“Justice” is episode eight of season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Enterprise has just dropped off some colonists and has discovered another Class M planet in an adjoining system. They are in orbit about it and it’s inhabited. Commander Riker has led an away team and will shortly be returning. Captain Picard is talking to Counselor Troi when Dr Crusher arrives on the bridge. The doctor really wants shore leave for the crew; establishing a colony was exhausting and they are not a supply vessel.
Riker, Data, Tasha and Geordi return at this point. Tasha has made a report on their customs and laws and Riker can’t find any negatives. Data, who has returned to his station, reports a problem with the controls; Worf states it’s the faulty reading he reported. Something is showing off the starboard bow but there’s nothing there. It’s thought to be a glitch. Regarding the planet, Picard wants to start with a small group and wants Wesley to accompany them to evaluate the planet as a place for young people to relax. He hopes it’s not too good to be true. Famous last words.
Riker, Troi, Tasha, Worf and Wesley beam down. The locals are known as the Edo and appear to be very much like humans. Two, a man and a woman, jog over to greet the away team. Neither is wearing very much. This appears to be the planet of the scantily clad attractive blondes. Troi can sense friendship and… happiness. Perhaps not the word she was going to use. The Edo are willing to escort them to the council chambers, unless they’d rather stay and ‘play.’ They will also find young people of Wesley’s age. The Edo run everywhere. Although, truthfully, not very fast; if they ran fast, they’d lose what little clothing they have on.
On the Enterprise, the glitch has been determined to not be a glitch. There’s something out there, neither in nor out of their dimension. Data hails the object to ID itself and a large station partially materialises. It’s still not entirely there. He also gets a reply, but it needs translating as well. Captain Picard asks Geordi to have a real look, which means staring out of a window with his visor.
According the Geordi, he’s never seen anything like it before, as if it isn’t really there. Data has translated the transmission; ‘it basically says ‘Stand by.’ Something small comes out of the station and enters the Enterprise. They’ve also lost communication with the away team. The object, a mostly transparent glowing ball, arrives on the bridge, and talks loudly enough to shake the ship. It wants to know why they are at the planet, and whether they plan to leave a colony. And not to interfere with its children below. It also, according to Data, asks if he is constructed for information exchange. Then attaches to his forehead, causing him to collapse.
Wesley is with three Edo children. One, a girl, wants Wes to teach her something. To play ball – with an actual ball. It looks like Wesley was expecting something different. He wants a bat and explains what such is. The others suggest they go to the gardens.
Riker is speaking to Worf about love and other things. Worf would need a Klingon woman for that. Human women are too fragile. Riker then tries, and fails, to contact the ship. He wants the away team to gather together. Tasha is being told that there is no crime on the planet. No-one breaks the laws. They have Mediators, and there is a punishment zone in one place every day, randomly selected. No-one knows where the zone will be and no-one wants to take the risk. Because no-one wants to risk death. Yes, the Edo have only one punishment. Death. Punishments for breaking the laws were apparently not in what Tasha studied. If there’s only one punishment, it’s probably easy to remember.
They need to find Wes, and quickly. They don’t find him quickly enough, though. In an astonishingly bad coincidence, Wesley accidentally hurts some growing plants when the punishment zone is active, and is sentenced to death for it.
Captain Picard has a problem. He doesn’t want Wesley to be executed, but the Prime Directive is also in play. If that wasn’t enough, the Edo’s god – a group of powerful beings that do not appear to play well with outsiders – is in orbit with them and could easily destroy the Enterprise.