4.22 — “Half a Life”
Plot: Lawaxana Troi’s visit to the Enterprise coincides with the visit of Dr. Timicin (David Ogden Stiers), a scientist from Kaelon II who is engaged in experiments attempting to reignite his planetary system’s failing sun. Romance is kindled between them, but the prospects are complicated by a Kaelon tradition requiring all adults turning 60 years old, like Dr. Timicin, to return home and commit suicide in the presence of their families.
Thoughts: What a pleasant surprise. I went through stages of trepidation, to the feeling that this is my favorite Lwaxana Troi episode, to feeling that it is one of my favorite episodes of the season, and of the series. Who would have believed it, after “Haven,” “Manhunt,” and “Ménage à Troi”–each episode worse than the last?
The character of Lwaxana is the same, and it’s not a great surprise that Majel Barrett is able rise to the occasion of this great material. The surprise is to see Lwaxana being placed in a grown up situation, and asked to be a grown up. You might say that the writing and production staffs have grown up.
Equally fierce in an understated way is David Ogden Stiers, famous for his appearances in _M*A*S*H_ (1987-1993). I like Lwaxana’s gold outfit, but her best costume yet is the simple robe she wears in the morning when the vanity is stripped away and she has her heart to heart with Timicin.
We have a sensitive exploration of relationship and culture, which does not boil down to a morality play about respect for the elderly, as Memory Alpha quotes the director and Marina Sirtis as saying. Instead it provides a meditation on the power of culture to determine health and happiness, and to dictate what a person perceives as the “natural order,” proving that culture (i.e., the need to define your place within a group context) is a force more powerful than the instinct for self-preservation. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Michelle Forbes has a supporting role as Timicin’s daughter. She is such a standout that she will be invited back next season to create the recurring part of Ensign Ro. She is terrific, and I can’t wait to see her again in 2016.
One of my recurring pet peeves is the ever-evolving definition of the Prime Directive, which is now described a rule prohibiting interference “with the social order of any planet.” They don’t know what they’re talking about. I guess it seemed easier to have Picard cite a rule for not interfering, rather than wade into a discussion of philosophies of restraint and tolerance for self-determination.
It’s interesting that TNG has a view of the universe that goes something like “situations in life are complicated; not all wrongs can be fixed,” which is not the can-do “brains, compassion, and moral leadership will show the right way forward” attitude typical of TOS. One of my favorite Original Series episodes is “A Private Little War,” because it was one of the few episodes that dared to say that not all problems have satisfactory solutions.
One of the things that makes this a great Lwaxana episode is that Deanna Troi is hardly involved. And Picard is fairly peripheral. Good–their storylines with Lawaxana are tired.
Could you really reignite a sun? Short of using the Genesis Device? Seems like it would take more than a volley of photon torpedoes to generate massive amounts of life-sustaining energy from nowhere.
5 out of 5 lives richly lived.
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