“The Masterpiece Society” (5×13)
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This episode centers around one of my favorite episode subgenres of Trek: The discovery of a human settlement on another world that has been cut off from the Federation/rest of humanity for decades or even centuries. It’s a story engine that provides a glimpse into another possible path humanity could have taken, often markedly different from the one pursued by the Federation and Starfleet.
In this case, they basically encounter a Gattaca planet, half a decade before Gattaca hit theaters. Through advanced genetic testing and a rigorous and strictly enforced eugenics breeding program, an entirely different kind of human society has emerged. But Gattaca and “Space Seed” imagined genetic engineering to clear superior beings in all respects. The eugenics program here sidesteps the problem of the Augments by focusing instead on specialization. Each person bred for a specific task and function in the society, and superhuman only in that one specific function.
And this story doesn’t have the same continuity issues as “Unnatural Selection“. The method of genetic manipulation is entirely different. And the colonists would have left before the ban on genetic engineering was implemented, perhaps even before the Federation was founded.
The episode portrays a successful society built around the eugenics philosophy, but also highlights the fragility of such a society. By self-isolating, the society deprived itself of the advantages of participating in a marketplace of ideas. Their technological development lagged because they couldn’t build upon the discoveries and innovations of others. But part of it, as Geordi notes, is that a lot of advancements are the result of unexpected necessity; a society where everything is planned and expected doesn’t provide opportunities for those happenstance advancements.
The bigger issue with eugenics is twofold: First, the human genome is so complex and insufficiently understood that it is different to breed humans for specific qualities successfully. Second, even if such manipulation was possible, humans don’t have a great track record of knowing what they need.
The colony is an example of that. This society performs all of its necessary functions with maximum efficiency as a result of its extreme specialization. But such extreme specialization comes at the cost of flexibility, such that only a couple dozen departures threaten to destabilize the entire civilization.
I liked that there wasn’t much in the way of artificial drama in this one; Picard, his away team, Conor, and his engineer all acted rationally and civilly.
I also liked that this is the rare TNG episode that doesn’t tie everything up in a neat little bow: This was a situation where there were no good options, only a least bad option. The Enterprise saved the colony from certain destruction, but may have only delayed the inevitable.
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