Why did the flute people...

Speak for yourself, I immediately knew the title referred to the Inner Light civilization.

Where else in TNG is there a flute?

 

I agree, and I have often wondered why they only tried to communicate with one person. Perhaps they had hoped to contact the ship's computer or communication system, so many people could learn about them, but the captain accidentally got zapped, instead.

This episode is one of my favorites--very melancholy, but beautiful. The flute melody makes it an even more haunting memory.

 

Maybe their intent was to get the entire crew, but given the age of the probe or Human physiology it was no longer possible.

Like that memorial episode on Voyager that mind raped everyone on the ship.

 

On the other hands, are you able to see Worf as Kamin? I think the probe was conceived to target the "good" one.

 

Or Beverly as Kamin, or one of the other women? What if the probe encountered a starship with an all female crew?

The probe's VCR playback is for the victim to marry and father children with the lead female character, so the victim in the end would feel a connection and sympathy for the extinct species.

Beverly would be the hapless participant in a script that involved her impregnating another woman.

 

More referring to the strength and use of the word, but I do take your point,

I also knew, and thought it was kinda cute, but I am one of "those people"

One of my favs, also for the same reasons...but, again, I am one of "those people"...and happy to be,...

 

As I said up thread, my impression was that the probe would seek out " the right one"...someone who would understand and appreciate the Kataanians and carry their memory forward...

Eline says it herself at the end:

Stunned, Kamin turns and sees Eline, glowing in youthful beauty, with the rest of his family. She says, "The rest of us have been gone a thousand years. If you remember what we were...and how we lived...then we'll have found life again."
"Eline...."

As the missile launches...

"Now we live in you. Tell them of us...my darling..."

 

I don't think Mutai Sho-Rin was complaining that we wouldn't understand what the OP meant. It was that the OP could have done a one-minute Google search to find the name of the alien race, and didn't bother.

Anyway, my two biggest beefs with the episode is that the Kataan people are consistently portrayed with an eighteenth or nineteenth century level of technological development, and then all of a sudden, here's this probe with technology that's more advanced than the Federation's! If that was the case, why didn't the Kataan people just build themselves ships and leave the planet?

The other beef is the mind-rape. In Picard's mind, he just basically lived his entire life on that planet, and then all of a sudden he's back in command of the Enterprise for the next episode. In Picard's frame of reference, he hasn't commanded the ship in 30 years! How could he possibly just resume as captain now? It's the same schlock as the DS9 episode where O'Brien lives out his life as a prisoner only to find out it was all bullshit (and to DS9's credit, the aftermath of that was more believable, although again O'Brien's fine by the next ep). If something like that happened to me, I'd be having trauma about it for the rest of my life.

 

I am absolutely sure you are correct about Mutai's meaning...and you make very good points about the Probe kind of sneaking up on the plot and the level of technology the Kataanians...and Picard's fitness...I admit, I was wooed with the softness and beauty and simplicity of the episode...and that haunting flute...but, again, if am one of "those" people...

 

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Does it matter that I didn't use the species name? Some would be more confused at the species name than "flute people" anyway.

Anyway a few people got a laugh out of it, I thought it was pretty funny when I typed it too.

 

It's not more advanced; the Enterprise had just not encountered anything like it before. If it wasn't connected to Picard, they could have disabled it easily.

The probe was a last ditch attempt to save the memories of their people. They clearly lacked the technology to build a fleet of ships with life support systems, but apparently mind probe technology was something within their grasp. Different societies develop different branches of technology at different rates.

You could wonder why they didn't load the probe full of books, but if you wanted your society to be remembered, wouldn't it be more efficient to use a probe to snare passers by and bring them to your planet, rather than take the contents of your planet to them? Moreover, you could simply infer that memories are a more precious commodity to these people than physical trickets. They are alien, after all.

 

Oh please, it's no different than referring to one of the TOS episode as "the one with the salt vampire."

 

I loved the hell out of it..."The Flute People!"...

...agreed!!!...or, "the one with the hungry fuzz balls"...

...what my then 5-year old daughter called it when she was watching it for the first time on my DVD collection!...

 

Maybe I was too harsh sounding in my previous post, it's a good little drama, and I don't think it's bad, but it's very much hyped as one of the "best" episodes and I think that the those people I was refering to were the kind that maybe only have seen a few episodes and latch on to that one, like reviews in tv guide or on a website like slate or something where I feel like they have the same type of attitude that the characters did in the first few seasons, the were better people than you attitude. I'm not explaining too well, but it's the attitude that they are eglitarian and advanced and everyone else isn't based on what they like. See how they treated the three people in "The Neutral Zone" for example.

And I still think it's cruel to use Picard that way, but maybe since they knew he would completely recover and be fine in 10 seconds they didn't mind?

 

When I see "The Flute People" I think of that damned talking flute on H.R. Puffnstuff.

 

so...you want to know if Picard should have shared his experience being probed by flautists?

Probably not, although I am sure a fanfic is on the way....

 

It didn't particularly matter to me. I was just extrapolating what I believed Mutai meant. If I'm wrong, he can correct me.

That's just speculation on your part. We have no idea of exactly what the technical expertise of this race was. It's no different from the Organians, or the Ba'ku. One wouldn't be able to immediately judge their level of technology based solely on their appearance.

In this instance, we have what looks like an eighteenth century civilization, and yet they have the technology to at least build and launch rockets into deep space, and build probes with the ability to instill images into the mind of a completely alien being (Picard), and have that probe remain functional for centuries after it had been launched.

 

Disagree. I don't have the name of the flute people in my head, but I know the episode with the flute. OTOH, if the "correct" name had been used, I'd have to do a search.

EDIT: some other people already said that.

 

Its a favourite of mine as well. Just so touching. You see, sometimes inconsistencies and unbelievable occurences on TV must be brushed under the rag...especially for the sake of a classic like "The Inner Light."