[TNG] Season 4, Episode 22: Half a Life
Rating: 3
A rare episode that focuses almost entirely on the guest players, Half A Life successfully tackles some very Star Trek ideas. These kinds of setups often run into problems because of how high concept whatever eccentric social practice is being depicted, but the smart, serious writing and a great performance from David Ogden Siers as Timicin imbue the ideas with significant emotional weight.
Read more at Memory Alpha
Notes:
Lwaxana is on board.
They thought it would be funny if they matched her up with a depressed scientist desperately trying to save his homeworld.
Enterprise is helping him do experiments to revitalize his sun, but it goes wrong. See that’s what this flash of light is.
His culture also has a mandatory tradition of ending the lives of people when they become 60. You guessed it, the second half of this episode is gonna be fun!
Lwaxana argues with him about his world’s traditions. He’s specially capable of saving his world, so he really needs to stick around for a bit longer.
He figures out possibilities of how his experiments could work, but he’s out of time. It’s almost his 60th birthday.
He asks for asylum!
The world doesn’t much like that. They want him back to so they murder him up.
Ensign Ro shows up and tells him she’s ashamed of him.
He decides he needs to go home and bite the big one.
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