Stardate: 41249.3
Original Air Date: November 2, 1987
Writers: Michael Halperin & DC Fontana
Director: Cliff Bole
“A mystery is only a mystery as long as it remains uninvestigated.”
The Enterprise-D has been orbiting the two major planets in the Beta Renner system, taking aboard delegates from those two worlds. Since achieving space flight, the major life forms –the Anticans and the Selay—have become deadly enemies. Both have also applied for admission into the Federation. The mission of the Enterprise is to transfer the delegates to the sector’s neutral conference planet called “Parliament” in the hope that the dispute can be resolved. Once beamed aboard, both the Anticans and the Selay make it clear that they deeply despise one another over matters of custom, god concepts, and even economic systems. They both have nothing but contempt for one another and are finnicky about their living quarters and food. And soon, they begin violently confronting one another.
While en route to Parliament, the Enterprise encounters a strange energy cloud traveling at warp speed. The Enterprise performs a sensor pass by the cloud (at warp speed?) while it begins changing shape, and at the same time, Worf is struck by a strange burst of electricity (or “energy sensor feedback”). Then, while giving Worf medical attention, Dr. Crusher is infected with the same electric burst that has hopped from Worf. Crusher starts behaving in an odd manner and she heads for the helm where the electrical burst leaves her body and infiltrates the ship’s mainframe. Shortly thereafter, numerous critical functions begin malfunctioning (the helm, engineering, warp drive, the transporter etc).
Meanwhile, more violence continues to unfold between the Anticans and the Selay. This leads to an unresolved mystery of literary proportions as Data mimics Sherlock Holmes smoking a pipe, brandishing a magnifying glass, and proclaiming, “Elementary, my dear Riker…sir.” This would be an amusing sub-plot if it was explored to any greater depth.
Lastly, Picard is infested with the electrical burst and he also begins acting strangely. He orders the ship return to the energy cloud (significantly delaying the conference on Parliament) and he refuses to offer any explanation or medical evaluation with the crew. Upon arrival at the cloud, Picard reveals that the Enterprise had accidentally absorbed a sentient being which now dwells inside Picard. He shocks and blinds the crew before beaming himself out into the cloud. Is this the end of Picard? After an hour passes, an electric beam of energy resembling Picard manages to infiltrate the ship’s circuitry and reformulate himself via the ship’s transporter. In the end, all is returned to normal as the Anticans and the Selay continue their violent antics toward one another (Picard decides to take a rest, leaving Riker to clean up an inexplicably bloody mess caused by the two delegation teams).
My Thoughts on “Lonely Among Us”
Somewhat reminiscent of the TOS episode “Journey to Babel,” the tone of this episode is a bit clumsy and all over the place. Is it supposed to be funny? Or deadly serious? A quirky mystery story is only briefly introduced but never resolved as Data mimes Sherlock Holmes. The A-plot of this episode concerns the transportation of the two alien species to a neutral meeting ground (“Parliament”). These two alien races –one dog-like, the other snake-like– are compelling but why would Starfleet insist on transporting “deadly enemies” aboard the same ship? Why would these two violent cultures make a positive addition to the Federation? Is there a reason so many alien races portrayed in TNG seem to be caricatures of sheer barbarism?
At any rate, this narrative is entirely overshadowed by the episode’s B-plot which concerns the energy cloud and a mysterious entity in the form of an electrical charge that infiltrates the ship’s circuitry before hopping among the crew, possessing them and forcing them to do inexplicable things. Who is this entity? What does he want? Sadly, answers are never given, and the transporter somehow magically reincarnates Picard at the end (which raises all sorts of ethical questions). This is a befuddling episode to me.
Writer/Director
Michael Halperin wrote the original story which focused on dilithium and the ship’s warp drive and DC Fontana added in the diplomatic conference subplot.
Cliff Bole directed a total of 42 episodes of Star Trek across TNG, DS9, and Voyager.
Star Trek Trivia:
- In this episode, it is established that humans in the future no longer enslave animals for meat. Instead, they use inorganically materialized substitutes from patterns in the transporter, in contrast to the Anticans who require live animals to eat.
- Colm Meaney appears again in this episode after previously appearing in the pilot “Encounter at Farpoint.” It was not until Season 2 that he would play the recurring character, Miles O’Brien.
- This is also the first episode featuring recurring cast member Marc Alaimo who is featured in DS9.
- The Antican and Selay make-up creations were made by Michael Westmore from designs by Andrew Probert.
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