Five Big Issues Raised by “The Inner Light”
October 4, 2015 1:57 PM Subscribe
Morgan Gendel, writer of the Star Trek TNG episode, "The Inner Light," writes about it on Tor.com: "But now that I’ve begun speaking regularly about “The Inner Light,” questions about the episode that lay dormant for two decades like a Romulan Warbird waiting to de-cloak have suddenly shimmered into view.
Fan questions and my responses have yielded up, in addition to the “Road Not Taken,” Five Big Themes addressed in “The Inner Light.”" [via Keith R. A DeCandido's rewatch, which was an FPP on Mefi a few years back]
Patrick Stewart saying his thought-to-be-long-dead wife's name twice when he sees her again at the end of the Inner Light just crushes me, every single time. It's just a magnificent episode, and for me exactly what Science Fiction is all about.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:08 PM on October 4, 2015
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:08 PM on October 4, 2015
I have never watched TNG (or TOS or any other Trek, for that matter). I clicked on the linked article and saw that it wasn't going to provide me the context needed, so I pulled up the episode summary on Wikipedia.
Just that was enough to raise a lump in my throat. Gendel is a hell of a storyteller.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:22 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
Just that was enough to raise a lump in my throat. Gendel is a hell of a storyteller.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:22 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
Inner Light was on BBC-A a couple of days ago. Watched it again. It still holds up, mostly.
My biggest quibble centers on the silliness of the probe only able to zap a single individual. If you want your civilization to be remembered and live-on through telling tales, it would seem like a better idea to have the probe zap as many people as possible, rather than the one-and-done approach.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:33 PM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
My biggest quibble centers on the silliness of the probe only able to zap a single individual. If you want your civilization to be remembered and live-on through telling tales, it would seem like a better idea to have the probe zap as many people as possible, rather than the one-and-done approach.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:33 PM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
...unless it only had the capacity of one person's memories, then zapping them into multiple people would be just weird. Of course, a civilization capable of the other technology involved having such limited memory storage is another quibble.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:54 PM on October 4, 2015
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:54 PM on October 4, 2015
I've always loved that episode... but reading Gendel's essay and a bit of the sequel comic(!) on his website makes me wonder if somebody else did a major rewrite on the episode. The Inner Light is a really amazing hour of television, and to be blunt I'm not seeing signs that Gendel has been amazing like that anywhere else. His IMDB page is full of stuff like Nash Bridges and the essay and sequel comic both seem kind of clunky to me. (It's kind of hard to believe that the same hand that wrote that episode wrote the line about Picard "bromancing the stone-faced noodge better known as his best friend Batai".)
I'm not trying to tear the guy down, honestly. He's obviously enjoyed some success in the industry. But there seems to be a stark difference between The Inner Light and his other writing. A quick look just now at the episode's Memory Alpha page leads me to think it was substantially reworked by Peter Allan Fields, who went on to write some of DS9's most acclaimed episodes.
Writer Peter Allan Fields praises Patrick Stewart's performance but has the highest praise for guest actress Margot Rose; "She was absolutely superb, no ifs, ands or buts! I was grateful to have written something that an actress of that caliber had brought to life. She was excellent. I had never seen her before. I saw dailies, so I saw aspects of her performance that, unfortunately, the audience never got to see because the show ran long. They had to take out seven minutes."
Apparently that quote comes from "Peter Allan Fields - Man of "The Inner Light", published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine. Fields is at the very least taking credit for one scene featuring the actress, and to be blunt it's a lot easier for me to believe that this episode is the work of the writer of Duet and In the Pale Moonlight. Those were real standout episodes for DS9, just like this was a standout episode for TNG.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:06 PM on October 4, 2015 [18 favorites]
I'm not trying to tear the guy down, honestly. He's obviously enjoyed some success in the industry. But there seems to be a stark difference between The Inner Light and his other writing. A quick look just now at the episode's Memory Alpha page leads me to think it was substantially reworked by Peter Allan Fields, who went on to write some of DS9's most acclaimed episodes.
Writer Peter Allan Fields praises Patrick Stewart's performance but has the highest praise for guest actress Margot Rose; "She was absolutely superb, no ifs, ands or buts! I was grateful to have written something that an actress of that caliber had brought to life. She was excellent. I had never seen her before. I saw dailies, so I saw aspects of her performance that, unfortunately, the audience never got to see because the show ran long. They had to take out seven minutes."
Apparently that quote comes from "Peter Allan Fields - Man of "The Inner Light", published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine. Fields is at the very least taking credit for one scene featuring the actress, and to be blunt it's a lot easier for me to believe that this episode is the work of the writer of Duet and In the Pale Moonlight. Those were real standout episodes for DS9, just like this was a standout episode for TNG.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:06 PM on October 4, 2015 [18 favorites]
The Inner Light is a really amazing hour of television, and to be blunt I'm not seeing signs that Gendel has been amazing like that anywhere else.
(ahem)
In his collection, The Hugo Winners, Volume I, Isaac Asimov made his usual Bob-Hope-like complaint about handing out awards to other writers, but he noted about "Flowers for Algernon" that "here was a story which struck me so forcefully that I was actually lost in admiration as I read it. So lost in admiration was I for the delicacy of his feeling, for the skill with which he handled the remarkable tour de force involved in his telling the story, that I completely forgot to hate him."
So when Asimov announced the award, he recalled, "My winged words cleft the air impassionedly as I deliver an impromptu economium on the manifold excellences of Daniel Keyes. `How did he do it?' I demanded of the Muses. `How did he do it?'...
"A hand plucked my elbow and brought my eyes down to ordinary man-height. And, from the round and gentle face od Daniel Keyes, issued the immortal words: `Listen, when you find out how I did it, let me know, will you? I want to do it again.' "
-James Gunn, "Paratexts: Introductions to Science Fiction & Fantasy," p. 93.
posted by belarius at 3:29 PM on October 4, 2015 [38 favorites]
(ahem)
In his collection, The Hugo Winners, Volume I, Isaac Asimov made his usual Bob-Hope-like complaint about handing out awards to other writers, but he noted about "Flowers for Algernon" that "here was a story which struck me so forcefully that I was actually lost in admiration as I read it. So lost in admiration was I for the delicacy of his feeling, for the skill with which he handled the remarkable tour de force involved in his telling the story, that I completely forgot to hate him."
So when Asimov announced the award, he recalled, "My winged words cleft the air impassionedly as I deliver an impromptu economium on the manifold excellences of Daniel Keyes. `How did he do it?' I demanded of the Muses. `How did he do it?'...
"A hand plucked my elbow and brought my eyes down to ordinary man-height. And, from the round and gentle face od Daniel Keyes, issued the immortal words: `Listen, when you find out how I did it, let me know, will you? I want to do it again.' "
-James Gunn, "Paratexts: Introductions to Science Fiction & Fantasy," p. 93.
posted by belarius at 3:29 PM on October 4, 2015 [38 favorites]
Ursula Hitler: Indeed - the rewatch page lists it as written by Gendel and Fields - I had the tab open since yesterday and had read several more posts since then and forgot, so apologies for missing that out.
posted by marienbad at 3:35 PM on October 4, 2015
posted by marienbad at 3:35 PM on October 4, 2015
Oh! I'd missed that Fields was credited as co-writer! I'm guessing he did the heavy lifting on that one.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
This was a good episode.
posted by limeonaire at 3:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by limeonaire at 3:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Saucer_of_Loneliness
I always felt it was inspired by this short story.
posted by mspong at 4:01 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
I always felt it was inspired by this short story.
posted by mspong at 4:01 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
I guess it was worthy episode, and i recommend to watch. If you haven't done till now.
posted by samarpahwa at 4:07 PM on October 4, 2015
posted by samarpahwa at 4:07 PM on October 4, 2015
The same guy wrote ST:TNG's "The Inner Light" and DS9's "Duet"? That man deserves a place in Star Trek royalty.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:07 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:07 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
Great episode, but the idea that a man can spend a lifetime playing a six-hole flute and only learn one song is a pretty big plot hole.
posted by rocket88 at 4:28 PM on October 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by rocket88 at 4:28 PM on October 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
The concept got tweaked a bit on a recent episode of Rick and Morty.
posted by Iridic at 4:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Iridic at 4:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [8 favorites]
Seconding Ursula. Here's Gendel's blog, last updated in 2013. I read the sequel after coming across it due to Vaka Rangi's take on The Inner Light, probably due to web searches after reading the exegesis. The author of Vaka Rangi points out many of the things that make the episode a mysterious success. The episode is the pinnacle of the entire franchise, and it may be irreproducible.
posted by mwhybark at 4:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mwhybark at 4:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've never encountered a six-hole flute, but I've known people who spent a lifetime playing, e.g., a banjo, and if perhaps they ever did learn more than one song, it nonetheless all sounded like one song.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:01 PM on October 4, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Wolfdog at 5:01 PM on October 4, 2015 [8 favorites]
I've always wondered if "The Dream of Akinosuke" or the earlier Chinese fairy tale it came from was an influence on this episode.
posted by thetortoise at 5:21 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by thetortoise at 5:21 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
The episode is the pinnacle of the entire franchise, and it may be irreproducible.
Whoa, that's a tough one to call. I mean, this is a franchise that spans everything from TOS' City on the Edge of Forever to DS9's The Visitor. How do you even compare the 1960s Star Trek with what came after, in terms of quality? While they're all Trek, they were made in such different eras and with such different styles.
Admittedly it's been a few years since I've seen it, but I was gutted by The Visitor and every person I've ever talked to about it has said it just wrecked them too. You don't sit down to watch a Star Trek episode expecting to bawl like that. That one would maybe get my vote, although The Inner Light definitely makes the short list.
I didn't get the impression that Picard had only learned one song on the flute. But even if so, it's not rare for somebody to just learn a song or two on an instrument just by playing by ear. It may be his version of "Chopsticks". It's also possible the aliens specifically taught him that one song as part of the probe's transmission.
That man deserves a place in Star Trek royalty.
Seriously. It's not like every single Trek episode he wrote was a masterpiece, but he wrote a few legit masterpieces and my understanding is that behind the scenes his contributions had a lot to do with making DS9 as special as it was. "Self-sealing stembolts" were his invention, for instance. (A non-Trekkie will just think that sounds geeky as hell, but a DS9 fan will chuckle and say, "Ah, yes, the stembolts...")
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:41 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
Whoa, that's a tough one to call. I mean, this is a franchise that spans everything from TOS' City on the Edge of Forever to DS9's The Visitor. How do you even compare the 1960s Star Trek with what came after, in terms of quality? While they're all Trek, they were made in such different eras and with such different styles.
Admittedly it's been a few years since I've seen it, but I was gutted by The Visitor and every person I've ever talked to about it has said it just wrecked them too. You don't sit down to watch a Star Trek episode expecting to bawl like that. That one would maybe get my vote, although The Inner Light definitely makes the short list.
I didn't get the impression that Picard had only learned one song on the flute. But even if so, it's not rare for somebody to just learn a song or two on an instrument just by playing by ear. It may be his version of "Chopsticks". It's also possible the aliens specifically taught him that one song as part of the probe's transmission.
That man deserves a place in Star Trek royalty.
Seriously. It's not like every single Trek episode he wrote was a masterpiece, but he wrote a few legit masterpieces and my understanding is that behind the scenes his contributions had a lot to do with making DS9 as special as it was. "Self-sealing stembolts" were his invention, for instance. (A non-Trekkie will just think that sounds geeky as hell, but a DS9 fan will chuckle and say, "Ah, yes, the stembolts...")
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:41 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
I didn't get the impression that Picard had only learned one song on the flute. But even if so, it's not rare for somebody to just learn a song or two on an instrument just by playing by ear. It may be his version of "Chopsticks". It's also possible the aliens specifically taught him that one song as part of the probe's transmission.
I always interpreted this as being "his song," basically. I think a lot of amateur musicians have a piece or two like this. If I were to be suddenly wrenched from my life and discover that it was actually the final memory of a civilization now lost forever -- that all the people I had spent decades with as family and friends had actually died long before I was born -- and then someone brought me the flute I had learned how to play there, I know exactly what the first thing I'd play on it would be.
posted by No-sword at 6:50 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
I always interpreted this as being "his song," basically. I think a lot of amateur musicians have a piece or two like this. If I were to be suddenly wrenched from my life and discover that it was actually the final memory of a civilization now lost forever -- that all the people I had spent decades with as family and friends had actually died long before I was born -- and then someone brought me the flute I had learned how to play there, I know exactly what the first thing I'd play on it would be.
posted by No-sword at 6:50 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
(And to be clear -- it's not because it's the song played at my wedding or anything. It's not a particularly meaningful melody at all. I'd play it out of sheer force of habit, muscle memory accumulated over years and years. But as Aristotle said, we are our habits. That song isn't just a leitmotif -- it has become an expression of who Picard is now, body and soul.)
posted by No-sword at 6:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by No-sword at 6:57 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
Ursula, The Visitor is undoubtedly DS9's best, and as such certainly in the same league. I don't think there's a reasonable way to say which is the best episode; we must rely on our own taste. DS9 on broadcast lost me years prior to The Visitor due to the show's increasing serialization and interest in explicitly religious themes. I only had occasion to view it this year in my not-a-rewatch. I very definitely saw it as a work in dialogue with The Inner Light, which has weaknesses, for sure, such as the sort of generic pseudo-Arcosanti setting and culture of the People of the Flute.
A solid case can be made for The Visitor. But we love what we love and what we take in as young people is more likely to resonate with us throughout our lives. The Inner Light passes that test in my case. The Visitor does not, through no fault of the work itself in specific.
As an aside, I have noticed this clearly affecting the perceptions of Trek-lovers over time. Back in the first two-to-three years of TNG's original run, older Trek aficionados that really, really loved TOS were sorely disappointed in the new series, for many, quite valid, reasons. As the show matured into itself, persons of my cohort dominated the audience and discussion. DS9 in turn experienced a similar phenomenon. After that, the varying success, audience share, and (in my view) quality of the successor incarnations (TOS films, TNG films, VOY, ENT, NuTrek) has meant that there are fewer defenders of these versions as the prime exemplar of what we want as Trek consumers. But I'm pretty sure that each incarnation has passionate partisans.
posted by mwhybark at 7:07 PM on October 4, 2015
A solid case can be made for The Visitor. But we love what we love and what we take in as young people is more likely to resonate with us throughout our lives. The Inner Light passes that test in my case. The Visitor does not, through no fault of the work itself in specific.
As an aside, I have noticed this clearly affecting the perceptions of Trek-lovers over time. Back in the first two-to-three years of TNG's original run, older Trek aficionados that really, really loved TOS were sorely disappointed in the new series, for many, quite valid, reasons. As the show matured into itself, persons of my cohort dominated the audience and discussion. DS9 in turn experienced a similar phenomenon. After that, the varying success, audience share, and (in my view) quality of the successor incarnations (TOS films, TNG films, VOY, ENT, NuTrek) has meant that there are fewer defenders of these versions as the prime exemplar of what we want as Trek consumers. But I'm pretty sure that each incarnation has passionate partisans.
posted by mwhybark at 7:07 PM on October 4, 2015
I've never encountered a six-hole flute, but I've known people who spent a lifetime playing, e.g., a banjo, and if perhaps they ever did learn more than one song, it nonetheless all sounded like one song.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:01 PM on October 4 [4 favorites −] [!]
I am now retconning the flute to a stringless (oh, let's say a light-beam fretboard) banjo with delight.
posted by mwhybark at 7:10 PM on October 4, 2015
posted by Wolfdog at 5:01 PM on October 4 [4 favorites −] [!]
I am now retconning the flute to a stringless (oh, let's say a light-beam fretboard) banjo with delight.
posted by mwhybark at 7:10 PM on October 4, 2015
Also I just realized something: "Settlers of Catan" is the Kataanian backstory.
posted by mwhybark at 8:40 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by mwhybark at 8:40 PM on October 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
I watched this episode maybe 25 times or so. Always thought it was a high point of Trek, beautifully beautifully done, but it didn't really impact me emotionally.
Then I got married.
The first time I saw it after tying the knot, when Meribor dies (and at the end, his reaction when she re-appears), man did I bawl my eyes out like a two-year old.
Aside from how amazingly constructed the whole story is, to capture so accurately what it's like to have someone in your life that becomes so much a part of you that you can feel it in your bones...that's writing.
posted by dry white toast at 8:44 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
Then I got married.
The first time I saw it after tying the knot, when Meribor dies (and at the end, his reaction when she re-appears), man did I bawl my eyes out like a two-year old.
Aside from how amazingly constructed the whole story is, to capture so accurately what it's like to have someone in your life that becomes so much a part of you that you can feel it in your bones...that's writing.
posted by dry white toast at 8:44 PM on October 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
Thinking on what my post-civilization memorial riff would be on the guitar. "Life in the Fast Lane"?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:46 PM on October 4, 2015
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:46 PM on October 4, 2015
I hate to point it out since I'm the one who posted it, but previously.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:17 AM on October 5, 2015
posted by ob1quixote at 4:17 AM on October 5, 2015
Hm, that thread is a more likely vector for my prior exposure to the comic than a web search stemming from Vaka Rangi. So, thanks!
posted by mwhybark at 4:33 AM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mwhybark at 4:33 AM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Quick note: as ob1quixote points out, this is actually a double from a couple of years ago, but due to different urls it didn't show up on the post preview for the OP, and no one noticed earlier, including us mods. I'm going to leave this since it's been up for quite a while now and I don't feel like deleting all the participation that has been going on. Sorry for the inconsistency!
posted by taz (staff) at 6:49 AM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by taz (staff) at 6:49 AM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Back in the first two-to-three years of TNG's original run, older Trek aficionados that really, really loved TOS were sorely disappointed in the new series, for many, quite valid, reasons.
If anyone gets the chance I highly recommend watching William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge to see just why the first few seasons of TNG were so, inconsistent, to say the least. It's quite fascinating and at times hilarious.
posted by juiceCake at 6:57 AM on October 5, 2015
If anyone gets the chance I highly recommend watching William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge to see just why the first few seasons of TNG were so, inconsistent, to say the least. It's quite fascinating and at times hilarious.
posted by juiceCake at 6:57 AM on October 5, 2015
I just noticed that many of the pantheon Star Trek episodes involve time travel or timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly stuff.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:49 AM on October 5, 2015
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:49 AM on October 5, 2015
If I were Picard I don’t think I’d be able to keep functioning as a human being after an experience like that.
If humans could truly be reincarnated, and could access memories from past lives — if we carried our souls around with us but not our bodies — I imagine we'd constantly be facing backwards, recalling the best parts of past lives to the detriment of our current life.
Hence there's something beautiful, but also quite subtly cruel, about sharing an experience with someone by making them live out an entire lifetime. When it's over, they return to their previous life, but thereafter they carry around a profound sense of loss. All they have to show for that lifetime is an imperfect set of memories.
What Picard has to deal with is the knowledge that Kamin is dead, and so is everyone that Picard knew and loved while he was Kamin. In effect, he's mourning his own death. After an experience like that, how do you keep going? How do you prevent yourself from living too heavily (every life has infinite meaning) or too lightly (no experience I have is real, even this one)?
I don't think the people of Kataan understood how much of a burden they'd be putting on the person who happened to encounter their probe.
posted by savetheclocktower at 10:28 AM on October 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
If humans could truly be reincarnated, and could access memories from past lives — if we carried our souls around with us but not our bodies — I imagine we'd constantly be facing backwards, recalling the best parts of past lives to the detriment of our current life.
Hence there's something beautiful, but also quite subtly cruel, about sharing an experience with someone by making them live out an entire lifetime. When it's over, they return to their previous life, but thereafter they carry around a profound sense of loss. All they have to show for that lifetime is an imperfect set of memories.
What Picard has to deal with is the knowledge that Kamin is dead, and so is everyone that Picard knew and loved while he was Kamin. In effect, he's mourning his own death. After an experience like that, how do you keep going? How do you prevent yourself from living too heavily (every life has infinite meaning) or too lightly (no experience I have is real, even this one)?
I don't think the people of Kataan understood how much of a burden they'd be putting on the person who happened to encounter their probe.
posted by savetheclocktower at 10:28 AM on October 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
If humans could truly be reincarnated, and could access memories from past lives — if we carried our souls around with us but not our bodies — I imagine we'd constantly be facing backwards, recalling the best parts of past lives to the detriment of our current life.
TNG/DS9 covered this: the Trill.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:31 AM on October 5, 2015
TNG/DS9 covered this: the Trill.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:31 AM on October 5, 2015
After an experience like that, how do you keep going? How do you prevent yourself from living too heavily (every life has infinite meaning) or too lightly (no experience I have is real, even this one)?
Only a little joking: holodeck orgy.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:48 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Only a little joking: holodeck orgy.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:48 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
I always figured the holodecks had some pretty intense cleaning systems.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:07 PM on October 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:07 PM on October 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
eponysterical, I'm afraid my contract requires me to note.
posted by mwhybark at 9:54 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mwhybark at 9:54 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
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