"Paradise" (season two, episode fifteen; 14 February 1994): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: As a fourteen-year-old when "Paradise" premiered, I thought the anti-technological philosophy of Alixus incomprehensible, but that was in an era with no social media, no smartphones, no Zoom-enabled lockdowns. Thirty years on, I find Alixus's critique of the Federation's technological dependence & atomized individualism much more compelling. Her deceiving the colonists into adopting a communal lifestyle remains criminal, but I now have a much better understanding of why the other colonists would choose to remain in their community, even when offered re-integration into Federation society.
"Paradise" is a companion piece of sorts to the fifth-season episode,"Let He Who Is without Sin…," which also features a cultural critique of the Federation. This willingness to point out the glaring flaws in Roddenberry's utopianism as presented in The Next Generation (which was vastly less realistic than the culture seen in T.O.S.),is one of the many reasons why Deep Space Nine is the best Trek.
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