Star Trek TNG Lessons

Definitely not a favorite of mine. They realized that The Inner Light was a life altering experience for Picard and wanted to give it a follow up, but it's only a painful reminder that Picard can't lead the kind of life that he did during his time as Kamin. It's a case of Star Trek needing to learn a "lesson" about leaving well enough alone.

No stardate entry or mission plan at the beginning. Just Picard entering the bridge in the small hours of the morning. Data's in the middle of a night watch and corrects him when he bids Data a good "evening." But the captain is restless to get some work done and goes to his ready room to attempt it. He tries to access communications to talk archaeology and finds that it's shut down by the Stellar Cartography lab. So he calls up the ship's library which is also shut down by Stellar Cartography. Finally he tries to get a cup of tea to find that Stellar Cartography has asked for the replicators to be shut down too. He's frustrated now and decides to question the Stellar Cartography people, but it's a cool scene in my opinion because this is exactly the sort of thing that would go on during a "night shift." Presumably there would be minimal crew active, so several unnecessary systems could be shut down especially if a certain department needed the extra energy, and it's just one of those small details that make this such a good show. It's also an interesting notion that star mappers still study the stars at "night" when day and night are artificial on a star ship. Next up we see the Stellar Cartography lab which is darkened when the door opens to show Picard's silhouette. The woman in charge, Lt. Nella Daren, doesn't look to see who's there, but orders the door shut. At first she thinks the project can continue in spite of the interruption of light, but the calculations they're making begin to collapse. Her back still turned, she admonishes Picard for ruining hours of work to which Picard answers that she should've locked the door. She's a little embarrassed at chewing out the captain, but stands her ground nonetheless considering it's three in the morning. The entire back and forth of this is very polite and civilized. Picard is amused, and likely impressed, by her authoritative nature and she's humbled by his presence. He further diffuses any hard feelings by asking why he was being deprived of his tea, rather than anything of more importance. She orders the replicators back online and begins recommending her own personal blends of decaffeinated herbal teas so that he's not so wired at this time of the morning. She chooses one for him to try and he doesn't care for it, but it's a funny enough situation to completely break the ice and they talk about her work for a few minutes. She's passionate about it which causes Picard to take an interest in it and her.

He has dinner with Beverly later and talks about meeting the new head of Stellar Cartography. He's visibly distracted when she talks about her own projects and gives a knowing smile when Picard starts to talk of tracking the movements of stars over billions of years as Nella had explained to him. It's a scene that represents how our friends can tell when we're beginning to get a crush on someone before we're even aware of it. Crusher and Picard know each other so well it's always awkward to see them confiding about their various love interests with one another when they so clearly belong together. Picard attends a concert later in Ten Forward where Daren is playing piano in the group with Data and others. He's moved by the performance and afterwards when he's congratulating them he begins to talk musical jargon with her and she notices that his interest is more knowledgeable than just that of a listener. He denies that he's any kind of real musician, but it's enough for her to insist that they play together some time. So now they have more in common as Beverly continues to observe the progression of their mutual interest in each other. The next day Daren goes to the bridge to ask for more time with the ships resources on her project. She's not consciously using her new friendship with the Captain for favors, but Riker sees it as a little presumptuous and has her wait in line like everyone else. It's a pointless scene filler. Later that evening she goes to Picard's quarters with a cool portable keyboard that rolls up. She helps him to start improvising as he plays  Frère Jacques, the simple tune he first learned to play, and it's all very nice. The next day Picard's in a great mood and behaving almost silly the way people do when they're falling in love. Riker is amused at his general attitude and Beverly notices that Daren is fixated on Picard as well when she treats her for a muscle strain as she worries that she may have to cancel another duet.

This indicates that they play often together and that things are moving slowly. She takes him to a Jeffries Tube that is the most acoustically perfect place on the ship. He shares the folk tune that he learned as Kamin from The Inner Light. It's a show of trust and she compliments the tune with her piano. There's a funny moment where Geordi hears music resonating from somewhere and then it stops as you see that Picard and Nella are committing to this relationship. But the bliss doesn't last long and the story begins to showcase the very realistic, problematic situations that follow when a "boss" is dating an "employee" and the way their relationship affects everyone else. First, he's reluctant to show affection in a turbo lift when another crewman enters and turns outwardly cold to her. I would think people would be as used to seeing them together by now as they'd been seeing him and Beverly together, but this is examining the side of Picard that Vash never understood... his desire for privacy. They make it up quickly when he comes to apologize. She's patient with him and she's reassured of his sincerity when he tells her how much it means to him to share his music with someone. He talks with Troi about losing sight of his objectivity in becoming involved with someone under his command. Later, Daren talks to Riker about transferring a crewman that she wants on her team. He's not comfortable with it thinking that she's using her position as Picard's woman now, so he asks the captain about it. He assures Riker that it's okay for him to do his job as he sees fit. Later that evening Picard and Nella talk about other people's perceptions of them and agree to just keep it in mind but not to let it rule their actions. We also get an idea of where the Enterprise is going when she's talking excitedly about studying fire storms on Bersallis III. Worf interrupts their dinner to tell Picard that the storms will be hitting an outpost on that planet soon.

At a staff meeting they determine that there's no time to evacuate but Daren has a way of rigging up a firewall to deflect the storm. Geordi and Data confirm it's a good plan, they get all the details lined out, and Riker puts Daren in charge of the away team. After everyone disperses, Picard expresses concern for Nella's safety but she reminds him that they agreed that they wouldn't let their relationship interfere with work. All goes well at first. While the deflector teams are doing their thing, they start evacuating people according to need - infirmary patients first, etc. As the storms become alarmingly close they realize the deflector teams will have to stay on the surface since the remote won't work and Picard orders them to stay even though it means endangering Lt. Daren. So, he doesn't lose his objectivity like he feared, but it's clearly one of the hardest decisions he's ever had to make. In the action scenes you see the kind of danger they're in on the planet as they hold firm in order to get everyone out of there. And I'm pretty sure this is the only time we see Picard monitoring communications among the away team as he listens to the situation rapidly deteriorate. They get everyone back except two deflector teams - Daren's team is one. Picard is heartbroken and goes to look at his flute which will now be twice associated with losing a love.

Worf calls him to tell him that there are survivors and that they're beaming up now. Picard rushes to the transporter and sees several people filing out. Nella isn't one of them and as he turns away giving up hope again, she transports up supporting another team member. Later in Picard's quarters they go over what happened. She explains how they used their phasers to set up protective pockets for them all to stand in. Several were lost, eight in total, and Picard confesses to Nella how he felt when he thought she was dead. Since he associated her so much with the music, he knew that the music would never bring him joy again. They decide the pressure of serving together with the occupational hazards associated with it is too much. She offers to apply for a transfer. They talk about arranging shore leaves together, but they both know that it's an unrealistic goal.  She makes him promise not to give up his music and leaves since it's awkward to stay now. I'm not sure what the lesson is that's supposed to be learned here... that you can't have a relationship and a career?
So, even though they part amicably, it still ends on a downer; a downer in which no real lesson is learned except that Picard is not allowed to have a normal relationship which, although probably true, is still unfair and no fun to watch. This episode was the only attempt to show Picard fully invested in cultivating a romance. His long lost ex Jenice Manheim, Vash, Kamala, and even Kamin's wife Eline were written with an "out" because, obviously, the main characters can't be tied down. Nella was also written with an "out," but in the other situations, Picard's feelings were a victim of circumstance whereas in this episode we have two people purposefully pursuing a relationship with long term goals and it's actually a perfect outline of the interactions of men and women. It isn't love at first sight, but just two people that have some things in common and take an instant liking to each other.The progression of friendship to love is natural and you get the idea that it didn't move to fast. There's nothing wrong with the character of Nella Daren. She's a serious, mature, professional woman, just the sort that a character like Picard would need.  I guess the problem is that Picard already had a similar, close friendship with Beverly and Daren, though an appropriate choice for Picard, is unfamiliar. And even though it's presented as happening over the course of a week or two, it's still a little too fast. If it had taken place over a few episodes giving the audience time to get to know Daren and really warm up to her, it might have been better. There's also not a lot of chemistry with this character like there was with all the others except maybe Vash. It doesn't help that since she appears out of nowhere the audience can predict that their love doesn't stand a chance which puts a drag on the momentum. And it somewhat mars the purity of his experience from The Inner Light since they chose to associate his most intimate experience with a character that would never be in it again. I personally didn't find it boring, but I can see how a case study in work place romances could be considered a boring topic for the show and a little out of place when it's the only focus of the episode. As always, the seasoned cast preforms flawlessly, but I can only give it three and a half stars since it just wasn't very good Star Trek.