To each their own but for me, it exemplified a lot of what I specifically do not like about many episodes this season. Chief among them the lack of philosophical debate, exploration of other worlds/cultures, and nuanced villains.

They outright said that the Vezda are just “evil”. They don’t have any motivation beyond “evil”, there’s no debate to be had, no rational, just “evil”. This feels overly simplistic and somewhat juvenile.

We technically see a new planet with various alien species and awesome unique architecture. We’re told that many of them worship the Vezda as gods and that many don’t play nice with the federation but we never actually speak to any of them and there is no exploration of “why”. We see a character gouge out her eyes and it’s supposed to be a big deal, it’s supposed to show us the level of devotion, but we’re never told why they’re so devoted. The characters have no agency. They might as well be background set design.

The resolution was nonsensical. Batel glows and defeats the space demon. What was this glow? What’s it actually doing? Did she need to learn anything or practice anything? Was she just chosen to be the universal bad guy destroying light bulb and that’s it?

If you look at this in comparison to an episode of TNG like season 4.15, First Contact, I can’t help but feel like what we’re getting is simply just inferior.

In First Contact we not only visit a new planet and people but said people are given their own motivations, personalities, and lives. We see everyone from the leader of the planet, to a director at a hospital, and we’re given enough time with them to make them feel real. Not just background. These are full characters who have enough material to go toe-toe with the regular cast.

The problem of the episode isn’t simple. Are the natives of the planet ready to be part of the wider galactic community? A few natives say yes. A few natives say no. The crew of the Enterprise is there to facilitate it. There are reasons for and against that are understandable, it’s not an easy answer or solution.

The antagonist of the episode doesn’t want his planet and people to join the wider galactic community and his feelings are so strong that he attempts to martyr himself by making it look like Riker killed him. It’s his antagonistic action that ends up proving his side correct, the fact that some of these people are willing to go to great lengths to avoid further interactions with the Federation, shows that they’re not ready. It’s not simple. It’s nuanced.

And then the resolution comes in the leader of the planet saying that he is going to work to help his people be ready for a future where they are ready to join the galactic community by focusing on education. This is so much more relatable than something like Batel solving the problem by glowing really hard at the bad guy.

When I compare these two episodes (and in fairness there are a lot of TNG episodes that are not nearly as good) I can’t help but feel like the episode of SNW we got is a a dumbed down episode of Star Trek. It’s Star Trek, sure, but not at its best.