How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? Hmm? A

         thousand, fifty thousand, a million? How many people does it take, Admiral?

The film commences wuth the USS Enterprise receiving a communication that Lt. Commander Data has malfunctioned during an observational mission on a planet inhabited by the Ba'ku. The peaceful dwellers, whose planet offers regenerative radiation, live in harmony with nature and so reject any type of technology. Unbeknown to them their culture is being studied by the Federation and the Son'a in a joint venture; undr the command of Admiral Matthew Dougherty, and of course Data was part on the investigation.

Data is subsequently caught and repaired by the crew of the Enterprise, although it is a little strage that Admiral Dougherty is keen for them to be on their way. of course Picard is a little suspicious, and furthermore he is keen to find out why Data malfunctioned - and so he returns to the Ba'ku village. he and his crew find a Federation ship hidden beneath a lake, and a holodeck which is a reproduction of the Ba'ku village. After further investgation Picard surmiuses that someone wants to relocate the Ba'ku without them knowing, and that Data must have stumbled on the ruse, resulting in him being shot by onbe of the Son'a aboard.  During the course of their investigations, odd effects occur -- Picard seems to grow slightly younger; Riker and Deanna become affectionate and seem on the verge of renewing a long-abandoned relationship; and Geordi's optic nerves begin to regenerate. Picard even becomes attracted to a Ba'ku named Anij.

Aided by these clues, Captain Picard and his crew discover that the Briar patch (the area of space in which the planet Ba'ku is located) is filled with metaphasic radiation particles, which are especially concentrated in the planet's rings where they impart the "fountain of youth" qualities -- particles that the Son'a and corrupt elements within the Federation wish to harvest. However, harvesting the particles would cause the planet to become uninhabitable; hence the need for the "holoship" to relocate its population, whose destruction Dougherty won't countenance.

Picard is all too aware that such actions are a violation of the prime directive, and confronts Dougherty, who tells Picard that the operation would continue. Picard disobeys and retunrs to the planets surface exposing the "holoship," and the plans of Admiral Dougherty and Son'a leader Adhar Ru'afo to the Ba'ku. Ru'afo and Dougherty change their plans and start simply transporting Ba'ku to the holoship by force. When Picard and his crew lead the Ba'ku to areas resistant to transporter locks, robotic devices are sent after the Ba'ku to tag them to make them easy to lock onto.

Meanwhile the Enterprise, with Riker in command, heads out of the Briar Patch in order to communicate with the Federation and expose what is happening to the Ba'ku. Dougherty seemingly completes his transformation to villainy by acceding to a demand by Ru'afo that he be allowed to send two armed Son'a ships to prevent this. These ships are defeated by the Enterprise due to Riker's clever manoevering, but back on the planets surface Picard is captured by the Son'a and Dougherty, where he reveals to Admiral Dougherty that the Son'a are actually Ba'ku who were exiled from the planet a century ago.

Unable to pry all of the Ba'ku off the planet or stop the Enterprise from bringing unwanted attention to his activities, Ru'afo insists that the device that will harvest the ring particles be used immediately. Dougherty voices his disagreement and is subsequently killed  by Ru'afo. Meanwhile Picard convinces one of the Son'a to betray Ru'afo by sabotaging the mission, to which he agrees. Togethr they manage to trick Ru'afo and as the film draws to a climax Picard is faced in a final battle with Ru'afo. Inevitably Picard wins and is rescued by the Enterprise, leavin the Ba'ku and the Son'as to iron out their differences and begin to live in harmony....

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