‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘Up the Long Ladder’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

As we near the end of our journey through season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it is definitely safe to say that year two’s stories were downright inconsistent at best. Because for every ‘Q Who’ or ‘The Measure of a Man’, there were stories that were downright messy or beyond silly and while that is disappointing in its own right, since we all know this series is capable of so much more, inconsistency is tolerable. After all, there are still growing pains when a series is this young. But while one can overlook mistakes for that reason, it is hard to remain silent when a show oversteps its bounds and puts together a woefully terrible and outright offensive episode.

Something that sadly happened in season one unfortunately, and 'Code of Honor' was so embarrassing, that every fan out there was hoping that such a mess would never happen again. But alas, getting out of season two without having that kind of mistake rear its head once more just wasn’t in the cards for this series. Because the next episode in this storied saga, took the time to add stereotypes to an already messy plotline and that makes ‘Up the Long Ladder’ another low point for the franchise. Which is an outright shame, since this story had the potential to be something quite special. Because this one saw the crew of the Enterprise deal with two isolated colonies from mankind’s early voyages into the stars, and they were more or less in serious peril. For one colony needed to relocate because the star in their system was going nova, while the other one had to resort to cloning to survive, and they were seeing deadly degradation begin to sneak into their recycled genetic codes. 

Which means this story should have provided the audience with some juicy explorations on how we adapt and survive, and the importance of changing one’s habits when extremely bad ones persist. But instead, this story quickly devolved into a slight against people of Irish decent. Because the first colony was in essence, akin to Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and every single character introduced from this colony; was a variation of every single stereotype that has ever existed in regard to Irish individuals. For we had drunks and marginalized women and the list of unfortunate tropes here simply goes on and on, to the point where you are uncomfortable watching because the insults toward this culture and its people never stop, and it only gets worse from there.

Because the clones are just downright boring, and despite being forged from brilliant minds they are somehow unable to handle logical thought. Which makes them one-dimensional and predictable and that removes gravity from their attempt to clone Dr. Pulaski and Commander Riker. But truly, the worst part of this particular tale, is its ending. Because rather than give these two peoples an open decision as to how to live their lives and how to shape their future, they’re basically forced together because no one wants to deal with their crap. Plus, they're expected to use one another for breeding stock and that’s just awful and laughable and silly, and this is just another script that leaves one baffled as to how the hell it made it through the approval process.
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For there is nothing funny about these kinds of stereotypes and nothing compelling about desperate clones. But alas, this is what we get, and that’s a shame. Because it was all incredibly embarrassing to watch and thankfully, this one is over and we never have to discuss it or look at it again. But what’s truly amazing, is that while this episode is about as rough as it can get, it is still not the absolute worst episode that season two has to offer. That honor was reserved for the woefully bad season finale, a tale that sadly, we will be revisiting soon. And all that we can hope for in the meantime, is that what precedes that hideous mess offers up something worthwhile, in order to soften the blow of one bad finale. Until next time. 

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