THE HIGH GROUND and today

[-]

forhekset666@reddit

It's pretty realistic in that the Federation did absolutely nothing but make it worse, supply one side and then just leave them to it without mediating anything.

I thought when Picard got captured they'd finally be able to talk it all out and hear the truths.

I liked how Riker's message was completely misheard and twisted when it was delivered. We know Riker's absolutely telling the truth but all they heard was suspect lies.

[-]

HCDixon@reddit

Here's why I agree: ansata is the name of the terrorist group in this episode. That sounds a lot like intifada which means shake off in Arabic and is used to speak about the Palestinian resistance.

[-]

This is one of the most interesting episodes for Picard as a character - he's confronted with a situation where he genuinely doesn't know what the "right" answer is, and openly says as much when Data asks him if terrorism is justified when every other option fails. Usually Picard is very self-confident and self-assured when it comes to what the morally right path is, but here he isn't, though obviously he leans away from terrorism.

I don't care to enter into any modern-day political discussions (such things are cancerous to many subreddits that are supposed to primarily be positive places), but The High Ground is undoubtedly one of TNG's most thought-provoking and interesting episodes. I see it as a good companion piece to another season 3 episode, the one immediately preceding The High Ground, that being The Hunted, dealing with related topics of war, soldiers and PTSD.

My only real issues with The High Ground are 1) It was weird that Beverly seemed unphased (from what I remember) when the terrorists she spoke up in defence of so much came very close to killing her son, and 2) The episode didn't go into enough detail regarding the motivations of the terrorists to make the issue feel fully fleshed-out. Obviously they couldn't handle it with the type of depth and complexity as DS9 would handle the same topic, but a bit more info would have helped to present both sides in a more balanced manner.

Overall it's a very good episode - it makes no pretense about being any type of science fiction, so it's one of those purely political/message episodes, but by that standard it's quite good. I don't think it comes close to the greatness of similarly themed episodes like The Drumhead or The Wounded (my two favourite episodes of the series, both season 4 war/political themed ones), but it's definitely an above average episode and one of the many episodes that makes season 3 possibly the best season in the entire series.

[-]

omega2010@reddit

The episode didn't go into enough detail regarding the motivations of the terrorists to make the issue feel fully fleshed-out.

If I recall the opening Captain's Log explains that the Ansata terrorists wanted to be independent of the government who ruled the eastern continent.

Melinda Snodgrass has stated that her original script was more of a metaphor of the American Revolution (hence Finn's comparison to George Washington) but the producers wanted the story re-written to be more like The Troubles. So the original story was intended to be more of a "Both sides have a point" episode that got muddled in re-writes.

[-]

Keeping_Hope97@reddit

Interesting information, thanks for telling me. I definitely got much more of an IRA vibe from the terrorists than anything remotely close to the American Revolution. I suppose for the era this was much more topical.

[-]

YABOI888XXX@reddit

My cousin had served in Afghanistan in the Marines and although he said he had an fairly easy time as an truck driver, he wasn't immune to the horrors and experiences he had seen and been through over there. When he got back from deployment The High Ground happened to be on an rerun on BBC America he couldn't help but shed a few tears saying "He couldn't believe an Star Trek episode could tackle things like this realistically." About a decade had past and my cousin has The high ground as his favorite TNG Episode by far.

[-]

SweetBearCub@reddit

You should show him the episodes on DS9 that deal with Nog and his war stuff, and the episode where Jake and the doctor are on that planet and have to go get the generator, and Jake absolutely freaks out. I think that he would really like those episodes, and see a lot of himself in them.

[-]

YABOI888XXX@reddit

I honestly have no dobut he will. He told me a Particularly grim and horrible story on having to do an medical aid supply to an checkpoint and a K.I.A pickup run on an APC crew that hit a very nasty IED that was extremely well hidden under a dead mothers body. When he got there the APC was on fire with the completely blown up and burnt body parts still inside.

Medics didn't even bother to use a stretcher and started placing all the pieces and brain matter into several large bags that just happened to be placed in the rear view mirror. One of the eyes fell out of the bag and caused my cousin to throw up during the ride back and had to clean up the cabin as well as the cargo area...absolutely brutal and horrifying.

[-]

Pearodoxx@reddit

Idk, I've always thought the main antagonist didn't have any redeeming qualities. Yeah, he can draw really well, but I never once felt conflicted about his fighting for a cause. He's just a pos that is ready to kill anyone who doesn't let him get his way.