The Inner Light

DVD, TNG S5 (The Inner Light)

For a well-regarded classic this takes a long time to get going, but at the other end of the story I was gratified they took the time for a proper, dignified ending - none of this 'have a laugh about what happened and speed off to the next adventure,' but a personal ending for Picard in keeping with the gravity of what he experienced. Having recently watched 'Star Trek: Generations' I noticed some parallels in concept: the Nexus is very much like this other life that Picard lives, with a wife and children, far away from captaining a starship, but also for the fact that it must end and he must leave. He even says a line that appears in the film about appreciating the moment because it will never come again. The magic and joy of both situations works so well in their stories making both stand out from the crowd.

There's not a lot for the other characters to do (I don't think Troi is there at all, which is convenient as she might have detected what was going on), their only reason for being in the episode at all is for timely cuts away from Picard's life on Kataan, so that when we return he's aged by years, otherwise it would be a very long episode indeed! I would have thought Dr. Crusher could have overruled Riker about breaking contact with the probe, but she never pulls rank. The idea of living an entire life which to everyone else was only a few minutes long, was later used in 'Voyager,' an episode called 'Blink of an Eye' in which the Doctor spends time on a planet that travels much faster than normal time. Another link to that series is the Administrator, who also played the USS Voyager's ill-fated Doctor in the pilot - in both he plays a similar figure of authority that has a slight nastiness to him. In that, he didn't like Tom Paris, and in this he's not willing to take Picard/Kamin's research seriously. Richard Riehle is another familiar face to that series as he played one of the Irish holograms in the Irish village holoprogram, and went on to play a friend of Doctor Phlox in 'Enterprise.' He looks considerably younger here!

It takes a while for Picard to adjust to being Kamin, having a wife and living a simpler life on a pre-warp planet, even though his village, Ressik, is quite beautiful, like the white-walled city of Gondor in 'The Lord of The Rings' when seen from a distance, but each time we see him he is more settled. His hair grows longer, the sapling that was planted at the beginning becomes a larger tree (another Gondorian link!), his flute-playing goes from simple blowing to a real understanding of the instrument, and his ripped musculature becomes more and more disguised by longer, looser garments. His voice becomes deeper, the wrinkles get more pronounced until he's really an old man, and you could almost believe it's Dr. Soong back from the dead!

The casting was good, as the children, when adults, looked very much like their parents - the girl definitely had the same kind of face as her Mother, and the boy gave us a glimpse of what a young Jean-Luc Picard might have looked like, mainly because he was played by Daniel, Patrick Stewart's son. I thought I recognised something about Margot Rose, who played Kamin's wife Eline, and I was right as she was also an Argrathi (in heavy makeup) in 'Hard Time' a Fourth Season 'DS9' episode, which has similar themes: O'Brien lives years in a few minutes, but this is an implanted prison sentence.

The general rule for episodes just before the end of the season, is that they are heavily budget-conscious and often forgettable, in readiness for the big closing performance of the season, but now and again an episode in that slot becomes a classic. The most obvious that springs to mind is 'Duet' from 'DS9' Season 1, and this is another to buck the trend. It may have been more sparing with the money, we don't see much of the village beyond the square or Kamin's house (I admired the artistic doors and their push-button opening system), but it was what happened between the characters that mattered most. When Batai, looking as young as he had been years previously, appears at the end near the ancient Kamin, the chills creep up the neck as the characters that have reenacted the lives of Kataan gather around their messenger to the outside galaxy, stepping out of the scenario to explain what has happened. It's a touching moment as all they want is for Picard to remember their extinct civilisation so that someone does. I thought the probe was a permanent marker that would relay its story to anyone that passed, but it's more poignant for being a one off chance. Who knows who might have come along to receive the message. Their probe chose well.

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