I liked the episode, but I though they could have done more with the story if they'd left out the cuts to the Bridge Crew. That was just wasted time.
I had the same idea, too. This is Picard/Kamin's story, let it play as such. Going back to the bridge crew for their b-plot only took the viewer out of the narrative with the actual emotional investment, rather than really complementing it.
If you believe that the Narada's attack on the Kelvin is indeed the true point of divergence between the prime and JJverse, then that means Thor is Kirk Prime's dad, too. Chris Hemsworth transcends alternate timelines!
Yeah, Kirk is pretty awesome in "Generations". Cooking eggs, chopping wood, getting pancaked by a bridge. Really lived up to the legend.
On that note - I've always thought the episode was slightly hampered by the fact that the culture of Kataan is indistinguishable from every other single-village, tabard-wearing planet the D ever visited. The probe plan to tell the universe all about their lost ways seems kind of a waste of effort tbh.
I've never really thought about it from that angle before, but it's an extremely good point. It's never explored of course, but I imagine a violation of that type would have serious mental health ramifications for even the most strong minded.
I just think badassery is overrated, and episodes like Inner Light are a good change of pace for the show. I wouldn't want every episode to be like that, but a few of them can work. Most TV and movies now err in the other extreme, to be so over the top a 'Badass' and fast paced that it's like the job of every scene in the movie is to distract you from the last one, and the entire audience is expected to have an attention span of three seconds. I like that Star Trek had episodes like this that could just slow down and tell a story.
But he got a flute! You can do change-of-pace without killing your audience with stupidity and boredom though. The Kataan probe made no sense, dump a few memories into a single individual by mind raping them and hoping they'll pass on your story in a favorable light. Then it just shuts down and no indication is given that there is anything else to it. No books, no computer records. Just some memories that will die when Picard dies and a flute. Then there's Riker who acts like a rank amateur throughout the episode. I think "The Inner Light" is pretty terrible on just about every level.
When it comes right down to it, I really don't. I have read the explanations in favor, and the arguments too, and I just think that it the JJ-verse and the prime Trek-verse never were "one." YMMV
If Kirk can be recast, then so can his dad. Kirk Prime's father may have been played by Eric Allan Kramer.
"Kirk vs. Picard" was an artificial debate manufactured by mainstream magazines like TV Guide. Most fans didn't care.
The people of Kataan didn't know that. It's like the Voyager Record sent out with the probes... maybe every other technological civilization does something similar - if so, should that make our effort pointless? There seems to be a lot of emphasis in this thread on the flute. Flutes, properly played, are beautiful instruments. Flute music can relax you, it can make you want to dance, it can be sublime. Would you be happier if Picard had been gifted a trumpet? A kazoo? A drum set? Maybe a baliset? (Dune reference for those unfamiliar with the 1984 Dune movie in which Patrick Stewart played Gurney Halleck - an elite fighter who also sang and played the 9-stringed baliset; a deleted scene shows him actually playing it, and it's HORRIBLE).
^^Flutes can be very cool. Can you imagine Jethro Tull without Ian Anderson's one-legged flute solos?
The instrument doesn't matter. It's just laughable that people constantly point to that flute like it somehow makes the episode better than it really is.
For me what works about The Inner Light is the fact that Picard has always had themes about him about a suppressed desire to raise a family. We see him clinging onto his Starfleet career then finally relenting and relaxing into the family role. We see him abiding the death throes of a culture, trying to fight it then finally giving up and deciding to peacefully enjoy his last days with his family, and getting to reluctantly live out his secret desires. The flute isn't important, it's just the one relic of his imagined life they decided to leave for him for sentimental memory.
And you're NOT WRONG. If being a badass was all there was to being a great character, Alice from the Resident Evil movies would be considered the action hero ever created... because that's all she can do. She's so overpowered in her ability to tackle problems that hardly anything is presented as a challenge to her. And making Picard a badass (darn you for making me type that) did Star Trek no favors. It felt out of character in First Contact and totally out of place in Nemesis. Climbing hoses is one thing, but firing a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other went way too far. Oh, and that "I'm a badass!" entrance when he blows the door to the Scimitar's bridge fails big time, which made me cry because even Jerry Goldsmith was trying hard to make that moment work but couldn't. If there was one thing that I didn't like about Inner Light was that it ended. I'm thankful that Picard's flute is brought back as well as the tune, but the whole experience of living a whole new life is not something I would brush aside and move on from so quickly. This was not just someone else's life he experiencing. This was Picard being put into a position where he actually accepted the possibility that his entire life as Picard was just a dream. I don't care how great your memory is, but if you move on from memories like that, you're going to forget some things.
No. But in this case the cookie-cutter look of Kataan adds an unfortunate level of bathos to the episode.