May 6th, 1991, "Half a Life"
I have to get this out there, I have no clue why Timicin would be attracted to Lwaxana. None at all.
Fiver by KLP
The Episode
Counsellor Deanna Troi, personal log, stardate 44805.3. My mother is on board.
This makes sense as a setup for the joke, but not as a valid log entry by itself.
PICARD: Mister O'Brien, energise.
(Charles Emerson Winchester III beams in, having escaped from the 4077 MASH)
My parents were big MASH fans, but I haven't seen that much of it. I know David Ogden Stiers better from his voice work in cartoons.
PICARD: I beg your pardon. Doctor Timicin, allow me to present Lwaxana Troi of Betazed. She's also a guest on board, and
LWAXANA: And Daughter of The Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir of the Holy Rings of Betazed, and what are you doing for dinner?
At this point the rattling off of titles is really getting old. Furthermore, why should an alien who probably has never ever even heard of Betazed care about these relics?
Captain's Log. Stardate 44805.7. For generations, the people of Kaelon Two have been working to revitalise their dying sun. The Federation has offered to assist in testing what may be a solution to this problem.
And evacuating the planet isn't an option...why? It's a shame that they didn't have Iconian tech to beam out the old sun and beam in a new sun...
LWAXANA: What does that little one do, Mister Woof?
The Mr. Woof thing is another joke that went on way too long.
WAXANA: You know, one thing I don't understand. If your people have known for generations that their sun is dying, why not simply evacuate the planet?
TIMICIN: It is our home. It defines who we are as a people. If Kaelon Two ceases to exist, so do we.
So they give a reason, even if it is an exceedingly stupid one.
TROI: That's not very telepathic of you.
LWAXANA: Oh, I tried telepathy on him. He's the wrong species. Right species for everything else, though.
There's a discussion to be had here. Back in "Manhunt" she said that she prefers humans. On the other hand, does she like the idea of a man that she can't learn everything about? A man that she can't manipulate? It's a shame that they used her as a punchline so much, there's a lot to unpack here that would've humanized her.
LAFORGE: Torpedoes now entering the stellar core.
TIMICIN: Their shields are holding. Guidance systems normal.
Torpedoes with shields, that's another interesting discussion. Did Soran's trilithium torpedoes have shields?
LWAXANA: Well the next thing to it. When a person on this benighted little planet reaches the age of sixty, which Timicin is about to do, they're expected to simply kill themselves. Did you know that?
Look, even if I condoned the voluntary execution of the aged and infirm, sixty seems a little young for such a thing. Picard himself is 62 at this point and nobody is acting like he's out of his prime.
Furthermore, this particular custom needs more explanation. Is it population control? Is it a religious custom? Does this society still use money and primitive medical tech that means that medical care will get excessively expensive as time goes on?
DATA: The people of Kaelon Two are isolationists, almost to the point of being xenophobes. Regrettably, we know very little about their customs.
And yet they have no problem asking the Federation for help. A prime example of two contradictory facts that both need to exist for the plot to work. Ugh.
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, Counsellor, I'm not sure what to do here.
LWAXANA: Well, I am sure! I am a Betazoid ambassador. I'm a Daughter of the Fifth House, and those people are going to answer to me! So you just energise this damned thing and get me down there!
Thank goodness they address this. You can't have someone just walk into a transporter room and ask to be beamed down. What if the person is a carrier for a disease that Crusher just discovered? What if this is part of an attempt to commit suicide or carry out a crime?
LWAXANA: I don't know. I just can't accept that fate will allow me to meet him like this and then take him away. I mean, he's not ill. He hasn't had a tragic accident. He's just going to die, and for no good reason. Because his society has decided that he's too old, so they just dispose of him as though his life no longer had value or meaning. You can't possibly understand at your age, but at mine, sometimes you feel tired and afraid.
It's a good Trek message even if it is hamfisted.
TIMICIN: I want to explain. I want very much for you to understand. Fifteen or twenty centuries ago, we had no Resolution. We had no such concern for our elders. As people aged, their health failed, they became invalids. Those whose families could no longer care for them were put away in deathwatch facilities, where they waited in loneliness for the end to come, sometimes for years. They had meant something, and they were forced to live beyond that, into a time of meaning nothing, of knowing they could now only be the beneficiaries of younger people's patience. We are no longer that cruel, Lwaxana.
This is an example of a Message Show that gets way too preachy. Before this point the message to the present day was subtle and the viewer could absorb it unconsciously. They didn't need a two by four whacking people upside the head. This is one of the reasons why I don't like Voyager and Enterprise that much.
LWAXANA: (to the replicator) Oskoids.
I never noticed this callback to "Menage a Troi."
TIMICIN: Setting a standard age for the Resolution makes it uniform for everybody. To ask individual families to decide when their elders are to die, that would be heartless.
This is where it falls apart. Even if you want to spare the families the decision, it should be possible to set standards beyond a single age. Is the family predisposed to cancer? When and how did the person's parents develop their terminal conditions? Don't some terminal conditions progress slowly enough that you can choose a date in the near future?
TIMICIN: What do you think, Captain? Have I done the right thing?
PICARD: I'm afraid you're the only one who can answer that.
You have to wonder how the other captains would react to that question.
TIMICIN: Dara.
(everyone say hi to Michelle Forbes)
DARA: Father.
She won't be cast as Ensign Ro until next season.
LWAXANA: I am suddenly suddenly not sure of myself. It's a feeling I'm not at all used to. I don't think I like it very much, little one.
Lwaxana needed more lines like this, and way earlier than this.
The Fiver
Counselor's Log: Mom's here!
Captain's Log: Crap.
Watching Picard peek out into a corridor to see if it's safe will always be funny.
La Forge: Our calculations are complete, and we're ready to go.
Picard: Very good. Dr. Timicin, you may now lay your egg.
Timicin: Excuse me?
Picard: Sorry, I was thinking of someone else.
This reference to "Evolution" seems like a bit of a stretch.
La Forge: Whoa, we got new bidders, we got 222, we got 250, we got 300, we got 407.7, look out, she's gonna blow!
Timicin: Crap.
Now there's a subtle MASH joke.
Picard: Oh. Well, I still can't do anything. I'm bound by the Prime Directive.
Lwaxana: But I thought that only applied to pre-warp cultures?
Actually in TNG it seems to apply to all non-Federation worlds.
Timicin: Captain, I just spent the night with Lwaxana, and now, I don't want to kill myself.
Picard: Well, there's a switch. But what about the color of the crystal in your palm?
Timicin: It turns out that's from an entirely different movie.
I'll assume this is a reference to another Stiers role, but I don't follow it.
Nitpicker's Guide
* Once again people who are holding hands are beamed out together, and once again Phil calls it a nit. I still don't have a problem, it's not outside the realm of possibility that transporter pads can be linked for larger objects.
* Phil wonders about the havok to the engineering console Lwaxana did when she sets up a picnic on it. I actually don't have a problem with this one, the equipment must be durable enough for this sort of thing. It wouldn't surprise me if localized pressure or body heat would be required to activate the controls.