Lonely Among Us (TNG)

There goes our entire make-up budget for the season.

            If I could use one word to describe “Lonely Among Us”, it would be "playful". It’s not the episode doesn’t have high stakes or drama. But between Tasha and Riker’s absurd subplot and Data’s Sherlock Holmes obsession, it’s hard to take the serious threat to the ship that the saboteur imposes particularly seriously. I don’t think that makes the episode an all out failure. The show is trying to figure out exactly what its tone should be, and I think this episode just falls a little too far on the cheesy/silly side of the scale.

            Basically, there are two plots. They barely intersect. In the first, the Enterprise is transporting two delegations to a treaty negotiation – the furry, carnivorous Anticans and the Reptilian Selay. The trouble is, they absolutely loathe each other. They’re also rather obnoxious in their own right. The humor here comes from the obnoxious demands the delegates make, and the fact that no-nonsense Tasha has to deal with them. Also, the not-so-subtle implication that the Anticans would like to eat the Selay.

And next season...

            In many episodes, one sentient race eating another would be disturbing, or at the very least played up as some sort of nature vs. nurture debacle, but here its played almost entirely for laughs – as in, these are the wacky day-to-day problems you face when transporting interstellar diplomats. It works because the actors playing the aliens play them in such an animalistic way, and their make-up is uncharacteristically non-humanoid, so we don’t see them quite as much as human. It’s more like one of those Farside comics about the wolf trying to eat the sheep.

            Taking up more of the hour is another plotline. The Enterprise scans a mysterious nebula, and accidentally takes an alien life form onboard. The life form can possess both people and subsystems, and jumps from one to another, leaving gaps in people’s memories and interfering with ship’s systems. When navigation goes down (and generic chief engineer number 3 is mysteriously killed) Data, Geordi, Beverly and Tasha embark on a ship-wide investigation to find the saboteur. Data acquires a pipe and a deerstalker. But then the alien realizes it’s much easier to just possess Picard and order the ship back to the nebula.

Note to self: install circuit breakers on bridge consoles.

            Dr. Crusher and Riker try to relieve the captain of duty, but he throws it back in their faces with a “no, you’re possessed by an alien!” When they get to the nebula, the alien explains that he has in fact merged with Picard, and they are going into space together to be beings of pure energy. The crew can’t stop him, so off to the transporter room he goes.

            Shortly thereafter, Troi senses Picard out in the nebula, alone. He starts possessing ship’s systems too, and with his help their able to use the transporter to get him his body back. He remembers nothing of being possessed.

            Then Tasha rushes into the transporter room and reports that the Anticans have, in fact, eaten one of the Selay. LOLz.

Random Observations:

            There won’t be as many of these, since my notes all got deleted when my computer crashed.

            Riker has a model of the Galileo from TOS in his office.

            Doctor Crusher has a silly hat.

           

I'd like to say it gets better for you, chief...

            Worf is annoyed that he has to learn how to recalibrate the sensor arrays. Later we will see Worf take some pride in his knowledge of engineering and ship operations, even if security is his specialty.

            Gates McFadden is probably the most believable actress in terms of portraying being possessed by the alien. She really gets the whole “not quite familiar with this body” thing down. But then, she is a dancer, and they tend to be more aware of their physicality.

Minor Character Watch: Miles O’Brien appears again, as one of the security officers Tasha has assigned to see to the needs of the Selay delegates. As always, his job is thankless.