The Enterprise is investigating the disappearance of the starship Vico that has been missing for some time and discover it severely damaged inside a nebula.
The entire compliment of the ship is dead, save a young boy named Timothy -the son of the ship's second officer- who's understandably very shaken up over the ordeal he's lived through.
The boy's rescue is aided in large party by Data, immediately giving the boy an attachment to the android. On the ship Timothy recounts the tale of how his ship came to be damage, claiming they were attacked by aliens inside of the nebula.
As the investigation continues this seems to be less and less likely the case as sensors, weapons, and cloaking technology wouldn't work inside the nebula and that Timothy is clearly hiding something more.
Due to his encounters with Data and in the wake of the trauma he's experienced Timothy adopts an android persona and takes on Data's appearance, manner of speaking and various quirks. A behavior that is encouraged by Troi in order to see the boy through his emotional trauma and allowing him to cope.
As it explores more of the area of space they're in the Enterprise begins to experience more and more turbulence from the energy/matter fields inside the nebula. being more desperate for answers the crew pushed Timothy to tell the truth which he does. he confesses to be responsible for the destruction of the Vico.
Timothy says that after one of the shocks the ship experienced he fell and hit a computer console which triggered the explosion. Picard, Troi and Data assure Timothy this isn't possible given the safeguards on the computer system that would have prevented him from being able input any commands into it.
The shockwaves experienced by the ship grow more and more intense prompting the crew to continue to dump more and more power into the shields, this triggers a memory into Timothy of the events that occurred on the Vico bridge. Data realizes there's a correlation between the power they dump into the shields and the intensity of the shockwaves. In essence, the more power they dump into the shields the stronger the shockwave. At the present powerlevels the next shockwave will be intense enough to destroy the ship. Data convinces Picard to lower the shields, after doing so the shockwave reduces its intensity and harmlessly washes over the Enterprise. Timothy seems to come to terms with the idea he had nothing to do with the death of the Vico crew, including his parents, and drops the android persona. Though he still visibly emotional about it. Although he's "no longer an android" Timothy is happy to see Data still sees him as a friend.
This episode isn't *too* terribly painful, there's just elements of it that hard sort of goofy. Mostly all in the child adopting the Data personality and how quick the medical professionals on the ship are willing to indulge Timothy in his fantasy and encourage it. As silly as that is, the relationship between Data and Timothy actually plays off nicely -a credit to both the young actor and Brent Spiner- during their encounters. Including painting and enjoying a dessert in Ten Forward.
In the end, a pretty meh episode. It's not *too* terrible, but I wouldn't consider it good either.
