The Inner Light, Star Trek TNG, S5E25, The greatest Episode of the whole series

transmaster

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I just ran across the exquisite theme for what I consider the greatest single episode of Star Trek The Next Generation. The Inner Light Season 5, Episode 25, 1992. In this episode, the Enterprise encounters an unknown spacecraft in deep space. Near a solar a system that was destroyed by its star. As they are viewing it. It suddenly activates and John Luke Picard wakes up as Kamin on the planet Kataan, located in this now lifeless solar system. I will say no more as the episode is real tear-jerker you need to see without spoilers. But the theme by Dennis McCarthy lends a sweet melancholy counterpoint to the Episode. The original theme is played with a Penny Whistle of which I have several but at the time I played it on my Selmer Omega Alto Flute with tears in my eyes.

 
They had some really stellar episodes mixed in there. Overall I think most of the episodes (except maybe some of the first season) were decent but some really stand out. Another one that I really happen to like is Data's Day. This particular episode may have been among their best work though, and its a really interesting concept. Maybe indirectly the inspiration for the Matrix concept?
 
What is interesting to me is what happen later on when Star Trek got out from under the Rodenberry mafia.
 
They had some really stellar episodes mixed in there. Overall I think most of the episodes (except maybe some of the first season) were decent but some really stand out. Another one that I really happen to like is Data's Day. This particular episode may have been among their best work though, and its a really interesting concept. Maybe indirectly the inspiration for the Matrix concept?

The thing that rocked me was at the end of this episode, "please remember us". It is then you realize what happened.
 
That is one of a few choice episodes I will set my PVR to record when I'm out.

Another one that I really like is the episode where captain Picard dies and "Q" gives him a chance to change his early life from being a bit of a rebel roser, Not unlike Captain Kirk in the original series.
 
What is interesting to me is what happen later on when Star Trek got out from under the Rodenberry mafia.

What made the Inner Light so good was it was pure story telling and did not rely on junk science and hyperbabble.


Yes it got better, but even they were known to write some stinkers.

Janeway had a bigger pair than Picard. As an aside:

As ST captains go,

#1 Kirk - I love the way he interpreted the prime directive. I loved his solution for peace in, “A taste of Armageddon”.

#2 Archer - It was only the “Prime Suggestion” in his day. I think Kirk learned a lot from him. :D

#3 Janeway - she had a real ship not a space station

#4 Sisko - He got a lot of mileage out of that subcompact called the Defiant.

#5 Picard - Picard gets the #5 slot because he did not send Wesley back to junior high, in the first episode.
 
There were some annoying bits about TNG, the over-frequent Wesley saves the day episodes being one of them.

Star Trek was meant to be more of a character show that happened to be in space. The times when its all tech magic stuff got annoying. Using that to add to the drama or to work as a plot point is fine but getting too reliant on it makes the characters less important IMO.
 
That is one of the things that made Space Above and Beyond (1995) so good. The technology was there but it was just part of the enviroment.

The treatment of SAaB by Fox is the reason why I stopped watching this steaming pile of a channel.
 
I'd agree - the best, and I've seen them all. Conceptually outstanding.
Almost makes up for Wesley.
 
Agree, that is a great episode.
A few years ago Paramount auctioned off various Star Trek franchise props and someone paid a ridiculously large sum for that flute. In the documentary made to chronicle the auction, Patrick Stewart reveals that it was not a playable instrument.
 
A great episode, perhaps the best. Really makes you think. Years ago a friend said it was based on a Japanese novella and he gave it to me to read. The name eludes me but in it a person's pillow implanted the memories.

DS9 explored a similar, but more sinister angle in the episode "Hard Time."
 
Agree, that is a great episode.
A few years ago Paramount auctioned off various Star Trek franchise props and someone paid a ridiculously large sum for that flute. In the documentary made to chronicle the auction, Patrick Stewart reveals that it was not a playable instrument.
$48,000 Dollars
 
An excellent episode.

My favorite TNG episode might just be the extended cut of "The Measure of a Man."
 
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