Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Lonely Among Us TNG

Lonely Among Us is the sixth episode of Star Trek The Next Generation written by D.C. Fontana and Michael Halperin directed by Cliff Bole. Stardate 41249.3. The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D beams aboard delegates from two alien civilizations in the Beta Renna system who have become deadly adversaries. Since achieving space flight the Seley and Antican lifeforms have naturally applied for Federation membership. In the Enterprise transporter room, Captain Picard, Commander Riker and Chief of Security Tasha Yar patiently await the arrival of the Seley delegation to beam up. The snake creatures materialize with the chief Seley delegate stepping off the transporter pad sniffing the air.

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures and/or CBS Studios.

"I'm Captain Picard, welcome aboard. We hope your journey will be pleasant and comfortable, arranging that will be my First Officer, Commander Riker."

Riker: "Welcome aboard. If you follow me, I will show you the accommodation that we....."

Chief Seley Delegate: "We can already smell the Anticans. They were taken aboard first?" Rikers mouth falls open in complete shock.

Picard steps in to the rescue: "Only because their world was first on this heading to Parliament."

Chief Seley Delegate:"Will our quarters be near the Anticans?" The creatures nervousness resonates throughout the transporter room.

Riker: "About one hundred meters appart."

Picard:" Is that alright?" Tasha Yar makes an effort to keep a straight face.

Chief Seley Delegate:"No! Unsatisfactory." The Seley delegate is extremely peeved about the guest quarters.

Riker:" I believe we can accommodate your wishes and rearrange the suite assignments."

Chief Seley Delegate: " And we must be upwind from the Anticans."

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures and/or CBS Studios.

Tasha Yar and Picard realize that the Seley and Antican candidates have a serious beef with each other which is in danger of spiralling out of control. Its the Enterprise's job to deliver the aliens safely to the neutral conference planet. The hope is Parliaments Peacemakers will get the aliens to play nice with each other before establishing ties with the United Federation of planets.

Meanwhile on the Bridge, Data's shortrange scanners detect a mysterious energy cloud closing in at warp speed. Captain Picard tweaks the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D flightpath in order to bypass the cloud so they can reach parliament on time. However all is not what it seems. Routine maintenance on the ships sensor assembly seems peaceful enough with Geordi reporting all sensor maintenance equipment online and functioning. Perfect! Right? Guess again!!!! The Enterprise's plight deepens when Data's bridge sensor scanners reveal absolutely no lifeform or matter readings emanating from within the energy cloud.

When the Enterprise sweeps by the edge of the mysterious space phenomena, something far-out happens. It changes shape and direction! Why the ship's sensors got it wrong only adds to the mystery. A sentient energy life pattern is accidentally snatched away from its natural habitat and absorbed through the USS Enterprise NCC1701-D energy systems. Clueless, Starfleet's finest continues on their way to Parliament. Alone and terrified the energy sentience tries to communicate with the Enterprise crew, alas it's met with resistance and very strange behaviour. The energy beings sentience is temporarily trapped in the Enterprise-D energy circuitry so it devises a plan to emerge with the human lifeforms on the Enterprise thing.

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures and/or CBS Studios.

During the sensor sweep of the mysterious cloud a blue energy surge attacks Lt Worf during his routine inspection of a sensor console. The energy being leaps into the Klingon sending him crashing to the deckplates unconscious with quite a wallop! This is a brilliant stunt played out by the great Klingon Warrior Lt. Worf aka Michael Dorn and is thrilling Star Trek to watch. Geordi springs into action and alerts Dr. Beverly Crusher who also gets a zap from the weird and mysterious entity. Equally weird is the fact no-one notices the Doctors oddball behaviour including the empath Troi. Finally, our sentient energy being discovers the Enterprise's computer intelligence with the help of Dr Beverly Crusher who nearly blew it. On the bridge Data spots her assessing Helm Control instead of using the Science Station for completing a medical report on Lt Worf "Mental Aberrations." Datas android innocence fails to detect the doctors seeds of evil and expose her as a baddie! Later on further warp power disruptions affect the Enterprise so Captain Picard leans over Geordi's Helm station which immediately infects him with a blast of blue energy. "Everything is fine now." The alien energy being has big plans for Picard. It intends creating a new lifeform by merging him with the energy cloud. Yikes!

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures and/or CBS Studios.

The bridge crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D are surprised when Picard diverts the ship back to the alien's energy "homeworld." Yep....its back to the cloud. Data logically points out "A mere change of direction hardly justifies mutiny." The Soong android refers to the great detectives credo, Sherlock Homes for the first time. "We must fall back on the old axiom that when other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth." The Enterprise bridgecrew need to act fast in order to save Picard who has closed part of his mind to Counsellor Troi. Remember when Picard says:

"The search for knowledge is always our primary mission."

In my view Dr Beverly Crusher fails to assert her authority over Captain Picard as Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise when he first exhibited signs of alien possession in the Ready Room. Why didn't Beverly just whisk out her Medical Scanner and analyse Picards vital lifesigns?

Instead the good doctor goofs around with medical exams counting on Commander Riker to back her up "somehow." On the Bridge more chaos shocks the crew when Captain Picard announces his resignation in the face of Riker's defiant objection. The sentient entity being is responsible for sabotaging the ship, invading the crew and apologizes for killing Engineer Singh but its alien mind is resolute. So that leaves Picard to deliver the bad news to his senior bridge officers. But hey! what a speech even though its crazy B.S. Its so eloquent and dignified in substance that everyone is temporarily stunned into silence.

"Very soon after we had combined we had learnt much about each other. A passion for exploration and the unknown and we found we had similar dreams. It offered your captain a way to realize them beyond human expectation."

The USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D bridge crew rise up against the captain but the sentient entity is ready for them with his secret jedi weapon. He immobilizes the entire bridge crew with blue flashes of lightning which gave him enough time to flee the ship.

Lets hear it now. Awwww (Please Captain don't go we need you!)


Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures and/or CBS Studios.

Captain Picard merges with the energy life pattern by beaming out as pure energy into the alien energy cloud. Don't you just love new lifeforms? Counsellor Deanna Troi senses something has gone wrong when Picard's energy
presence is abandoned by the aliens in the energy cloud. "The merging" with the energy patterns was a complete failure. Fortunately the captain's physical energy pattern was stored in the transporter buffer and because he was the last one to leave the ship.....Data, Riker and Troi are able to rematerialize the captain in body and spirit and proceed to Parliament minus one adorable Seley delegate.


Live Long and Prosper, trekkers.

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