Grab the tissues. This is one of the best episodes of the series and even someone like me who isn't easily moved to tears is touched by this one. I classify it as a "Roddenberry Classic" episode related closely to "The Paradise Syndrome."
It starts with the Enterprise approaching a probe while in the middle of a survey. It emits a beam that connects with Picard and knocks him out. He faints on the bridge and wakes up to a strange woman tending to him and calling him Kamin. As he comes to his senses it's like coming out of a dream that is fading fast. He insists that he isn't Kamin but can't remember his name. He knows he doesn't belong there, but can't remember where exactly he was before. He asks the woman if he's a prisoner and finding out that he's not he leaves immediately even though the woman is genuinely worried for his health and safety.
He walks through the town and meets a counsel man named Batai who knows him as Kamin. He explains that Eline (eh-LEEN) is his wife and that she'd been caring for him for a week while he's been sick from a deadly fever. Picard learns that he's a resident in this community on a planet called Kataan and that this guy is his best friend. Batai is as worried as Eline at his amnesia and what would seem to be delusions of a life in space. There's even a humorous moment when Batai notes that if he can't remember that Eline is his wife then he'd probably better not go home. It reinforces the fact that these people see him as a person they are familiar with and that there's not much chance that they're aliens with a malicious motive for keeping him trapped in an illusion against his will. Batai does suggest that he try to rest more, but Picard leaves the town and wanders the surrounding area to see if it's all real and to see if there is any evidence of his existence in space which now appears more and more like a dream. He ends up going back to Kamin's home late in the evening because he has nowhere else to go and plies Eline with a lot of questions about "his life." He learns that he's an iron weaver who never really learned how to play his flute and that the people of Kataan have never made contact with any aliens outside of their planet. Uncomfortable questions for this poor woman. And then we see the connection as he notices her necklace which is a miniature of the probe they encountered. Although Picard no longer remembers the probe, it is a familiar sight. It's then that you see everyone on the bridge of the Enterprise huddled around Picard to learn that he is in a coma and that everything he's experiencing as Kamin is the actual dream. So, so far, the beginning isn't much different from other Star Trek
episode. When Crusher arrives on the bridge she advises against breaking the connection with the probe because it may cause more damage like pulling a knife out of a person who has been stabbed.
However, this is where the episode takes an unexpected turn. A seasoned Star Trek fan would expect Kamin-Picard to be solving the mystery of his new placement on Kattan within a few hours or days, inadvertently teaching lessons to all the people in town about space travel, good liberal morals, and even finding a way to meet with them for real. But when we go back to Picard's dream you see that several years have passed. Picard is Kamin now and he's fully integrated into the society. He's living happily with Eline. One has to assume she's been very patient and understanding over the years since, even though he's accepted his life, he's been forever changed by becoming obsessed with astronomy and geology and still occasionally talks of his vivid dream of coming from space. But these new hobbies have benefits as well. The planet is dying and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see that they didn't write it as dying from "global warming" or other man-caused nonsense. This part of the story was centered around the natural consequences of a sun slowly going nova and burning up all of the planets in its system in the process. Batai is explaining to the head administrator that to stay hopeful during the extended droughts the community planted a tree and keeps it alive by everyone donating some of their water rations. Kamin, although he now has no memory of his former life, still has his education and suggests atmospheric condensers. The administrator turns down this idea in a political, roundabout way but Batai is happy to see Kamin participating in the community again like he used to. You can see that Picard didn't just give up on finding out about his existence in just a few weeks, but after five years time Kamin has finally come to care for his friends neighbors as he studies the ecological decline of the planet. He is now living in the present instead of his dream world that he'd been chasing. After dinner one evening while he's playing simple tunes on his flute and getting better at it, he decides that it's time to grow his family like a normal man and reward Eline for her unwavering support while he's chased that dream. She is delighted as he asks for permission to build a nursery in addition to his telescope and laboratory and everything else that had come of his life changing fever.
Back on the Enterprise they're getting impatient. They launch a probe and figure out a way to disrupt the beam that is connected to Picard so they start making preparations. When next we see Kamin he and Eline are having a naming ceremony for, not their first, but their second child. Kamin named his son Batai after his friend who is passed away now, and his flute playing has improved considerably as he plays the tune that everyone now recognizes from this episode. It's a blissful family scene as they try to keep the older daughter, Meribor, still while the ceremony is being conducted and inviting the guests to refreshments. Then, as sometimes happens in the course of life, Kamin collapses from a heart attack. Of course, we know why before the cameras even get back to the Enterprise to see that they've successfully cut off the beam. Severing this tie is affecting Picard's heart as well. Crusher tries all of her modern medical techniques, but they ultimately need to reestablish his connection to the probe, which they do only just in time.
And life goes on for Kamin of Kataan. His children are grown now and his daughter is more interested in being a scientist than dating. Witnessing the final decades of this planet, Kamin would rather see her have a family than examining soil samples and worrying about the planet. He advises her to to live for now because tomorrow isn't guaranteed. To tie the two parts of the story together, Geordi is on the Enterprise tracking the path of the probe back to an uncharted region of space that has no habitable
planets and whose star went nova a thousand years ago. In the only real goof of the
show, they name it as the Kataan system, but nobody notices as we see Kamin dealing with his grown son as well. He's not as happy with him. Batai seems to have no focus in his life except making music. So Kamin reluctantly green lights Batai's decision to make music his career, but is also content with his happiness since he's convinced that their world isn't going to be around much longer. Kamin is on the counsel now and expresses this fear to the administrator who tells him that their scientists had come to this conclusion years ago. So Kamin begs for the evacuation of at least a small portion of people, but the administrator points out that they are only just now capable of small missile technology. He tells Kamin that there is a plan in the works to preserve a part of Kataan forever. But before he can find out more, Batai calls him back home. Eline is dying. It's a natural death, not specified, and Kamin is devastated at having to say goodbye to his wife of over 30 years now. I still call Kamala my favorite Picard romance because I don't consider Eline to be one of his "romances." Picard got more than a woman in this episode. He got the whole domestic and civil experience, joys and woes alike - a life he'd not chosen for himself in his real world that Eline was only a small part of. And that's what makes this scene all the more heart wrenching, not just because his love is dying.
Kamin's long life continues and finally we see him chasing a grandchild around. He still has his wits, but he's turned into a doddering old man all the same. Meribor and Batai are trying to get him into his sun hat to go out and see "the launching." In that sweet and funny way that's familiar to anyone dealing with an elderly parent, he doesn't really care and is insulted at being led around like a child. But he goes along anyway and they find a nice alcove for him to sit comfortably in while he watches the rest of the community gathering around. With the general forgetfulness of a senior citizen, he asks what the launching is all about. Then it's time for the illusion to end. Meribor explains that he's already seen what they're launching. He's confused, but then he sees a vision of his old friend Batai, as he was when we first saw him at the beginning of the episode, sitting next to him and continuing to explain that with this missile they'd hope to make contact with someone in the future who could learn about their lives and teach about them to others. It finally dawns on Kamin that the missile will be a probe and that person the probe finds is him and that it has something to do with his old dream of living in space. A vision of Eline in her prime appears as well and his family stands together petitioning him to remember them and how they lived so that they would continue to live on. I mean, it's the reason we procreate and pass stories and history down through the generations anyway... it's as close as we come to eternal life on Earth. It's a very emotional moment. Then we see the missile launch which would be the probe the Enterprise encounters.
The beam from the probe terminates on its own and Picard wakes up. He's disoriented, but it doesn't take him long to remember who and where he is. Then he learns that only about twenty five minutes have passed and he's alarmed to realized how many years he'd experienced over that short period of time. But he's also happy to be back in his real life. Later Riker appears in Picard's quarters to show him the only item that was found on the probe after they'd searched through it. It is a box that contains Kamin's flute. Picard, awash with a lifetime of memories plays the song from Batai's naming ceremony.
I consider this episode to be an improvement on "The Paradise Syndrome" in which Kirk, with amnesia, takes on the life of a medicine man and marries with intent to start a family. That life is tragically taken from Kirk and Spock helps him to forget in the end. But in this episode, Picard is allowed to live his alternate life out naturally before he's gently removed back to reality where he then has to live with those memories. And even the writers realized afterwards how an experience like this could deeply change a character even though all they were looking for was just a good hour of T.V. It's every bit as invasive and life altering as his experience as a Borg. Instead of taking his life as the Borg did, this probe gave him an additional life to cherish, and it's also a lot to work through psychologically. The image of Captain Picard living as an average, "nobody" type of man who
is not a leader of significance or fulfilling any kind of "chosen one"
role had a more powerful impact than anyone could've expected for both the character and the audience. And it wouldn't have worked as well for any other character.
It's kind of a shame that they had to utilize one of my big bugaboos about alien races having "mind control" technology and no other comparable military technology, or in this case space travel capabilities. I also have to assume that the real Kamin must have been in on the creation of the probe's programming since it's his life that the Picard's free-form hallucination takes on, and yet there's no indication of this happening in Picard's experience as Kamin. However, in this case it was the best way to handle a story like this and all of it is easy to overlook in such a beautiful episode. I don't really need to say it, but obviously it's getting five stars.
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