[TNG] Season 4, Episode 4: Suddenly Human
Rating: 2
Theoretically this episode covers a pretty interesting moral dilemma that the crew must face. In a lot of ways it exemplifies the kind of thing I’d like Star Trek to do more often, but in practice the episode is pretty bland. I guess in the end the dilemma doesn’t actually seem to be that hard of one, probably because the kid does mostly annoying stuff. He clearly needs to go back to the aliens. If the viewer had a better chance to invest in the kid and his future than the decision might have a little more nuance and the story might have some emotional impact.
Read more at Memory Alpha
Notes:
Enterprise finds an alien ship in bad shape. There’s a human on board.
He’s pissed. He wants to go back to the Talarians.
Talarians relieve stress by making a strange annoying noise. Great idea, writers!
At least we get to see Picard react to annoying things. That’s one of my favorite kinds of Picard.
The boy is sexist and won’t listen to Troi, so Picard has to deal with him.
Picard shows him that he’s a human and the Talarians killed his parents.
They meet up with the Talarian that adopted the kid. He’d like to have him back.
The father is willing to go to war to get the boy back. Picard and Troi pretend like they aren’t listening, looking at a spot on the wall quietly.
Picard hooks the boy up with his relatives.
Instead of making a silly sound to relieve stress, Picard suggests playing some silly game. I think they’re bonding or something.
Then everyone watches him try a banana split
He does it wrong
Then the boy thinks maybe he should stab Picard while he’s asleep
“What the heck, man?” -Picard (paraphrasing)
The father comes back and look he’s angry!
Picard says alright, you can have em back, ’cause the kids a total pain.
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