The reason Star Trek was so very popular was its showing of an optimistic future for the human race. A time years ahead where all of the internal conflicts are resolved and harmony exists in earth. Reaching this point, people begin exploring new worlds and in some cases encounter old problems like the kind featured in this episode. When people say "Star Trek was always woke" they are only half right. TOS explored social issues through the crews' encounter with aliens mired in the issues humans left behind. Granted today in 2022, absolutely NO ONE who thinks in terms of politics want to end the conflict of ideas choosing instead to amplify tue conflicts in the worst possible ways,. Naturally this spills over into entertainment too with usually poorly conceived results. Science fiction is the genre most affected by this and while not all scifi is future based i fail to see what good is it dragging contemporary problems of the human race centuries into the future. Why bother watching Star Trek if that's the vision it projects hundreds of years down the line? How about presenting a world after the planet is savied from climate change, racial strife, sex discrimination and on and on? Lost in what is produced today from Paramount is what is represented here in this episode. A compelling story of an alien planet blinded by their own color blind world and their ignorance. The Federation aren't judged for their own shortcomings because they don't have them anymore meaning they can be listened to and speak from experience having overcome the problems of the past.
The production values are cheap looking like the original series and making the alien planet black and white made me laugh in a good way. This was the first episode of this series I saw and on most occasions, the show was as good or better. Kudos to Kipleigh Brown for writing a story in keeping with the way TOS handled message shows. Not every show needs to be a message show and not every Continues episode is. A few are (maybe 3 out of 11) but this is the best of those. Well done.