By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Here’s a somewhat embarrassing connection: I’m a big fan of TV Tropes, the website that catalogues all of the different narrative building blocks that go into our favorite shows and movies. One of my favorite tropes is “Harsher In Hindsight,” which is pretty self-explanatory: this refers to media moments that didn’t seem so weird at the time but that are downright uncomfortable to watch now. Pretty much no show is safe from this trope, including Star Trek: The Next Generation. That’s because it has one episode that you pretty much can’t watch without thinking about the 9/11 terrorist attacks!
The episode in question is “The High Ground.” The show’s producers had insisted that TNG needed a little more action and adventure, so the writers busted out the most reliable TV villains of the ‘80s and ‘90s: terrorists! On paper, this episode was meant to be a callback to The Original Series, with a relatively simple framing of heroic good guys stopping sneering bad guys. Unfortunately, prominent plot points like enhanced interrogations, terrorist bombings, and even a hidden image of the Twin Towers all serve to retroactively make fans think of 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror.
A Second Phaser Blast Has Struck The Bridge
The plot of “The High Ground” begins when the Enterprise delivers medical aid to a war-torn planet. Soon, terrorists set off a bomb, and when Dr. Crusher tries to treat the wounded, she gets abducted. At the terrorist base, Crusher discovers that their secret weapon is a special teleporter that serves as a double-edged sword: it allows them to circumvent shields and force fields, but it also damages their DNA. The terrorist leader unsuccessfully tries to bomb the Enterprise, but he does manage to abduct Captain Picard as a hostage. The crew discovers the terrorist base, and the planetary security chief saves Picard by killing the head terrorist.
Aside from the prominent inclusion of terrorists as villains (this is the one and only Star Trek: The Next Generation episode to do so), why does “The High Ground” remind fans of 9/11? For one thing, the alien planet’s response to a terrorist attack is an uncomfortable preview of America’s own actions during the War on Terror. After the initial bombing, the planet’s security chief orders very harsh interrogations of anyone she thinks is sympathetic to the attackers. This makes the Enterprise crew uncomfortable, and it makes viewers uncomfortable when they compare this to America’s notorious “enhanced interrogation” (read: torture) of terror suspects.
“High Ground” Was An Inside Job
Questioning and potentially harming people for their alleged support of groups the government disapproves of is also an uncomfortable preview of our present world, too. Recent federal legislation like NSPM-7 has ensured that you might be added to domestic terrorism watchlists for engaging in activities or simply making social media posts that are deemed critical of the country or of capitalism. Even if you agree with the security chief’s interrogation of suspected terrorist sympathizers in “The High Ground,” this Star Trek: The Next Generation episode is a reminder that wars on terror never end; rather, the government simply broadens the definition of “terrorist” until nobody is safe.
Of course, the primary reason that “The High Ground” makes us think of 9/11 is because of a surreal cameo by the Twin Towers. When Picard and Riker visit the security chief, there are planetary surveillance monitors in the background that rotate through different images. Rather than create entirely new alien vistas, the producers decided to ever-so-slightly modify images of various Earth cities. Look closely, and you will see buildings that look uncannily like the World Trade Center’s famous Twin Towers. It’s uncomfortable enough to see them in the wake of 9/11; however, seeing them in the one and only terrorist episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is downright insane!
Aside from its connections to 9/11, “The High Ground” is a weak episode. The producers got their wish: this episode is filled with exciting action. But the story had no cool twist or hidden message, and legendary Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Ronald D. Moore put it best when he said that “We didn’t have anything interesting to say about terrorism except that it’s bad.” Nobody really needed that message when the episode came out in 1990, and they definitely didn’t need it after 2001. As a lackluster episode with uncomfortable 9/11 parallels, “The High Ground” remains one of the weakest stories in what is otherwise the show’s strongest season.
