ST:TNG, Sub Rosa, Episode 714
This episode is absolute shit. It does the exact same sci-fi trope that made me hate reading Mote in God's Eye. That is: "An entire planet that represents culture/country X." In this case, X is Scotland. Which, in the set of cultures/countries that might represent X, Scotland is the silliest.
How long does it take the Federation to terraform a planet? To move a few million people from one planet to the next? To have those colonists/tourists/travelers make homes for themselves, have children, and pass their own inherited culture down to their children? Would there still be a Scottish brogue after 300 years of the Star Trek universal translator? Would mutton chops and flannel still be fashionable?
I think, given the timeframe it would take to accomplish such things, the culture (whether it was Scottish or not), would scarcely represent its original form. Exposure to alien culture, or no.
(Also, I should note, they do this same trope in the Ender Saga, but with the subtle twist that entire planets represent certain religions and philosophies. This concept is probably equally silly, but somehow, a little more imaginable, or at least palatable, in terms of what could possibly happen, or what would remain in a culture after faster-than-light travel.)
