Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: May 31, 1995
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302424267
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,360 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Television > Star Trek: The Next Generation

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
It seems pretty cute now to think about those first dozen or so episodes of The Next Generation. Laboring to establish its own identity and figure out who its characters were, the young series occasionally stumbled into various retro-cliches from hokey, sci-fi B movies. The hardbody paradise of the planet Rubicun III in "Justice" is one example: the peaceful sensualists (known as the Edo) living there are interested only in, uh, pleasure. But when Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) violates an arcane law and is sentenced to death, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is faced with a conflict over following the Prime Directive or saving the boy.

The evolution of this story is almost bizarre. Beginning with a script by John D.F. Black set on a colony called Llarof, the drama concerned Enterprise personnel caught up in the colonists' antiquated and unjust infliction of instant punishment. The Prime Directive became Picard's barrier to helping the planet's progressives change things. In any case, Gene Roddenberry and writer Worley Thorne did a radical rewrite, perhaps pulling a convenient element or two out of the classic Trek playbook by inventing the sex-obsessed Edo. Still, Stewart and his co-stars leave their imprint on the episode, and the ethical struggle to balance Federation duties with higher obligations--a struggle that helped define TNG--has its roots here. --Tom Keogh

From the Back Cover
After delivering a party of Earth colonists to the Strnad Solar System, the Enterprise beams down an away team to the planet of Rubicam Three. There, the search party discovers a pastoral land whose people, the Edo, are devoted to love, health, and the sensual pleasures.

Rubicam Three seems the perfect place for a long-overdue shore leave. But the crew's vacation idyll is shattered when Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) innocently violates an Edo law and is sentenced to the planet's only form of punishment: death. Picard (Patrick Stewart) knows the Federation's prime directive prohibits interference with the Edo's way of life. Will the captain risk the future of the Enterpriseto save Wesley from execution?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wesley learns not to step on the flowers, October 26, 2000

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"Justice" is one of my favorite Prime Directive episode from the Next Generation, mainly because it involves a great example of my favorite dilemma for Starfleet Captains: Do we really have to obey the laws of other worlds and new civilizations when they are stupid and/or wrong? The Enterprise stumbles upon the beautiful world of Edo, where the happy citizens run around half-naked. Picard declares shore leave and everyone is having a good time until Wesley accidentally steps on some flowers in a "Punishment Zone." It turns out that any crime committed in these zones is punishable by immediate death and the Edo welcoming committee never bothered to tell anybody from the Enterprise about this quaint local custom. To make matters worse, there is an interdimensional ship of powerful beings, the "gods" of the Edo, who back up their insistence that their laws be followed. Thus, Picard is faced with the rock of obeying the Prime Directive and letting Wesley die and the hard place of rescuing the lad and offending the gods..

You have to admire how seriously Picard and the crew take this absurd situation. You would think that powerful beings would eradicate crime without any need for Punishment Zones. But then you would wonder why the criminal element on Edo would not simply do what they wanted outside of the stupid little zones (Question: If you kill an Edo Mediator outside a punishment zone, can they still punish you?). To top it off, the Edo do not feel they have any responsibility to tell these strange visitors from another planet about their deadly local custom. Now that I think about it, since we have a governing entity that enforces an ineffective and nonsensical policy on people who do not know any better, this is obviously another one of those Star Trek allegories about the world in which we live today.

Ironically, given the propensity of early Next Generation episodes to take as many elements from original Star Trek shows as possible, Picard decides not to use the old "you kill him, we revive him back aboard the Enterprise, everybody wins" gambit. Probably because he used it several episodes earlier in "Code of Honor."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but the God-thing should have been avoided, July 17, 2002

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

While noble in statement and purpose, the prime directive of Star Fleet is unreasonable in practice. The very act of setting foot on a planet and interacting with the inhabitants changes the native culture. Therefore, establishing contact with new civilizations becomes an exercise is selective judgment concerning what actions to take. That is what makes this episode interesting.
An Eden-like planet inhabited by beautiful, peaceful people, the Edo, is discovered and the Enterprise establishes contact. However, the laws on the planet are arbitrary, draconian and the Enterprise crew members are not informed of the rules. When Wesley Crusher is sentenced to death for damaging a flower bed, the captain is faced with a serious dilemma, whether to accede to the wishes of the Edo for noninterference or to prevent the execution of Wesley for what is clearly not a serious crime.
The problem is further enhanced by the presence of an orbiting structure that is worshipped as God by the Edo and is probably more powerful than the Enterprise. This simplifies the problem for Picard and quite frankly was a plot feature that I could have done without. In my opinion, it would have been a better story if Picard would have had to make the choice in circumstances where he was not faced with the possible wrath of a superior power. For this reason, I only give the episode three stars.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I fell in love with Beverly Crusher in this episode..., February 15, 2003

By A Customer

I think this was the episode that I realized how loveable Beverly Crusher is. Beverly's heart is being tugged when the ignorant people of Edos are planning to put her dear son Wesley to death for the "crime" of falling into a garden. The Edos people APPEAR happy and peaceful, but appearances are deceiving since underneath, they are suspicious, ignorant, and superstitious and show no remorse for the pain and suffering they cause Wesley and his mother. I saw the wonderful mother-son bond that Beverly and Wesley share vividly here and it's touching how Beverly weeps softly when she is reunited with her son. I also love how fiesty outspoken Tasha blasted the Edos people for the corrupt sense of justice and stood up for Beverly and Wesley. Beverly is my favorite character of all science fiction.