episode #21: The Arsenal of Freedom

THE ARSENAL OF FREEDOM -  episode #21 / Air Date: 4/11/88
written by Richard Manning, Hans Beimler; Directed by Les Landau


This is a story about technology getting away from its creators (see The Terminator films); in this case, it's weapons technology which wiped out a civilization. This seems to be an attack on the strategy of peace through strength - that the more powerful the weapons, the less chance they will be used. Only, it also seems the writers tried to wrap a coherent story around this high-falutin' concept and didn't succeed very well.
Also, this is a large scale story - that of a destroyed civilization - and it's tackled with a TV budget. Looking at parts of this episode, I couldn't help but be reminded of certain low budget sf films of the fifties & sixties - the ones that take place on some cheesy alien planet jungle, with hostile aliens or lifeforms chasing stranded space travelers. So, in a way, this could be fun. But, don't expect any great revelations or insights.

It also tries to throw a lot of things together: Picard beams down for some reason into danger (usually, it's Riker who beams down and certainly not both captain & 1st officer) and Dr. Crusher is injured; La Forge is in command of the ship and in conflict with the chief engineer; two newbies are at the helm; the ship's saucer section separates, per La Forge's orders (last done in the pilot). Whew. It's a bit of a jumble.
I also didn't know what to make of the scene when the injured Crusher instructs Picard on using a growing plant root for medical purposes; this comes across like a joke -- so, in the Trek universe, plants on different planets are essentially the same.  Also, the climax is reminiscent of all those TOS episodes when Kirk talked a machine to death. It's just less entertaining and maybe even an intended joke. BoG's Score: 5 out of 10