SUMMARY: Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E defy the Federation in order to uphold the Prime Directive.
part of the Ba'ku village
Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E begins to host a reception for the latest member of the United Federation of Planets, a species that achieved warp flight and thus First Contact only a year previously and been swiftly made a Federation protectorate to bolster the number of allies in the war against expected hostilities with the Dominion and the Borg. During the reception, Picard is informed that one of his officers on temporary secondment, Lieutenant Commander Data, has run amok at a village inhabited by the peaceful Ba'ku people. Data has deactivated the holographic projector which hid the 'duck blind' housing the cultural survey team that was observing the villagers. This allows the surprised Ba'ku to see the watchers. This contravenes the Prime Directive and also First Contact protocols. Data takes the cultural survey team hostage. But Picard's first concern is to save Data, who would have to be destroyed if he cannot be repaired.
part of the Ba'ku village
The Ba'ku seem at first to be a simple race of 600 people, living in one village on their isolated world in an anomalous region of space nicknamed 'the Briar Patch'. But when Picard meets a Ba'ku woman, Anij, he gradually learns that there is more to her people than meets the eye: She, like most of her fellow Ba'ku, is more than 300 years old but looks only as old as a human female in her late 20s or early 30s. He also learns that the Ba'ku are not as primitive a society as they appear, merely that they choose not to employ technology throughout their daily lives.
The Enterprise away team that visits the planet surface find themselves rejuvenated. They also discover that there is more to the supposed cultural survey than they had been told. The survey team is being assisted by allies, the race called Son'a, and the survey is only a cover, for a plot to kidnap the Ba'ku en masse and exile them from their world. The method to be employed by Starfleet is a gigantic holographic re-creation of the Ba'ku village located aboard a space transport vehicle. It was when Data was near the vehicle that he was attacked, causing him to run amok earlier. Ru'afo, the Son'a leader, has discovered that the planet is bathed in metaphasic radiation that reverses aging. What the Ba'ku have, the Son'a — an aged, dying race — want desperately for themselves.
view from Federation 'duck blind' overlooking the Ba'ku village, with Data, in full sight of the Ba'ku villagers; those in red protective suits on the ground are part of the Federation cultural survey team; the red suits enable survey team members to move amongst the Ba'ku unseen
Picard confronts his superior officer, Admiral Dougherty with what he has learned, only to find that Dougherty and the top leaders of the Federation are part of the scheme. After all, says the admiral, there are only 600 Ba'ku. Why should they stand in the way of progress?
Data fires up at the 'duck blind'.....
....firing at the holo-emitters and....
.....rendering it fully visible to the startled Ba'ku
camouflage doors start to open onto the secret holographic re-creation of the village
Captain Picard objects: If a planetful of people can be forcibly removed from their world, destroying their way of life, where does it end? There may be only 600 Ba'ku, but how many would it take to become wrong? A thousand? Fifty-thousand? A million? But Admiral Dougherty refuses to accept his arguments and gives Picard a direct order to withdraw and return to his previous mission.
Picard: "I won't let you move the Ba'ku. I will take this to the Federation Council."
Dougherty: "I'm acting on orders from the Federation Council."
Picard: "How can there be an order to abandon the Prime Directive?!"
Dougherty: "Prime Directive doesn't apply. These people are not indigenous to this planet. They were never meant to be immortal. We'll simply be restoring them to their natural evolution."
Picard: "Who the hell are we to determine the next course of evolution for these people!"
Dougherty: "Jean-Luc, there are 600 people down there. We'll be able to use the regenerative properties of this radiation to help billions. The Son'a have developed a procedure to collect the metaphasic particles from the planet's rings."
Picard: "A planet in Federation space."
Dougherty: "That's right. We have the planet. They have the technology, a technology we can't duplicate. You know what that makes us? — partners."
Picard: "Our 'partners' are no more than petty thugs."
Dougherty: "On Earth, petroleum once turned 'petty thugs' into world leaders. Warp drive transformed a bunch of Romulan thugs into an empire. We can handle the Son'a. I'm not worried about that."
Picard: "Someone once said the same thing about the Romulans a century ago."
Dougherty: "With metaphasics, lifespans will be doubled. An entire new medical science will evolve. I understand your chief engineer has the use of his eyes for the first time in his life. Would you take that away from him?"
Picard: "There are metaphasic particles all over the Briar Patch. Why does it have to be this one planet?"
Dougherty: "It's the concentration in the rings that makes the whole damn thing work. Don't ask me to explain it. I only know that there's something in the rings that starts a thermolytic reaction. When it's over, the planet will be uninhabitable for generations."
Picard: "Admiral, delay the procedure. Let my people look at the technology."
Dougherty: "Our best scientific minds already have. We can't find any other way to do this."
Picard: "Then the Son'a can establish a separate colony on the planet until we do."
Dougherty: "It would take ten years of normal living to begin to reverse their condition. Some of them won't survive that long. Besides, they don't want to live in the middle of the Briar Patch. Who would?"
Picard: "The Ba'ku. We are betraying the principles upon which the Federation is founded. It's an attack upon its very soul. And it will destroy the Ba'ku, just as cultures have been destroyed in every other forced relocation throughout history."
Dougherty: "Jean-Luc, we're only moving 600 people."
Picard: "How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong, mmm? — a thousand, fifty-thousand, a million? How many people does it take, Admiral!"
Dougherty: "I'm ordering you to the Goren system. I'm also ordering the release of the Son'a officers. File whatever protest you wish to, Captain. By the time you do, this will all be done."
Admiral Dougherty ignores Picard's protest
[Star Trek: Insurrection]
Son'a, on the left is the leader Ru'afo
For Jean-Luc Picard, it is the time of decision. If he obeys Dougherty's order, he would violate the Prime Directive and the principles of his Starfleet oath. Instead, he takes action and mounts an insurrection. He and his senior officers take the Ba'ku to a place of safety on their planet, whilst battling attempts to transport them off-world. In deep space, the Enterprise battles Son'a starships as it races away to inform Starfleet Command of the truth of the situation. Along the way, he discovers that the Son'a and the Ba'ku were originally the same race, and that unwittingly the Federation has been embroiled into a blood feud and the the Son'a's desire for revenge.
Picard, after removing his rank pips and now wearing civilian clothes, aboard the Enterprise-E's captain's yacht; he has brought supplies of weapons and explosives
some of his senior officers come aboard the captain's yacht to join Picard's insurrection: left to right: Geordi La Forge, Will Riker, Deanna Troi, Worf, Beverly Crusher, Data
moving the villagers
small flying drones attack the fleeing villagers firing isolinear tags that enable transporters to get a lock and beam victims into a Son'a holding cell for forcible relocation; the insurrectionists shoot as many drones as they can while hurrying villagers into caves
Picard: "You've brought the Federation into the middle of a blood feud, Admiral. The children have returned to expel their elders, just as they were once expelled, except that Ru'afo's need for revenge has now escalated into parricide."
Dougherty: "It was for the Federation. It was all for the Federation."
[Star Trek: Insurrection]
DISCUSSION:
The impact of the exposure of the cultural survey to the Ba'ku might have been minimised if those in the 'duck blind' had not got up off the floor where they took cover from Data's weapon attack. As it is, they get up and look out at the astonished Ba'ku.
Picard's dilemma over the Prime Directive is clear-cut. He chooses to uphold it and thereby also his Starfleet oath. He is joined by certain senior staff, though part of the reason for their joining him is probably their feeling of deep loyalty to him.
The issues of the Prime Directive are cleverly and interestingly explored in this film. Even the reception for the latest species to be admitted to the Federation deals with, and provides us with further information about, First Contact procedures. Under the Prime Directive, in particular the Federation does not make First Contact with pre-warp civilisations. In addition, the 'duck blind' within which a secret Federation cultural survey team is housed is not an uncommon method employed to secretly observe species classified as primitive or that should not be allowed to be aware of extraterrestrials. See next point also.
There are similarities between the Ba'ku relocation and that of the Boraalian survivors in [TNG: Homeward]. The arguments that Picard tries to get Admiral Dougherty to accept and therefore amend orders regarding the Ba'ku hinge upon compassion and the Prime Directive principle of non-interference. It is sinister that Starfleet should be party to forcible relocation, but in the Starfleet plan the Ba'ku were not to know they had been relocated, through the use of a holographic re-creation of their village while in transit, and, without Starfleet knowing at the time of the Son'a's additional quest, that of revenge against the Ba'ku, the Federation's higher good is that of medical science that they expect will aid billions. In [TNG: Homeward] would not the Boraalians have objected if Starfleet had had enough notice to, and chose to, relocate them in order to preserve their society? That would have resulted in forcible relocation, but justified, as Starfleet feels with the Ba'ku, through the use of holotechnology.
It is not just the Ba'ku that the Federation should perhaps consider, but the flora and fauna on the planet.
NOTES:
Below, click links shown as ‡ for a screenshot.
The 'duck blind' observation post, as a method of secretly observing primitive peoples, is first seen in [TNG: Who Watches The Watchers]. ‡‡ As in that story, in this film the holographic protection of the 'duck blind' is deactivated, accidentally in the episode but deliberately by Data in the film. The red suits, which afford the equivalent of invisibility, are a new feature introduced to Star Trek in this film.
Some of Picard's senior officers come aboard the captain's yacht to join him in his insurrection. ‡ They are, shown left to right: Geordi La Forge, Will Riker, Deanna Troi, Worf, Beverly Crusher, and Data. All except Worf and Crusher are seen or mentioned in [Voyager], and Picard is also mentioned therein.
The supporting cast includes the following actors: Michael Horton as Daniels ‡ (plays the same role but not named in the earlier film [Star Trek VIII: First Contact], and plays Kovin in [#85 Retrospect]), Rick Worthy plays an Elloran officer ‡ (plays Automated Personnel Unit 3947 in [#29 Prototype] and Noah Lessing in [#120 and #121 Equinox]). Bruce French plays a Son'a officer (plays Ocampa Doctor in [Season 1: Caretaker]). Mark Deakins plays Tournel (plays Axum in [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]).
The Elloran species is introduced in this film. An Elloran female is seen in [#144 Life Line], being the guise adopted for a time by the Doctor while at Jupiter Station in the Alpha Quadrant. ‡
Part of USS Voyager's Briefing Room decor, the panelling, is used as part of Troi's personal quarters: [Voyager] screenshot
