They kidnap a bunch of kids without any thought to how it may impact the parents or the child (psychologically). Later, Troi says they'd make great parents now that they are no longer infertile. I couldn't stop laughing.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)
When the Bough Breaks (1988)
User Reviews
Review this title24 Reviews
Wesley Crusher --- union man.
thevacinstaller3 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Deanna Troi has two laugh out loud scenes in this one. The first scene is when she tells the Aldean's that 'human's are unusually attached to offspring' ---- Can you picture it? A crew of Klingon's show up instead and they are completely fine with G'rak of house Bargh being kidnapped or traded for some advance star maps? The second laugh out loud scene was towards the end when Troi suggests that the Aldean's will make great parents.
Call me a slave to my emotions but I just wouldn't be able to forgive the Aldean's for kidnapping my kids and using a strong arm 'agree or we will send you to the delta quadrant' approach to negotiations. Picard is clearly a huge fan of 'turn the other cheek'.
There is a light dusting of commentary on pollution and an over reliance on technology but it carries no heft and feels tacked on to try and give this episode an actual theme.
The real take away here ---- Your dad is not a jerk for making you take calculus and passive resistance gets results. In my personal fan fiction for this episode, I have Wesley Crusher raising a solidarity first and yelling out Vive la résistance while the rest of the children do the same.
What was up with the machine? Who put it there? What is it's function? Why does it put up a cloak shield that damages the organic inhabitants?
Well, time to break out the Starfleet 'kidnapping is not cool' leaflets and welcome another partner into the federation I guess.
Call me a slave to my emotions but I just wouldn't be able to forgive the Aldean's for kidnapping my kids and using a strong arm 'agree or we will send you to the delta quadrant' approach to negotiations. Picard is clearly a huge fan of 'turn the other cheek'.
There is a light dusting of commentary on pollution and an over reliance on technology but it carries no heft and feels tacked on to try and give this episode an actual theme.
The real take away here ---- Your dad is not a jerk for making you take calculus and passive resistance gets results. In my personal fan fiction for this episode, I have Wesley Crusher raising a solidarity first and yelling out Vive la résistance while the rest of the children do the same.
What was up with the machine? Who put it there? What is it's function? Why does it put up a cloak shield that damages the organic inhabitants?
Well, time to break out the Starfleet 'kidnapping is not cool' leaflets and welcome another partner into the federation I guess.
Sort of Bland
Hitchcoc29 July 2014
A planet with members of historic artistic ability has become sterile and is on the verge of extinction. They decide to stock the planet with children from the Enterprise. They choose the most talented, including Wesley Crusher, and treat to a paradise of perks, including instructions from masters. The parents, of course, are horrified. These people have the ability to do amazing things with their technology, including sending the Starship three days out into space. These people are so superior and yet are quite out of touch, with their own abilities and future. It is an episode that goes nowhere and is so dull. That they could bond with these children is their hope, but they are actually rather kind can see the handwriting on the wall, even before Picard and the crew act. The ending is so pat as well and not very satisfying.
What is the price of utopia?
russem3111 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
ST:TNG:18 - "When The Bough Breaks" (Stardate: 41509.1) - this is the 18th episode that went into production but the 17th episode aired on TV. It's an interesting episode which deals with the price of utopia - this happens when the Enterprise accidentally discovers a utopian world that was only known in legends around the galaxy - the world of Aldea. The reason this world has remained elusive to outsiders was their sophisticated shield which cloaked the planet and prevented outsiders from entering (including beaming down). However, it's the shields that cause the problem facing the Aldeans - that of sterility and because of that, they kidnap the Enterprise children. An intriguing problem that makes for an intriguing episode. Oh, and look out for a future "Desperate Housewife"!
Best Episode So Far
anarchistica19 March 2020
While the setup is silly and their leader comes around too quickly at the end, this is a wonderful episode. This is Star Trek through and through. An antagonist that isn't two-dimensional but likeable and understandable. Both the technical and emotional side get plenty of attention. Wesley is finally used appropriately and has a great moment with his mother. Picard is shown as both determined and awkward. They took a risk by having many interactions with young children and it paid off.
Why do you want them back so badly?
snoozejonc21 May 2021
Enterprise visits Aldea, where the inhabitants take an extreme action for the survival of their race.
This is a moderately entertaining episode that gets off to a good start but the resolution is fairly uninspired.
It starts off with a compelling premise, particularly for viewers who are parents. However, as things unfold it's clear to see the writers had some specific character development in mind for this episode and the plot feels something of an afterthought. The way everything is so neatly and quickly resolved is quite comical. The themes very much resemble those from the episode "11001001". I also liked the idea of a society losing its scientific and technological knowledge due to an overemphasis on the arts.
This is a decent episode for Captain Picard who has some strong moments of verbal confrontation and leadership, whilst also developing his character in relation to the Enterprise children.
Wesley Crusher has some strong moments, but you can see a lot of the writing is geared around his development as a young leader. I enjoyed all of his scenes up until the smug smile appears at the end which always seems to be the character's downfall.
The visuals are fairly bland with little inspiration found in the costumes and art design on Aldea.
The performance of Patrick Stewart is strong as ever. Will Wheaton is most okay and Gates McFadden likewise. The guest actors are fairly weak, with children regularly outshining their adult counterparts on Aldea. Jerry Hardin is solid but the the role isn't particularly challenging.
This is a moderately entertaining episode that gets off to a good start but the resolution is fairly uninspired.
It starts off with a compelling premise, particularly for viewers who are parents. However, as things unfold it's clear to see the writers had some specific character development in mind for this episode and the plot feels something of an afterthought. The way everything is so neatly and quickly resolved is quite comical. The themes very much resemble those from the episode "11001001". I also liked the idea of a society losing its scientific and technological knowledge due to an overemphasis on the arts.
This is a decent episode for Captain Picard who has some strong moments of verbal confrontation and leadership, whilst also developing his character in relation to the Enterprise children.
Wesley Crusher has some strong moments, but you can see a lot of the writing is geared around his development as a young leader. I enjoyed all of his scenes up until the smug smile appears at the end which always seems to be the character's downfall.
The visuals are fairly bland with little inspiration found in the costumes and art design on Aldea.
The performance of Patrick Stewart is strong as ever. Will Wheaton is most okay and Gates McFadden likewise. The guest actors are fairly weak, with children regularly outshining their adult counterparts on Aldea. Jerry Hardin is solid but the the role isn't particularly challenging.
Ozone hole cataclysm
theforgottenroom8 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The Enterprise arrives at a planet with a depleted ozone layer. Consequently,its citizens are suffering infertility and other effects of extreme UV exposure. (Earth in 2017 is experiencing something similar. See the geoengineering watch site for science data.) The desperate citizens capture children from the Enterprise in an attempt to perpetuate their species. Adolescent Wesley Crusher serves as a good leader on the planet's surface.
Spoiler alert - Starfleet frees the children and, in a sympathetic twist, helps the kidnappers. Thumbs up on this timely episode, which was reviewed on March 7, 2017.
Spoiler alert - Starfleet frees the children and, in a sympathetic twist, helps the kidnappers. Thumbs up on this timely episode, which was reviewed on March 7, 2017.
Not as warty as most season one episodes
bgaiv9 December 2021
It's not stellar but it's ok. It doesn't have the warts that so many first season episodes have. This one could have been slotted almost seamlessly into the second or third seasons.
Though it does have hilarious plot holes. First, are there not orphans that might want to move here? Second, how exactly can this planet disappear again? Once the Enterprise detected it, they should easily be able to quickly determine its orbital parameters. Why didn't Picard point out that he'd already transmitted all this information to Starfleet and if anything happened to the Enterprise, a whole fleet would come looking?
Though it does have hilarious plot holes. First, are there not orphans that might want to move here? Second, how exactly can this planet disappear again? Once the Enterprise detected it, they should easily be able to quickly determine its orbital parameters. Why didn't Picard point out that he'd already transmitted all this information to Starfleet and if anything happened to the Enterprise, a whole fleet would come looking?
Technology destroys....
gritfrombray-111 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This episode sees the USS Enterprise encounter a thought to be mythical world known as Aldea which has baffled space travelers and historians for centuries. The Aldeans are an interesting race, a little too human like for my taste, but are an advanced race without children. When the children of the Enterprise are stolen from the ship Picard and company work frenetically to get them back. The concept of this episode was interesting as it is the Aldean's technology of cloaking the planet that has made them sterile and the pollution of our own Earth has damaged our own ozone layer, an intentional echo I'm sure, similar to the message delivered in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home. The Aldeans plan is eventually thwarted by Picard and an equitable solution is reached and the Federation will help the Aldeans recover from the radiation damage. A good episode from a varied first season
A perfect world
bkoganbing13 March 2019
This TNG story has the Enterprise going to what was thought a mythical world.
Aldea is a planet with a cloaking device that has kept it hidden from outside
interference. With no threat of invasion the Aldeans have created a society where
the super computer tends to their needs and they engage in leisure 24/7 to use
the earth phrase.
But they kidnap the Enterprise children because the whole planet has become sterile. They may live for centuries, but they do die.
The same theme of a perfectly ordered world was used in such science fiction classics as Forbidden Planet and Zardoz. The Krells faced similar problems though the Aldeans haven't gotten as far as monsters from the Id.
The Crushers mother and son dominate the episode. Gates McFadden discovers what is wrong with them and Wil Wheaton organizes the kidnapped Enterprise kids.
But they kidnap the Enterprise children because the whole planet has become sterile. They may live for centuries, but they do die.
The same theme of a perfectly ordered world was used in such science fiction classics as Forbidden Planet and Zardoz. The Krells faced similar problems though the Aldeans haven't gotten as far as monsters from the Id.
The Crushers mother and son dominate the episode. Gates McFadden discovers what is wrong with them and Wil Wheaton organizes the kidnapped Enterprise kids.
One of My Least Favorites So Far
Samuel-Shovel20 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
In "When the Bough Breaks" the Enterprise finds an advanced, hidden, idyllic planet that has been using a cloaking device for thousands of years. They've exposed themselves because they are requesting that the Federation trade with their people, the Aldeans. For access to their advanced knowledge the Aldeans are requesting the children of the Enterprise. They citizens have all become sterile and need outside beings to make sure their culture co tinies to flourish. When Picard refuses this demand, the Aldeans kidnap some of the children of the Enterprise and give them new families.
Wesley is included in this group and soon starts a passive resistance strike. Data finds a way to break through the planet's shield and an away team heads down and knocks out Aldea's central computer the Custodian. Picard and Crusher tell the Aldeans that the reason they're unable to procreate and why they're all dying is that they're getting radioactive poisoning from the Custodian. They've gotten lazy over the years and no longer even maintain the computer, hence why it's spewing out waste. The Federation promises to help them restore the balance and to get them healthy again. The crew reclaims their children and heads off on another adventure.
I found this to be pretty sappy, heavy-handed, and dumb. They try to draw some parallels with Earth's ecological and nuclear energy situation and it just comes across as preachy. I love a good parallel and metaphor in my sci-fi content but the stretch they're making here is laughable.
It also makes me mad that the Enterprise and the Aldeans never even consider busing over a ship full of orphans who need families. If the Aldeans need a legacy so bad, just head back to Earth and pick up some unwanted kids. Why is this never considered? Even if Crusher and the Federation can make these people healthy and virile again, aren't most of them too old to have kids anyways? We're told that Sue Ellen Mischke is the last child ever born on the planet. She's already well into her 20's so I have to assume there is a limited stock of adults of a child-bearing age. Let's bring in some orphans!
Also, you think this powerful super-computer knwon as the Custodian would warn somebody that the radiation is making them all sick. If these people's ancestors were smart enough to be able to cloak and entire planet, you'd think they could set up a radiation detection system as well.
Too many plot holes with a bad analogy makes for a bad TNG episode.
Wesley is included in this group and soon starts a passive resistance strike. Data finds a way to break through the planet's shield and an away team heads down and knocks out Aldea's central computer the Custodian. Picard and Crusher tell the Aldeans that the reason they're unable to procreate and why they're all dying is that they're getting radioactive poisoning from the Custodian. They've gotten lazy over the years and no longer even maintain the computer, hence why it's spewing out waste. The Federation promises to help them restore the balance and to get them healthy again. The crew reclaims their children and heads off on another adventure.
I found this to be pretty sappy, heavy-handed, and dumb. They try to draw some parallels with Earth's ecological and nuclear energy situation and it just comes across as preachy. I love a good parallel and metaphor in my sci-fi content but the stretch they're making here is laughable.
It also makes me mad that the Enterprise and the Aldeans never even consider busing over a ship full of orphans who need families. If the Aldeans need a legacy so bad, just head back to Earth and pick up some unwanted kids. Why is this never considered? Even if Crusher and the Federation can make these people healthy and virile again, aren't most of them too old to have kids anyways? We're told that Sue Ellen Mischke is the last child ever born on the planet. She's already well into her 20's so I have to assume there is a limited stock of adults of a child-bearing age. Let's bring in some orphans!
Also, you think this powerful super-computer knwon as the Custodian would warn somebody that the radiation is making them all sick. If these people's ancestors were smart enough to be able to cloak and entire planet, you'd think they could set up a radiation detection system as well.
Too many plot holes with a bad analogy makes for a bad TNG episode.
going another direction to...
jtsjtssmokey-703-36697321 August 2013
Warning: Spoilers
gotta love capt picards response to the little girl wanting up an hugs...now for my thinking on the wesley crusher episodes i like them the way i enjoy star trek tng an his character adds to the show, i was a child of the 80s but did not remember seeing will wheaton before tng, actually never have watched shows/movies he was in back then, not sure which he was in an well even now no need to watch them. having a teen there who sees things as a teen is refreshing and the normal growing up. now the show had him feel for those on the planet also just wanting to go home, he sees more than the adults think (as we all did/do but can be overlooked). our children are not for sale, yup capt may not be comfortable around them but he knows they are apart of us. and help them after trying to steal children, yup be nice to think they might be able to help people have babies in the future easier than today, thinking of u my friends, am a trek fan of star trek tos, and tng movies incl
Weakest episode from the 176 ep
nicofreezer29 October 2021
Definitively worst than the others, even if its rating is 6.4/10 it is to me a 5.5/10 , worst episode in a fantastic TV show ( one of the all time best show)
Only light in the episode was one sentence by data, the enterprise beeing push back from the planet and a little Comedy in the end, enough to save it from beeing a 5/10. But yeah Season 1 is really the weakest even with some great episode like" we'll Always have Paris"
Why not just bring these folks a shipload of needy orphans?! This seems like such an obvious solution!!!
planktonrules10 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Rarely has there been an episode that has such a very obvious and simple answer--yet the entire episode seems to offer a HUGE conundrum--one that no one can figure out for themselves!! So, no matter how good the show is, it ends up being built like a house of cards--and THINKING about it will make it all tumble down!
Planet Aldea is a mythical planet---one that supposedly is a paradise and is cloaked! Imagine the excitement when the Enterprise discovers that the planet is real and they want to establish contact with them!! However, soon the real reason for the Aldeans contacting the Enterprise is obvious--they want the children because the Aldeans are sterile and their race is dying.
This brings me to an answer so obvious that any 4 year-old could figure it out for themselves. WHY NOT LET THESE DESPERATE PEOPLE ADOPT ORPHANS?!?!?! Or, why not let the children and their families come to live on the planet? After all, the population is very, very low and any influx of people would be a plus. Yet, through the entire show NO ONE THINKS OF EITHER OF THESE ALTERNATIVES!!! Talk about lousy writing. Didn't anyone involved in making the show THINK about these options--especially since the Aldeans are supposed to be a very advanced race?! Additionally, late in the show Dr. Crusher figures out WHY the Aldeans are sterile---so why didn't the super-smart Aldeans figure this out for themselves?!
While the episode is interesting, it's amazingly simplistic and stupid. Not annoyingly stupid--just stupid! And, I am amazed that other reviewers haven't addressed this.
Planet Aldea is a mythical planet---one that supposedly is a paradise and is cloaked! Imagine the excitement when the Enterprise discovers that the planet is real and they want to establish contact with them!! However, soon the real reason for the Aldeans contacting the Enterprise is obvious--they want the children because the Aldeans are sterile and their race is dying.
This brings me to an answer so obvious that any 4 year-old could figure it out for themselves. WHY NOT LET THESE DESPERATE PEOPLE ADOPT ORPHANS?!?!?! Or, why not let the children and their families come to live on the planet? After all, the population is very, very low and any influx of people would be a plus. Yet, through the entire show NO ONE THINKS OF EITHER OF THESE ALTERNATIVES!!! Talk about lousy writing. Didn't anyone involved in making the show THINK about these options--especially since the Aldeans are supposed to be a very advanced race?! Additionally, late in the show Dr. Crusher figures out WHY the Aldeans are sterile---so why didn't the super-smart Aldeans figure this out for themselves?!
While the episode is interesting, it's amazingly simplistic and stupid. Not annoyingly stupid--just stupid! And, I am amazed that other reviewers haven't addressed this.
Sensationalism Faces Off Against the Cultural Importance of Calculus
Rizar16 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Riker is ecstatic about the legend of an Atlantis in the Epsilon Mynos system (reported to be the planet Aldea). Enterprise investigates the system and discovers a cloaked planet, Aldea.
Two of the leaders of the Aldeans make contact with the Enterprise for the purpose of trade. However, they want a few Enterprise children to help replenish their infertile population. Picard, of course, refuses, so the Aldeans use their superior technology to steal a few specially selected children.
So "When the Bough Breaks" (Episode 16, Season 1, Air Date 02/15/88, Star-date 41509.1) introduces the Utopian world of Aldea and its many advancements, and it has the Enterprise crew try to rescue their stolen children back from the Aldeans.
Riker describes the vision of Aldea as a highly technologically advanced world in which people are free to pursue a life of art and culture and peace. His picture of the Aldeans is basically true of the world in some ways, but the Aldeans have also lapsed in their knowledge of science and medicine.
*Spoiler's Follow*
We have to watch much silly sensationalism in the process (as Spock would call it!). Yes, humans are attached to their kids and we are willing to die for them. So we ignore the potential for trading our children to leap years ahead in science (the Aldeans promise to exchange some of their scientific knowledge for some of our children). But, it seems, the information the Aldeans offer to us probably isn't as valuable as they suggest since (as we later find out) they don't even know how it works anymore!
Wesley also learns the Aldeans have lost their knowledge of the way their technology works. This leads the Aldeans to fail to discover a radiation leak or radiation side effect coming from their power source. It causes them to become infertile, become sensitive to light, and lose their appetite.
Some Aldean power is well intact, however. Radue, a leader of the Aldeans, uses a repulsor beam to blast the Enterprise far away (three days at warp 9) as a demonstration of his power.
But Wesley leads the children in nonviolent and peaceful resistance, having the other children refuse to eat, while Picard makes his way back to Aldea.
Some minor plot points include:
(1) Aldea uses technology to bend light around its planet and make itself invisible to outsiders.
(2) The Aldeans use a Custodian central computer and power system to take care of all their physical and technological concerns.
(3) The Aldeans can scan for hidden abilities and potential within the children they steal. Apparently they have scanning technology that discloses inner skills for music (Alexandra), sculpting (Harry), or science and technology (as in the case of Wesley).
(4) The Aldeans have cameras all through their civilization, so Wesley can ask the Custodian to show him a few of the other children. Does this make anyone there worry about privacy?
(5) One of the little girls (Alexandria) learns to use a musical device that senses her music-thoughts-or-feelings. Harry learns to sculpt with a tool that draws out his inner image of a dolphin sculpture. These seem like magical tools to me, but perhaps it's a case of tools being so advanced they seem like magic to us (or to any lesser technologically advanced civilization).
But my favorite part of the episode emphasizes the importance of science and math to our culture. The Aldeans concentrate on culture and the arts to the detriment of science, and this shows that Riker's vision of Aldea is too narrow (and must include tough subjects like calculus).
My favorite part of the episode has the dying Aldeans, and Enterprise and its crew, teach us the importance of science.
For example, one of the opening scenes of the episode has a little boy, Harry, run away from his calculus teacher, bump into Riker, and get sent back to class by his father. But later Harry gets selected by the Aldeans for his hidden sculpting ability.
After the crew of Enterprise use their knowledge of science and technology to outsmart the Aldeans and get their kids back, Harry tells his father he wants to quit calculus and become a sculptor. His father says Harry can do anything he wants, but he must continue to study calculus.
Yes! Calculus and science are important for this very reason. If our culture allowed our citizens to quit tough subjects, we would no doubt become as superficial and as purely artsy and lazy as the Aldeans. (For all the teachers out there, the next time a student whines about the meaninglessness of your subject, especially science and math, just tell them about the miserable Aldeans and our own dark ages.)
The episode works for me since I loved its pro-science message, and it also has a well thought out vision of a misguided, mere artsy driven civilization.
Two of the leaders of the Aldeans make contact with the Enterprise for the purpose of trade. However, they want a few Enterprise children to help replenish their infertile population. Picard, of course, refuses, so the Aldeans use their superior technology to steal a few specially selected children.
So "When the Bough Breaks" (Episode 16, Season 1, Air Date 02/15/88, Star-date 41509.1) introduces the Utopian world of Aldea and its many advancements, and it has the Enterprise crew try to rescue their stolen children back from the Aldeans.
Riker describes the vision of Aldea as a highly technologically advanced world in which people are free to pursue a life of art and culture and peace. His picture of the Aldeans is basically true of the world in some ways, but the Aldeans have also lapsed in their knowledge of science and medicine.
*Spoiler's Follow*
We have to watch much silly sensationalism in the process (as Spock would call it!). Yes, humans are attached to their kids and we are willing to die for them. So we ignore the potential for trading our children to leap years ahead in science (the Aldeans promise to exchange some of their scientific knowledge for some of our children). But, it seems, the information the Aldeans offer to us probably isn't as valuable as they suggest since (as we later find out) they don't even know how it works anymore!
Wesley also learns the Aldeans have lost their knowledge of the way their technology works. This leads the Aldeans to fail to discover a radiation leak or radiation side effect coming from their power source. It causes them to become infertile, become sensitive to light, and lose their appetite.
Some Aldean power is well intact, however. Radue, a leader of the Aldeans, uses a repulsor beam to blast the Enterprise far away (three days at warp 9) as a demonstration of his power.
But Wesley leads the children in nonviolent and peaceful resistance, having the other children refuse to eat, while Picard makes his way back to Aldea.
Some minor plot points include:
(1) Aldea uses technology to bend light around its planet and make itself invisible to outsiders.
(2) The Aldeans use a Custodian central computer and power system to take care of all their physical and technological concerns.
(3) The Aldeans can scan for hidden abilities and potential within the children they steal. Apparently they have scanning technology that discloses inner skills for music (Alexandra), sculpting (Harry), or science and technology (as in the case of Wesley).
(4) The Aldeans have cameras all through their civilization, so Wesley can ask the Custodian to show him a few of the other children. Does this make anyone there worry about privacy?
(5) One of the little girls (Alexandria) learns to use a musical device that senses her music-thoughts-or-feelings. Harry learns to sculpt with a tool that draws out his inner image of a dolphin sculpture. These seem like magical tools to me, but perhaps it's a case of tools being so advanced they seem like magic to us (or to any lesser technologically advanced civilization).
But my favorite part of the episode emphasizes the importance of science and math to our culture. The Aldeans concentrate on culture and the arts to the detriment of science, and this shows that Riker's vision of Aldea is too narrow (and must include tough subjects like calculus).
My favorite part of the episode has the dying Aldeans, and Enterprise and its crew, teach us the importance of science.
For example, one of the opening scenes of the episode has a little boy, Harry, run away from his calculus teacher, bump into Riker, and get sent back to class by his father. But later Harry gets selected by the Aldeans for his hidden sculpting ability.
After the crew of Enterprise use their knowledge of science and technology to outsmart the Aldeans and get their kids back, Harry tells his father he wants to quit calculus and become a sculptor. His father says Harry can do anything he wants, but he must continue to study calculus.
Yes! Calculus and science are important for this very reason. If our culture allowed our citizens to quit tough subjects, we would no doubt become as superficial and as purely artsy and lazy as the Aldeans. (For all the teachers out there, the next time a student whines about the meaninglessness of your subject, especially science and math, just tell them about the miserable Aldeans and our own dark ages.)
The episode works for me since I loved its pro-science message, and it also has a well thought out vision of a misguided, mere artsy driven civilization.
"Our children are not for sale at any price!"
classicsoncall9 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The inconsistency in this episode's story line is revealed more than once as it proceeds, the main one being that the advanced culture of Aldea was able to send the Enterprise three days away using a repulser beam, but somehow wasn't able to discover that their own depleted ozone layer was contributing to their sterility and the death of their race. I mean, they had hundreds of years to figure that out. That, along with the fact that their planet's force shield experienced fluctuations allowing the Captain (Patrick Stewart) and Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) to secretly beam aboard didn't speak very highly of the Aldean's centuries old technological advantage. It's disappointing that one can pick up on the flaws of the script so easily, especially coming two decades after the original Star Trek series. The best idea here, and I hate to give Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) credit for it, was to go on a hunger strike in a passive resistance strategy to stymie the Aldeans while Picard's intervention was being executed. And come to think of it, with over a thousand crew members and their families aboard the Enterprise (according to the NG writer's manual), would it have been such a stretch to suggest that some of them might have wanted to live on an ideal planet with an advanced culture? Heck, I might have even gone for it!
When the Bough Breaks
Scarecrow-8817 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
If I'm honest, "When the Bough Breaks" isn't a bad episode, but it is just a bit too sappy for my tastes and once again exploits, "Hey, we got the star of Stand by Me in our cast, let him be the pick of the litter if special kids are to be kidnapped by an alien world in need of offspring to restart civilization". I just explained the plot in that quote. There's this world with all the wonders one could ever dream of. A machine's core furnishes the people all they need in comfort and luxury. It even cloaks the planet, therefore hiding it from possible threats! However, this very machine's core that gives them everything also causes radiation that makes them sterile. No children left and the people are all slowly succumbing to the radiation poisoning that will soon leave their world desolate and dead. Technology, sophisticated and advanced, will prove to be difficult for Picard and the Enterprise crew as they try to uncover a means to beam the kidnapped children back aboard the ship. Parents losing their children is horrifying enough, but the helplessness of not being able to get to them because of a technology so advanced even a galaxy class starship cannot free them is just as scary. Like I mentioned at the very beginning, the plot in itself is not bad, but the brunt of the episode features the cutesy kids placed in a situation where they like the people on the planet yet desire to return to their own parents on the Enterprise. This episode is all about getting the most of Wil Wheaton, a child star I guess Paramount felt needed to be shoved down our throats until we gag. Nothing against Wheaton, really, (I do love his episode with a young Ashley Judd called "The Game"), but that first season sure got him in the plots as much as possible so that the young audience would perhaps be lured to watch. Whatever the case, he gets the other children to strike so that the aliens (led by The X Files' Jerry Hardin and Brenda Strong, a veteran actress of television) will maybe get mad and want them to leave. Picard and company do believe there is a glitch in the planet's shield technology, or at least in the people's machine (it requires certain voices to command it, and the downfall of the surviving aliens is allowing Wesley access to it) which controls it, and this might be the answer to rescuing the children
This episode pokes fun at Picard's discomfort with children.
The obvious solution avoided again
bloopville14 February 2016
Another poster pointed out that some various obvious civilized, peaceful and mutually beneficial solutions were ignored, before sterility issue was discovered.
1. I am sure there are numerous families that would love to immigrate to this paradise.
2. There must be plenty of orphans for the existing families. Why must superior species always be unethical? (and speak perfect English and be bi-pedal humanoids living in suburban splendor).
The other frustrating thing, after 100s of contacts with these superior species both in TOS and TNG, why doesn't the Federation have any of these vastly superior technology that can push a starship 3 days away from a planet at warp 9, instantaneously?
1. I am sure there are numerous families that would love to immigrate to this paradise.
2. There must be plenty of orphans for the existing families. Why must superior species always be unethical? (and speak perfect English and be bi-pedal humanoids living in suburban splendor).
The other frustrating thing, after 100s of contacts with these superior species both in TOS and TNG, why doesn't the Federation have any of these vastly superior technology that can push a starship 3 days away from a planet at warp 9, instantaneously?
No behavioral consistency
Pedro_T13 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
You've probably read what this episode is about, so I'm not going to reiterate it here.
My main concern with this episode is the portrayal of basic human behavior. The second the children are beamed to the surface of an alien planet they're not scared, sad or in distress, no: one girl happily flies in the arms of a complete stranger. They immediately seem to accept their fate. One boy seems happy he doesn't have to do any calculus anymore. Does that define this kid? Doesn't he love his parents?
Meanwhile the crew of the Enterprise acts as if this all happens in a vacuum: they try to solve the problem right there and then. What about the Federation? Is one planet confined race willing to wage war with an entire Alliance? Why doesn't Picard contact them? He had the exact location, surely one planet can't withstand an army of space ships? Why isn't this option even mentioned in the negotiations?
Near the end of the episode finally we see some genuine emotions portrayed by the children. But it doesn't matter. The day is saved by the Enterprise crew hacking into the all powerful alien system. "You've destroyed us", says the leader of the child abductors, only to do a complete 180 mere seconds later "we have to learn again". Impossible to follow the motivations of this character.
This complete lack of consistency in characters is what makes this episodes and many in this first season so bad. Not a single character seems to have a real life outside the lines that are read from the script. This becomes painfully obvious when momma Crusher is briefly rejoined with her son and sort of awkwardly embraces him. It's peak cringe.
My main concern with this episode is the portrayal of basic human behavior. The second the children are beamed to the surface of an alien planet they're not scared, sad or in distress, no: one girl happily flies in the arms of a complete stranger. They immediately seem to accept their fate. One boy seems happy he doesn't have to do any calculus anymore. Does that define this kid? Doesn't he love his parents?
Meanwhile the crew of the Enterprise acts as if this all happens in a vacuum: they try to solve the problem right there and then. What about the Federation? Is one planet confined race willing to wage war with an entire Alliance? Why doesn't Picard contact them? He had the exact location, surely one planet can't withstand an army of space ships? Why isn't this option even mentioned in the negotiations?
Near the end of the episode finally we see some genuine emotions portrayed by the children. But it doesn't matter. The day is saved by the Enterprise crew hacking into the all powerful alien system. "You've destroyed us", says the leader of the child abductors, only to do a complete 180 mere seconds later "we have to learn again". Impossible to follow the motivations of this character.
This complete lack of consistency in characters is what makes this episodes and many in this first season so bad. Not a single character seems to have a real life outside the lines that are read from the script. This becomes painfully obvious when momma Crusher is briefly rejoined with her son and sort of awkwardly embraces him. It's peak cringe.
Whatever
wiltoncarter6 October 2021
Oh Oh
Boaz77731 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The Aldean leader said that they took these seven children because they were "special". Apparently, even though the Aldean people are dying off and can no longer reproduce, they only want to be replaced with White people.
The whole 'replace the population' idea with these kids would take a very long time. Wesley is 15 years old, and the other children are quite a bit younger. Why would the Aldean's want to wait so long before the next generation could be born? (Add to this the behind-the-scenes creepiness of one of the younger boys and one of the younger girls are Wil Wheaton's siblings in real life.)
For the plan to truly work, the Aldean's should have been trying to recruit young adults instead of children.
The whole 'replace the population' idea with these kids would take a very long time. Wesley is 15 years old, and the other children are quite a bit younger. Why would the Aldean's want to wait so long before the next generation could be born? (Add to this the behind-the-scenes creepiness of one of the younger boys and one of the younger girls are Wil Wheaton's siblings in real life.)
For the plan to truly work, the Aldean's should have been trying to recruit young adults instead of children.
Shut Up Wesley
Gerardrobertson6127 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This was another S1 bummer of an episode. An alien race kidnaps half a dozen kids, including Wesley, pity they didn't leave him there.
Not sure what the point was for this episode, the only amusing section was Picards interaction with the kids knowing his awkwardness towards them.
Alexandra was a pain in the butt, and for me, a pity bland and useless episode.
A Senior Trekker writes.................
celineduchain26 December 2021
Writing in 2021, it is great to see that I am not the only person taking a retrospective look at Star Trek, the Next Generation. When this series was first released in 1987, a little less than twenty years after the end of the Original Series, many people thought that, without Captain Kirk and his crew, it couldn't really be Star Trek. However, original creator Gene Roddenberry, was fully invested in the casting, writing and overall look of the new series, so let's see how it shaped up:
This is the episode where the Enterprise visits the environment destroying/child stealing world of Aldea. It is so heavy with Allegory it barely manages to get off the ground. I don't think the writers could possibly have foreseen the damage that the residents of Planet Earth would do to their own habitat in the ensuing thirty plus years or how heedless they have been to such warnings.
As for child stealing, that's another very serious issue that has not necessarily been eradicated. As the New Life Children's Refuge from Idaho found out in Haiti in 2010 to their eternal dishonour.
The guest actors did a reasonable job, though, and I believe I heard somewhere that Will Wheaton was a kindly shepherd to the younger child actors off screen as well as on.
Some "issue" episodes don't stand the test of time but I seem to remember that this one NEVER worked all that well.
(Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5)
This is the episode where the Enterprise visits the environment destroying/child stealing world of Aldea. It is so heavy with Allegory it barely manages to get off the ground. I don't think the writers could possibly have foreseen the damage that the residents of Planet Earth would do to their own habitat in the ensuing thirty plus years or how heedless they have been to such warnings.
As for child stealing, that's another very serious issue that has not necessarily been eradicated. As the New Life Children's Refuge from Idaho found out in Haiti in 2010 to their eternal dishonour.
The guest actors did a reasonable job, though, and I believe I heard somewhere that Will Wheaton was a kindly shepherd to the younger child actors off screen as well as on.
Some "issue" episodes don't stand the test of time but I seem to remember that this one NEVER worked all that well.
(Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5)
Child abduction.
Blueghost22 May 2023
Another soft peddled episode that looks at a form of child abduction. I say soft peddled because real child abduction, at least in the news, usually deals with sexual abuse and murder of said child. Not always. I think I heard tell that disaffected or divorced parents comprise a good number of abductions, though I can't recall exactly.
The result is that you get an episode that looks at negotiating a way to get the children of the Enterprise back on board, yet in the end captain and crew resort to a Captain Kirk solution but without the action you might expect from Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Bones, et al.
So, again, it's a show designed for a broader audience overall; both sexes both younger and older than the audience for the old show produced in the 1960s.
I guess my real gripe here is why any of the producers decided that slapping on the Star Trek name was a good move for this TV show. Personally, had I produced it, given the themes, I would have situated it on a colony world in a space oriented civilization, but in a purely different fictional setting, or if it was to be the same fictional setting, then Star Fleet would be service that only rarely came to visit.
In this episode children are given everything they want, even a no-need to go to school desire is satisfied. It's allegorical for the abuse such victims suffer from their abductors, and again the show is geared towards not just a broader audience but one that has the female viewer in mind. In my opinion when you try to satisfy everyone you wind up satisfying no one. But perhaps that thinking is erroneous, as this show did develop a huge following in spite of its obvious flaws. Which tells me that the catering to both a broader and younger audience, with a stronger emphasis on female characters, served this show's function.
But, for all that, like I say Picard and crew rely on a Captain Kirk solution, but without the derring-do of neither Kirk, Spock nor the rest of the Enterprise's crew. That's because the emphasis wasn't on the plot as such but how the parties might talk or interact with one another to get the kids back to where they belong.
If you like that sort of thing, then more power to you. But, like I say, I stopped watching after the first season because of episodes like this, and their execution. Like the producers stated, "This is not your father's Star Trek", and they kept true to their word.
I'm done being angry about it, and now shrug my shoulders at the whole thing. No amount of protesting would change their minds nor magically alter the show to something I think I would have enjoyed. But it is galling to finally discover, after all these decades, the true agenda behind TV, why it's so hard to get into the film and TV industries, knowing that there are a few million writers and would be producers out there who would have done a better job, but were kept at arm's length for the afore mentioned reasons. And that in spite of the altering of the fiction, because the show had the Star Trek label on it, people ate it up regardless.
Child abduction is no laughing matter, but this episode is almost laughable. It keeps a serious tone but keeps the abduction and what happens to the children in G-Rated territory. Is that a good thing? I don't know. Again I never became a fan of this show, so you'll have to decide for yourself.
And I think that's all I have to say about this TV series.
The result is that you get an episode that looks at negotiating a way to get the children of the Enterprise back on board, yet in the end captain and crew resort to a Captain Kirk solution but without the action you might expect from Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Bones, et al.
So, again, it's a show designed for a broader audience overall; both sexes both younger and older than the audience for the old show produced in the 1960s.
I guess my real gripe here is why any of the producers decided that slapping on the Star Trek name was a good move for this TV show. Personally, had I produced it, given the themes, I would have situated it on a colony world in a space oriented civilization, but in a purely different fictional setting, or if it was to be the same fictional setting, then Star Fleet would be service that only rarely came to visit.
In this episode children are given everything they want, even a no-need to go to school desire is satisfied. It's allegorical for the abuse such victims suffer from their abductors, and again the show is geared towards not just a broader audience but one that has the female viewer in mind. In my opinion when you try to satisfy everyone you wind up satisfying no one. But perhaps that thinking is erroneous, as this show did develop a huge following in spite of its obvious flaws. Which tells me that the catering to both a broader and younger audience, with a stronger emphasis on female characters, served this show's function.
But, for all that, like I say Picard and crew rely on a Captain Kirk solution, but without the derring-do of neither Kirk, Spock nor the rest of the Enterprise's crew. That's because the emphasis wasn't on the plot as such but how the parties might talk or interact with one another to get the kids back to where they belong.
If you like that sort of thing, then more power to you. But, like I say, I stopped watching after the first season because of episodes like this, and their execution. Like the producers stated, "This is not your father's Star Trek", and they kept true to their word.
I'm done being angry about it, and now shrug my shoulders at the whole thing. No amount of protesting would change their minds nor magically alter the show to something I think I would have enjoyed. But it is galling to finally discover, after all these decades, the true agenda behind TV, why it's so hard to get into the film and TV industries, knowing that there are a few million writers and would be producers out there who would have done a better job, but were kept at arm's length for the afore mentioned reasons. And that in spite of the altering of the fiction, because the show had the Star Trek label on it, people ate it up regardless.
Child abduction is no laughing matter, but this episode is almost laughable. It keeps a serious tone but keeps the abduction and what happens to the children in G-Rated territory. Is that a good thing? I don't know. Again I never became a fan of this show, so you'll have to decide for yourself.
And I think that's all I have to say about this TV series.
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