Star Trek The Next Generation: Every Season One Episode Ranked From Worst To Best
24. Angel One
And from racism to sexism, the Next Generation sure did stumble a few times in their freshman year.
Conceived as a way to depict apartheid in South Africa, with men taking the role of the blacks in this circumstance, the show started with good intentions. Co-producer Hebert J. Wright remembered sitting in the writing room with Patrick Barry and Gene Roddenberry, breaking the story. Roddenberry allegedly undercut the political message of the episode by insisting that they not depict a society run by women as being better than one that was run by men.
Riker becomes a stand in for Kirk in this episode, embodying the worst of the Original Series. He struggles with the idea of Troi commanding the away team, which seems entirely out of character. This episode establishes the Prime Directive as absolute for any society, regardless of technology level, something that would later be contradicted and then confirmed again.
Perhaps one of the worst complaints about this entry is that there was nothing particularly new to be said. The apartheid message was lost in delivery and the plot just drags along until the predictable ending. Producer Maurice Hurley summed it up nicely, calling it terrible and an entry that would be best forgotten.