Trek Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
11 PM Eastern - 8 PM Pacific
“Virtually my entire youth was spent in the pursuit of that goal. In fact… I probably skipped my childhood altogether.”
You can watch the episode on YouTube
Jeri Taylor joined the Star Trek production team with this episode. Taylor was recommended by short-time producer Lee Sheldon. Because she had no prior experience or knowledge of Star Trek, she was given a “crash-course” in the series, both old and new, with a very large number of videotapes.
Taylor described her strengths as a writer as “long on character and personal relationships, and very short on sci-fi.” This episode, she noted, “was all about the relationship between Picard and this adolescent boy, and so, having had adolescent boys, I had that down pretty well. Then I just filled in past that. I actually lifted a whole section of tech from one of the scripts they had given me and just copied that. So that part came out sounding really good.”
Geordi La Forge appears only for a very brief scene which is actually stock footage. Prior to the filming of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”, LeVar Burton had surgery and couldn’t make an appearance.
I didn’t know that. I hope he’s alright. 
[i]When this episode first aired, it generated some controversy with some fans claiming it condoned child abuse.
Michael Piller recalled, “We got some pretty angry letters on that show. They said, ‘How can you let an abused child go back to the people who are abusing him?’ We really brought the child abuse issue up because it was the right and natural thing to bring up in the context in the story. There are real parallels to stories that go on in today’s world about parents who fight over custody and one says there’s been abuse. Who do you believe? But mostly, it was a cultural clash story. It was a story of someone who was human who had been raised in a totally alien environment. Is he human any longer? That’s really what that story was about.”
Rick Berman added, “We wanted to make the point that the interpretation of broken bones was nothing more than normal childhood broken bones, and that these people were sort of prejudiced in this direction. It was in no way intended to be an episode that had anything to do with child abuse. It was the Wild child. It had to do with a boy being brought from one culture to another and not fitting in with either, and the inevitable need for him to return back to the world in which he grew up.”
As for the episode itself, Piller opined, “I think that episode was marvelously written by Jeri Taylor and it was strong enough to hire her on staff. I was disappointed by the show primarily because the aliens weren’t alien enough. I felt there was some miscommunication on some level. The whole idea of that show was missed because these savage, different alien type creatures turned out to be very human.”[/i]
And, of course, Chad Allen, who plays Jono, was outed by a jealous boyfriend a few years later and basically had his career destroyed. 
In 2005, Allen and Star Trek: Enterprise guest star Brett Rickaby played the younger and older versions of the same character in an episode of Cold Case.
I didn’t know that. I’ll have to watch that episode again.
He won’t talk to you, you mean. :rolleyes:
“I just suggested for him to take off his gloves.”
Great job, Deanna.
“It was identified centuries ago as the Stockholm Syndrome.”
Um, not quite.
That’s what years of counseling experience will get you.
“Among humans, females can achieve as much as a man.”
Do I sense a tinge of prejudice there, Worf? Are you saying that wouldn’t happen among Klingons?
Hi guys.
Let me know when you start You Tube part II
Picard looks scared.
He has to face a teenager. I don’t blame him.
Already 3 minutes into it. When Part 3 starts, then?
Lursa and B’Etor certainly managed.
“Put that down please.”
giggle
Yes Please.
“So I don’t have to touch an alien?”
Oooo, but aliens have touched you.
They always managed to get him involved with kids. I’m surprised they didn’t have him dealing with the brothers in the last episode.
“Oh yes, Counselor. Please sit down.”
It’s review time. You’re fired.
Now I don’t need to deal with this child.