-Written by Kyle Bain.
When an unknown probe approaches the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is struck unconscious. He wakes up to an unfamiliar face claiming to be his wife, to a place that no longer exists, and a community of people suffering, struggling to survive. Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Inner Light is what you might call a self-contained episode of the series, a short film if you will. It explores Picard’s mind, and the history of humans on the mysterious Kataan.
“The Inner Light” is an episode of a Star Trek series that can exist entirely on its own. You don’t really need knowledge of the characters or their previous adventures in order to appreciate the sentiment behind the episode (though I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t help). “The Inner Light” intends to do one thing–reach viewers emotionally, and it certainly does that. When Stewart’s Picard wakes up in someone else’s body, a man named Kamin–he takes on the random man’s life. He takes on his hobbies, becomes part of his family, part of his community–but he still retains the memories of Picard. Though it does take some time, even years in order for Picard/Kamin to come to terms with their current situation, what eventually comes of it is a tale of human connection. Viewers are easily able to see what it is that Picard (in Kamin’s body) now yearns for: a family and their love.
This is something that he gets to experience throughout–and over the course of thirty-ish years (in the mind of Picard) he experiences a lifetime of love. “The Inner Light” relies on this sort of emotion to drive it forward–and it’s wonderfully successful in this regard.
“The Inner Light” doesn’t feel like a typical Star Trek property–in fact, it’s wildly different. Sure, the first and last five minutes of the episode take place in space, and Picard is mentally stranded on a far away planet–but that’s it. The community on Kataan is experiencing a drought, and they are in danger of going extinct. “The Inner Light” tackles real-life issues, little having to do with space or what one might typically find in Star Trek. I love that about this episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Even though emotion and drama related to the standard human is normal for this science-fiction franchise, it more often than not exists within the confines of something otherworldly. We don’t have to dig deep to find it here, it’s right on the surface, ripe for the picking.
What bothers me about this episode of the series is the fact that there is some mental and emotional captivity here. Picard doesn’t end up on Kataan by accident, as the residents of this world intentionally released a probe to hijack someone’s mind and teach them the history of this soon-to-be forgotten planet. “The Inner Light” deals with something almost horrifying–as Picard experiences something akin to Stockholm Syndrome. While he’s really only mentally separated from his crew for around twenty-five minutes of real time, he feels that he’s been gone for decades, and after some time he finally makes the decision to assimilate. This isn’t something that is ever really addressed in the episode–and I suppose that’s because his “captors” had only good intentions. Not a malicious thought crossed their minds, and I think viewers are meant to look past this as a result.
This still didn’t sit right with me, and from the moment I realized what was happening until the moment I wrote this very sentence (and beyond), I couldn’t help feeling that this aspect of “The Inner Light” was just a little creepy.
Beyond the story and the emotion woven into it, “The Inner Light” is a relatively simple episode. It doesn’t call for too much in terms of set design (especially considering what the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew would have had to do on a regular basis), it doesn’t require any level of expertise with the cinematography, and the sound design is impeccably simplistic. That’s not to say that each of those aforementioned aspects don’t work in favor of the episode, but they aren’t worth going into detail about either. “The Inner Light” is an intriguing episode–and what feels much more like a self-contained short film. Does it compare to the greats of the Star Trek canon? I’m not quite sure. But it works, and I can understand why fans of the show love it so dearly–even if I don’t believe it should be the highest rated episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Directed by Peter Lauritson.
Written by Gene Roddenberry, Morgan Gendel, Peter Allan Fields, Brannon Braga, & René Echevarria.
Starring Patrick Stewart, Margot Rose, Richard Riehle, Scott Jaeck, Jennifer Nash, Daniel Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, etc.
8/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING
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