Lessons

Such a complicated personality. This gives more depth in his character. I was teary-eyed at the end. We all hope for the life and happiness at the end of our life.

"Lessons" should be called "Music Lessons". In this episode, Picard meets the obsessive Commander Daren and the two begin a relationship, mostly consisting of them playing music (Picard the flute he got in "The Inner Light", and Daren a little keyboard pad). This is all dull and when the manufactured dilemma (which shouldn't have been a dilemma at all) comes around, are we supposed to care? This episode came right after the tense "Starship Mine" and the two episodes couldn't be further apart. A tense thriller followed by an uninteresting romance; the former is definitely much more memorable.

The German title of this episode is "Der Feuersturm", which might give you even higher expectations than "Lessons". "Lessons" implies that there's perhaps actually a point to make, which there isn't. "Der Feuersturm" gives an impression of danger, which doesn't exist for an instant.

Look, I have no problem with Picard falling in love with a crew member but do it well! This was not done well

Not only was this episode cheaply produced (they used a Jeffrey's Tube drop right in front of the camera in the worst way possible), but it seems with all the talent around TNG, they can't seem to find a musician!!?? "I noticed you chose to use a D diminished chord in the second arpeggio." What??? It's Chopin piano trio. He wrote it, there no improv involved, no cadenzas. Any classical musician could have told the writers this. When Picard's love interest unrolls her "magical piano" it only has 4 octaves...and yet when she plays it, it seems to have at least 7. Ugh.

the acting feels stilted on the cheeseball scale it ranks Hallmark Channel 10!! One of the weakest episodes in the 6th season.

This episode gives Captain Jean-Luc Picard a little romance in his life. Wendy Hughes is the new head of stellar cartography a most important position since the Enterprise is first and foremost a ship of exploration. She likes classical music and she and Patrick Stewart find they have a lot in common.

Perhaps Hughes and Stewart hit it off too good. She's not the most disciplined of people. She kind of reminded me of Douglas MacArthur who could never quite grasp that whatever theater of operations he wa in was not the whole show. Hughes and Jonathan Frakes have a small blowup about that.

More important her knowledge is invaluable on an away mission to rescue colonists from solar storms. But will personal involvement impair Captain Picard's judgment.

Nice as always to see romance not reserved for just the young.

This is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in large part because my mom was a piano education major in college; she started me on the piano when I was only 3 years old & taught piano lessons out of our home for much of my childhood. Thanks to this episode, I now claim #3 as my favorite of Bach's 6 Brandenberg concertos. This is one of 23 TNG episodes my parents have recorded on VHS cassette; my dad, who still has some musical talent, just not as much as my mom (he played trombone in high school) used the VHS cassette of this episode to transcribe the "Folk Melody" (first played in "The Inner Light"; Season 5, Episode 25) onto musical staff paper. When my dad played the melody for his dad (who HATES Star Trek), he actually thought the tune was BEAUTIFUL!