‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘The Price’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

It is definitely safe to say that the Star Trek Universe is the most influential and inspirational science fiction series in American history. Simply because, some of the technologies and ideologies it’s dreamed up, have found their way into our everyday lives. After all, the communicator introduced in The Original Series helped to bring about the creation of the cellular phone. Plus, Google clearly got the idea for Glass by way of the similar device used by the Dominion in Deep Space Nine and of course, the PADD that was introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation clearly helped to bring forth the iPad and tablet computing in general. But while technology from a fictional future has been reimagined in our modern world often, there are some notions that this franchise has brought to life that have proven to be far more difficult to embrace in the 21st Century.

For sadly, we still have yet to fully embrace equality as a people, and we still focus heavily on the acquisition of wealth and items to determine our standing in society, when in the STU such matters are long and distant memories. However, while we are working toward equality, however slowly; the wealth aspect is one that we seemingly cannot let go of. Largely because, we have no idea how such a notion would work for our society and how it would drive us toward a sustainable future where everyone contributed, and for that matter, neither does the STU. Since it is always referenced and discussed as a passing measure, but never explored in great detail. But once in a great while, the franchise has tried to explore how a future free from our current economy would actually work, as was the case in the next episode of The Next Generation. 

For ‘The Price’ sees the crew of the Enterprise arrive at the planet Barzan to begin negotiations on who will control the traffic and the rights to the first stable wormhole in the galaxy. And well, it doesn’t take long for us to learn that in the 24th Century, a society that can create food out of thin air works with the barter system outside of their utopian society. For protection and whatever resources, the Barzan need are what the Federation offers them in this particular tale and well, that’s fascinating for certain. Since that offers up some unique insight into how they do business, and it is interesting to learn that the UFP and Starfleet are keen to share their resources in order to grow their influence in the galaxy. But alas, that is as far as we go in this tale in regard to our understanding of 24th Century economics, since a different theme takes the center stage in this story.

Because a mysterious negotiator named Ral shifts the tone of the plot to become an exploration on the nature of greed and how the pursuit of acquisition thrills and motivates us. Something that it accomplishes by making Ral a 21st Century man that is eager to close a 24th Century deal. Because Ral is all about winning this contract and everything it offers, and he goes the extra mile to make that happen. Since he’s able to shake one bidder loose by using fear and he even makes a behind the scenes deal with the Ferengi to close the contract with the Barzan and keep the Federation out. And of course, he gets his comeuppance when the wormhole is revealed to be unstable and when he’s outed as an empath by Troi, who he manipulated as well and really… the messages in this part of the story are pretty clean cut and dry. In that, greed is bad and until we as a species understand that, we can never move on from our current economic system.

Which is a fine message to inject, but let’s be honest. This really was the best opportunity for this series to show us what the future would look like without the economic system we’ve relied upon for millennia and it would have been quite cool to have explored that, instead of the end result. But then again, that might be a concept that is too big to properly explore in a single episode, so it also makes sense as to why this played out the way it did and, in the end, this isn’t a bad episode by any means. Because it does keep your attention, and it features some entertaining moments and it also sets up a plot for the future, since the wacky Ferengi that got left behind would re-appear on Star Trek: Voyager. Which makes this story an efficient affair, and that’s just fine when one considers that it could have been a far hammier tale and now that this one-off journey is in the books, it’s on to the next one. Until next time.   

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