“Lonely Among Us”
Written by Michael Halperin and D.C. Fontana
Directed by Cliff Bole
Season 1, Episode 6
Production episode 40271-108
Original air date: November 2, 1987
Stardate: 41249.3
Captain’s log. While wearing what we all, in our naïveté, thought were the ugliest dress uniforms in all creation (only to be proven wrong a decade later ), Picard, Riker, and Yar welcome aboard a Selay delegation. The Enterprise is ferrying them, along with the Anticans, to a negotiation on Parliament. The Selay do not wish to be near the Anticans, nor even upwind of them.
While trying to determine the cause of the malfunctions, the energy surge hits the assistant chief engineer, killing him—but the warp engines are now working.
Crusher discovers that she has suffered a memory loss—which Worf suffered also. Troi hypnotizes the two of them, and they recall their lost time, during which they both felt another presence in their mind.
Helm control goes down again, and while Picard is touching the conn, the energy moves into him. At that point, Picard starts acting in the same weird manner as Crusher earlier and orders the ship back to the energy cloud.
Riker and much of the senior staff discuss Picard’s odd behavior, but don’t have enough to justify relieving him of duty—not even when Picard admits to, in essence, being possessed to Crusher. He then explains to the bridge what happened: it’s an energy-based life form that was accidentally brought on board. Eventually settling in Picard, it claims to have come to an arrangement with the captain to beam back into the energy field, where Picard will be free to explore the galaxy unfettered.
After incapacitating the crew, Picard beams himself off—only to become lost and helpless within the cloud. The Enterprise moves into the cloud, hoping that he’ll come aboard the same way as the other life form. He does, Data is able to integrate Picard’s physical transporter pattern with the energy he became to restore him.
Thank you, Counsellor Obvious. Troi uses the world’s most unconvincing hypnosis—which is very much like a 1950s TV version of hypnotism, only less realistic—to unlock Worf and Crusher’s memories. Later on, her empathic abilities are mostly used to move the plot along, particularly when she senses Picard’s presence in the energy cloud.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The transporter is able to magically restore Picard. Data doesn’t even try to explain how he does it, and given what we’ve seen transporters do in the past (e.g., “The Enemy Within“), what the hay, right?
The boy!? Wesley insists that the engines couldn’t have been repaired by Singh before his death, that they just fixed themselves, but nobody believes him.
If I only had a brain Data first learns of Sherlock Holmes and starts emulating him—or, rather, emulating popular conception of Holmes since, at one point, he says, “it’s elementary, my dear Riker,” a turn of phrase that Holmes never actually used. Since Data is the most literal-minded person imaginable, he would never use this phrase based on his comprehensive study of Holmes. However, Data’s Holmes fetish becomes an entertaining recurring theme.
There is no honor in being pummeled. Worf is felled by the energy creature before the credits roll. However, he is also established as fourth-in-command, as he’s in charge of the bridge while Picard, Riker, and Data are in the ready room.
Welcome aboard. Marc Alaimo and John Durbin play the Antican and Selay leaders. Both would go on to play Cardassians—the former both Gul Macet in “The Wounded” and Gul Dukat on Deep Space Nine, the latter Gul Lemec in “Chain of Command.” Colm Meaney also returns as a crewmember, though unlike in “Encounter at Farpoint,” he is wearing the familiar operations gold that he would continue to wear throughout the show and on DS9. Kavi Raz plays Singh, the assistant chief engineer, who’s brighter than the last one (Shimoda in “The Naked Now“), but suffers an unfortunate fate.
I believe I said that. “Sorry—wrong species.” The Selay delegate after accidentally snagging Riker with a silly-looking lasso thingie that was intended for an Antican.
Trivial matters: This is the first time we’ve seen a crewmember die on screen. Singh is the assistant chief engineer, and Chief Engineer Argyle (from “Where No One Has Gone Before“) is name-checked, though not seen. Cliff Bole, another one of the show’s regular directors, has his debut here.
Make it so. Not the most exciting or interesting episode ever, sadly. There’s an interesting idea in here regarding an energy being trapped on board the Enterprise, but we don’t find out about this until a lengthy infodump by Picard late in the episode. Prior to that, it’s a weak-beer mystery that’s mostly an excuse for Gates McFadden and Sir Patrick Stewart to act weird and for Brent Spiner to be a silly Sherlock.
The Antican and Selay subplot serves no obvious function, except to give the crew a chance to moralize about those silly primitive people with their going to war over economic differences (“strangely enough”) and their eating raw meat. Intended as comic relief, it’s mostly just silly. As, unfortunately, is this episode.
Warp factor rating: 3
Keith R.A. DeCandido‘s most recent Star Trek work includes the Captain’s Log comic featuring Edward Jellico, the novel A Singular Destiny, and stories in Seven Deadly Sins and Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows. Follow him online at his blog or on Facebook or Twitter under the username KRADeC.
I find interesting the idea of a pure energy beign living in space. But I must sadly agree with Keith. The implementation of the concept was poorly handled. Maybe it was another attempt to have the crew play out of character. Still, it was a somewhat solid Sci Fi plot, without a misterious and malevolent monster trying to eat the crew alive, just a scared and strange living being trying to go back home.
Your nitpick about Data’s (mis)quotation of Sherlock Holmes totally blew my mind. :-) Of course he would be the first to correct anyone who used that line! Why, as a casual Sherlockian as well as a Trek fan, this never occurred to me, I don’t know.
I had forgotten that Singh died (assistant chief engineer, no less — poor guy didn’t even get to be Chief Engineer of the Week! Wouldn’t it’ve been a hoot if, every week, the Enterprise had a different Chief Engineer, a la Murphy Brown’s secretaries?). But is this really the first time we’ve seen a crew member die (really die) on screen? Didn’t the helmsman (“ops” officer or whatever the 24th century term is; I forget) get frozen by Q in the pilot? And never, so far as I know, unfrozen?
Thanks for an entertaining recap and review of an eminently forgettable episode!
if the transporter is that good at rebuilding people why does anybody get sick? Let alone die?
Nope, Torres survived being frozen by Q. Worf reported that he was fine right before he asked Picard if he could “clean up the bridge.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Perhaps Data’s obsession with Holmes didn’t simply stop with Doyle’s stories, but also took into account his cultural legacy, of which that particular quote is a huge part.
I’m surprised you didn’t touch on the corniest aspect of this episode. The P symbol on the transporter consol letting them know that Picard had entered the buffers to be reconstituted. Seriously, that would be his choice to communicate his presence? (Because nothing else begins with P). This incident also contains one of Riker’s infamous stating the obvious one liners. “P for Picard?” I roll my eyes every time.
@krad 4 — Right you are. I stand corrected.
For what it’s worth, Holmes did often say “Elementary” and he did often say “My dear Watson.” He never used them back-to-back in that order in any canonical story, but there’s no reason he (or someone emulating his speech habits) couldn’t have in theory.
I take it this is going in original airdate order rather than production/syndication order, since we haven’t gotten to “Haven” yet.
There’s some mildly interesting eerieness here, and the idea of Picard voluntarily choosing to embrace the incorporeal life offered by the entity meshes with the scholar/explorer persona he had in the first season. I also like the way it showed Picard as a teacher to his crew, insisting that his junior officers such as Worf “learn, learn, learn.” That’s something I kind of wish had been retained later on. But it is a rather unfocused, meandering episode. The Antican-Selay subplot serves little purpose and ends very strangely and inappropriately, with a reported act of cannibalism (or sophontophagy, rather) being treated as a matter for humor.
Hey now,
I liked the Insurrection Dress Uniforms. So much so, that I got married in them. ;-)
As for the ep, I hated how the Antican/Selay delegation was such a throwaway storyline, especially its ending of there being some mini-crisis that security goes off to resolve mere seconds before the credits roll. The energy being plot reminds me of a cartoon I once saw in a Starlog Magazine though, with the entire crew dumbfoundedly held at phaser point while a Posessed Picard (complete with devil horns and forked tounge) is jumping up and down behind the ops console taking control of the ship. Just really shows how absurd the whole premise is.
Just say something nice dept.: I like the ambiguity of this episode, especially the question of whether the energy being wanted to merge with Picard or was planning to ditch him all along.
Keith,
I have to say, I loved the dress uniforms in Insurrection! They are like the dress whites we have in the Army (I don’t have them, way too expensive!) and other services. They actually look like a real uniform. And also look good on my characters in Star Trek Online. :-)
Nick: you are entitled to your opinion. ;) Honestly, besides the fact that it added ten pounds to actors who could, at that stage in their careers, ill-afford it (yes, Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton, I’m looking at you), I think it makes them all look like they should be dispensing ice cream from a truck….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
This was just on Sighfie. One abusrdity not covered is they go from a scene where Picard and co discuss that Worf and Crusher were possessed, but then have no plan on what to do when Picard starts acting strange.
Here’s one of many 1st/2nd season episodes that is good conceptually, but poorly executed.
The idea of the space-dwelling alien getting trapped by Enterprise is very compelling. The idea that it goes from person to person (kind of like Azazel from “Fallen”) is even more compelling. But the resolution was utterly ridiculous. The computer-dwelling Picard forming the letter “P” on the console was completely inane and don’t even get me started on the magical transporter resurrection of the “Picard pattern,” as Troi put it.
But time was on their side (Fallen/Stones reference). It was still a solid idea for a story and the show would eventually get better.
I like the Insurrection dress uniforms.
I remember this episode vaguely–what I remember best was the line by Riker: “We no longer enslave animals for food purposes.” Pretty radical for late 80s tv. Thanks to that I decided to give up meat and dairy–been 25 years so far and now veganism gets a lot more attention. Star Trek really is forward thinking. I remember Spock was vegetarian too-but I dont recall them stating it so directly. Wish someone would As DC Fontana about this–why she chose “enslave” since it put a moral spin on it that would have annoyed fastfood advertisers I imagine.
I was watching this episode on Netflix last night and the last thing I remember is Troi beginning the hypnotism sequence. So either Troi’s really good, or the episode was really monotonous. I’m thinking the latter…..
Just rewatched this, and was struck by one incongruous unmentioned detail.
The entity enters Worf first, who collapses, and Geordi calls for medical help. Then, although Worf seems to be semiconscious at best, Crusher and Geordi drag him to his feet (Geordi addressing him as “big guy”) and haul him away between them like people with a drunk friend.
On a starship? Even if you can’t get somebody to beam him to sickbay, surely there should be a gurney for someone who’s been injured and knocked out on the job?
Yeah, that’s pretty ridiculous.
16/ Spock pretty much pointed out his preferences as he verbally refused the meat and how much he enjoyed it, in “All Our Yesterdays”
Worf is a Klingon, I assumed he was just tougher than most; a phaser set on stun apparently only makes a Klingon slightly dazed (Matter of Honor) also I didn’t think they could do intra-ship beaming?
Also didn’t people still eat meat? (Geordi’s Strogonoff (?) recipe comes to mind) And I seem to recall characters having steak and chicken on other occasions.
I also wondered if the original Picard was killed after this episode…
They eat meat, but it’s probably all replicated.
Still, it was kind of funny to hear the disgust they registered over humans eating “fake” meat!
On the other hand — a bit of continuity confusion? Is Troi (1) an empath, and/or (2) kind of half-assed at it, and/ or (3) a mind-reader after all? By her own admission, she first missed sensing that the crew memebers were being possessed by an entity (and then she rationalized her error with those fatal words, “I just assumed . . .” — Uh, Counselor, it’s not your job to friggin’ ASSUME!) — but then later, when Picard was staring longingly at that energy cluster on the screen, she basically read his mind and told everyone he was “thinking about” beaming out there and joining it. Didn’t fit together at all.
@23/jazzmanchgo: Maybe Deanna just didn’t know how to recognize what she was sensing at first, because it was a new sensation, but by later in the episode she’d realized she should pay more attention to it. Nothing implausible about a learning curve.
Personally I could have done without the energy entity A plot. I was far more interested in the Selay and the Anticans. I think they missed an opportunity to tell a story about two very dissimilar (and not humans with ridges) species. (I generally don’t have a problem with the simple ridge/nose/ear differences to distinguish most species. I understand the budget issues.)
I’ve searched the internet and can’t find anything on the obvious mistake where they have an outside shot from the conference room I believe it is, and you can clearly see at the top of the screen the stage rigging!!! I had to rewing it several times then freeze it to actually see it well enough to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. Sure enough it was stage rigging. Amazing how they let this be seen. Don’t they have people that look for things like that? I also can’t believe I couldn’t find it mentioned anywhere else online. Especially with the amount of blooper sites there are out there.
Just re-watched this one, and yeah, it’s kind of a clunker. My take on the Antican and Selay storyline is it’s so empty they might as well have left it out. Seriously, the plot would have been no worse if they’d been on a mission to Randomia One to deliver a vaccine for a Heebie-Geebie outbreak! At the time, I suspect the writers thought The Federation, what it was, who was in it, and how they got there, was a more interesting topic than it proved to be. I think the focus should have been on the sentient energy creature, bringing out its struggle to communicate and find its way home, but rather than a gradually unfolding, “what’s going on?” story, it’s just a bunch of random possessions (if you will) that leave you not knowing or caring that it’s an intelligent and at least partly benevolent entity at work, until Picard’s exposition in the final act.
Because of that, my rating falls at a 3 as well. It’s intriguing enough to do better on first watch, call it a 5, but it’s hard to ignore the pointlessly animalistic aliens or the crew’s complete inability to recognize that something’s going on when the entity is in control. I think anyone would have said something about the obviously not normal doctor, let alone an empath who’s the first to interact with the entity, but it’s only when it gets to the captain and someone’s already died that anyone stops to think! This isn’t nearly the worst of the checkered season one: it falls in the middle third where there’s an decent premise and it plays well enough that you’d keep watching, but you’re probably not going to watch it again unless you’re doing a full series re-watch.
Jonathan: ha, you’re right! It’s blink and you’ll miss it. I had seen this one many times and never noticed, and they didn’t fix it in the HD remasters, so apparently they didn’t see it either. It might have been ignored originally because it’s mostly it not entirely in the NTSC TV overscan area.
I also don’t recall any other episode where they showed the conference room from the outside.
A mess of an episode. The Antican/Salay storyline offered nothing but a brief red herring and bad comic relief. Oh, and used up time while giving Yar something to do. I don’t see why the energy entity had to act all sinister at first; I get they’re confused and scared but they could have observed and waited before being open about they’re plight.
It’s going to be awfully tough explaining how they allowed one deligation to eat the other too. This has to be one of the worst endings I’ve seen in a Star Trek episode yet.
I have very little memory of this one on first watch, and it doesn’t make much of an impression this time around except for two strange dialogues. First, when Picard has beamed himself out into space and they can’t find him Geordi looks at Riker and says are we just going to settle for this? And Riker looks at him with a bit of contempt and says what I would have– then give me a choice.
And then that business at the end where they’re going for the light-hearted coda and Yar runs in talking about a puddle of blood and a missing delegate, and Riker dresses her down. Apparently Number 1 thinks sucking up to the captain is more important than possible harm having come to guest on board….
@26/Jonathan:
Sure they have, but mistakes do happen and are not caught in time. There are some notorious production mistakes in Trek’s history. Some that come to mind: In “Unification 2”, a production crewman can be seen in a reflective doodad on Sela’s desk. In “Birthright 1”, as Dr. Bashir walks down the corridor in his final scene, he’s wearing white sneakers instead of the proper black uniform boots. In DS9‘s “Broken Link”, during Worf and Garak’s fight in the Jefferies tube, one of the hatches falls off after being bumped. Behind it you can see some wooden framing or something like that.
TNG did reach a bit at times with civilization abolishing money and (see next episode) headaches, but I heartily applaud Riker’s “We no longer enslave animals for food purposes. … You’ve seen something as fresh and tasty as meat but inorganically materialized out of patterns used by our transporters.”
@32/Arben: Ya, I liked that dialogue from Riker too. Even though I do eat meat, I’d like to think in the future that kind of technology will be developed to a point where it can feed the entire population of our planet.
For obvious reasons, I wasn’t as impressed with the Antican ambassador’s retort that it was a sickening barbaric practice, though. I know it was meant to be ironic humour by the writer, but all it did was make the Anticans even harder to take seriously than they already were