In "Lonely Among Us" the Enterprise is transporting two dueling alien races both applying for entry into the Federation to a neutral site to hear their cases for Federation entry and to come to some sort of leave agreement. En route to their destination, the Enterprise passes by some fast-moving energy cloud. Shortly afterwards, Worf is zapped by an electrical panel in engineering and knocked unconscious. It soon becomes apparent to the viewer and the crew that some kind of energy being is using different crew members and computer intelligence to move about the ship for some unknown purpose.
One of the engineers is killed by this being and soon the energy has transferred its way to the captain. Unsure of how to proceed, the senior officers follow Picard's orders to return to the site of the energy cloud. They have no evidence to relieve him from duty and can't stop him when he beams himself as pure energy back into the cloud to return to his/its home. Data hypothesises that they can get their captain back if they drive through the edge of the cloud again and Energy Picard knows how to transfer himself into the transporter module. Apparently Picard is thinking the same thing because it works and the captain has returned, not remembering anything that has recently occurred. Meanwhile one of the alien races is accusing the other of eating one of their delegates and Picard makes Riker deal with it.
I find this episode interesting (for several reasons) but not very good. This is the first time we see Sherlock Data on the case (which I can't help but always find amusing for some reason). We also get to see a few new alien life types here in the form of the Anticans and Selay who will pop back up as background elements moving forward.
This is also the most we've gotten to see of Worf thus far. He gets a few nice little scenes as the energy being's conduit. His role will expand more as the show goes along but for now, we have to be content seeing him pop up here and there.
Declaring humans as a now vegetarian race is an interesting little tidbit we get here. With all the scientifically engineered food in development today hopefully we're not too far off from the diet explained by the crew here.
It's interesting that the Federation would even consider membership from either of these races. Both seem set on a genocide of the other if they get the proper technology to try it (which Federation membership would invariably lead to). For now they try to capture each other with dogcatcher lassos. I laughed out loud when Riker gets inexplicably caught by one. Regardless, both sides seem like terrible candidates. I see an analog in today's society and countries currently vying to enter the EU who don't have the best track records.
Anyways, like a lot of these early episodes, the plot really falls apart in the last 15 minutes or so. It's like the writers wrote too much at the beginning and try to jam everything in at the last minute. We get no real explanation of the energy being or his relationship to Picard or why they beam out together or how Picard gets back. It's all a bit too convenient for me. Everything gets real messy towards the end and then we just end up with a joke about one delegate eating another and Picard acting like it's no big deal. This would be a major incident, not a slapstick moment! I wonder what Selays taste like though?
One of the engineers is killed by this being and soon the energy has transferred its way to the captain. Unsure of how to proceed, the senior officers follow Picard's orders to return to the site of the energy cloud. They have no evidence to relieve him from duty and can't stop him when he beams himself as pure energy back into the cloud to return to his/its home. Data hypothesises that they can get their captain back if they drive through the edge of the cloud again and Energy Picard knows how to transfer himself into the transporter module. Apparently Picard is thinking the same thing because it works and the captain has returned, not remembering anything that has recently occurred. Meanwhile one of the alien races is accusing the other of eating one of their delegates and Picard makes Riker deal with it.
I find this episode interesting (for several reasons) but not very good. This is the first time we see Sherlock Data on the case (which I can't help but always find amusing for some reason). We also get to see a few new alien life types here in the form of the Anticans and Selay who will pop back up as background elements moving forward.
This is also the most we've gotten to see of Worf thus far. He gets a few nice little scenes as the energy being's conduit. His role will expand more as the show goes along but for now, we have to be content seeing him pop up here and there.
Declaring humans as a now vegetarian race is an interesting little tidbit we get here. With all the scientifically engineered food in development today hopefully we're not too far off from the diet explained by the crew here.
It's interesting that the Federation would even consider membership from either of these races. Both seem set on a genocide of the other if they get the proper technology to try it (which Federation membership would invariably lead to). For now they try to capture each other with dogcatcher lassos. I laughed out loud when Riker gets inexplicably caught by one. Regardless, both sides seem like terrible candidates. I see an analog in today's society and countries currently vying to enter the EU who don't have the best track records.
Anyways, like a lot of these early episodes, the plot really falls apart in the last 15 minutes or so. It's like the writers wrote too much at the beginning and try to jam everything in at the last minute. We get no real explanation of the energy being or his relationship to Picard or why they beam out together or how Picard gets back. It's all a bit too convenient for me. Everything gets real messy towards the end and then we just end up with a joke about one delegate eating another and Picard acting like it's no big deal. This would be a major incident, not a slapstick moment! I wonder what Selays taste like though?