The Enterprise crew investigates the wreckage of a ship called the Odin and finds three missing escape pods. This brings them to the nearest class M planet, Angel One, in search of survivors. Angel One has scattered humanoid civilizations, which are currently at the level of advancement we were at in the 20th Century.
The people of Angel One are a pure matriarchy, with women naturally taller and stronger than men and with social customs that only allow women to take positions of power. But while an 'away team' makes contact with the reticent oligarch (Mistress Beata), Wesley and a friend get sick after enjoying a ski-program on the Holodeck and their virus spreads uncontrolled through the ship. The Enterprise command must also hurry to respond to Romulan battle cruisers sited near the Neutral Zone.
So "Angel One" (Episode 13, Season 1, Air Date 01/25/88, Star-date 41636.9) tries to keep our pulses pounding with many threads of emergencies and provocative events. The main controversy arises when the Angel One oligarchs (a six member council led by the Elected One named Mistress Beata) sentence Odin's survivors to death for inciting revolution. Geordi finds himself as acting commander after Picard catches the virus and is ruled unfit.
Other minor plot points include: (1) The Angel One civilization is similar to Betazed in having female leaders; Worf comments that Klingons also like strong women. (2) Yar uses a tricorder to search for listening devices in an Angel One room (so the 'away team' can freely discuss their strategy). (3) Data doesn't understand how perfume acts as an aphrodisiac. (4) Riker expresses disregard for the prime directive and suggests he'd rather take the consequences than allow the Odin survivors to be executed. (5) Angel One seems a bit more advanced than we were in the 20th Century since they use a transporter like weapon to conduct executions.
I'm not quite sure how the virus gets started, but apparently it had something to do with a sweet scent, commonly known to Klingons, which entices people to inhale and take in the virus.
At the same time, Riker makes another attempt to convince Mistress Beata that she is wrong about executing the Odin survivors (after Dr. Crusher quarantines the ship and bans anyone from beaming up). Riker argues that she cannot stop the spread of revolution because it's spreading naturally. He compares the ideas of the rebels to 'evolution' and considers it unstoppable. I find Riker's argument one sided. It would benefit from the consideration of alternative possibilities, but, of course, Riker may be extra convincing to Mistress Beata since he just slept with her.
Perhaps this extremely unconvincing argument is a version of Karl Marx's view that history has a direction and evolves to a more perfect condition (his view -- towards communism). But in this case the natural evolution would take Mistress Beata's people towards the values of Star Trek. I won't call this a conceited idea, but it seems based on zero evidence.
But Riker is certainly correct that a martyr and that political issues can't be as easily killed as people. Though to reduce his whole argument to absurdity we could just point to the Borg, who could simply erase an issue they don't like and therefore easily advance to any new direction they want. So some civilizations in the Star Trek world obviously don't advance necessarily toward one end.
The episode is a bit cute at times and it's obvious that a matriarchy is very possible for two gender lifeforms; we see it common throughout native history and the animal world here on earth. But otherwise the episode lacks anything of intense interest for me.
The people of Angel One are a pure matriarchy, with women naturally taller and stronger than men and with social customs that only allow women to take positions of power. But while an 'away team' makes contact with the reticent oligarch (Mistress Beata), Wesley and a friend get sick after enjoying a ski-program on the Holodeck and their virus spreads uncontrolled through the ship. The Enterprise command must also hurry to respond to Romulan battle cruisers sited near the Neutral Zone.
So "Angel One" (Episode 13, Season 1, Air Date 01/25/88, Star-date 41636.9) tries to keep our pulses pounding with many threads of emergencies and provocative events. The main controversy arises when the Angel One oligarchs (a six member council led by the Elected One named Mistress Beata) sentence Odin's survivors to death for inciting revolution. Geordi finds himself as acting commander after Picard catches the virus and is ruled unfit.
Other minor plot points include: (1) The Angel One civilization is similar to Betazed in having female leaders; Worf comments that Klingons also like strong women. (2) Yar uses a tricorder to search for listening devices in an Angel One room (so the 'away team' can freely discuss their strategy). (3) Data doesn't understand how perfume acts as an aphrodisiac. (4) Riker expresses disregard for the prime directive and suggests he'd rather take the consequences than allow the Odin survivors to be executed. (5) Angel One seems a bit more advanced than we were in the 20th Century since they use a transporter like weapon to conduct executions.
I'm not quite sure how the virus gets started, but apparently it had something to do with a sweet scent, commonly known to Klingons, which entices people to inhale and take in the virus.
At the same time, Riker makes another attempt to convince Mistress Beata that she is wrong about executing the Odin survivors (after Dr. Crusher quarantines the ship and bans anyone from beaming up). Riker argues that she cannot stop the spread of revolution because it's spreading naturally. He compares the ideas of the rebels to 'evolution' and considers it unstoppable. I find Riker's argument one sided. It would benefit from the consideration of alternative possibilities, but, of course, Riker may be extra convincing to Mistress Beata since he just slept with her.
Perhaps this extremely unconvincing argument is a version of Karl Marx's view that history has a direction and evolves to a more perfect condition (his view -- towards communism). But in this case the natural evolution would take Mistress Beata's people towards the values of Star Trek. I won't call this a conceited idea, but it seems based on zero evidence.
But Riker is certainly correct that a martyr and that political issues can't be as easily killed as people. Though to reduce his whole argument to absurdity we could just point to the Borg, who could simply erase an issue they don't like and therefore easily advance to any new direction they want. So some civilizations in the Star Trek world obviously don't advance necessarily toward one end.
The episode is a bit cute at times and it's obvious that a matriarchy is very possible for two gender lifeforms; we see it common throughout native history and the animal world here on earth. But otherwise the episode lacks anything of intense interest for me.