"When the Bough Breaks" is the 17th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
[edit] Overview
The residents of a not-so-mythical planet kidnap children from the Enterprise to start re-populating their world.
The Enterprise enters the Epsilon Mynos system, hoping to find the legendary world of Aldea, reportedly an advanced race that has the ability to hide their planet from potential threats. Aldea reveals itself to the Enterprise, and using its technology, beams down Commander Riker, Counselor Troi, and Dr. Crusher to the planet. They meet with three of the planet's elders, Rashella, Radue, and Duana. They explain that they have been unable to bear children for many years, having tried several means to do so themselves. The Aldeans revealed themselves to the Enterprise in hopes they could trade for some of the children on board with advanced technology. Riker flatly refuses, explaining that humans are emotionally attached to their offspring. The crew is returned to the Enterprise, and simultaneously, five children, including Wesley Crusher, are taken back to the planet. The crew finds they cannot beam down past a shield that surrounds a planet. The children are assigned into "units" with similar intellectual interests, and though the younger ones enjoy the time, Wesley expresses dissatisfaction with the situation. While the elders attempt to integrate him into their society, Wesley is shown the "Custodian", a centuries-old computer system that the Aldeans have come to rely on but do not understand how it works.
As Picard attempts to negotiate the children's return, the Aldeans briefly allow Dr. Crusher to reunite with Wesley on the planet. Wesley subtly hints about the Custodian to her, while she secretly passes him a tricorder scanner, allowing him to scan the elders. After Picard fails to get the Aldeans to agree to the children's return, they fire an energy weapon that sends the Enterprise spinning out of control, ending up three days away from Aldea at maximum warp. During the return trip, Dr. Crusher reviews the scanner results and finds the Aldeans are suffering from radiation poisoning which has harmed their reproductive capabilities but can be reversed if the source is discovered. On arrival back at the planet, the Aldeans warn that they can send the Enterprise an impossibly far distance if they refuse to cooperate. Picard orders the crew to try to find a way through the planet's shield while he restarts negotiations.
Wesley, aware the Enterprise is in orbit, arranges for the children to passively resist the care the Aldeans are giving them. When the Aldeans request the Enterprise's help to resolve the issue with the children, the crew finds a way to beam through the shield, allowing Commander Riker and Lt. Commander Data to sneak onto the planet. Data is able to disable the Custodian, disrupting the shield; when the Aldeans try to send the crew back, they find their controls no longer work. Dr. Crusher explains to the Aldeans that their shield has weakened the ozone layer of the planet, exposing the inhabitants to ultraviolet radiation, leaving them unable to bear children and would likely have the same effects on the children from the Enterprise. Without the shield, the ozone layer will naturally return and the Aldeans will be able to have children once again. The Aldeans recognize the error of their ways, and return the Enterprise's children and accept their help to correct the aging systems they do not know how to fix themselves, recognizing they will have to forgo their invisibility to continue their society.
- The episode's title is a reference to the third line in the nursery rhyme "Rock-a-bye Baby".
- The 1964 The Outer Limits episode "The Inheritors" has a similar plot. An alien race is dying. They have cleansed their planet of that which has killed them, but need new stock to repopulate their planet. So they arrange for five children to be "kidnapped" from Earth. The difference is that these children are the "unwanted" ones or the "doomed" ones - a blind girl, a boy suffering from a fatal illness, a cripple, and so on. In the atmosphere of the spaceship, and on the planet to which they are headed, they will be healed. In within one minute of the beginning of the episode there is a brief sighting of a tripod-leg in the turbolift as Commander Riker enters it.
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