Lonely Among Us

The magnificent death of Mr. Singh... He gets shocked from the warp station at engineering and flies like a butterfly just close to the warp core and while facing downwards, spotted by Worf and declared dead.

I hope I'm not wrong, but this is the very first time we see on a TNG episode the rule "Appeared too much, lived too much".

I mean when an "appearance with a dialogue" playing actor that we see for the first time and doesn't have a relation with the story of that episode, eventually dies before the end of that episode :)

...and the last scene with the delegate BBQ is probably the funniest cultural conflict i have ever heard of.

Later on we learn that the Enterprise while passing an energy cloud has taken on a being that exists as pure energy. It goes from being to being in the ship's crew and eventually it's Captain Picard on whom it settles as the host, obviously sensing this is the guy in charge.

As if this wasn't enough problems two delegations of aliens are on board who hate each other are being transported to Federation HQ to apply for membership. They are Commander Riker's responsibility if he can prevent them from killing each other.

The climax of course is separating Patrick Stewart with what is inhabiting his body. It's a close run thing.

This episode also introduces Data to whom he adopts as a human role model, Sherlock Holmes, pipe and all.

Picard and the crew are overseeing the negotiations between to embittered rivals. There seems little chance that anything is going to get done. During this time a cloud is entered which alters the resolve of many significant crew members. Each of the principles seems to have a go at a new existence, acting strangely or putting forth dangerous actions and ideas. Somehow this cloud is responsible for this alteration. It is fortunate that there are those on the crew that are able to interpret things properly. Commander Data must act because for all his good intentions, Picard fall victim to the forces of the cloud. This type of dangerous entity is ongoing in many episodes. Also, it is up to someone other than Picard to come forth and deal with the issues. This is seldom done in these efforts. Good episode but somewhat derivative.

An energy life form stows away in the bodies of various crew members until merging with Picard and beaming out into space. Sherlock Data is on the case though so there isn't anything to worry about. Crusher wears an iHat to help with her medical diagnosis and Wesley gets too much screen time yet again. The writers even manage to throw in more Ferengi fear mongering.

We are six episodes in and we've already met three separate chief engineers. No telling what happened to McDoogle or the other guy, but Mr. Sing gets BTFO'd by the stowaway energy. After the stowaway beams Picard out into space, Picard manages to return to corporeal form via the Enterprise computer. The transporter is a truly remarkable piece of plot contrivance I mean technology.

On an unrelated note, some bipedal wolf-cat people are on board with their arch enemies the bipedal snake-man people. The only real take away from this subplot is that the federation is Vegan and that neither Riker nor Picard can be bothered with trivialities like diplomats cooking and eating one another. In their defense, Selay steaks are godd*mn delicious.

This episode is one of several reasons why Season 1 has the reputation that it does. The writers don't know what they want the show to be. The A plot is supposedly drama, and the B plot is supposedly comedy. But the A plot isn't tense, and the B plot isn't funny.

Verdict: Swing and a miss.

Fun Facts:

Chief Obrien is now in a gold uniform and he's lost his rank.

Heading 925 mark 37 instructs the helms men to complete two full circles before plotting his course. The format for heading is (Horizontal rotation) mark (vertical rotation). Its in the technical manual but you can google it.

P is for Picard.

When I watched "Lonely Among Us" again, I was surprised at how crappy the look was of the show. The graphics for the planet looked poor and the costumes of the snake-like and mouse-like aliens were very poor (stiff and with unmoving mouths). This is NOT to say the show was awful--but through the course of the series, they sure got better!! Think about how the Andorians looked in the final series, "Enterprise"--they were BRILLIANTLY made and seemed like real aliens. So much we have come to expect with costumes is the result of earlier efforts like "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

The Enterprise is escorting two really annoying and aggressive enemies to a conference--no easy feat. However, when they come near a giant cloud in space, a new and far more serious problem develops. Soon, an electric shock attacks Worf and it passes to various crew members--and even kills Mr. Singh*! What's worse is that eventually the electric shot hits the Captain and he begins giving seemingly irrational orders.

This is a pretty decent episode--even with primitive costumes and graphics. I could easily looked past this. However, I could not look past a portent of dumb things to come-having Data acting like Sherlock Holmes. This plot is just awful and would lead to one of the worst episodes of the series--the one where Moriarty takes over the ship. So, we have an interesting plot, a dumb subplot and some odd graphics compared to later ones. A mixed bag, but worth seeing if you are a fan of the series. If not, I say try another episode instead.

*This is VERY sad. This was a great opportunity to FINALLY include an Indian crew member and they kill him off!! The show tried VERY hard to be ultra-politically correct yet they somehow killed the guy. Sad, but at least they'd EVENTUALLY bring on crew members like Dr. Bashir in "Deep Space 9".