Up The Long Ladder (episode)

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This article is written
from the Real World
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"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 726 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 arrives in the Ficus sector to save the Bringloidi, a Human colony threatened by solar 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 Cargo Bay 5 of the Enterprise, they insist on bringing their farm animals with them. 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.

Jean-Luc Picard soon learns of a second colony of humans that traveled with the Bringloidi, but continued on to an unknown destination. Picard suspects the second colony might also be in danger, and finds them on the planet Mariposa.

An away team makes contact with the second colony, led by a man presumed to be a descendent of Walter Granger, 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 stomach without their knowledge. They spoke with Geordi, who was also on the away mission; and with his VISOR, Geordi detected that the Mariposans were lying to him everytime he asked them where Pulaski and Riker were located.

Outraged and repulsed for what the Mariposans had done; Riker and Pulaski return to Mariposa and are able to destroy their clones, which have not fully matured; but in the act, infuriate the Mariposan leader.

In an attempt to help the Mariposans and resettle the Bringloidi, Picard suggests the two groups recombine and breed naturally.

This episode or film summary is incomplete

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[edit] Log Entries

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"What have they done to my ship now?"

- Captain 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


"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

[edit] Background information

  • 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."
  • "Brionglóid" is an Irish word for "dream."
  • There is a discrepancy in the dating. According to several characters, the SS Mariposa landed at the planet Mariposa 300 years before 2365, or 2065. This is inaccurate, as this event occurred before the launch/loading of the starship.

[edit] Okudagram issues

  • The okudagrams in this episode do not follow the dialog accurately. In the first okudagram seen in the teaser, Captain Picard requests the computer to identify all ships which used an unique distress beacon between 2123 and 2190 that traveled to or near the Ficus sector.
    • If so, then why did the computer list missions which occurred in the twenty or so years before 2123?
    • Secondly, how is Commander Riker able to identify the destination of the starships when, save for the case of two planets, there is no destination listed?
    • Thirdly, the okudagram reprinted in Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission has been revised. The first line, as seen in the episode, reads "Search Parameters Interstellar Expeditions to Sectors 184/02 to 185/38." The revised line reads "Search Parameters Interstellar Expeditions to Ficus Sector".
  • In the second and third okudagrams, how is Captain Picard able to know where the SS Mariposa traveled to when the ship's mission is described simply as Colonization. Additionally, Picard reads that the starship is loaded with supplies on November 27, 2123. However, the okudagram reads Launch Date. Could the ship be loaded and launched on the same date?

[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; 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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