I misspoke in my previous Star Trek The Next Generation review, I saw maybe a dozen or so episodes of this show's run, checking in once or twice a year after the first season to see if the show had improved. This episode was one that I saw and continued to puzzle me about what the show was aiming for or really about.
Nll
As it turns out Star Trek The Next Generation was about exploring interpersonal relationships, with some plot elements tossed in to keep it science fiction. In this case it's Data with amnesia wandering a world whose renaissance era people fear and envy him both for his physical strength and intellect.
But the only plot here is Data trying to get home while navigating a people whose understanding of their physical world is comparatively ancient.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... er, ship, "counselor" Troy wants more from her career and role on the U. S. S. Emterprise-D. So, as Data talks with a people going through a renaissance, Deana Troy talks with Dr. Crusher and Commander Riker about her role on board ship.
So, it's more talking. A lot of Star Trek The Next Generation fans call this show more intellectual than Star Trek from the 1960s, but just as people like me failed to realize that this show was about personalities interacting and relationships, so it is that fans of this show failed to realize that old school Star Trek was about looking at criminal situations blossoming into social or international catastrophes.
Data uses a crisis to help recover who he is, while Counselor Troi is challenged to find a solution to a no win situation. I shrugged my shoulders at it when I first saw it. It had more energy than a lot of the other episodes, but again the actual plot acts only as a backdrop for the interpersonal conflicts, which is the emphasis in Star Trek the Next Generation.
The episode explores ignorance on a number of levels, and self worth. Things work out in the end.