ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Four "Suddenly Human"

ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Four "Suddenly Human"
Production Order: 2
Air Order: 4
Stardate: 44143.7
Original Air Date: October 15, 1990

Picard's Log 44143.7: "Got an SOS from a little Talarian ship. We got life signs, no contact, and a radiation leak."

Picard and Riker are organizing an away team with Dr Crusher, and Data reminds Picard that, in less peaceful times, the Talarians would set one of these little ships adrift, activate the distress signal, and start up the self-destruct. None of the devices were detectable, and more than 200 people were killed because of it.
Picard nods - he knows it might be a trap.
A Talarian ship, the Q'Maire, is a few hours away, but Troi says the life signs she senses are fading.
They decide to go ahead with the away team.
Riker goes over with Crusher and Worf and a few random extras, where they find five teenage Talarian boys, all injured with radiation burns.

Riker announces to the kids that they're Starfleet, and that they're going to get the boys medical treatment.
Crusher calls him over to one knocked-out kid.
"This one is human."

Dramatic music! Opening credits break!

Picard's Log, supplemental; "WTF? There was a human on that alien ship!"

Troi is wandering around sick bay trying to pretend that she's concerned about the Talarian boys, and not at all because there was a freaking human on the ship as well.
Crusher happily talks to the human kid, Jono, but he just stares straight ahead. She informs him that he isn't hurt, but he has cat-level ignoring skills.
A medical Blue brings her a padd.
"Huh, that's weird," she remarks casually, reading the padd.
Apparently, this is terrifying, because Jono starts rocking and making a high-pitched noise, and all the other boys start up, too.
"The hell?" asks Crusher.
"They're scared," says Troi.
Picard and Riker enter this din, and the noise is more than a little annoying.
"Hey, knock it off!" yells Picard.
No go.
He tries a few more times, but it isn't until Troi calls him captain that the boys all stop. Sounds like they only respect males in charge.
"Please take me home to my captain," says Jono politely. "Please take me home to Endar."
What? Endor? The Ewok planet?

Crusher pulls Picard into her office to tell him that Jono's scans show that he has a bunch of old, healed broken bones. She's concerned because the Talarians are really harsh to their enemies, and maybe they tortured Jono? But he also seems to have been with them long enough to have picked up their cultural traits. She suggests that Jono has Stockholm Syndrome.

There's a commotion in sick bay proper. Jono is losing his shit, running around sick bay, riling up the others, and dodging medical Blues. Picard and Crusher run in. Troi says she innocently suggested that Jono take his gloves off, which is when Jono lost it.
He screams, "she's trying to dissect me!"
"The fuck?" asks Picard. "She's trying to help you!"
Once again, Jono responds to Picard's authority and nothing else.
"Please take me home to Captain Endar," he repeats.
Data breaks in over Picard's comm badge to say that Starfleet sent info on "the human boy."
"Cool," says Picard.
He takes Crusher and Troi with him to get that info, but not before Crusher tells Worf to confine Jono to quarters. He isn't hurt, so she can't keep him in sick bay, but she sure as shit doesn't want him just roaming the ship.

Worf takes Jono to his new quarters. Jono is pissy toward Worf, and demands to know if Worf is a captive on the Enterprise.
"Fuck you, I work here," snaps Worf.
"Why do you take orders from a female?"
"Dr Crusher is my superior officer," Worf explains.
 "Females can never outrank males in Talarian society," Jono sneers.
"Yeah well, you're human, kid. And human females can do anything the males can."
"I'm not human," he protests. "I'm Talarian." And he starts making that noise again.
"Ugh, STFU," says Worf.
"No way, Klingon. Gonna make the B'nar - the mourning - until I can be with my brothers again."
Worf makes a noise like he isn't being paid enough to deal with this shit, and he leaves.

In the Obs Lounge, Data tells Picard, Troi and Crusher that Jono's DNA matches that of Jeremiah Rossa, a kid born 14 years earlier on a Federation colony to a Starfleet officer and his wife. The colony was attacked by the Talarians, who left no survivors.
Jeremiah Rossa was reported missing and probably dead. Jono's closest living human relative is his grandmother, Admiral Rossa.

"It's a bad idea to just drop him off back on Earth with strangers," says Troi.
The others agree: Jono should be introduced to human culture slowly.
"Good luck, Troi," says Picard. "You've got your work cut out for you."
"Yeah, no," replies Troi. "Jono hates women."
"Talarians are hella patriarchal," agrees Crusher
"You're the only one he answers to," Troi points out. "Needs to be you."
"Oh, fuck me," sighs Picard.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard goes to see Jono in his quarters. Jono is still making the B'nar sound.
"Stop it," snaps Picard. "Why do you do that?"
"That's the sound my people make when we're in distress," Jono explains.
"Okay, well, as captain, I order you to knock it off."
Jono agrees. Picard sits down and tries to make small talk about the room, but Jono insists that he's a captive and making the room nicer is pointless, as it's a cage.
"Are you going to return me to Captain Endar?"
"Ummm... so we're going to meet up with the Q'Maire in a few hours, and transfer the Talarian boys back to Endar, but we need to talk to him about you. You're a bit of a special case."
Picard tries to steer the convo back to the room, and Jono flat out tells him that he has always lived with his captain.
"You don't want to live with me," says Picard flatly.

Oh, but he does. Picard is forced to drag Jono down to see the captain's quarters, in order to convince him that he really wants to live in his own. But Picard's quarters are pretty cool. Jono immediately picks up the ceremonial knife he was given as Worf's cha'DIch. He's impressed by Picard's stuff.
Picard starts a new conversation: "Hey, I noticed that you haven't taken your gloves off."
"Not here. I won't take them off so I don't have to touch an alien."
Oh, hey. Did you know that Talarians are speciest fucks?
He tries to brook the subject of Jono's old injuries, asking if Endar has ever hurt him. But they're not on the same page here. Picard is asking if Jono has been abused, but Jono is telling him that pain is  irrelevant, and the only thing that matters is passing the tests. He insists that Picard knows nothing about Talarians.
"That's true," says Picard. "But you're not Talarian."
Jono is pissed off.

"Um, hey. Could you... not touch my stuff?"

Picard is in his ready room later when Troi comes in. He called her over.
"You might not know this," he says, "but I'm not really down with kids."
Sassy Troi: "Really? You don't say."
Oh, lord. Now he's gonna try to weasel out of this thing with Jono. "I would really best serve the ship right now by being captain."
She calls him on it: "Okay, quit bullshitting me. Why are you dodging this?"
"I'm not. I'm just... acknowledging my limitations."
That's fair, but sometimes you're the only person who can do the thing, Picard. Suck it up, buttercup.
She goes all psychotherapist on him. "When you were a kid, did you have any kid friends?"
"That has nothing to do with anything." He thinks about it for a minute, deciding if he wants to engage. Then he decides not to, and sits down to turn on his computer.
Troi turns it off with a "fuck you" attitude. He's trying to run from this duty, and there's now way she's gonna let that fly.
He admits that he spent his childhood thinking about how to get into Starfleet and doing things that might facilitate getting there, and kind of "skipping" his childhood.
"No one is born a good parent," she says, and that's pretty much the end of it. If she outranked him in the same way that Crusher did, she could just order him to do it. Instead, she just has to get sassy on his ass. And she drops the mic and saunters the fuck out.

Picard reluctantly goes back to his quarters, and we see right away that Jono has redecorated. There's loud music playing that's obviously meant to be alien to humans, because Picard can't deal with it and tells Majel to turn it off. He wanders around in silence, looking for Jono, who he can't see, because Jono is napping in a hammock.

Jono is pissed because Picard turned off his music, and Picard argues that it's gonna stay off.
Picard... you have shit customer service skills, man. This kid is supposedly your guest and not your captive, but you won't let him listen to his choice of music? WTH?
Jono tells Picard that he set up the hammock because the flat Starfleet-issued beds hurt his back. That's fair.
Picard hauls out pics of the Rossas and tells Jono that he was born to these people and was called Jeremiah, and does he remember any of this? He stops at a picture of young Jeremiah, laughing.
"Look. You knew how to laugh once."
Harsh.

He asks if Jono remembers any of this, and now we get some exposition: Jono says that Endar told him that he rescued Jono. Picard says that his parents were killed by Talarians.
"It was war," shrugs Jono.
Riker interrupts over the comm to say that they have visual contact with the Q'Maire. Jono yells "Endar!" and makes for the door, but Picard tells him to stay put.

After Picard leaves, Jono goes to look at the photos of his parents and his younger self. We hear quiet, overlapping noises of war, people screaming, and a little boy crying for his mother. Clearly, there are some things that Jono recalls.

On the bridge, Picard talks to Endar of the Q'Maire. He explains that they found the crippled ship, got the kids off, and treated them.
"Your actions will be noted," replies Endar. "We'll send you coordinates to transport the kids to when we're closer in proximity."
Sassy Riker Moment: "You're welcome, I'm sure."
Endar is about to hang up, but Picard gets his attention.
"Hey, there was a human kid on that ship."
"Yeah, that's Jono. Was he hurt?"
"No, he's fine. But we need an explanation. That kid's name is actually Jeremiah Rossa."
"That kid is my son."

Dramatic music! Zoom-in on Picard's face! Commercial break!

Picard's Log, supplemental: "Ain't this some shit. I invited Endar to come aboard to talk to him in person to make sure that we don't fuck up the diplomatics with the Talarians."

Endar beams over with two other guys, and he goes to the ready room to meet with Picard.
He admits that he was in charge of the force that attacked that colony, and that in the aftermath, he found Jeremiah Rossa crying over his mother's body.
"There was nobody left alive - should I have left him crying there?" he asks.
Then he goes into why he took the kid and why he kept him: the Talarians have a tradition that says that if their son is killed by an enemy, they have the right to take the slain enemy's kid. His own son was killed at the hands of humans, so he claimed a human.
"And what about the fact that you beat him?" asks Picard.
"WTF are you talking about?" asks Endar.
Picard explains that Crusher found old injuries, and Endar laughs.
"He broke his ribs when he fell off trying to ride this huge animal, and his arm in a contest with other boys. He was trying to impress me. We're not beating him."
Picard takes this in. It makes sense.
"Okay. But I'm not letting him leave with you. He's human, and has family on Earth. You can have the other boys."
Then we get some posturing: Endar won't let Picard leave this sector. Picard counters with Starfleet knowing where they are. Endar has called for back-up.
"Really? You'd go to war over this? We've been at peace for years," says Picard.
"Wouldn't you go to war to get your only son back? Let me see Jono. You'll see I've been a good father."
He seems sincere.

Picard goes to Crusher's office to talk to her and Troi. Crusher thinks letting Endar see Jono is a bad idea, because she still thinks that Endar is beating Jono, and can manipulate him into thinking he's a good father. Picard argues that he doesn't think Endar is abusing Jono.
"He's starting to remember stuff," says Troi. "He's pretty vulnerable. And I don't think we'll earn his trust if we send Endar away without letting them meet."
"It needs to be supervised," puts in Crusher.
Picard agrees.

Picard and Endar go to the Obs Lounge, and Troi brings Jono in. Picard and Troi then turn their backs to give the pair some privacy. Endar and Jono share a sweet greeting.

Endar asks if Jono is being treated well, and Jono replies that he has, despite the fact that he has been told not to make the B'nar. Endar assures him that this is fine, and tells Jono that the humans want to keep him.
"You've reached the Age of Decision. Do you want to stay?"
"No."
"Okay. We may have to fight, and you may die in the process."
Jono hesitates, then says that he is ready to die if need be. They touch foreheads again.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard and Troi go back to the bridge and Picard asks Data about the weapons system on the Q'Maire. It's like lasers and shit. He mentions Merculite rockets, which we've heard of before, and which sound like toys that kids got as gifts in the 1960s. ("I got an easy-Bake Oven for Christmas, and Merculite rockets!")
The Enterprise could pick off the Q'Maire like a hiker flicking off a mosquito.
"I don't wanna do that," says Picard.
"They've been known to fight to the death," adds Riker.
"Do we want to go to war over one kid?" asks Worf.
"You might if it was your kid," Crusher points out.
"If we could help Jono reach his humanity, he might go with us," Troi suggests.
"Would Endar go along with it?" asks Riker.
"Possibly," answers Data. "In Talarian custom, once Jono reaches the Age of Decision, he's allowed to make his own choices."
"Hey," says Worf. "Message from Starfleet Command. It's addressed to Jeremiah Rossa."
Picard asks Worf to send it to the ready room.

Picard invites Jono to the ready room to see the message. It's from Admiral Rossa.
She talks about how excited she and her husband will be to greet him when he comes home to Earth, and about how he's the last Rossa, and how she couldn't wait to send him a message. She wishes him a safe journey home.

Jono recognizes that she's wearing a Starfleet uniform, and Picard says that she is an admiral.
"She outranks you?"
"Yep."
Jono is frustrated, and yells at Picard that he doesn't have anything on the ship to get rid of bad energy, as he isn't allowed to make the B'Nar or play his music or run along the banks of the river at home.
"I get that," says Picard. "Let's do a thing I do when I get frustrated."

They go play Future Space Raquetball. Picard teaches Jono, and Jono is doing really well... until Jono starts having flashbacks again. He ends up crumpled on the floor, crying that his mother was "all red, and I was calling her name, but she wasn't answering."
Picard comforts him.

They go back to Picard's quarters, and Jono tells Picard what little he remembers of his mother. Then he complains that he used to feel strong, but lately he feels weak and sad.
"Part of being human," says Picard. "You feel sad sometimes, but you can also feel joy."
"Doubt it," says Jono.

They make their way to Ten Forward, where they join Riker and Wes. Wes is having a banana split, and offers some to Jono. Jono, not knowing how to eat it, stabs the dish with a spoon and flips the ice cream at Wes.

Jono is horrified, but the others start laughing, and soon, he is too. Data, playing 3-D chess nearby, is baffled as to why that is funny. Riker tells him to Google "slapstick," and while Data is not sure why it's funny, he does kind of get it. Wes orders two more banana splits, and Picard and Riker step up to the bar and discuss how Jono has changed over the last hour or so.

Later, Jono gets out of his hammock and goes to Picard's bedroom area. Picard is asleep. Jono has the d'k tahg. You can guess what happens.

Picard wakes up in sick bay as they're patching up his wound.
"Ugh, did that asshole actually fucking stab me?"
"Yep," says Crusher. "He's in the brig right now."

On the bridge, Riker notes that several more Talarian ships have shown up. He really doesn't want a fight.
Endar calls. "Where the hell is Picard?"
"Injured," says Riker. "I'm in charge."
"Great. Send my kid back or I'll kick your ass."
"Can't do that. He stabbed Picard last night, so now he's in custody."
"Dude, this is your fault!" declares Endar. "If you had just given him back to me in the first place, this would not have happened!"
Oh hell no, you did not just victim-blame.
Endar then issues the threat that if Jono isn't aboard the Q'Maire within five minutes, there will be "consequences."
He's gonna shoot them with his Easy Bake Oven. Pew pew pew.
"Awesome," drawls Riker. "Go to fucking red alert."

Jono goes to sick bay with some security Golds.
"Dude, why did you stab me?" asks Picard.
"Doesn't matter," shrugs Jono. "I attacked a superior officer. I must be put to death now. That is the punishment."
Picard frowns. "Hold the motherfucking comm badge: no one is putting anyone to death. And WTH? You were happy a few hours ago."
"That's true," says Jono sadly. "The happier I was, the closer I felt to you, the more I felt like I was betraying my father, and all of the things he's done for me. I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't lose sight of who I am."
Picard lays back on his pillow.
Well, shit.

Endar calls Riker again, because five minutes has gone by, and no Jono. They bicker, Riker tells Edar that Jono is going back to Earth, Endar makes some threats.
The lift doors open, and Picard and Jono enter the bridge.
"So hey," Picard says to Endar. "Last night Jono stabbed me."
Endar again tries to victim-blame.
Picard ignores him. "A crime took place here, but not by Jono. By me. When we encountered Jono, we figured that introducing him to human culture would make him jump at the chance to go back. Thing is, nobody was listening to what he wanted. I'm returning him home to his loving father, and that is you, Endar."
Endar has a brief emotional moment, then goes all stoic and thanks Picard.

Picard and Jono go to the transporter room.
They both say goodbye, then there's a pause, and Jono takes off his gloves. He steps forward, puts his hands on either side of Picard's head, and performs the Talarian greeting of  touching foreheads. Picard is stunned. Jono touched him.
Then Jono steps back on the pad, and transports away.

So this is a pretty good episode. Not a lot of sci up in this particular fi, but it has good character development, and the story is interesting, so that makes up for it. What really gets me here is the departure. Based on the kinds of stories that Star Trek tells, and also the kinds of stories that Americans tell, it's expected that Jono will go back to Earth to rediscover his roots, after having spent some time with the Enterprise crew and deciding that he is still human, after all. A leopard cannot change its spots. But instead, Picard realizes that the scant four years that Jono spent as a human cannot replace the ten or so that he spent as a Talarian. Those early years were formative, but he spent two-and-a-half times the number of years with Endar as he did with his parents, and his memories of his parents are fuzzy and confused at best. Kids tend to not recall much before their fifth year, so the bulk of Jono's memories will come from Endar and his Talarian teachings. He might return to the Terran system at a later date to explore his heritage out of curiosity, but until then, his choice is to stay with Endar. I think it was an interesting choice to send him back to Endar, and not what I would have expected from Star Trek.
There a question we have to ask here: did Endar kidnap Jono?
Yes and no?
If all of the humans in the colony were dead already, Jono's parents included, then leaving him there would probably mean his death. Could he have returned Jono to the nearest Federation outpost/colony/starbase? Yes. Would he? Nope. Not only because they were at war at the time, but because he was following Talarian tradition.
Something that never really came up here was that Jono and Worf had pretty much the same upbringing: parents killed during an attack, they were both scooped up by others to be raised apart from their own cultures. The major difference here is that Worf was not raised by Romulans, and that Sergey and Helena encouraged him to explore his heritage, whereas Jono was simply told that he was now a Talarian, and there was probably no more talk of humans.
But where I found a strength in this episode, other viewers found a problem. Many fans did not feel that Picard should have sent Jono back to Endar. They felt as Crusher had, that Endar was abusing Jono, and that Jono had Stockholm Syndrome. They wanted an ending to this episode where Jono returned to Earth and gradually became Jeremiah again.
I suppose this episode really raises the question of nature vs nurture: how much of a human was Jono, and how much of a Talarian?





- Fun Facts:

- It was with this episode that Jeri Taylor joined the writing team. She was recommended by producer Lee Sheldon, but she had zero experience with Star Trek, so she was loaded up with a large number of tapes of both Next Gen and TOS to bring her up to speed. Taylor describes her writing style as being heavy on character development and light on sci-fi, which is why there is little science in this episode.

Stewart, Jeri Taylor, and the world's creepiest photobomb by
Brent Spiner

- Jeri Taylor originally invented a new race of aliens for this episode, but Michael Okuda suggested that she use the Talarians, who had been mentioned but never seen.
- This was the second episode filmed for the fourth season, despite being aired fourth.
- Because of the timing of the filming of this episode, the only time that Geordi appears in this episode is from stock footage. LeVar Burton was out having and recovering from surgery during the filming of this episode and Best of Both Worlds, Part 2.

- This episode is a bottle show.
- The Talarian uniforms from this episode will be used for a different race in a season six episode.
- Jono's human father is photographed in the season one Starfleet uniforms, making it the earliest chronological appearance of that particular uniform.

- This is one of the few times that a sheathed d'k tahg is seen.

- The Talarian rifles were later reused as Romulan disruptor rifles.
- Chad Allen is probably best known for playing Matthew Quinn on Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Red deaths: 0
To date: 0
Gold deaths: 0
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Blue deaths: 0
To date: 0
Unnamed color crew deaths: 0
To date: 11,000

Obnoxious Wes moments: 0
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Legitimate Wes moments when he should have told someone to go fuck themselves: 0
To date: 0

Sassy Geordi moments: 0
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Sassy Wes Moments: 0
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Sassy Worf Moment: 0
To date: 1

Sassy Riker Moments: 1
To date: 2

Sassy Picard Moments: 0
To date: 2

Sassy NPC Moments: 0
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Sassy Data Moments: 0
To date: 1
Sassy O'Brien Moments: 0
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Sassy Crusher Moments: 0
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Sassy Troi Moments: 1
To date: 1
Sassy Guest Star Moments: 0
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Number of times that it is mentioned that Data is an android: 0
To date: 2

Number of times that Troi reacts to someone else's feelings: 0
To date: 3

Number of times that Geordi "looks at something" with his VISOR: 0
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Number of times when Data gives too much info and has to be told to shut up: 0
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Picard Maneuvers: 2
To date: 6
Tea, Earl Grey: 0
To date: 1

Alber