Home Soil
| "Home Soil" | |||
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| Star Trek: The Next Generation episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 18 |
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| Directed by | Corey Allen | ||
| Teleplay by | Robert Sabaroff | ||
| Story by | Robert Sabaroff Karl Geurs Ralph Sanchez |
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| Featured music | Dennis McCarthy | ||
| Production code | 117 | ||
| Original air date | February 22, 1988 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes | |||
"Home Soil" is the 18th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
[edit] Overview
The crew of the Enterprise discovers a crystalline life-form with intelligence.
[edit] Plot
The Enterprise arrives at the terraforming colony on Velara III, as the project is behind schedule. The director, Kurt Mandl, insists they are on time and there is no need for the Enterprise to stay any longer, but Captain Picard orders an away team to review the project. While the away team is present, one of Mandl's team is killed by a malfunction drilling laser. While Data inspects the instrument, it begins to fire. He soon renders the instrument harmless. The investigation finds something has rewritten the programming of the laser to fire upon the terraforming staff. Investigation of the drilling holes reveal a crystal giving off irregular light and radiation patterns. It is brought aboard the Enterprise to study, while Picard orders a halt to the rest of the terraforming activities.
Dr. Crusher and Data discover the crystalline form has many of the features of life, including response to stimulus and the ability to reproduce. The crystal life form, made from several metals, attempts to interact with the Enterprise computers, and it is quickly placed into a containment force field while the crew continue their studies. The crystal begins to grow rapidly, gains access to the computer's translation program, and begins to communicate with the crew. It is clear that the crystalline life form sees the humans as an enemy in a war. Picard discovers that Mandl and his team had encountered the crystals before, and though they had considered the possibility of it being a life form, Mandl insisted on continuing the terraforming process. The crystal life form only began its attack, rewriting the laser's software, after the drilling process removed a saline water layer from the water table which seemed to act as a conductor, allowing many separate crystals to function as one life form (rather like an ant colony).
The crystalline life form begins to access higher-level functions of the computer, and Picard and the crew seek ways to remove it to the surface, as the crystal has blocked attempts to transport it down. Data and LaForge recognize that the crystal has photoelectric properties due to the presence of Cadmium and disable the lights to the medical lab. The crystal immediately begs for life. Picard peacefully negotiates with the crystal life form to return it to the surface, where Starfleet will abandon the terraforming process and quarantine the planet, leaving the life form to continue to grow in peace.
[edit] Notes
- The crew should be mentioning that the crystal has photovoltaic properties instead of photoelectric properties. Despite this in modern Photovoltaics Cadmium is used in Thin film solar cell, specially in cadmium telluride solar cells and in copper indium gallium selenide solar cells.
[edit] References
- Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 1, disc 5, selection 2.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Home Soil |
- Home Soil at the Internet Movie Database
- "Home Soil" at TV.com
- Home Soil at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- Home Soil at StarTrek.com
- Home Soil rewatch by Keith R.A. DeCandido
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