Suddenly Human

This was a very thoughtful episode, and actually made me tear up at the end. I love Star Trek for the Science Fiction plots, not the soap opera in space episodes. TOS Wink of an Eye (where people were sped up so that they sounded like insects), TOS Requiem for Methuselah (where a man aged hundreds of years and never died), TNG Best of Both Worlds, (where you have enemies that are nearly unconquerable and yet hey find a way to defeat them), and the TNG one (what's it called?) where Beverly Crusher ends up alone on the ship after seemingly having crew members vanish one after the other. But for a human drama episode, this was pretty good, and far more interesting than Worf and his son.

This episode makes several pointed (albeit unrelated and undiscussed) references to Irish history. This is surprising as none of the episode's listed writers, editors, and actors appear to be or have been Irish or even of Irish descent.

The forename of "Adm. Connaught Rossa" (played by Barbara Townsend) is a clear reference to Connaught (now called Connacht), one of the four provinces that comprise the island of Ireland.

More importantly, the character called "Jono" was born Jeremiah Rossa to human parents, although raised as a Talerian. In real life, a man called Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was a 19th-century Fenian. (The Fenians were the Irish rebel group which was the immediate precursor of the Irish Republican Army.) He fled the British authorities to New York City, where he lived until his death, and from whence he delegated violent attacks in London and elsewhere, often involving dynamite. He died in New York in June 1915 but his body was interred in Ireland on August 1, 1915 in a "heroes ceremony" coordinated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood for propaganda value. (The following year, the fateful Easter Rising of 1916, which would eventually lead to the severing of most of Ireland from the United Kingdom, occurred.)

Watched this episode a couple weeks ago on H&I. I saw a mannequin in the left hand seat on the bridge, where Wesley usually sits, as it zoomed in to Riker on the bridge. I was trying to show this to my sister, even signed up for Paramount plus, and this scene has been cut or edited and is not available on any version I can fine. Did anyone else watch this and see this mannequin? I find it very hard to believe that I am the only person in 30 years to catch this mannequin on screen.

A strong episode about a battle we too often see played out in the media today.

A child adopted at a young age, and raised with a good family, is suddenly taken away from the only home they have ever known, simply because his biological family now asserts a claim on them.

Regardless who the winner is in these situations, the only victim in any such battle is going to the child. Instead of possibility of growing up with two family's, they will now have to give up one of them.

How often we lose that which should have been our main focus all along. The best for the child and what they want.

When a disabled ship's tiny crew is brought on board the Enterprise, they assume they have been kidnapped and mistreated. They are Talarian's except for one, a handsome, blonde teenaged boy. He considers himself one of them and fears the crew. It turns out that when he was a little boy, the Talarians killed his parents. His only living relative is his grandmother who happens to be an admiral in Starfleet. He is put in a different setting than his crewmates and Picard, reluctantly, becomes his mentor. It is eventually revealed that the Captain of a Talarian vessel adopted him after the fatal battle. He wants his son back. The issue becomes, how do we treat someone who has only known one way of life. The initial effort is to return him to his childhood roots. He understands this but it miserable with it. He is also expected to act as those on the Enterprise do. The alien Captain gives Picard an ultimatum. Give the boy back or face all out war with heavy casualties. An interesting dilemma and worth a look.