| The Next Generation | |
| 96 | |
| Half a Life | |
| 44805.3 | |
Captain Picard looks constipated. He hesitantly shuffles out of a turbolift to meet... Lwaxana Troi! So that's who's been playing with his digestion. For no apparent reason she is freeloading on the Federation's flagship again, this time as it goes to pick up a scientist from a reclusive race. The scientist who beams in is none other than Charles Emmerson Winchester the Alien!
The sun of Kaelon Two is unstable and unless something is done about it, the people in the system will die. The Federation has provided them with a test star to try their revitalising experiments on. How nice of them, I wonder if they just give out stars to anyone who asks?
The geriatric Betazoid bimbo considers herself to be the ship's entertainment director, and want to keep Timicin entertained in a less than formal manner. She actually just manages to annoy everyone, and in an amazing feat shows herself to be a bigger sleaze than Commander Beard.
They try the experiment on the test star, and not surprisingly it doesn't work. The Enterprise warps out just in time to avoid the supernova blast. I wonder if there is any Starfleet directive that says: "No Captain shall wilfully destroy innocent stars.". Probably not. Timicin is depressed, partly because the experiment didn't work, but mostly he is going home to die.
The citizens of Kaelan Two have what they call the resolution - a mandated ritual suicide at age 60. Wouldn't you just know it but Timicin is only days away from his! Lwaxana can't accept this and goes to Picard and asks him to intervene. He prattles on about the Prime Directive and she storms out.
In an unprecedented hormonal outbreak she blubbers all over her daughter, who seems now so much more like a counsellor and less like a family member. I'm amazed that everyone who meets Mrs Troi doesn't want immediate ritual suicide mandated. Timicin tries to explain that she is driving him nuts and that suicide is the only way for him to get any peace. She doesn't accept it.
After a boring diatribe on the benefits of euthanasia, Timicin finally asks Picard for asylum so that he can finish his work before he dies. Picard doesn't mind, but the Science Minister from Kaelon Two won't accept it and sends two warships up to interdict the Enterprise. Two chances, Buckley's and none. The planet breaks off all contact with the Enterprise and will not accept any further information from them. Timicin can live or die, but he will still fail. Emotional blackmail is alive and well in the future.
In a touching scene Timicin's daughter visits him and poignantly asks him: "Why won't you just die, daddy?". I wonder what she had to inherit? He gives in and says he will return to the planet. Lwaxana finally accepts his decision and beams down to be with him at his kicking off.
