After setting his people up in the cargo bay, O’Dell, the planet’s leader and an almost offensively stereotypical Irishman (lots of planets have an Ireland…) thanks Picard for his hospitality (well, he actually says something like “If’n oi could be tankin’ ye Captain Picard” before kissing a space-Blarney Stone) and casually inquires if the Enterprise has encountered the “other” colonists. It turns out the other half of the Mariposa’s crew, more conventional colonists, set up elsewhere nearby, so Picard heads off to find them.

Meanwhile, Riker is putting the moves on O’Dell’s daughter, Brenna, which is totally appropriate behaviour for a man in his position. I mean, it’s not like it’s the first time he’s tried to sleep with an important diplomatic figure, although at least this time it’s not actively endangering any investigations or negotiations.

When the Enterprise finds the other colonists – the Mariposans – it emerges that they’re a society of clones, following an accident with their original landing party. Unfortunately, their cloning techniques produce imperfections and in a generation or two, replicative fade will wipe them out. Their leader, Prime Minster Granger, asks if the Enterprise crew will donate some DNA so that they can continue their civilisation because they now find biological reproduction “repulsive” (which means they’ve at least kept up with episodes of One Born Every Minute, if nothing else.)

The Enterprise crew decline, slightly horrified by the idea, although because they’re unfamiliar with polite behaviour the Mariposans knock out Riker and Pulaski and steal their DNA to grow some clones anyway. When the pair find out, they transport to the cloning labs and incinerate their still-developing copies right in their very tubes. It’s all a bit existential. Granger is understandably upset at what is arguably murder, but Pulaski advises them to start breeding normally instead. Granger quite rightly points out that there are only five of them, which isn’t a viable gene pool. Suddenly, lightbulbs go on over everyone’s head.

Back on the enterprise, Picard brings O’Dell and Granger together for a meeting and suggests integrating the two colonies. Neither is keen, but the episode is wrapping up so they agree to attempt it. Brenna decides to go off with Prime Minister Granger, although monogamous marriage is “temporarily suspended” until the gene pool is sufficiently widened and each woman is encouraged to have at least three husbands. Er, a happy ending, I suppose?