Anyone find the Kataan race cruel in "The Inner Light"?

[Qonundrum]

Don't see it as "wrong". It's just harder to enjoy the experience of the episode when you're overthinking the inconsistencies.

Ah, but some people prefer the experience when the storytelling's storyline is consistent and conforms to internal logic and universe it's set up in. Is it not unfair to ask otherwise, especially as one of the few genres that makes consistency not a requirement is comedy or intentional self-parody? It CAN work where a story overcomes inconsistencies, I've said that about other episodes in the past. But for "The Inner Light", it never did. Still doesn't. Too much that's too brazen and it's not the 1960s anymore, there should be more depth and TNG had that level of nuance and depth in previous episodes. The audience still isn't a monolith or cult (even the TOS hippie episode showed that the hippie cult had nuances within, but I like that episode more than TIL, even with its nitpicks), and what individuals within enjoy out of a story is invariably going to differ. Glad for the folks who love it without question. Glad for the folks who find something to question but still will point out aspects they liked. Or even the potential. IMHO, there still is a good story in TIL but the execution is just too rough around the edges for some to buy into.

 

[Mojochi]

Cruel? Eh not really. Inappropriate? Certainly. Presumptuous? Outstandingly.

Too much, from a narrative standpoint IMHO. The whole notion is predicated on finding someone singularly like Picard. In fact, it's miraculous that they too luckily find maybe the only guy around that has a particular interest in archeology, who'd do for them this ridiculous favor.

^ Well said. Overanalyzing many of the greatest Trek episodes is a mistake, but it's especially the case with "Inner Light".

Boy, do I have some bad news for you about this community then

And what if the probe had been discovered by someone who was not willing to pass on the knowledge about the Kataan civilization? Someone who's embarrassed or enraged about having their brain hijacked, and destroys the probe and the flute and sweeps the whole thing under the rug.

Or what if a Borg cube encountered it? What would happen then?

They probably wouldn't even care to bother with it lol. I'm thinking more about the Klingon Captain Klaa from TFF, who just wanders about, blasting space trash for something to do. That'd thwart the hell out of decades of planning right quick. It's a pretty crap notion altogether, that probe being unmolested for a millennium IMHO

I also wonder how Picard didn't have PTSD after waking up from that. He forgot that he was Picard during the simulation and then when he wakes up, he remembers who he really is and that everything he has experienced was just a simulation.

That one we routinely have to turn a blind eye too. The guy has been mindf*cked no less than 3 times in like three years, BoBW, Chain of Command & The Inner Light

Most significantly, Picard himself doesn't seem to regret having had the experience. Indeed, he seems to consider it a bit of a blessing, perhaps one that positively altered the course of his life from that point forward.

Stockholm Syndrome anyone?

Ultimately, Stewart makes tremendous drama of this story, but the farther from this episode I get, the less it holds up. Its trappings stretch belief even more than Conundrum's

 

[Oddish]

Boy, do I have some bad news for you about this community then

Oh, I overanalyze episodes all the time. Just not "The Inner Light".

 

[Mudd]

No.