the combined colony; Worf recites Klingon poetry. Reception Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a grade C. He praised the Worf and Pulaski scenes, and said "they're good enough that I would champion them even if they hadn't stood out in such stark contrast to the rest of this crap heap." He called out the "Space Irish" as yet another example of Star Trek lapsing into cultural cliché and tedious stereotypes, and thought the cloning storyline wasn't awful, but that the two storylines felt like they were grafted onto one another because neither was developed enough to fill a full episode. Keith R. A. DeCandido of Tor.com criticized the Irish stereotypes, and said the clones are boring. He concedes the episode is funny, "but the laughter does catch in your throat when you realize just how dumb it is." He gave it 4 out of 10. James Hunt of Den of Geek called the Irish characters "painfully stereotypical" although he did find the episode funny. He said it wasn't as bad as season one, but that it was strange to see such a poorly developed episode showing up this late in the series. Jamahl Epsicokhan of Jammer's Reviews gave it 1.5 out of 4 and called it "a colossal mess of a show, mixing serious (albeit unrealized) science fiction with broad, less-than-funny comedy." In 2014, Ars Technica picked this as one of the "worst TNG episode[s]" and called it an "utterly forgettable story about cloning and totalitarianism" but said the lecherous smirking Riker was the worst part of it. The reviewer thought the subplot with Worf and Dr. Pulaski was quite good, and the tea ritual scene "actually showed the differences between two cultures quickly and effectively, without resorting to shoddy jokes and Riker screen time." In 2017, Io9 noted "Up the Long Ladder" for being one of the weirdest TNG adventures, with the Enterprise 1701D encountering people from the planet Bringloid V, and also from a planet of clones that was struggling to have children. Freelance writer Rob Bricken cited this episode as his personal choice for worst episode of the entire series, arguing "it manages to be racist, sexist, and terrible sci-fi, all at once." References Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 2, disc 5, selection 2. External links Star Trek: The Next Generation (season 2) episodes 1989 American television episodes Television episodes