“Homeward” is episode thirteen of season seven of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Enterprise is at Boraal II following a distress call from Worf’s foster brother, Nicolai. On the bridge, Data is saying the planet’s atmosphere is dissipating and the world will be uninhabitable in under 38 hours. The distress call was only four days ago but Data says these things proceed rapidly.
The ship is hit by an energy burst caused by the dissipation, and system failures and power surges may happen as a result. Worf reports the observation post isn’t responding to hails. It appears intact, but there are no life signs. There is a power emission from caverns near the post that appears to be a deflector shield, beyond native capabilities. Worf wants to lead an away team. The captain says to minimise risk of contact with the locals to obey the Prime Directive – which seems pointless; they’ll all be dead in under two days – and to go down alone, surgically altered to pass as a native.
Whilst Worf is being altered, Dr Crusher talks to Worf about his brother. Worf says Nicolai is older and they are not alike; they had many disagreements growing up. Nicolai dropped out of the Starfleet Academy after one year, as he couldn’t followed the rules. But he has many fine qualities.
Worf beams down to the caverns afterwards and is promptly confronted by someone who says Worf isn’t from their village. Worf says he’s a traveller. He’s being asked how he survived the storms when Nicolai greets him. Worf speaks to Nicolai privately; Nicolai refused to let the natives die and knew the Enterprise was in the sector. He wants to speak to the captain. Worf is sure the opposite is true, too. They say they are heading to the surface and that Worf is a seer who can tell when the storms come.
On the Enterprise, Nicolai tells Captain Picard, Dr Crusher, Worf, Troi and Riker that he wants to create an atmospheric shield to protect part of the world. One village. The captain doesn’t want to violate the Prime Directive and says there’s no course of action they can take. Despite stopping an entire world from blowing up once. Nicolai’s request is refused, and on going back to get his logs he’s told to use the ship’s computer to transfer the data.
On the bridge, the planet’s atmosphere is dissipating. Nicolai says the uplink is complete. There is interference on the screen, then visuals are restored. The captain says they need to honour those lives they cannot save. Nicolai sees no honour in this and leaves. When the planet’s air is gone, the captain leaves the bridge and Riker orders course set to a starbase. Then a console shorts out due to a power drain which is registering on Worf’s security grid too. Riker tells him to lead a team.
This leads Worf to an in-use holodeck. He fails to gain entry then the door opens. Nicolai is inside. He beamed the population of the village onto the holodeck in a recreation of the caverns. He explains to Worf he did it when the sensors blanked, which he did. He wasn’t going to let those people die thanks to Federation dogma. Everything will work out. Worf says Nicolai has disgraced himself and Worf and wants nothing more to do with him.
In the captain’s ready room, Nicolai acknowledges that his career is over. He has a plan for what they do now. Transport the Boraalans to a different planet. Use the holodeck to make them seem as if they’re travelling to a different location that’s safe from the storms, gradually changing it to match the new planet, then beam them down. If something goes wrong, Nicolai can think on his feet. The captain is not enthused, but can’t think of another option.
Whilst looking for a suitable planet, Geordi reports a problem. He doesn’t think he can keep the simulation stable. The energy affected the ship’s systems and the simulation is being destabilised. To fix it would require shutting all the holodecks down for hours. Nicolai hopes it will remain up long enough and will return. The captain doesn’t want him going there alone and wants Worf to accompany him. Worf would prefer not to, but the Boraalans already know him and Captain Picard wants him to keep a close eye on his brother.
So, they need to depend on the holodeck to keep the plan going. A holodeck that seems barely capable of functioning properly even when not suffering problems. And, even if everything is successful, there’s only going to be a handful of people left. Likely not enough to create a new population.