Star Trek The Next Generation: Every Season One Episode Ranked From Worst To Best

This episode bears similarity to both Encounter at Farpoint and the Original Series episode The Devil in the Dark. The question is asked of whether or not humanity is able to recognise life if that life doesn't look exactly like what they are used to. As for most of the run time of this episode, the humans are unable to see that these beings are alive, terrible mistakes are made.

Like The Devil in the Dark, the terraformers accidentally kill some of the creatures, causing a violent response. Maurice Hurley thought that the episode had promise but that it fell apart in the execution. He felt that because they were down to the wire in terms of finalising the sets, casting and scripts, they were left attempting to finish the episode at a run.

Despite the issues, the episode was remembered fondly. It featured a guest actor, Carolyne Barry, who had appeared in the Original Series episode Arena, linking it back again to that show. It was also the last episode that featured Gene Roddenberry in the role of head writer on the series. From the following episode, Maurice Hurley took the top spot.

While the episode shows great promise at the exploration of life, it falls a little on the effects and subsequently the ending. It feels rushed and there is no further exploration of these beings, leaving for a slightly disappointing ending to an otherwise solid episode.