Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Episode: 1.07 Lonely Among Us (11-2-87)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 1/1
Notable Guest Stars:
John Durbin – Ssestar. He will appear on Trek again as Gol Lemec.
Colm Meaney – Transporter Chief. BUT ITS MILES O’BRIEN. Ahem.
Kavi Raz- Ast. Chief Engineer Singh. He gets the bonus of being TNG’s first Redshirt (er…goldshirt). He has also appeared on M*A*S*H and House MD. He is currently working as a director.
Review:
The Enterprise is asked to take two warring planets to a neutral planet for peace talks. We have the Selay, a reptilian species who really dislike their Antican neighbors who are canine in nature. On the bright side this episode isn’t a TOS redux, even though it has similar elements to some of their episodes. It is written by DC Fontana who wrote Journey to Babel, and people have suggested similarities, but it is not really the same.
The best part of this episode is it introduces Data’s hobby as Sherlock Holmes. There are several episodes over the course of the series where Data’s love of Sherlock Holmes becomes a plot tool. Either he is solving a question using Holmes or he is having fun and things turn weird.
This episode also settles the idea of how a Captain can be removed from office. It was brought up in TOS, but TNG has added a second option. The Captain can either be removed by medical exams showing he is unfit, or if the senior staff all agree he is unfit. Picard is probably the first Captain who decides he wants to go with an energy being.
I find it interesting that Deanna seems to be only able to be telepathic with Riker (as far as non-betazoids go). I don’t know if this means Riker has a higher ESP level then most or if the telepathic bound of Imzadi means she can connect with him and not others. Also, it could be that they need a physical organic form to have telepathic connection.
And we get to end the episode with delegates eating each other.
Interesting Notes:
- Written by D.C. Fontana based on the story of Michael Halperin.
- Directed by Cliff Bole
- First “redshirt” death of the series. Which is pretty amazing considering its episode 7. TNG is a bit more frugal with its minor characters.
Pros:
- Data’s First Holmes episode.
- Mr. Singh gets bonus points for telling Wesley to go to school and not just hang out in engineering.
Cons:
- Not the best species make-up/costumes ever
- WHERE ARE ALL THE OFFICERS?!?
- Death by diplomatic hunting is not a good thing.
Sokorra Lewis 