When the Bough Breaks by: Hannah Louise Shearer and is directed by: Kim Manners

 

“When the Bough Breaks” is written by: Hannah Louise Shearer and is directed by: Kim Manners.  It was produced under production code 118, was the 17^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on February 15, 1988.

 

Last week saw an episode going back to “The Deadly Years” for its inspiration, this week there is yet another inspiration from Star Trek to inform a plot of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Star Trek had several episodes that made children central to their plot.  “Miri” and “And the Children Shall Lead” are the prime examples of this, and with how Star Trek: The Next Generation likes to either remake or just go to the well of original series Star Trek ideas it is surprising that it took until over halfway through the first season to go to this particular well.  “When the Bough Breaks” like so many original series titles is a quote, this time from a lullaby, and is the first script from Hannah Louise Shearer who had the idea for the script based on the fact that the Enterprise also had several families living on board.  It’s not an inherently bad idea for an episode, and based on the premise alone could easily be set apart from Star Trek in terms of inspiration.  Star Trek: The Next Generation has the added bonus of having two main cast members playing a mother and son.  The premise is that a technologically advanced planet is suffering from planet wide infertility, so they decide to purchase the children on the Enterprise so their civilization can continue.  Aldea is a paradise ruled by a computer and the people of the planet have lost their drive to continue growing, meaning they have overlooked the obvious problem at their society.  Mainly they are actually all suffering from a form of radiation sickness that has left them infertile and eventually the crew just help them heal from it.  This is a particularly bad plot development in an otherwise fine episode, it means that there’s actually very little conflict in the episode and the reveal is treated like a grand twist.  The resolution just kind of happens really quickly, Shearer seems not to understand how to fill the episode in general as neither the plot with the kids on Aldea nor the Enterprise trying to get back after being catapulted away actually have any developments.

 

This is an episode that puts a lot on the several children making up the supporting cast, a mix of outside actors and children/siblings of the crew.  Kim Manners is the director, her only credit for Star Trek in general and while she shoots the episode perfectly fine (the final scene on the planet actually does some brilliant and foreboding lighting), she doesn’t do the best at directing the kids.  She also doesn’t do nearly enough to direct the adult supporting cast, this is an episode that knows it has to show the families who have had their children taken but they feel like day players who don’t know how to get their lines out properly.  “When the Bough Breaks” is incredibly stiff with Patrick Stewart being surprisingly the only loose actor, attempting to guide some of the kids through their performances while maintaining Picard’s stoicism and general distaste for children.  Shearer does place Wesley Crusher as the oldest child taken and therefore the leader of the kids, and Wil Wheaton also does the best with the material he has been given.  There are several moments where Wheaton has to read incredibly awkwardly written lines of exposition, but as a rallying point for the rest of the young cast Wheaton performs his task admirably.  Certainly, more than Gates McFadden who as Dr. Crusher doesn’t actually get too much to do in the episode outside of also give some particularly bad exposition.

 

Overall, “When the Bough Breaks” is an episode that honestly should have more interpersonal conflict to bring out the better performances in the cast.  The premise is something that could be a highlight of the season, but it’s an episode from a writer who gets so close to actually having something interesting happen before just kind of forgetting it (one of the Aldeans actually demands a kid of her own assigned toa different unit and that doesn’t ever actually become a conflict), and that means this ends up being a weak episode.  Shearer has a nearly competent script that desperately needs an actual angle for what it wants to say and to give actual life to the child characters, focusing on the Wesley/Beverly relationship would have made it work infinitely better.  It’s yet another below average, bland outing for Star Trek: The Next Generation as things seem to limp towards the end of the first season.  4/10.