Lessons

DVD, TNG S6 (Lessons)

Patrick Stewart had long ago been granted his wish for the captain to get more action and romance, but these two episodes, 'Starship Mine' and 'Lessons,' side by side together, demonstrate that better than any. In the former he was battering terrorists with his bare hands, and now he's drawn to the new woman in charge of Stellar Cartography (was that an English accent she had?), and most uncharacteristically allows himself to be. She looks strikingly like Beverly, though I'm sure that's nothing to do with it when the real one's there in front of him - it's nice to see them having dinner together (especially as it gives us another look at her fantastically designed tea set!), and going out to the concert. So why can Jean-Luc not say the things to her that he finally comes round to saying to Nella Daren? I think it's because Beverly knows everything, there's nothing he can say to surprise her.

Though I don't generally appreciate the romantic kind of stories they sometimes do on Trek, and feel such things are an acquired taste, there was so much more going on in the episode, and I was especially delighted by the musical interludes, culminating in Picard really singing on his Ressikan flute, which injects the great sadness and joy from 'The Inner Light,' and the deeply personal meaning it has for him. Daren's way to him is through his music, and while it seems rather inappropriate for a crewmember to turn up at the captain's cabin for an impromptu musical session, such moments warmed me to the story, the best being in the acoustic sweet spot (much like the NX-01's gravity sweet spot on 'Enterprise'), where Picard's haunting fluting and Daren's concert roll-up piano soar to the rafters, taking Picard musically where he truly never has gone before, not even ruined by the clearly false perspective Jefferies tube in the background! His opening up to her is shown when he tells her of the origins of his music and the flute, something very personal indeed.

The pitfalls of fraternising with a member of the crew were missing at first, but in the disaster of the firestorms the deepest danger to both of them sweeps through and destroys what was a happy time, but one that could not last. I really thought she'd died, so when Picard grimly closes the case of his flute, forever turning off the sweet sound that had become a part of his life since last season, it was more loss than just love or a musical instrument, it was the realisation that he would always be alone, and in that respect it didn't matter that Daren came back because the result of the shock, of the lesson, was that, like Kirk, Picard really only had his ship. They joke about one of them resigning their commission, but their work was too much a part of them, it was life to both. Picard could walk away from the Enterprise for a while, but he'd never be truly happy, and perhaps that's one of the most profound idiosyncrasies of a captain's position: by choice or not, they are chained to their ship.

Some of the enjoyment to be found in the episode is in the views of day to day life for the captain and crew. We see Picard relaxing in his cabin, having dinner of an evening with Beverly, making a date with Riker for fencing, seeing the early hours shift at work. The captain may be less the centre of attention, but it has to be that way so he can walk his ship, the village community that it is. I must say he didn't seem very well informed. He doesn't know anything about Stellar Cartography's experiment and then when he attends Data's concert he wasn't previously aware that Daren was one of the musicians! It would be interesting to see more life on the ship, and if they'd had a bigger budget perhaps we could have properly travelled the corridors of an entire deck, but constraints mean we never quite see round that next corner (if a saucer can have corners!) - something to hope for in future, and certainly a way for a modern TV series to take things further with CGI set extensions that weren't available in those days.

I can't remember if the captain ever returned to his Ressikan flute in succeeding episodes, but I hope he didn't cast aside the music, because if Daren taught him one thing, it was that his playing was much better than he gave himself credit for, and the soothing music evokes so much.

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