User Reviews

This episode has the enterprise rescuing a lost colony of SPACE IRISH STEREOTYPES and its pretty damned funny. I'm well used to terrible Irish accents and this is up there, the first time I head their voices I was LMAO. It's space leprechauns (that's how you spell that btw) that all are drunk and carry hip flasks and live amongst the sheep and cattle, like I and my people of course do every day.

Anyways I'm only halfway through this at present. Riker seems to be into the hot "Irish lass" and also they are brewing poiteen on the ship, which I wholeheartedly approve of. I hope Worf gets to taste some proper Irish poiteen.

It's funny to me, but I can see how this would be asinine to a lot of people. I tip me awld hat to ye.

Enterprise receives a distress call from a group of colonists.

This is a guilty-pleasure episode for me that I admit to admit to enjoying, despite how dodgy some elements of it are such as the plot and characterisation.

The story is contrived and a little bit random at times, but I do love all the sci-fi detail that goes along with the cloning plot. Once we figure out what's happening with the cloners, the plot resolution is painfully obvious, however it's fun watching the implausible shenanigans that lead up to Picard's lightbulb moment.

Some random scenes of interest include the exchanges between Worf and Dr Pulaski, which are genuinely very good. These only make me wish they'd kept her character on board in the future seasons. The Irish scenes are funny to me because of the juxtaposition between the colonists and the straight laced Enterprise crew. However, I see how the Irish stereotyping might highly annoy and offend people, because it is hideously bad.

Riker's love scenes are cringe-inducing but entertaining in a sense that they are so bad it's impossible not to have a chuckle, unless you take this type of thing very seriously.

The visuals are fairly good, especially in the cloning labs and the costumes/props for the Irish.

Most performances are good, particularly Diana Muldaur, Michael Dorn, Rosalyn Landor, Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes (in parts).

Surprised how many people get so easily offended by a piece of work that is inherently fictional and designed to get you to think. I've now read several reviews that are aghast over the idea of an "Irish-like" group being represented by a wonderfully strong woman and her equally wonderfully life-loving father. Take away the accent, and what's the issue?? Should white folk be appalled by the Clone-based society being an uptight group of DNA thieves?? How dare they represent White people that way.......

For goodness sake, just as with the first season episode Code of Honor, (which I personally didn't hate, it dealt with the inherent differences in others cultures, albeit with a heavy hand) this episode is an allegory for our very species, the psychotic hairless apes we call humans.

This TNG episode had many amusing moments in it as the Enterprise answers an old fashioned earth distress call in an area of space where it was thought noi earth colonies were established.

The first colony was one that followed a back to basics simple life style and it's led by a man who swallowed the Blarney Stone, Barrie Ingham. The colony is whisked by transport before a solar flare wipes them out. From Ingham, Patrick Stewart learns of another colony from earth in the same part of space.

This colony is headed by Jon DeVries and it ;lost most of its members when their ship crashed. They have survived by cloning, a practice that Dr. Pulaski says is bad in the long run. This colony is in need badly of an infusion in its gene pool. In fact they steal DNA from Jonathan Frakes and Diana Muildaur.

It's up to Patrick Stewart to reach an accommodation and what he does is most agreeable to Inham's group and accepted reluctantly by the DeVries group.

Ingham and his Irish brood are really scene stealers here.

I was reading the comments in here and they are all not what I was looking for about this episode. Why is no one talking about the Eddie Murphy duplicate with all of those clones. After some googling I found out that is was not him but the carbon copy technology in this episode is amazing. I still cannot believe how perfect the replica of him was chosen for this episode.

The prime directive order does not apply here. 1- They were already from Earth and, 2- they had technology when they left Earth but chose a primitive lifestyle. Lastly, THEY WERE ALREADY FROM EARTH SO THE PRIME DIRECTIVE DOESN'T APPLY. Honestly, do you even know Star trek at all? Don't use terminology you don't comprehend, you look like a trek tourist.

It's funny that one of the most politically correct shows of its day would make VERY broad and probably insulting stereotypes in one of its episodes-- but that's what occurs in "Up the Long Ladder".

The Enterprise finds something they do not expect--an Earth colony where no one thought there was one. However, when the crew reads through the ship's manifest which brought the people to the planet, some of the things don't fit--as if there were two totally different colonies. And, it turns out there are two. The first is made up of a group of very uncouth Irish people--seemingly straight off the set of "The Quiet Man" or a Lucky Charms commercial. I am pretty sure Irish folks seeing this show would NOT be pleased that they are shown as a bunch of drunken slobs...but that's is how they behave. As for the other group on a nearby planet, they are scientific and much more advanced...but they are also dying as a race. What's next? A love connection...

This was a rather poor episode. First, it didn't really make any sense why a group of ignorant boobs would go on such a long space voyage. Second, there is really no subtlety or finesse about the show--it is VERY broadly written and rather stupid.

Yep, it's just a story people. I love Star Trek but don't take it too seriously for goodness sake. It was a funny episode but entertained well. Why do so many people want to be offended by so much that they shouldn't be. Real respect for others cannot be defined by a set PC code. Humour is humour, comedy is comedy etc. The biggest insult to humanity is not to recognise all our variations and idiosyncrasies and smile at them without being demeaned or demeaning.

People get so up in arms about this episode, but unless you have a stick way up your rear, it's more hamlessly silly than it is truly insulting to anyone. I laughed multiple times, but mostly in a "why is this in a Star Trek episode?" sort of way.

When it comes to TNG's dubious portrayals of various peoples i think this episode is far worse than Code Of Honor. The Space Irish are one leprachaun away from being perfect stereotypes, and they're played by English actors to boot.

Another problem with the episode is that TNG already did the "advanced society can't reproduce" thing in season 1. Honestly the way the series kept repeating itself in the first two seasons is bizarre.

On the plus side, the scenes between Worf and Pulaski are wonderful. Another great scene with her in it is when she and Riker find out about the clones. The way that's handled is understandable but still disturbing. Oh, and Brenna Odell is wonderful - one of the few people to really put Picard in his place.

Starting with a distress beacon call which was used by "European Hegemony" after WWIII, a series of events happen and under the carpet we see the true messages the episode tries to impose us:

"European Hegemony is a loose alliance on Earth at the 22nd Century ... and the first of stirrings of World Government" -Picard says

Whether you get this as a condescending declaration about European Economic Community (European Union after 1993 - 4 years after the episode)from the victor nation of Cold War or you get this as an insightful sign from Gene Roddenbery consistent with actual history and "The Venus Project".

What ever you believe, I believe Rosalyn Landor is the sexiest English woman with those eyebrows, chin and breathtaking naked neck&shoulder composition...

And I must say, forget about Riker, she has a belly that can even seduce his holiness The Pope.

I remember watching this back in the 1980's particularly the Lovely Brenna Odell quote to Commander Riker "What's the matter Commander, don't you like Girls?"

It shows such a magnificent contrast between Technological Society and its dangers versus the limits of an Agrarian Culture and how they in fact.... belong together for life to flourish.

When I first watched this back in the early 90s as a 15 year old, I laughed like a drain at the chaotic Irish and their "Cure Hoor" leader Danilo Odell.

His daughter, who takes no nonsense in that hard nosed Irish mammy way, made me chuckle too, especially as the men were clearly terrified of her! It's not really surprising that Big Willy got stuck in as quick as he could.

It's a pity they didn't give Colm Meaney a bigger roll here and let his comedic skills loose on Cargo Bay 7.

There's worse Oirish episodes in the Star Trek universe - Voyager, I'm looking at you in particular.

If you're offended by this then I pity you.

Actually this episode is brilliant, and it is quite funny when Picard, Worf and Riker are dealing with the "Bringloidi", an anachronistic and technology-deprived "Irish" colony who who set up shop in one of the cargo holds and immediately try to brew home booze ("poteen", pronounced 'po-cheen').

Barrie Ingham (from Dr Who) and Rosalyn Landor practically take over the ship, Ingham as he tries to marry off his daughter played by Landor, and Landor as she tries to procure a "footwashing" from Riker.

Matters take a serious turn when they discover a second colony that had also been traveling on the same ship that brought these people out into space.

On the planet Mariposa, they are more technically proficient but they have a serious problem: "replicative fading".

Needless to say, the survival of both colonies depends on them once again joining together as they once did when they traveled.

But getting them to agree to live together, that's going to be one heck of a problem.

I don't understand some of the objections to this episode, it is very well done and it explores two different lifestyles, The choice to live without technology and the choice to embrace technology perhaps too much.

For me it's simply is a statement about striking a balance, and that can be with the Bringloidi and Mariposans as well as, let's say, Californians and Arizonians.

This episode boldly explores two different divergent lifestyles, with a lot of care and a lot of humor.

Reference to Original Trek Episode: At about 30 minutes into this episode, Diana Muldaur is walking down a hallway with the "minister of health" of the planet Mariposa: there is a sculpture in the hallway that is very reminiscent of "Sargon's pedestal" from the Original Star Trek episode "Return to Tomorrow"- Diana stands in front of it for a moment while she performs an appropriate operation with her medical tricorder.

Also, this episode solidifies the relationship that Dr. Pulaski had with Worf: all through season two we see instances of latent attraction between the two characters, but mostly a deep respect. In this episode Worf develops Klingon "measles", and it's Dr. Pulaski that keeps the secret for him, which ultimately encourages Worf to share an intimate Klingon ritual with her. In "the measure of a man", it appears that they have an argument about "the romantic novel", Worf states that it was the Klingons who elevated that style of writing, causing Pulaski to instantly disagree and set up an argument about it to occur later. Plus, she is always calling him "handsome". So it is interesting here that their relationship was looked into a little bit. I always thought it was unfortunate that Diana Muldaur never returned to the series even as a guest, I always liked her much more than Crusher... although Crusher did improve over the years. But they never had the same relationship as Pulaski/Worf.

Finally, we need to remember that there was a huge writers strike during the time these episodes were produced, which may explain a little bit of why some of these stories were told in comparison to say, "Q who?", which sets up the threat of The Borg. And also why the very last episode of season two "shades of gray" was a "clip show", which was a form of storytelling often used in "Stargate SG-1" and "The outer limits" (90's version).

What a way to create justification for making women into harlets and men into sperm donors ...