To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also next year’s release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I’m taking a look at the recent blu ray release of the first season, episode-by-episode. Check back daily for the latest review.
Lonely Among Us actually embodies quite a few of the problems with these early episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. While it’s hardly the worst episode of a season, it is certainly not among the stronger episodes. It’s a story that doesn’t really have a centrally defined conflict, and plays into the worst of the smug “humans are special” subtext that pervades episodes like The Last Outpost. At one point, possessed!Picard observes, “The search for knowledge is always our primary mission.” Based on episodes like this and The Last Outpost, it seems more likely the ship’s primary mission is lording it over alien cultures they deem inferior.
However, more than that, Lonely Among Us simply lacks a compelling narrative drive to make it entirely worthwhile. The ideas here aren’t half-bad, but the execution is downright dull.
Has Picard’s judgement been clouded?
Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Cold War, Economic system, Federation, Geordi La Forge, jean-luc picard, Last Outpost, Lieutenant, Next Generation, Picar, picard, Riker, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek's Next Generation, star trek: the next generation, Starfleet ranks and insignia, William Riker, Worf | 6 Comments »
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