Who Watches the Watchers? (TNG episode)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Star Trek: TNG episode | |
| "Who Watches the Watchers?" | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 152 |
| Airdate | October 16, 1989 |
| Writer(s) | Richard Manning & Hans Beimler |
| Director | Robert Wiemer |
| Guest star(s) | Kathryn Leigh Scott, Ray Wise, Pamela Segall |
| Year | 2366 |
| Stardate | 43173.5 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "The Survivors" |
| Next | "The Bonding" |
"Who Watches the Watchers" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation first broadcast on October 16, 1989. The episode is based around the Prime Directive.
[edit] Plot line
In this episode, the Enterprise is called to Mintaka III to resupply and repair a Federation outpost used to monitor the Mintakan society, who are a Vulcan-like race who seem to be at the Iron Age of evolution. An accident at the outpost causes the observers concealment to be discovered.
One of the Mintakans, Liko, notices the outpost while away from the village with his daughter. Due to an explosion, the holographic rockface that concealed the federation observers disappears revealing the outpost to the outside. Liko climbs up to investigate this occurrence, and is then hurt by an electrical discharge. Dr. Crusher comes to his aid and beams up to the Enterprise with Liko.
In order to keep the interference with the Mintakan culture as minimal as possible, Crusher attempts to wipe Liko's short term memory before sending him back. After being sent back, it becomes clear the attempt did not work, and Liko recalls vague memories of seeing Picard being addressed by a distant voice. He infers that he has seen the afterlife, and that Picard is in fact their overseeing god. He informs the other Mintakans that 'the Picard' saved his life.
Since one of the Federation observers named Palmer is missing, Picard sends down Riker and Troi altered to look like Mintakans in order to retrieve Palmer. Upon arriving at the village, they realize that they have adopted 'The Picard' as their god, and they also find that the Mintakans have found Palmer, who requires great medical attention, and determined that he is an agent of 'The Picard' and choose to keep him in their custody.
Riker is able to capture back Palmer away and beam him up to the ship, but the Mintakans, who up to this point have respected Riker & Troi as distant visitors, turn against Troi as a non-believer and take her into custody.
When Picard is told of the Mintakans' beliefs, he is aghast and brusquely rejects the suggestion that he guide their society by giving them a set of commandments to follow. Saying he has no desire to send them back into the "Dark Ages" Picard is determined to repair the damage as much as possible while not further violating the Prime Directive.
After much debate, Picard finally decides he has no choice but to confront the Mintakans head on, and beams up the village leader Nuria. She immediately bows to him as his subject, but Picard begs her not to. He gives her a tour of the ship and she is astonished at their technology. Despite this, Nuria still believes Picard has incredible power, and asks him to bring back to life those who have been killed in recent floods. It finally takes the witnessing of the death of a human at sickbay for Nuria to realize Picard is just as mortal as she is, and that his godlike powers are nothing more than a technological advancement.
At the same time the village is being hit by a violent thunderstorm, leading Liko to take it as a sign that the overseer Picard is angry with Riker's actions, and that they must kill Troi to satisfy the Picard's vengeance. He and his daughter wrestle with what the overseer expects of them until Picard and Nuria show up. Liko bows to Picard and begs for forgiveness, while Picard tries to convince him that he is not all-powerful.
At this moment Liko decides he has to prove Picard's godhood to everyone by firing an arrow at him. Nuria tries to stop him from doing this, but Picard finally states that if his death is the only thing that will convince them that he is not god, then he must fire. Liko does and Picard falls to the ground. Nuria then sees that he is bleeding and shows this to Liko who has a sudden realization.
Picard is given treatment by Crusher, and goes back down for one final visit where he confesses everything that went wrong with this observational post, and about the Prime Directive. He tells them that they must develop under their own power. Before he leaves one of the children give him a gift, a sash.
[edit] Trivia
- The sash given to Picard at the end of the episode is present in the opening ready room scene in Star Trek: First Contact and in several scenes of Star Trek: Insurrection as well as through the remainder of the series, hanging from the back of his ready room chair.
- This episode was filmed in part on location at the Vasquez Rocks.
- The title of this episode is a translation of the Latin phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?".
| Preceded by: "The Survivors" |
Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes | Followed by: "The Bonding" |
