Many of my fellow nerds on the Star Trek message boards hate this episode, but I kinda dig it. A certain region of space only has a thin corridor that is safe for warp travel. Repeated use of a warp field is creating a devestating rift in subspace. It takes an eco-terrorist to get the Federation to listen. After a whole bunch of shenanigans, warp travel is outlawed in this corridor (essentially isolating the planet of Hekaran II) and all Federation ships must keep their speed down to Warp 5 *anywhere* they go, unless there is an emergency.
That’s some heavy shit, man, and LaForge and Picard are kinda blindsided by this. Parallels to today, especially when the Hekaran gives an Al Gore-esque slideshow, aren’t that hard to interpret.
