Suddenly Human

Enjoyed watching this episode again.

I was reminded of the missed opportunity I'd pictured when the episode first came out:

Why did they not draw some parallels to Worf's upbringing?

I understand wanting to show Picard trying out parenting skills, but there was a clear opportunity to at LEAST mention and use one scene to reflect a comparison to how Worf would have felt had he been challenged to return to Earth/Earth parents, or to Klingon empire when he was that age.

Still a good episode.

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 the episode begins, the Enterprise comes upon a disabled Talerian ship. All the soldiers on board are a mess and close to death, so they're brought to sick bay. However, this is a very odd lot--as they're all children--teens pushed into the tough job of being soldiers. But something is REALLY odd about one of the teens--he's NOT a Talerian but a human. How he got to be with the Talerians is initially a mystery, but soon they learn through DNA tests that his family was wiped out by Talerians and the young boy was raised thinking he was a Talerian. The task is now to bring him back to his extended human family, but clearly he's too militant and too damaged to possibly be returned at this time. But, oddly, he will listen to no one but Captain Picard. So, the Captain is given a task he surely hates--to be the surrogate father to a very annoying and difficult young man. And, given that the Captain has almost no paternal instincts at all, this is indeed a HUGE problem! An even bigger problem develops when the Talariens arrive and demand to get the boy back...or else.

This episode touches on many contemporary issues, such as child soldiers (a serious problem in some African conflicts), post-traumatic stress disorder and adoption difficulties. And, it touches on the BIG issue...that Picard hates dealing with children--though he really wasn't that bad with this initial effort. All in all, despite being rather 'touchy-feely', it's a pretty good episode--mostly because it was well written and acted.

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.)