The Bonding

I don't have the experience of a deceased parent, but I still know that loss is a fundamental part of the human condition. 'The Bonding' takes that and applies it to life onboard a starship. A Starfleet archaeologist is killed during a routine mission, leaving behind a young boy; Worf deals with his own guilt after leading the expedition, Riker and Picard contemplate the after effects from a command perspective and Wesley vividly recalls the news of his own father's death. Throw in an alien being whose only aim is to relieve suffering and this is a heartfelt look at how we deal with personal pain. All of this can easily become syrupy, but it doesn't. There's sensitivity involved here, and even though the pacing feels a little compressed, this is a very well written episode.

Touching, to the last.

9/10

Interesting philosophical questions about loss and suffering and a different and moving dimension to the characters and acting of most episodes. It all seems a bit silly because any kid, even a Starfleet kid would just totally freak out at the events in this one. However, like most trek episodes, there is enough in the story to make a feature length movie. It stands to reason therefore, that a lot of potential character and story development has to be cut down to make it fit into 45 minutes. Understandably, it can seem a bit unrealistic at times. Still, great sci-fi provides insights into the human condition by exploring fantasy scenarios, which this episode does, if you can just suspend your disbelief.

This episode had a lot of potential. The first half was very strong, involving the death of a woman who had a newly orphaned son on board the Enterprise.

There are a lot of great character moments here. Some great character moments from Picard, Troi, Worf, and Data. In particular, I loved how the episode involves a meditation on the ethics of bringing children on board the Enterprise, and putting them in danger.

The big problem I had with this episode is the way the plot twists towards the end. Rather than exploring the character of the boy, or the ramifications the death has on the crew, it devolves into an alien of the week story.

I found myself wishing that the original story for this episode was used. Instead of the alien of the week, we could have had one involving the holodeck.

It is by no means the worst episode, but I was let down by the plot, because I saw the potential for something a lot more interesting.

This strange episode begins when an away-team, lead by Worf, encounter a problem which leads to the death of one of the members, Lt. Marla Aster. She is killed leaving a young son, Jeremy Aster, to face the her death head-on. But while Jeremy is grieving his mother's death, she all of the sudden appears in his room stating her death was a big mistake and she want Jeremy to come live with her on the planet.

Jeremy is now torn between his mother alive and the crew of the Enterprise telling him that it's an alien presents that is acting like his mother. When the Enterprise takes action to remove the alien from the ship, it returns with a vengeance.

A very nice story that involves death and remembrance. We will learn that the alien's motive is respectable but misunderstood in human's perception. Some good emotional scenes with Wesley and another with Worf. Entertaining story that was enjoyable to watch and learn.

So far from my chronological viewing of the series, this is the most moving episode yet for me. For anyone who has lost a parent, they can relate.

But this episode deals with death on different levels. It deals with the concept of the temptation of living in the past and ignoring the reality of loss, and mentions the strength of humanity in overcoming the acceptance of our mortality.

There is a great conversation between Data and Riker, where Data questions why we do not equally mourn the loss of those we are close to and those we are not. Riker makes a compelling comment while explaining this to an android, and it ends with Riker saying that if we mourned all loss of life equally, humans would have a much less bloodier past.

This episode brought laughs and tears. The ending with Worf and the boy was great, it made Worf out to have a decent and likable character inside of him.