STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION — Up the Long Ladder
When the USS Enterprise answers a centuries-old Terran distress beacon, Captain Picard must shepherd two lost Earth colonies — stubborn agrarian refugees and a brittle clone society — into a fraught plan for survival, identity, and reproduction.
A rasping, centuries-old SOS jolts the USS Enterprise into a mystery: an archaic European Hegemony distress beacon pinpoints human life in the Ficus quadrant. Captain Jean-Luc Picard dives into archival manifests and uncovers the Mariposa, a 2123 emigrant ship whose cargo — livestock, spinning wheels and a handful of settlers — hints at two very different survival strategies. He orders investigation.
The Enterprise finds the Bringloidi first: a tough, pastoral community living in caverns beneath a planet and sustained by goats, chickens and stubborn ingenuity. Riker leads the initial evacuation under punishing stellar flares; the transporter plucks roughly two hundred bringloids and their animals aboard. The script propels character: Worf faints early (Pulaski diagnoses the Klingon’s rop'ngor), Danilo Odell instantly claims the role of rakish shamán and showman, and Brenna Odell emerges as a fierce, practical leader and potential romantic for Riker. The refugees treat the ship’s technology like magic — an uproarious cargo-hold fire, livestock chaos in the transporter room, and Danilo attempting to brew poteen beside a food-replicator build a vivid contrast between agrarian life and futuristic systems. Pulaski bonds with Brenna over healing and midwifery, underscoring the emotional stakes of two cultures clashing and yearning.
The Enterprise next contacts Mariposa, a nearby Class M world whose society has diverged down a different path. Prime Minister Wilson Granger explains that three centuries earlier a ship breach left only five progenitors; the survivors turned to cloning to propagate their civilization. The Mariposans present polished civility and technological competence, but Picard and his officers quickly sense an unnerving uniformity. Pulaski isolates the crucial pathology: replicative fading — each clone of a clone accumulates genetic errors, producing a slow cultural and biological sclerosis. Granger admits Mariposa’s desperate need for fresh DNA to revive vitality; he asks to clone from the Enterprise crew. Riker recoils: personal identity and bodily autonomy make him refuse. Picard, Pulaski and the others refuse as well. The ethical debate tears at Starfleet conscience: preserve a culture by cloning, or risk violating crew agency and the moral integrity of personhood?
Tension escalates into violence. Mariposan doubles, trained and armed, abduct Commander Riker and Doctor Pulaski and drag them into a cloning lab. The clones surgically harvest tissue from the officers’ chests in a scene of clinical horror; the cloning vessels glow with half-formed versions of Riker. Geordi, suspicious after clones repeatedly lie to him and using his VISOR to detect physiological cues, tracks and helps rescue them. Riker, enraged at the theft of his body, destroys the developing duplicates with his phaser, and the theft of cloning equipment becomes incontrovertible proof of Mariposa’s transgression. Granger defends his actions as survivalist desperation; the moral argument becomes personal and combustible.
Picard assembles facts and faces choices. Pulaski delivers the hard scientific prognosis: Mariposa has only a few viable generations left before replicative fading becomes terminal. Riker insists on bodily sovereignty; Troi and Picard frame the larger humanitarian picture. A flash of insight ties the two colonies together: the Mariposans and Bringloidi originated from the same emigrant ship; the distress satellite that guided the Enterprise was deliberately left by Mariposa to protect the Bringloidi. The solution forms with the force of necessity and stubborn hope: genetic infusion through reproduction, not cloning. Pulaski lays out a practical sociobiology plan — a broad genetic base requires dozens of breeding pairs and cultural adjustment — and Picard pushes hard for integration rather than exploitation. Negotiations crackle: Danilo snarls at Granger’s snobbery; Granger balks at absorbing the pastoral Bringloidi; Picard refuses to allow cruelty or paternalism to win.
The story resolves in a messy, human compromise. Picard brokers an agreement: the Enterprise will transport equipment and people, set up repairs, and encourage a social program that mixes the two populations’ strengths — the clones’ technology and social order with the Bringloidi’s fertility, resilience and practical skills. Danilo spits into Granger's palm instead of shaking, sealing a pact that blends rough custom with official formality. Pulaski bluntly instructs both sides on the logistics of genetically viable family planning; she and Brenna intensify the connective tissue between cultures by sharing healing and domestic knowledge. Riker and Brenna’s flirtation gestures toward personal renewal amid cultural engineering. The Bringloidi relocate to the Mariposa colony on NB2323; Picard and the crew depart with a mixture of relief and bemused optimism, the captain’s final order — “Engage” — sending them into a universe where human adaptability remains the first and most essential technology.
Throughout, the screenplay pits ideology against humanity: cloning’s cold efficiency collides with the messy, reproductive vitality of traditional life. The plot forces the Enterprise crew to balance principle and pragmatism — they refuse to commodify bodies, they punish theft, yet they craft a solution that respects agency and ensures biological survival. Scenes from Worf’s vulnerability to Riker’s fury to Pulaski’s pragmatic compassion animate the moral core: survival demands compromise, but survival without dignity is no victory. The finale leaves the two cultures beginning the hard, intimate work of integration, honoring difference while forging shared futures.
Events in This Episode
The narrative beats that drive the story
The USS Enterprise intercepts a centuries-old Terran distress beacon, pulling Captain Picard into a profound mystery: a lost Earth colony in the uncharted Ficus quadrant. Archival manifests reveal the Mariposa, an emigrant ship launched in 2123, carrying an inexplicable mix of advanced technology and archaic agrarian tools, livestock, and a handful of settlers. Picard's scholarly instincts ignite, compelling him to uncover the truth behind this vanished civilization. Meanwhile, on the bridge, Worf dramatically collapses, a moment of unexpected vulnerability for the Klingon warrior, which Doctor Pulaski diagnoses as rop'ngor, a childhood ailment, underscoring her pragmatic compassion and his hidden depths. The ship arrives at the beacon's source, a planet ravaged by intensifying stellar flares, where scans pinpoint human life deep within caverns. Commander Riker leads an urgent evacuation, beaming aboard the Bringloidi, a resilient, pastoral community. Picard, exasperated by Riker's "altercation" with their leader, Danilo Odell, insists on immediate transport. The Bringloidi, with their entire menagerie, beam onto the Enterprise, causing immediate, uproarious chaos in the Transporter Room as goats bleat, chickens cackle, and pigs squeal, completely overwhelming Chief O'Brien. The futuristic vessel suddenly transforms into a raucous farm, setting the stage for a dramatic clash of cultures.
Picard, sitting alone in his ready room, is freed from immediate duty when Pulaski's brief report confirms Worf is 'in no danger.' That clearance removes a personal distraction and lets …
A petty logistics discrepancy noted by Data pushes Picard from quiet curiosity to active pursuit: he pulls the archived manifest for the colony ship Mariposa and reads a cargo list …
Chaos reigns as the Bringloidi refugees and their livestock flood the Enterprise corridors, a chicken escaping the Transporter Room to Worf's discomfort. Captain Picard confronts Danilo Odell amidst the pandemonium of straw, feathers, and animal droppings, the boisterous Bringloidi leader unapologetically defending his decision to bring the animals. Danilo's audacious attempts to marry off his daughter, Brenna, to Picard further exasperate the Captain, yet he finds a strange, almost absurd, amusement in the cultural collision. Doctor Pulaski provides a medical assessment, noting the Bringloidi's surprising resilience and charming spirit despite their anachronistic health issues. The culture clash escalates dramatically when a fire erupts in Cargo Hold Seven, triggered by the Bringloidi attempting to cook over an open flame. From the smoke emerges Brenna Odell, a stunningly beautiful and fiercely independent woman who immediately chastises Picard for his "hospitality" and captivates Commander Riker. Her powerful personality dominates the scene, driving the Starfleet officers from the cargo hold. Riker, smitten, lingers to offer Brenna a tour of the ship's amenities, igniting a clear romantic spark. Worf, ever the stoic observer, dryly compares Brenna to a Klingon woman, earning Picard's "condolences." The act culminates with Danilo's casual revelation of a "second colony," a bombshell that deepens the mystery and signals a new, unforeseen direction for the Enterprise's mission.
The Enterprise discovers a hidden human colony and a monitoring satellite, then learns a series of worsening stellar flares will engulf the planet in hours. Data's scans and projections force …
On the Enterprise bridge, sensor data and Data's warning that stellar flares will engulf the planet in 3.6 hours force Picard to choose immediacy over caution. Troi pleads that three …
Picard overrides Troi's cultural cautions and orders an immediate evacuation, privileging lives over protocol. Riker protests about a dispute with the colony leader, but Picard cuts him off — a …
A disorderly wave of Bringloidi refugees and their livestock overruns the Enterprise transporter room—straw, feathers and animal waste turning a Starfleet space into a pastoral chaos. Danilo Odell uses the …
Amid transporter-room pandemonium—straw, animals and refugees swarming the platform—Picard shuts down Danilo Odell's brash familiarity, refuses his handshake and asserts command by ordering Chief O'Brien to beam the Bringloidi and …
In the observation lounge Picard demands a status report and Pulaski translates the refugees from abstraction into human terms: malnourished but resilient, their preventable diseases erased by the transporter, and …
In the Observation Lounge Picard, Riker, Pulaski and Worf move from triage to policy — Picard frames the moral dilemma (resettle the Bringloidi at a starbase and risk cultural assimilation, …
During a focused debate in the Observation Lounge about where to resettle two lost Earth colonies, a klaxon screams: Cargo Hold Seven is on fire. The alarm collapses the abstract …
A chaotic wave of Bringloidi and their livestock overruns the Enterprise transporter platform, forcing Picard, Worf and O'Brien to manage feathers, straw and frightened animals while Riker emerges among the …
A chaotic wave of Bringloidi and their animals overruns the transporter platform, forcing Picard to pivot from incredulous commander to pragmatic traffic controller. He orders O'Brien to beam the refugees …
The Enterprise races toward NB2323, the suspected location of the mysterious second colony, as Captain Picard's log reflects his gamble. In Sickbay, Doctor Pulaski performs a medical "miracle," curing an ancient Bringloidi's crippling arthritis, an act of "magic" that deeply impresses Brenna Odell. A profound bond forms between Pulaski and Brenna as they discover their shared calling as healers and midwives, bridging their vastly different cultures through a common purpose. Later, in Riker's quarters, the burgeoning romance between him and Brenna unfolds in a charmingly awkward seduction, a dance of miscommunication and cultural cues. Brenna, in a bold and direct gesture, sheds her heavy skirt, inviting Riker to "start low... and work your way up" as she awaits her promised foot-washing. Meanwhile, in the cargo bay, Danilo and his cronies attempt to brew their traditional poteen, prompting Worf to introduce them to the food replicator's potent alcoholic options, much to Brenna's exasperation as she scolds her father and the men for their idleness. The Enterprise finally reaches NB2323, receiving a formal hail from Prime Minister Wilson Granger of Mariposa. An away team, including Riker, Pulaski, and Worf, beams down, immediately confronting an unnerving uniformity: multiple identical individuals, including several "Grangers." Pulaski's tricorder registers anomalies, and Riker, sensing profound unease, orders Worf to prepare for immediate beam-out. The act culminates in Granger's chilling confirmation: the entire Mariposan population consists of clones, a revelation that leaves Riker and Worf stunned, facing a society built on a deeply unsettling biological foundation.
In Sickbay Pulaski performs a small medical miracle—restoring an elderly Bringloidi's crippled hand—while calmly rebuffing his lecherous advance. The cure catalyzes a private, intimate exchange: Brenna reveals she is a …
As the Enterprise pins its heading on NB2323 (Picard’s gamble made audible in a supplemental log), Sickbay provides a grounded counterpoint: Pulaski performs a near‑miraculous restoration on an elderly Bringloidi, …
In Riker's quarters a playful, charged seduction unfolds that half-speaks two cultures. Brenna issues a blunt, culturally specific invitation — "I'm still waiting to wash my feet" — while Riker …
In Riker's quarters a charged cross-cultural flirtation resolves into intimacy when Brenna issues a blunt, culturally loaded invitation — "I'm still waiting to wash my feet" — and Riker abandons …
Brenna discovers Danilo and two cronies running a makeshift poteen still in a secluded corner of the cargo bay. Worf defuses the illicit revelry by redirecting them to the ship's …
Brenna storms into the cargo bay, violently shutting down an illicit poteen brew and forcing Danilo to accept Pulaski's proposal to send Bringloidi children to school with the ship's kids. …
As the Enterprise comes into orbit, Worf intercepts a transmission and Picard opens the viewscreen to reveal Prime Minister Wilson Granger of Mariposa. The bridge pivots from tactical alert to …
The Enterprise answers a long‑dormant Terran beacon and Picard formally identifies the ship, reopening centuries‑cold ties. Prime Minister Wilson Granger greets them with effusive hospitality but wedges in a guarded …
The Enterprise answers Mariposa's distress signal and meets Prime Minister Wilson Granger over vid‑link. Data's offhand genealogical note — identifying Granger as a descendant of Captain Walter Granger — is …
A diplomatic exchange on the bridge turns immediately tactical: after Prime Minister Granger's polished welcome, Picard moves from courtesy to command and orders an away team. Troi voices a quiet …
The away team materializes into a polished reception area and is met by a courteous Granger aide who escorts them toward the prime minister. What should be a formal diplomatic …
The away team is greeted but an eerie pattern emerges: multiple identical Mariposans move through the reception area. Riker notices the duplicates, quietly orders Worf to stand by for an …
Captain Picard, Commander Riker, and Doctor Pulaski meet with Prime Minister Granger, who reveals the tragic genesis of Mariposa: a ship breach three centuries prior left only five progenitors, forcing them to turn to cloning for survival. Pulaski quickly diagnoses their dire condition: "replicative fading," a genetic degradation accumulating with each generation of clones, leading to inevitable mental and biological sclerosis. Granger, desperate to save his dying civilization, boldly requests an infusion of fresh DNA from the Enterprise crew. Riker recoils, vehemently refusing, asserting his bodily autonomy and the profound uniqueness of individual identity, contrasting the cold efficiency of cloning with the natural, human act of having children. Picard and Pulaski stand firm with Riker, rejecting the ethical violation. Though denied DNA, Picard agrees to repair Mariposa's malfunctioning equipment. However, the Mariposans escalate their desperation into violence: armed clones abduct Riker and Pulaski, dragging them into a cloning laboratory. Geordi La Forge, his VISOR detecting the physiological tells of lies from the clones, grows suspicious and tracks their movements. In a scene of clinical horror, clones surgically harvest tissue samples from the unconscious officers. Simultaneously, on the Enterprise, Danilo Odell's historical recounting of the Bringloidi's journey, mentioning the Mariposans leaving a "guard in heaven" (the distress satellite) to protect them, sparks a crucial realization for Picard: the two colonies share a common origin. Back on Mariposa, Pulaski confirms the tissue theft with her tricorder. Enraged by the violation, Riker, Pulaski, and Geordi beam into the cloning lab. Riker discovers the horrifying sight of half-formed clones of himself and, in a visceral act of fury, blasts them with his phaser, destroying the stolen "copies." Granger and armed clones burst in, accusing Riker of murder, while Riker fiercely condemns Granger as a thief, igniting a volatile confrontation that tears at the core of Starfleet's moral conscience.
Prime Minister Granger offers a ceremonious, wide‑smile welcome that reads as diplomacy but lands awkwardly in a room charged with suspicion—Riker and Worf visibly recoil. Pulaski enters calmly, shakes Granger’s …
In Granger's office Pulaski cuts through ceremony with a blunt, clinical question that detonates the scene's tension: she asks whether Mariposa's entire population are clones. Her professional authority refocuses the …
In a tense summit aboard Mariposa, Prime Minister Granger confesses the colony's origin—five survivors who rebuilt society through cloning—and begs the Enterprise for fresh DNA. Dr. Pulaski delivers a clinical …
In Granger's office the Mariposan origin and crisis are laid bare: a society born from five survivors turned to cloning, outlawed sexual reproduction through drugs and laws, and now faces …
In Prime Minister Granger's office Picard, Riker and Pulaski confront a moral crisis: Mariposa's cloning program is failing from centuries of 'replicative fading' and Granger begs for an "infusion of …
Cramped among chickens and crying children, Danilo leads the Bringloidi in a ritualized oral history — a comforting origin myth about a ‘butterfly ship’ and a ‘guard in heaven’ left …
Amid the cramped, noisy cargo hold Danilo recites the Bringloidi origin myth — including a promised 'guard in heaven' — while Picard listens, his face shifting as pieces click into …
The cloning lab confrontation crackles with raw emotion as Granger accuses Riker of murder, and Riker fiercely condemns Granger as a thief, forcing Pulaski to intervene. Back on the Enterprise, Pulaski delivers the stark scientific prognosis: Mariposa faces terminal replicative fading within two to three generations, a civilization walking dead. Riker, still seething from the violation, demands inspection of the cloning equipment, asserting his fundamental right to bodily autonomy. Counselor Troi frames the larger humanitarian picture, but it is Pulaski who offers the radical, yet pragmatic, solution: not cloning, but "breeding stock" – a broad genetic infusion through natural reproduction. Picard, with a flash of insight, realizes the Bringloidi, the other lost colony, are the answer, their robust vitality perfectly complementing the Mariposans' technological sophistication. Tense negotiations erupt in the Observation Lounge as Picard, Pulaski, Danilo, and Granger clash. Granger recoils from the idea of integrating the "primitive" Bringloidi, while Danilo snarls at Granger's snobbery. Picard, leveraging the threat of seizing Mariposa's cloning equipment, pushes Granger toward the inevitable compromise. Pulaski bluntly outlines the sociobiological plan: numerous breeding pairs, with women having multiple children by different men to ensure a viable, diverse genetic base. Danilo, surprisingly, embraces the concept with gusto, while Granger, though repulsed, concedes to necessity. A messy, profoundly human compromise is brokered, sealed by Danilo spitting into Granger's palm – a rough, traditional pact blending with official formality. Brenna confronts Picard, grappling with her role as a potential "Eve" for a new society, but ultimately accepts her leadership, even flirting with Granger, hinting at personal renewal amidst cultural engineering. The Enterprise transports the Bringloidi to their new home on Mariposa. On the bridge, the crew reflects on the unprecedented integration, with Data offering a scientific sociobiological analysis, while Riker and Pulaski prefer Picard's more romantic, if chaotic, "cats in a sack" analogy. Worf's attempt at Klingon love poetry, ending with "the hearts of my enemies," provides a moment of bewildered amusement. Picard's final, resolute order, "Engage," propels the Enterprise forward, leaving the two cultures to embark on the challenging, intimate work of forging a shared future, a testament to human adaptability and the messy, vital force of life.
Geordi bursts into Pulaski's office and, using his VISOR, exposes that Mariposan clones have lied about the away team's whereabouts. As Pulaski runs diagnostic scans she discovers missing epithelial/stomach‑lining cells …
Geordi's VISOR and Pulaski's tricorder transform a fuzzy suspicion into a moral emergency: the Mariposans lied and Riker and Pulaski are missing epithelial (stomach‑lining) cells — the optimal material for …
Riker, Pulaski and Geordi teleport into a smoke-filled cloning chamber and discover half-formed human replicas — one shockingly resembling Riker himself. Furious and violated, Riker retrieves his phaser and, with …
Riker, Pulaski and Geordi beam into the smoke-choked cloning chamber and discover half‑formed duplicates — including a grotesque likeness of Riker. Visibly horrified, Riker fires on the developing copies with …
In the ready room Picard forces the blunt truth into policy: Pulaski delivers a clinical, heartbreaking diagnosis—Mariposa will suffer replicative collapse within two to three generations—shifting the problem from medical …
In the Enterprise ready room Pulaski delivers a bleak medical verdict: Mariposa suffers replicative fading and cloning only postpones extinction. The diagnosis crystallizes an ethical crisis—choice between technological band-aids and …
In the Observation Lounge a fraught negotiation collapses into raw leverage and an unwilling bargain. Granger's cultural snobbery and revulsion at the Bringloidi collide with Danilo's blunt pride and Pulaski's …
In a raw, decisive bargaining session in the Observation Lounge, Pulaski drops a medical deadline: Mariposa's clone line is collapsing and survival now requires radical sociobiological change. Picard leverages Riker's …
In the Observation Lounge Picard brokers a brutal compromise: Pulaski lays out a clinical sociobiological plan to save the dying Mariposan clone society — abandon exclusive cloning and rapidly broaden …
In the crowded cargo bay Brenna erupts, accusing Picard of imposing the practical and moral burden of survival onto women. Picard answers with a stark, literal choice—leave at the next …
Brenna confronts Picard in the crowded cargo bay, accusing the men of making grand plans that leave women to shoulder the practical and moral burden. Picard reframes the controversial breeding …