“Justice” is written by: Worley Thorne, from a story
by: Ralph Wills (a pseudonym for John D.F. Black) and Worley Thorne, and is
directed by: James L. Conway. It was
produced under production code 109, was the 8th episode of Star
Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on November 9, 1987.
“Justice” may be the first episode of Star Trek:
The Next Generation that suffers from outright bad politics among other
things. It’s an episode that doesn’t
really know what it wants to say and seems to not understand how story
structure works. Beginning at the
ending, there isn’t actually a resolution to the episode. The Enterprise crew just decide to
leave the society because they are allowed to leave by the godlike entity that
makes up the B-plot of the episode. They
don’t change the society, Picard just makes a speech amounting to the simple
idea of justice not dealing in absolutes and needing nuance. I suppose that could be seen as enough to change
the society, or at least what writer Worley Thorne was intending to be
portrayed but between a weak script and particularly static direction it isn’t
properly communicated. Not helping
matters is that the lead in to what is the final scene is written and framed as
if it’s a setup for something more, potentially even a second part of the
episode which also feels like the wrong decision since there isn’t enough meat
on the bones of the episode to justify a second part. The actual plot of the episode on paper is
one that seems fine: the Enterprise arrives on the planet Edo which has
a rigid system of justice, a crew member falls afoul and is set to be put to
death for the infraction and the rest of the crew have to save them. The rigid sense of justice is where the
political allegory falls apart: it’s ridiculous enough that the great crime of falling
on some flowers is treated with death as every crime is, but only if it’s a
crime committed in a consistently moving zone.
This idea is played 100% straight, by the way, and I have the sneaking
suspicion that John D.F. Black intended the pitch to play it for satire and
Thorne wanted it played straight.
It’s also Wesley Crusher who falls on the flowers and
is going to be put to death, and for whatever reason Wil Wheaton is given
little direction or material to work with.
Much of the script has characters talk over Wesley as a character,
Picard getting the most pathos when it comes to the emotional fallout of the
sentence. The script describes Wesley as
scared, an emotion that should be completely justified, but it doesn’t seem
that much of the cast actually cares that this child is going to be put to death. It’s also a script that tries to escalate
that the rest of the crew would be put to death but the zone had been moved
immediately following the infraction.
Wheaton as an actor can clearly give a better performance, he did two
episodes prior in “Where No One Has Gone Before”, the focus just isn’t on
Wesley and the way he deals with his own death.
Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher is equally as poorly served by the
episode, getting very little material to work with even though it’s her son
that is being put to death. Her delivery
is particularly flat, lacking any emotion or urgency for saving her son. Now I think part of this is James L. Conway’s
direction being flat because in previous episodes McFadden hasn’t struggled
with this type of emotional scene. Yes,
she might have underplayed it but never to the point that you didn’t believe
she cared for her own son like this episode implies.
There’s also the portrayal of the sexual element of
the episode. “Justice” wants to make Edo
a classic false utopia, fully open to displays of sexuality and peace which to
be fair is progressive for the late 1980s in concept. In execution, it comes across as awkward: Jonathan
Frakes is honestly the only actor who seems to be comfortable enough with
sexuality on display and everyone else, even the actors playing the Edoans,
feel uncomfortable in the situations.
The society is just too over the top in everything, that the overexpression
of specifically heterosexuality doesn’t actually fall in line with the society
as created. It reeks of a writer and a
show that is really lacking confidence, something that honestly seems
emblematic of where Star Trek: The Next Generation is as a show. It’s very much trying to let Gene Roddenberry’s
ideas go wild, Roddenberry was very much into portraying sex and sexuality even
if it comes across as awkward when mixed with the standards and practices of
the 1980s.
Overall, “Justice” is an episode that doesn’t really
work with the whole concept of justice as a theme. The messaging is shallow, likely because of
three competing voices behind the scenes (while not credited it’s clear Gene
Roddenberry as showrunner brought his own eye to the script). John D.F. Black demanding a pseudonym should have
been a sign that this script is not working.
As an episode it feels like such a step backward for what the show was
doing in terms of writing and especially performances. After three episodes of mixed quality that at
the very least had the cast start to click, “Justice” is an episode that is already
weak in terms of scripting but nobody seems to have chemistry. It’s a sharp downturn in a show that with
each week amazes me in terms of how successful it became on the weaknesses of
this first season. 2/10.
