TNG Rewatch: 5x22 - "Imaginary Friend"

[Trekker4747]

The Enterprise is exploring a unique nebula, upon entering the nebula an energy being enters the ship and floats around the corridors before encountering the child of one of the ship's officers. It enters her mind and then manifests itself in a physical form, that of the little girl's imaginary friend.

Immediately Clara and "Isabella" begin running around the ship getting into.... :snore: .... :snort: Oh! What?! Huh?

Oh. Anyway, the energy beings living in the nebula find the Enterprise's power systems as being a rich resource for their "food" and intend to destroy the ship in order to get to it, further motivated after the being sees how Clara is treated on the ship. (Not being allowed to enter restricted areas of the ship.) Picard makes an impassioned speech to the alien that we treat kids like that for their own good, the alien understands and takes off, before leaving the nebula Picard infuses it with a good dose of energy.

This episode sucks.

There's no other way to put it. It's not TNG's worst but, damn, is it up there.

Usually with these recaps I like to sit down and watch the episode with my full and undivided attention just to get a fresh perspective on it. Many episodes I could do that without watching it but I want to give it a watch and try and get as much info as possible.

Here, I ran into problems. The big one being I honestly couldn't remember this episode well enough to recap it or to discuss it other than to say it sucks.

I've no damn clue why they chose to spend a good deal of the episode's focus on Clara rather than the adult characters we tune in to see, instead we get a not too insightful look at an 8-year-old girl wandering around the ship with people telling her she can't be in the area she's in. Space! Adventure!

Good things about this episode?

Ummmm...... Guinan shows up in this episode to befriend Clara and shares with her a story about her own imaginary friend. That was kind of neat in a way only Whoppi Goldberg can deliver.

And... The remastered effects of the nebula outside the ship's windows looks gorgeous, particularly a Observation Lounge scene where on-set lighting is dim and cast nicely with what is presumable outside the windows.

Other than that? I'm out.

Sort of a nice touch? When Isabella turns back into an energy being she leaves the ship from the arboretum, when we go to an outside shot of the ship the energy ball appropriately leaves the ship from the area near the arboretum on the outside of the ship. (The blue "windows" on the back of the saucer.)

There's also some beautiful shots of the ship as it moves through the inside of the nebula.

A "bunny rabbit", fucking, really, Data?!

That's it. Bunk episode.

"I, Borg" next week, should be more fun.

 

[T'Girl]

I've no damn clue why they chose to spend a good deal of the episode's focus on Clara rather than the adult characters we tune in to see.

Because she and her interactions with the alien of the week was the primary focus of the story?

Today I find the episode charming, and remember especially enjoying it when I was about eight years old.

 

[FormerLurker]

At the time this episode aired, I worked with a guy who bore a shocking resemblance to Noley Thornton, the girl who played Clara. I gave him a hard time about it for awhile. It was fun.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

That stinks.

 

[Trekker4747]

Because she and her interactions with the alien of the week was the primary focus of the story?

Well, duh. But I don't know why we wasted an episode spending time with a girl and her imaginary friend when we got adult-stuff and a galaxy of wonders and awes to explore.

We could also argue that maybe this is another case where the ship's internal sensors should have detected an intruder. I like the "non-1984" way of people's every movements not being tracked all of the time by an authoritarian so everyone has a degree of freedom of movement, and it's also interesting that the future human ideals have it so even children are more-or-less disicplined enough to know where to go and where not to go without the need for restricted areas to be sealed off.

But, you'd think at the very least the computer sensors could say, "Ummm... We seem to have one additional lifeform on the ship. Might want to check in on that."

 

[BillJ]

 

[at Quark's]

One of those 'none of the grown-ups takes child seriously until it's almost too late!' meh- episodes. I almost never bother watching it because it simply annoys me too much.

Picard and his crew should've known much better by this point in TNG's run. ( Sometimes I wonder if the enterprise-D crew ever even have watched their own earlier seasons )

I'd even much sooner watch an infamous episode like VOY: Threshold again, even though that's a terrible mess. At least there the writers were trying to tell a somewhat original story, and that ep feels like the writers were tripping on drugs. This one feels like the writer didn't like his job, which is a far worse offense for me (from a storytelling point of view).

 

[Randy H.]

I watched this yesterday with my 19 year old son (sophomore, UCLA math, so no dummy), and he and I found the episode to be not bad at all. Not as strong as many, to be sure - but the idea of judging the Enterprise crew from the viewpoint of a child who feels she's getting a raw deal was interesting. The conceit was that the aliens would view the crew as authoritative, capricious, and unfair - just as a young child might. It worked for us, anyway.

 

[T'Girl]

... I don't know why we wasted an episode spending time with a girl and her imaginary friend when we got adult-stuff and a galaxy of wonders and awes to explore.

Because it's a change of pace and interesting. It's similar to spending the better part of a episode in French wine country.

and it's also interesting that the future human ideals have it so even children are more-or-less disicplined enough to know where to go and where not to go without the need for restricted areas to be sealed off.

Except the ship's children were occasionally shown that they did go into areas they didn't belong, that being the way children are.

I grew up on a number if Air Force Bases, naturally we would explore the base, airman were constantly chasing us out of places we didn't belong.

 

[tomalak301]

The year of the annoying children strikes again. Season 5 has a lot of great episodes in it (The Inner Light, Cause and Effect, Ensign Ro, The First Duty, Next Phase) but when it dealt with children, it was either average (Disaster) or not good (this episode or New Ground).

 

[trekshark]

But, you'd think at the very least the computer sensors could say, "Ummm... We seem to have one additional lifeform on the ship. Might want to check in on that."

The internal sensors are shown to be bad many times. I recently re-watched Power Play and the sensors said they were in the turbolift when it was only the combadges that were. Shouldn't the sensors check to see if there are life signs associated with combadges before reporting that the person is where the combadge is?

 

[Mojochi]

I'm of the opinion that the execution of the episode is not all that bad, but that the last thing the show needed was another episode with annoying kids. This was by far one of the worst failings of TNG. They did so many kid episodes, & almost none of them are half as good as a run of the mill episode. I'd put Rascals at the top of that pile. I put this one about 3rd from the bottom, just above The Bonding & When The Bough Breaks

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I'm of the opinion that the execution of the episode is not all that bad, but that the last thing the show needed was another episode with annoying kids. This was by far one of the worst failings of TNG. They did so many kid episodes, & almost none of them are half as good as a run of the mill episode. I'd put Rascals at the top of that pile. I put this one about 3rd from the bottom, just above The Bonding & When The Bough Breaks

I agree Rascals was very good, but it was the only one.

 

[Zippo and Flask]

I agree Rascals was very good, but it was the only one.

 

[jimbotron]

I'd bypass this to watch Hero Worship any day.

 

[HIjol]

The episode or age level or quality was not my problem. I had a friend when I was little who had an imaginary friend, and even at the tender age I was, I could feel something creepy and wrong with the way he was utterly taken and obsessed with every little detail of making his imaginary friend real. Just creeped me out, and this episode reminded me of it.

 

[Ghrakh]

I thought it was OK. I had no problem with the premise nor showing the kid's viewpoint of the ship (similar thing with Data's Day and Lower Decks). But the directing, or editing, or something was off because to me the scenes didn't flow together well.

 

[The Four Doctor]

Noley Thornton can be seen in the music video for Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire". She's the twirling little girl ballerina in the "1980s" segment.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Not a good idea resurrecting a 3 year old thread.
CLOSED.