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Up The Long Ladder (episode)

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Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)
"Up The Long Ladder"
TNG, Episode 2x18
Production number: 40272-144
First aired: 22 May 1989
← 43rd of 176 produced in TNG →
← 43rd of 176 released in TNG →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 176 released in TNG Remastered  
← 149th of 727 released in all →
Written By
Melinda M. Snodgrass

Directed By
Winrich Kolbe
42823.2 (2365)
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The Enterprise discovers two threatened colonies which must cooperate to survive.

Contents

[edit] Summary

The USS Enterprise-D is dispatched to the Ficus sector to investigate a distress signal; there were no known settlements in the sector, let alone human settlements. During the voyage, an idea from Lt. Cmdr. Data allows Jean-Luc Picard to find a clue to the colonists' origin on Earth, and that they left on the SS Mariposa, commanded by Walter Granger. They arrive at the source of the signal to find the star Bringloid undergoing major solar flare activity, threatening the viability of the planet, Bringloid V. There is no sign of technology other than orbital satellites that set off the signal automatically when the star became a threat.

Riker beams down and locates the colonists, the Bringloidi, the Humans of the colony threatened by the flares. The Bringloidi are a society that has spurned technology and are led by a Danilo Odell and his daughter Brenna Odell. As such, when beamed aboard the Enterprise, they insist on bringing their farm animals with them, and are set up in the roomy Cargo Hold 7. They continue about their normal activities, such as raising their animals, cooking meals (which results in the fire suppression systems extinguishing their fire-and their food), and drinking alcoholic beverages.

As an afterthought, Odell asks Picard if there ever was any knowledge learned about the "second colony". Picard orders a course set to a star only one-half light year away, which hosts a habitable planet. On arrival, they are hailed from the surface. The caller identifies himself as the prime minister of Mariposa, giving a name which includes the last name of Granger, and presumed to be that captain's descendant.

An away team composed of Riker, Worf and Dr. Pulaski visits the Mariposans, and learns that the entire society is composed of identical clones of the five original crew members who survived the ship's crash landing. However, in the process of repetitive cloning, they have abandoned the practice of sexual reproduction entirely. Suffering from a degenerative condition known as replicative fading, the colonists ask the away team members to donate fresh DNA so they can clone new citizens. After Riker and Dr. Pulaski refuse to donate DNA, the Mariposans steal the DNA from their bodies without their knowledge.

After returning to the Enterprise, Dr. Pulaski finds that both she and Riker are missing some interstitial undifferentiated cells that had been extracted from their stomachs without their knowledge. They spoke with Geordi, who was also on the away mission; with his VISOR, Geordi detected that the Mariposans were lying to him every time he asked them where Pulaski and Riker were located.

Outraged and repulsed at what the Mariposans have done, Riker and Pulaski return to the planet where Riker proceeds to murder their maturing clones, to the chagrin of the Mariposan Prime Minister.

In an attempt to help the Mariposans and resettle the Bringloidi, Picard suggests the two groups recombine and breed naturally. Prime Minister Granger looks with disdain at the technologically backward, whiskey-loving Bringloidi, while Odell is not impressed by Granger's haute attitudes. When Picard and Pulaski point out Mariposa's impending doom, Granger reluctantly agrees to the arrangement and Odell eagerly looks forward to his daughter possibly being one of the prime minister's wives.

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[edit] Log Entries

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"What have they done to my ship now?"

- Captain Picard


"My God, Picard, the place is a bloody death trap...lightning bolts falling from the ceiling! Just what the hell was that thing?!"
"Automated fire system. A force field contains the flame until the remaining oxygen has been consumed."
"Ah, wh-wh-what if I'd be under that thing?"
"You would have been standing in the fire."
"Yeah, well, leaving that aside for the moment-what would have happened to me?"
"You would have suffocated and died."
"Ah, sweet mercy."

- Danilo Odell, Worf and Picard


"I am fine."
"You're not fine, you fainted."
"I did not faint. Klingons do not faint."

- Dr. Pulaski and Worf


(Farm animals making noises in the background)
"Captain, you'd better get somebody down here. Right away."

- Chief O'Brien


"Sometimes, Number One, you just have to bow to the absurd."

- Commander Riker and Picard


"Oh ho ho ho! Right now and lets go stake out my three women. Send in the clones!"
"I must be out of my mind."
"Starfleet will probably agree with you."

- Danilo Odell, Picard, and Dr. Pulaski


"Send in the clones."

- Danilo Odell, to Wilson Granger

[edit] Background information

[edit] Story and production

  • Melinda Snodgrass remarked, "It was intended to be a commentary about immigration, because I hate the current American policy. I wanted it to be something that says sometimes those outsiders you think are so smelly and wrong-colored, can bring enormous benefits to your society because they bring life and energy. That's what I was going for. Now my boss, at the time, was Maury Hurley, who is a major Irishman and leads the Saint Patrick's Day parade. When I was describing to him what I wanted to do, I was trying to come up with an analogy, and I said it was like a little village of Irish tinkerers, and he loved it so much he made me make them Irish tinkerers. I said okay, and that's how it came about." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
  • Snodgrass admitted that rewrites and budget restrictions resulted in the intended commentary being lost.(Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
  • The episode title, "Up The Long Ladder", derives from an expression, "Up the long ladder and down the short rope", a reference to the gallows in an Irish rhyme popularized in the Tommy Makem song, "Are You Ready for a War?".
  • A draft title for the episode was "Send In the Clones", a pun on the Stephen Sondheim song "Send in the Clowns". The title was changed late in the production, after the scripts were already printed. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
  • "Brionglóid" is the Irish word for "dream".
  • Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) does not appear in this episode.
  • The African pygmy goats used in the Bringliodi scenes were bred by property master Alan Sims and his family. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
  • Just after arriving on Mariposa, Dr. Pulaski notices a sculpture holding a large sphere reminiscent of the receptacles from the TOS episode Return to Tomorrow, which also featured Diana Muldaur.

[edit] Reception

  • "Up the Long Ladder" was criticized from two directions. Snodgrass recalled, "I got enormous flack from the right to life coalition because they destroyed the clones. They thought I was condoning abortion. In fact, I did put a line in Riker's mouth that was very pro-choice and the right to life coalition went crazy. He says I told you that you can't clone me and you did it against my will, and I have the right to have control over my own body. That's my feeling and it was soapbox, and it was one I got to get on. I was supported by Maurice all the way." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
  • On the other hand, the episode was criticized by Irish Americans for presenting an overly-stereotyped and somewhat racist view of their culture. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
  • Ronald D. Moore called it "embarrassing". (AOL chat, 1997)

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Special Appearance By

[edit] Guest Stars

[edit] Co-Stars

[edit] References

2123; 2165; 2190; 2365; automated fire system; Bringloid; Bringloid V; Bringloid V colony; Bringloid system; Bringloidi; butterfly; Cargo Hold 7; cellular com link; concertina; chech'tluth; chief of staff; chromosome; class M; clone; Dieghan, Liam; distress beacon; DNA; DY-500; epithelial cells; European Hegemony; Ficus sector; glucose; Granger, Walter; Ireland; light year; Mariposa, SS; Mariposa colony; Mariposans; measles; medical tricorder; minister; monitor beacon satellite; Moore, Admiral; Neo-Transcendentalism; Old Earth Calendar; poteen; prime minister; rop'ngor; replicative fading; SOS; Spanish; spinning wheel; Starbase 73; Starbase Research; stellar chart; stomach; synthehol; tea ceremony, Klingon; transporter room 3; VISOR; whiskey; World War III; Yoshimitsu computer; Irish language

[edit] Additional References

2102; 2105; 2119; 2120; 2135; 2137; 2146; 2160; 2183; 2187; ADR looping; Alderaan; Baikonur Cosmodrome; BBI-993; Buckaroo Banzai, SS; DY-245; DY-430; DY-732; DY-950; DY-1200; Glink, David; King, Dan; Kolbe, Winrich; Kolbe, Winrich; Eagle Valley, DEV; Hatteras, SS; Hokule'a, SS; Kim, Young Jae; Lederman, Bob; Loes, Gary; Lord Nelson, HMS; NAR-18834; Lauritson, Peter; Neuss, Wendy; New United Nations; New Zealand, HMS; OCC; Planet 10 (DIM-8); Roddenberry, Gene; RT-2203; Seattle, SS; Sector 184; Sector 185; Snodgrass; Snodgrass, Melinda; Tomobiki, SS; Urusei Yatsura, SS; Velikan, VK; Whorfin, John; Yoyodyne pulse fusion; Yuri Gagarin, VK


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