Justice (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
"Justice" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In this episode, Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) is sentenced to death after inadvertently breaking the law on an alien planet.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) must deal with the powerful and mysterious protector of the planet while deliberating whether to violate the Prime Directive to save Wesley's life.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) sends Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) as part of the away team to evaluate the planet on behalf of the young people on board the Enterprise.
Upon their arrival, they are greeted by Rivan (Brenda Bakke) and Liator (Jay Louden) in a very comfortable way, prompting Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) to determine it a "nice planet", while Wesley leaves the adults to socialize with native teenagers.
A small ball of light enters the bridge and communicates with Picard in a booming voice, warning him not to interfere with the Edo, calling them his "children".
On Rubicun III, the Edo explain to Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) and Worf that capital punishment is used to enforce their laws.
The away team rush to warn Wesley, only to discover he has accidentally broken a greenhouse while playing catch with the Edo youths.
An Edo mediator, or policeman, attempts to give Wesley a lethal injection for this infraction of the law, but Yar and Worf draw their phasers.
Some Edo interpret this stance as an attempt by the Federation to push their superiority and suggest that Picard should mount a rescue effort for the boy.
His idea was based on a film treatment detailing the colony planet of Llarof where capital punishment is handed down as a sentence for any offense except against those who are immune from the law.
The planet would have had a rebel faction who wanted to overthrow the laws, which Picard refused to back initially while citing the Prime Directive.
[1] Josh Clark, who plays a Conn officer in "Justice", later appears as Lt. Joe Carey in all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager.
On the other hand, he thought the episode showed a proper dynamic between Picard and the bridge crew, and he believed it tackled a real ethics problem in a manner more frequently seen in the 2004 Battlestar Galactica television series.
Hunt also thought multiple plot details were not addressed, such as the origin of the alien entity and the reason for the Edo's fear of it.
[15] This included the first season episode "Justice", and the box set has a total runtime of 638 minutes across multiple 12-inch optical video discs.
