“Homeward” (7×13)

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There is a lot to like about this episode, but it is fatally undermined by what I feel is the writers’ misunderstanding of the purpose and intent of the Prime Directive.

It is, inherently, somewhat arbitrary: The Federation avoids interfering in pre-warp civilizations while engaging with civilizations who have crossed the warp barrier because that was the practice and custom of the Vulcans, one of the Federation’s founding members. The Prime Directive serves as a safeguard against cultural pollution and imperial ambition. Neither of those concerns are relevant in the face of an extinction-level event; if all sentient life is about to die, than there’s nothing to preserve.

But to see a group of people drowning and not offering them the use of the lifeboat you have on hand and ready isn’t an act of preservation, it’s an act of destruction — an act of destruction far more certain than whatever consequences arise from engagement. As Jefferson Smith said in a famous old movie: “I wouldn’t give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn’t have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too.” The writers seemed to forget that with this episode.

However, once they get past the captain’s desire to leave everybody to die, the episode picks up considerably. The conflict driving the rest of the episode — relocating the village to a new planet without making them aware of their place in the cosmos — is strong enough and interesting enough that I wish that had been the assigned mission from the beginning. Worf’s adoptive brother impregnating one of the locals, and the historian escaping the holodeck and being unable to cope, would have still allowed for a lot of the episode’s explorations of the Prime Directive and its implications.

Paul Sorvino doesn’t even attempt to play Nikolai as Russian, a stark contrast to the depiction of Worf’s adoptive parents in earlier episodes. It also means that a bad accent doesn’t get between the two brothers as they work through their issues.

Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:

Penny Johnson pop up here as one of the Boraalan villagers. She would go on to have an important future role on DS9 as Kasidy Yates, a freighter captain who emerges as Benjamin Sisko’s primary interest aside from his late wife.