Insurrection

On a planet in the Briar Patch, a joint Federation and Son'a team secretly watches the Ba'ku, a community of around 600 people living a quiet farming life. When Data malfunctions, he exposes the hidden observation post and turns on the observers. Picard brings the Enterprise to recover him and, with Worf, distracts the android by singing from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. Vice Admiral Dougherty wants the ship gone, but Picard grows suspicious, especially when he learns that the Ba'ku once had advanced technology and chose to live without it.

The planet's rings bathe it in metaphasic particles that halt ageing, and the crew start to feel young again. Geordi's eyes begin to work, Worf goes through Klingon adolescence, Riker and Troi rediscover their romance, and Picard falls for Anij, a Ba'ku woman who teaches him to savour a single moment. Hidden in a lake, Picard and Data find a cloaked ship holding a holographic copy of the village, built to move the Ba'ku without their knowledge. Senior Federation officials have agreed to relocate them so that the Son'a, led by the ruthless Ru'afo, can harvest the particles, a process that will leave the planet uninhabitable.

Picard refuses to go along with it. He and a small team help the villagers flee into the mountains, while Riker takes the Enterprise to alert Starfleet and fights off Son'a warships. Dr Crusher discovers that the Son'a are themselves Ba'ku: young rebels exiled a century ago who now want revenge. When Dougherty tries to stop the operation, Ru'afo kills him. Captured, Picard wins over the Son'a officer Gallatin, and together they use the holoship to outwit Ru'afo. Picard sets the particle collector to destroy itself, Ru'afo dies aboard it, and the Enterprise beams Picard to safety. The surviving Son'a are welcomed back by their families.