The Second Life (Starship Enterprise - The Next Century)

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Episode of the series Spaceship Enterprise - The Next Century
title the second Life
Original title The Inner Light
TNG DE title neu.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
length 45 minutes
classification Season  5 , episode 25,
125th episode overall ( list )
First broadcast May 30, 1992
German-language
first broadcast		 May 9, 1994 on Sat.1
Rod
Director Peter Lauritson
script Morgan Gendel ,
Peter Allan Fields ;
Idea: Morgan Gendel
production David Livingston
music Jay Chattaway
camera Marvin V. Rush
cut Robert Lederman
Guest appearance (s)
chronology

←  Predecessor
So close and yet so far

Successor  →
Danger from the 19th century

The second life (original title: The Inner Light ) is an episode of the American science fiction television series Spaceship Enterprise - The Next Century , to whose fifth season it belongs. In it, Captain Picard, under the influence of an alien probe, experiences decades of life on a planet that is slowly becoming uninhabitable due to a nova . The episode was first broadcast on US television in 1992, on German television in 1994, and is considered by critics to be one of the best of the series. She was awarded the Hugo Science Fiction Prize.

action

When the Enterprise encounters an unknown probe, a beam causes Captain Picard to pass out. He wakes up in a village community where he is known as Kamen, who is married to his wife Eline. At first, Picard, alias Kamen, refuses to accept his life there, and is astonished by Eline and the other villagers. In the shape of Eline's neck strap, which has the same shape as the probe, Kamen thinks he can see something familiar.

Five years later and visibly aged, Kamen has come to terms with accepting his life in the village on the planet Katan, where an inexplicable drought is spreading and intensifying. Kamen devotes himself to playing the flute, among other things, and promises Eline the children of her own that she has longed for. When Riker has the beam emanating from the probe cut, Picard threatens to die, which is why the crew abandons their efforts to interrupt the beam. At the same moment, the now two-time father Kamen threatens to die.

After many years have passed in Kamen's life - Kamen is now an old man - his daughter Maribor finds out during soil surveys that the planet is dying. Meanwhile, La Forge has retraced the probe's trajectory and the crew discovered that the sun in the Katan solar system, from which the probe originated, became a supernova 1,000 years ago, destroying the planet in the process. When Kamen learns that the administrator of the village has known for a long time that the planet is doomed because of the increasing drought, Kamen suggests sending a message into space. Shortly afterwards, the death of his wife puts him in deep mourning.

Years later and now with extremely high solar radiation, the planet's population launched a rocket into space. A long-dead friend and his wife suddenly appear and explain to Kamen that it is Kamen that they wanted to meet with the probe in the future to convey the history of the village and the planet to him before the planet goes under. Picard, who has now awakened, learns that less than half an hour has passed since his fainting and receives the flute from the recovered probe, with which he or Kamen once played the katan.

reception

The episode won the 1993 Science Fiction Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Performance category. She was also nominated for an Emmy Award for best make-up .

The US science fiction magazine Cinefantastique rated the episode three out of four stars. It praised the make-up, the performance of the supporting cast and the production designer, but complained, among other things, that the implications of Picard's reawakening after experiencing 50 years of another life are not explored.

The episode was rated several times as one of the best not only in the series, but Star Trek s.

A 12-part comic was published under the title The Outer Light , which adapted the episode. It was co-written by Morgan Gendel, the episode's screenwriter, and published on the Internet.

production

Patrick Stewart's real son Daniel Stewart made a guest appearance in the role of Batai. The shooting took place except for one recording in the studio. For the scenes on the Enterprise, Patrick Stewart only had to lie motionless on the bridge. Jonathan Frakes allowed himself a joke while filming. He replied, "Let him die, then I can take his place." When Gates McFadden scripted that the captain could die if the probe was disconnected.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cinefantastique No. 2/3, Oct. 1992 (Vol. 23), p. 101
  2. ↑ The Writer Of Star Trek's 'The Inner Light' Talks About His New Sequel , in: Forbes Magazine, April 23, 2012, accessed January 22, 2015
  3. ^ The Outer Light , archived on the Internet Archive on April 24, 2015, accessed on January 22, 2015
  4. ↑ Ralph Sander “The Star Trek Universe” - Volume 1 - Pages 522-523 - Heyne Verlag - ISBN 3-453-07759-8