When a group of Ferengi pirates boards the Enterprise, the "children" must work with Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) to take back the ship while coming to terms with their newly found youth.

Several of the guest cast had appeared in other roles within the series before: David Tristan Birkin, Mike Gomez, Tracey Walter and Michael Snyder.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) and Keiko O'Brien (Rosalind Chao) are returning to the Enterprise from the planet Marlonia, but a transporter accident results in them changing into 12-year-old children.

Although the four still retain an adult mind, the crew have trouble taking them seriously, and Picard (David Tristan Birkin) is convinced by Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) to temporarily relinquish command of the ship.

Meanwhile, Keiko (Caroline Junko King) is dismayed by her husband Miles's (Colm Meaney) reluctance to be with her and is further saddened her daughter (Hana Hatae) does not recognize her.

While Ro (Megan Parlen) is at first upset after being reminded of her unpleasant childhood, once Guinan's (Isis Carmen Jones) enthusiasm causes her to soften, the duo begin jumping on a bed and engaging in other childish pursuits.

After Picard is returned to the schoolroom, the lead Ferengi threatens to harm the children if Riker does not unlock the computer and teach his lieutenant how to operate the Enterprise.

Riker pretends to instruct the Ferengi officer, but only spouts deliberately meaningless technobabble as he unlocks the computer console in Picard's schoolroom.

With help from Worf's son, Alexander Rozhenko (Brian Bonsall), Guinan, and Ro, they use communication badges to trap most of the Ferengi on a transporter pad with their weapons disarmed and the exit blocked by a force field.

[3] Shankar did not support the idea in the initial script that there was some sort of homonuclear molecule within DNA at the child stage of development that could be reverted to.

His work on "Rascals" was praised by executive producer Rick Berman, saying that Francis Ford Coppola would have found the job of managing four child actors a challenge.

Taylor said it remained a good idea, as she felt that only Star Trek could have a character changed into the body of the child and yet still fly the ship.

[10] In their book The Unauthorized Trek: The Complete Next Generation (1995), James Van Hise and Hal Schuster said that the episode was not as funny as it thought it was, and that the success of the Picard and the other children resulted in the adult crewmembers looking "ineffectual".

[11] Mark Jones and Lance Parkin, in their book Beyond the Final Frontier: An Unauthorised Review of Star Trek (2003), praised the child actors seen in "Rascals", in particular the work of Birkin.

He praised Birkin, but criticised Jones, saying that she "deliver[ed] every line as though looking to earn high marks in Enunciation and Condescension 101".

Handlen said that the Miles/Keiko scene was "dramatically interesting", and that the part of the episode with the Ferengi was "a nice mini-action movie that helps pick up a generally dodgy hour".

He criticized the ability of the Ferengi to take over the Enterprise, calling them "spectacularly idiotic" with Picard's plan requiring them to be "dumber than a box of hammers".

[17] The episode was released as part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation season six DVD box set in the United States on December 3, 2002.