- The Control Voice: As humanity spreads to the stars, we will take with us our values and our laws. But how will those laws and moral judgements apply to creatures and cultures alien to our own?
A judge travels to another planet to preside over the case of an alien accused of attacking and killing humans.
- The Control Voice: Only by cutting through the darkness of ignorance and prejudice can we achieve true justice.
Rule of Tropes:
- Alien Sky: Daedalus has a purple sky and two moons.
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Judge Joshua Finch wields a firearm while everybody else wields laser guns. When he confronts a lynch mob, they mock his weapon for being inferior, but he defeats them with ease.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre: The Daedalus colony has a marketplace with many different alien species.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The Narkopta have a two hour daily hibernation period.
- Bizarre Alien Limbs: The Medusans have pincer appendages for arms.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: The Medusans lay eggs. During the hatching process, the hatchlings absorb energy from tritium bricks. They cannot survive the hatching process without this energy.
- Circuit Judge: Judge Joshua Finch travels to the planet Daedalus to preside over the case of a Medusan accused of attacking humans.
- Courtroom Episode: This episode involves Judge Joshua Finch, newly arrived on the colony planet Daedalus, presiding over the trial of a Medusan who is accused of the murder of three humans.
- Due to the Dead: The Medusans place their dead on racks and burn their bodies so that they can pass on to the afterlife. Although they killed Matt Armstrong and two others in the process of defending their hatchlings, they nevertheless performed the same ceremony on them. However, the burned bodies were later found by a posse led by Matt's brother Jake, who regarded it as desecrating the dead.
- Even Evil Has Standards: This episode features an alien being put on trial for murdering a human. The prosecuting attorney is racist against aliens and pushes for an execution, but when everybody learns why the alien killed the guy (the guy smashed the alien's unhatched eggs with full knowledge of what they were), he sides with the protagonists.
- Fantastic Racism: Lavinia Oleaga justifies stealing the Medusans' tritium bricks, which are required for their young to hatch, on the basis that they are "subhuman savages." She adds that their children could die for all she cares.
- Fish People: The Medusans are crustacean-like humanoids who lay eggs.
- Innocent Aliens: The Medusans, the indigenous population of Daedalus, are a peaceful and deeply spiritual species who only resort to violence in order to defend themselves or their eggs.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: This episode was an attempt at a new spin-off series, but it wasn't picked up.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Miranda is a simulated human (SIM).
- Robocam: Several shots are seen from Miranda's perspective.
- Space Western: A very straightforward example since this episode takes place on a colony planet named Daedalus which has been colonized by Earth authorities. The human inhabitants have poor relations with and discriminate against the planet's indigenous population, the Medusans, who are based on Native Americans. It's essentially The Theme Park Version of The Wild West with aliens.
- Technophobia: Judge Joshua Finch left Earth and took up the assignment of Fifth Circuit judge on the relatively isolated colony planet Daedalus because he hates anything to do with technology.
- Torches and Pitchforks: A posse led by Jake Armstrong attempts to lynch the Medusan who killed Jake's brother Matt and two other humans. However, they are stopped by Joshua Finch, the newly arrived Fifth Circuit judge.
