower left and upper right sides.
     Aldea's ancient history is filled with Aldeans who wanted more power and possessions and were willing to use violence to get their way. Consequently, Aldea developed a society where nothing was taken without something being given in return; this led to a peaceful society.
     Aldea used to have fish in their oceans, but they had all died out by the time of the Enterprise's visit.
     Aldean society is structured around "units": similar to families, units are a group where people of similar interests and talents live together.
     The Aldean named Accolan (a middle-aged male with dark, curly hair who was an artist) didn't know what calculus was. [It's not clear if this means that none of the Aldeans are familiar with calculus, or if just that the artists, having no use for it, have never bothered to learn it. There are some signs that none of the Aldeans are that interested in science (the failure to improve the shield, the fact that none of them know how the Custodian works), but it's perhaps a bit surprising that no one would be interested in science as a pleasurable pursuit - and indeed, Radue mentions Aldean scientists. Maybe they're just really bad at science; perhaps since the Custodian can answer any inquiries they might have, they no longer feel the need to learn more than a passing interest in such disciplines.]
     Melian, an old, bald man with white hair and pink skin, is the foremost musician on Aldea. Oddly, he seems to have a Vulcan lute. [Perhaps Katie asked to have one made, to show Melian a Federation instrument.] One of Aldea's musical instruments is a flat disc with a molded grip and lights forming a partial ring around the disc. It's played via thought patterns, and the lights flash with the music, as it translates the feelings of the user into musical notes.
     Other myths involving advanced, peaceful societies, similar to the stories of Aldea, include Atlantis on ancient Earth and Neinman on Xerxes VII.
     Dr. Bernard, a white male with curly dark hair and brown eyes, is an oceanographer aboard the Enterprise. He's a sciences lieutenant in Starfleet. Bernard and his family used to live near the ocean on Zadar IV.
     Alexandra's mother is named Toya. She has curly brown hair, brown eyes, and pink skin. Her uniform is operations yellow, but she has no rank pips on her collar. [Indicating an enlisted crewman, perhaps? See "The Drumhead" for an explicit example of a crewman with no rank pips.]
     Katie is seen playing an instrument with a central shaft and two wings, each with strings. At the top of the shaft is a series of buttons that the player controls while plucking the strings.
     It's typical in 24th-century Human culture for ten-year-olds to learn calculus - a subject that Harry Bernard dislikes.
     The Enterprise's transporter includes a decontamination procedure.
     Starfleet does not have a regulation 6.57 requiring at least two staff officers to be present during any treaty or contract negotiations, although Picard is willing to claim that such a regulation exists in order to get the Aldeans to also allow Dr. Crusher to accompany him to the surface.

Final Analysis: "It's the children. That's why we've been brought here. That's what they wanted." It's good to have an episode where the families aboard the Enterprise are brought to the fore instead of remaining as background details. It also gives Wil Wheaton a welcome chance to show that he can do more than act like a vaguely insufferable boy genius. Combine with a relatively engaging story and some fine performances from the guest cast and the result is an enjoyable, well-made episode.

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