Patrick Stewart credited as playing...
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I'm told that your father is also dead.
- Jeremy Aster: Yes, sir. He died five years ago, from a Rushton infection. I'm all alone now, sir.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Jeremy, on the Starship Enterprise, no one is alone. No one.
- Lt. Marla Aster: Your philosophy is curious, Captain. What is so noble about sorrow? I can provide him an existence where he will feel no pain, no anguish.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: It is at the heart of our nature to feel pain - and joy. It is an essential part of what makes us what we are.
- Wesley Crusher: [dealing with his own father's death] My parents had told me about the dangers of Starfleet missions. I knew it could happen.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: So you were prepared?
- Wesley Crusher: No, I wasn't prepared at all. How can anyone be prepared to hear that a parent is never coming home again?
- Lt. Marla Aster: It is our duty to make him happy again.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Do you honestly believe he would be happy in... this total fiction, which you wish to create? What reason would he have to live? What you're offering him is a memory - something to cherish. Not to live in. It is part of our life cycle that we accept the death of those we love. Jeremy must come to terms with his grief. He must not cover it, or hide away from it. You see, we are mortal. Our time in this universe is finite. That is one of the truths that all humans must learn.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Serving on a starship means accepting certain risks... certain dangers. Did Jeremy Aster make that choice?
- Counselor Deanna Troi: Death and loss are an integral part of life everywhere. Leaving him on Earth would not have protected him.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: No, but the Earth isn't likely to be ordered to the Neutral Zone or to repel a Romulan attack. It was my command which sent his mother to her death. She understood her mission and my duty. Will he?
- Counselor Deanna Troi: In time. And with help. Wesley Crusher does. He does. And so will Jeremy.
- [by posing as Lt. Aster, the energy life form intends to alleviate Jeremy's pain, which was accidentally caused by its species]
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I appreciate your motives. But... his mother is dead. He must learn to live with that.
- Lt. Marla Aster: I will be every bit his mother!
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard: But not his mother.