I think Picard took the events of inner light pretty well
Posted by happydude7422@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 75 comments
Posted by happydude7422@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 75 comments
thanatosau@reddit
I'm surprised he even remembered who he was and what he was doing on a starship. That whole experience would be disconcerting if not traumatic. It would take a fair bit of time to recover from that if at all.
CTBthanatos@reddit
Imo those people deserved to be forgotten and their space memorial destroyed because what they did to Picard (involuntary life simulation that threatens to kill you if your friends try to free you from it) was disgusting.
If they had the technology to build a space probe that could run a life simulation (especially one where they literally insult and gaslight you if you refuse to participate), they had the means to instead just leave recorded information about their world and society.
The writers chose the feel good fantasy ending pretending Picard could just cope with it and go back to normal functioning, but realistically: being ripped from your life and forced into a new one and then back into your own life would cause complete psychological collapse and inability to function for years if not for the rest of one's life.
The episode definitely has great emotional value and what happened to those people sucks, but how they chose to be remembered leaves me with zero sympathy for them, might be good their sun went boom boom before they could build even more involuntary life simulation space probes.
Leopold_Darkworth@reddit
CTBthanatos@reddit
Imo those people deserved to be forgotten and their space memorial destroyed because what they did to Picard (involuntary life simulation that threatens to kill you if your friends try to free you from it) was disgusting.
If they had the technology to build a space probe that could run a life simulation (especially one where they literally insult and gaslight you if you refuse to participate), they had the means to instead just leave recorded information about their world and society.
The writers chose the feel good fantasy ending pretending Picard could just cope with it and go back to normal functioning, but realistically: being ripped from your life and forced into a new one and then back into your own life would cause complete psychological collapse and inability to function for years if not for the rest of one's life.
The episode definitely has great emotional value and what happened to those people sucks, but how they chose to be remembered leaves me with zero sympathy for them, might be good their sun went boom boom before they could build even more involuntary life simulation space probes.
Wonderful_Pension_67@reddit
He was able to live two full lives! He m9ght not have realized it then...but a path not taken but still experienced
Miller335@reddit
I know it's cliche at this point but that episode is so damn good.
Milyaism@reddit
This episode and "The Locket" by Farscape are great.
RadVarken@reddit
I wish The Locket were a bit cleaner. I remember being confused when I first watched it. A show needs to know when to drop the B plot and just pay the other cast members even if they don't have any lines that week. Sometimes the emotional impact is worth it.
ComfortableEnergy344@reddit
The first time I watched this episode with my husband, I couldn’t help myself from saying “I like these people so much!”. He was all “Oh no, what’s going to happen to them?”.
Immediate-Repeat-201@reddit
Apparently supernovas kill good civilizations. If our sun was going to go boom, there would be mad max type shit goimg down and elon musk trying to compete with bezos on goimg to alpha centauri.
Miller335@reddit
As they should. But money would be worth almost nothing at that point so they would have to take alot of risk sooner into the situation to have their capital to have any impact to try to save humanity.
Far_Detective2022@reddit
Elon isn't going to save humanity bud
QueerVortex@reddit
And the relationship between Picard and his son… played by Patrick’s real life son
scotchyscotch18@reddit
I skip it on every rewatch. I know it's good. It does exactly what it sets out to do with a giant emotional impact. Big BIG feelings. As a parent with kids about the grand children's age, I don't need to experience that.
adjust_the_sails@reddit
If the series was made today I feel like it would have inspired his character to want to have his own family since nothing is self contained/episodic.
Grizzlei@reddit
I had only watched a few good episodes here and there before a full series watch last year with my wife. Prior to this, I warned her that this was a banger but a heavy one. Easily one of her favorites iirc.
Milyaism@reddit
This episode and "The Locket" from Farscape are some of my favourite scifi episodes.
BaseUnited4523@reddit
Meanwhile Chief O’Brien got 20 years in prison.
ajslinger@reddit
He literally got up and resumed command. He must have retained all memory during his experience.
PangolinMandolin@reddit
I'm guessing that upon waking up it felt just like a particularly intense dream. I've definitely had one or two dreams in my life where I woke up not fully understanding who I was, where I was, or what the hell was going on
Marvinkmooneyoz@reddit
I’ve had at least one dream that was so normal and likely that I actually changed some scheduling of my life that week around false information.
Sledgehammer617@reddit
Im glad they did at least one follow up episode where he talks about the experience instead of pretending it never happened.
And seeing the flute in the Picard show was cool.
AppropriateCap8891@reddit
One of the most amazing thing about the auction of Star Trek props several years ago was when they auctioned off the flute.
Book price was $800-1,200. But the auctioneers had no idea when they wrote it how iconic that was with fans, and the auction opened at $13,000.
Final selling price was $40,000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr7tqKVn3Ss
QueerVortex@reddit
Awesome! The ending of the clip where Patrick: “It’s not a real flute. It doesn’t play.“
randomkeystrike@reddit
He occasionally played it in TNG too.
BigConstruction4247@reddit
One thing that bothered me was him saying to his single episode girlfriend, "I've never played this for anyone."
I mean, I hope he at least played a recording of it into the archives and made a report. (I assume he did.) The whole reason that species did that prove thing was so that they wouldn't be forgotten.
becircus@reddit
I think he faked it and was freaked out
He can't panic because that would make everyone else panic. That's the one thing he would not forget. Everything else you can slowly pick it back up over time.
9CaptainRaymondHolt9@reddit
ConzDance@reddit
Hilarious!
But back to the real episode, I wonder how much of this he could have programmed into the holodeck from the things left behind on the probe? With the right tweaking, he probably could have recreated that family.
FantasyFactoryX@reddit
Yeah considering what he’s been through, with this flute thing, the 4 lights and the borg thing, he seems pretty resilient. Also the nausican heart thing, I was forgetting about that one.
VanTaxGoddess@reddit
Nausicaan heart-thing makes sense to me; every time he thinks about the alternate life and realizes what a meek researcher he could have been, he is reminded to seize the day, and put on another pair of hot pants.
Plodderic@reddit
It barely registered next to all the other PTSD that they’re all getting on a weekly basis from all the other mad stuff going on.
Gstamsharp@reddit
"This doesn't even break my top ten traumas this season!"
Actually, though, I think this one really did stick, because, in a rare piece of post-episode continuity, we see he kept the flute after this.
EvernightStrangely@reddit
And then when he thought his burgeoning love interest dead, he lost all desire to play ever again.
TheAntiHick@reddit
And then when Troi crashed the Enterprise into a planet he casually tossed the flute aside with the rest of the rubble like it didn't mean anything.
VanTaxGoddess@reddit
Yeah, the writers of Generations didn't think that one through...
EvernightStrangely@reddit
Pattern's likely simple enough he could just replicate another if he truly needed to.
stathis0@reddit
Except we know Picard has a strong appreciation of antiques. Seems a bit out of character to me.
shaikuri@reddit
It's 3 times the trauma. First getting used to his previous life is gone and getting on with the fake life. Then living that entire life being ready to die then waking up realizing that life never happened then having to resume his new life which for him happened decades ago.
Troi must be really good.
RusticGroundSloth@reddit
There are some really crazy implications there too. There's an episode of the Disney cartoon Star vs The Forces of Evil where Marco spends like 10+ years in a place where time runs differently and when goes back home (magic, portals, etc.) he's back to being 14 and it's like he was only gone for 20 minutes but for him it was years. He sits down at his computer and can't remember his password. Now imagine 40-50 years go by - what would Picard have potentially forgotten?
Or is it more like playing Roy (video game where you experience an entire life in a few minutes) in Rick and Morty where you can still remember it, but it's like you wake up and resume as normal after a minute so it's more like a really intense dream.
shaikuri@reddit
We never really get an answer in that, but the latter would explain how he got back to himself so fast.
Maybe he remembers certain scenes and the characters but is missing the day to day details.
I never understood how the Narnia kids can be adults and then return to being kids without problem.
Jetstream-Sam@reddit
Yeah it could be more like a dream, it feels like he's living an entire existence but he's skipping over lots of things. Like he remembers working but he's not actually spending 10 hours a day, it's just it feels like it and he skips between important events. I've had semi lucid dreams where it felt like I lived years at the time but upon waking I realize I was just jumping wildly over the place. Or if I end up being more lucid I end up giving myself superpowers and flying around ignoring the plot of whatever the dream was beforehand
Their technology wasn't super sophisticated, and we see the O'Brien's torture prison was an advanced technology that the Federation didn't have, so it would be odd if a pre warp society with a relatively low population had the tech to do full lives. It might be they were only capable of inducing a dream like state rather than being able to live entire lifetimes. After all, if they could send people into virtual full lives, they could set up researchers who could do decades worth of research in only 20 mintues, and might end up with a better solution than sending out a probe that could save more of their society
shaikuri@reddit
It's a great point about their technology it did bother me how they made something so advanced since their culture didn't seem that advanced
VanTaxGoddess@reddit
We never got the context that he was living in their planet's equivalent to Belgium.
revan530@reddit
Pretty sure "Prince Caspian" makes it evident that their memories of their time in Narnia get foggy fairly quickly once back in our world, and don't really come back until they return to Narnia.
shaikuri@reddit
True, forgot that.
BobSki778@reddit
Kind of the opposite of Flight of the Navigator (also Disney) where the little kid is “abducted” by aliens and it’s only a short time that passes for him (minutes? hours?), but since he traveled so far so close to the speed of light, 10 or more years passes on earth for his family and friends, and he returns to find out he “disappeared” as a kid and everyone thought he was dead.
ForcedNameChanges@reddit
I like the one in The Magicians.
Pythias@reddit
The books or show? I love the books but didn't like the show. I'm thinking of giving it another shot.
shadowndacorner@reddit
Peaches and plums
Immediate-Repeat-201@reddit
Imagine all that he learned as well. What aging feels like. How priorities change over time. Whether he farts like a dog as he grows old.
Tabris92@reddit
I dont think I could psychologically handle all that. I woulda fell apart at any one of those spots eventually.
shaikuri@reddit
Same, for sure.
HVSlung@reddit
Every time I watch the episode, I have to cry. It's so sad that the entire population was wiped out, and yet they're trying not to be forgotten.
Inevitable-Wheel1676@reddit
He becomes a vessel of their experience. It’s a heavy burden, but Picard is also aware that it is a profound gift. It’s a deep honor to a man like him, from his time and for his identity. People live for things that set them apart, make them unique.
He has improved himself, and enriched himself. It is part of the process of becoming a better person.
To not be overwhelmed is to appreciate the full importance of the gift.
HTired89@reddit
I love how he aged into Bill Maher to really drive home that it was a nightmare.
emeraldnite1981@reddit
I assume the probe helped limit the traumatic effect it had on him—like the aliens didn’t seem like the type to purposefully traumatize people it wants to remember them.
BurnAfterReading171@reddit
It definitely stuck with him. It was one of the few things that was mentioned again in later episodes and in at least one film.
Crimson3312@reddit
I always assumed it was like having a dream. He had the experiences is but it didn't code his memory engrams like real experiences do. He was vaguely aware of that last life the same way you can recall some aspects of a particularly impactful dream, but it didn't over write his conscious life.
RoughBadger9829@reddit
Always really bothered me that in Generations this isn't where he went to in the Nexus. They go to the effort of creating storyline so he regrets not having family - but he already did!
MartinoDeMoe@reddit
Picard, observes strange lamp.
_byetony_@reddit
Relevant
https://www.dailymail.com/lifestyle/article-15674587/coma-dreamed-life-birth-triplets.html
MindlessNectarine374@reddit
Yeah. Fascinating story
bbbourb@reddit
Great episode, but zero lasting impact aside from the flute is a tragedy. But that's episodic TV for you. This should have gotten at least one "Family-" like follow up episode.
SOTG_Duncan_Idaho@reddit
It did get a follow up. The episode where Picard falls in love with the science officer features the flute and shows Picard opening up to love again. Though, th3n it gets shut down hard again when he realizes he can't fraternate with someone he might have to order to their death. Because Picard is the O.G. iron wooby.
Not quite as direct as Family, but definitely a follow up.
bbbourb@reddit
I see where you're coming from but to me "Lessons" doesn't reach the same level of "you may not want to admit it but you had a tremendously traumatizing experience and just brushed it aside" as the themes in "Family." To me it was more of a "brought it up" topic in the episode rather than a "follow-up" key part of a plot.
TheFish77@reddit
I think Rick & Morty got the idea for Roy from this episode. Would Picard have taken Roy off the grid?
snowflakesoutside@reddit
Wow, you went back to the carpet store after cancer
CaptainMatticus@reddit
Booo!
ForcedNameChanges@reddit
Even the Maker's of the probe meant the flute as an urging to find love in their resumed life and it's awesome to followup on this with the Episode with the Piano Lady that Riker felt the need to urgently sacrifice she was awesome for him.
imahugemoron@reddit
One of my favorite Adventure Time episodes is an homage to this episode and even has Jonathan Frakes as the guest voice actor for the adult version of the main character. Episode is titled “Puhoy”, s5e16, the main character wanders into a different universe made entirely of pillows where he lives out an entire life, then when he dies of old age he returns exactly where he left off when he originally wandered into the other universe, but in the comedic fashion of the show, he waves it off as just a weird dream and forgets entirely the lifetime he lived in the pillow universe. There were quite a lot of Star Trek actors that voiced characters on Adventure Time over the course of its run, Jonathan Frakes, Mirina Sirtis, Lavar Burton, George Takei, just a few that come to mind. Great show, starts off pretty kiddy in the first season or two but gets incredibly deep
dainthomas@reddit
No wonder he had a personal shrink shadowing him everywhere.
Einveldi_@reddit
We are talking jape of the decade. We are talking April, May, June, July and August Fools…
honeybakedham1@reddit
Too bad this wasn’t the actual ending. Could not stand this episode
Quato815@reddit
Earth might be long gone. And we are experiencing Earth right now from a Starship. Hopefully, that’s true.