ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Twenty-Two "Half a Life"

ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Twenty-Two "Half a Life"
Production Order: 22
Air Order: 22
Stardate: 44805.3
Original Air Date: May 6, 1991

This shit is why Sorting Hat quizzes keep putting me
in Ravenclaw.

*******

Troi's Personal Log, 44805.3: "My mother is on board."

That's a direct quote, and the entirety of the log entry, y'all. And she says it in a super flat voice. Troi is clearly very pleased that this is happening. And can you blame her? The last time Troi saw her mother, they and Riker were kidnapped by freaking Ferengi, and Lwaxana pulled some mental abuse bullshit on her. They seemed to have gotten past that part by the end of Menage a Troi, but still. Lwaxana, as much as I love her, is A LOT. She would suck to have as a mother.

Right after that log entry, we see a lift slide open, then this shit happens:

Picard checks the corridor before proceeding, but too late.

Once again, big-time kudos to the costume department. Lwaxana is always dressed to kill. Designer Robert Blackman once said, "All of Lwaxana Troi's clothing is fun because it's fairly outrageous." Hell yeah, it is. Werk it, gurl!

She's thrilled to see Picard, and insists that he's just as thrilled to see her. He tries to wiggle out of her company by saying he has to meet someone in the transporter room, but it backfires.

"This is a sensitive meeting, Lwaxana. He's a member of a reclusive race, one that we haven't really met before now, and it requires diplomacy."
Lwaxana is tickled teal. She loves diplomacy, because "everyone is dressed so well!"
And she marches into the transporter room. Picard seems resigned.
You were never getting out of that, Picard. Lwaxana Troi is an ambassador, and can easily convince people that she belongs in situations where she really doesn't.

The newcomer is beamed aboard, and hey, it's David Ogden Stiers! Nice!

The new guy looks a round a bit before getting down. He introduces himself as Dr Timicin, and explains that he has never been on a Federation ship before. There's an awkward moment where Timicin recalls that humans shake hands when they meet, and Lwaxana rushes to interrupt.

You know O'Brien's gonna spill that tea later to his wife.
"She interrupted an official greeting? Are you serious?"

She wastes no time in rattling off her rank and such ("Daughter of the Fifth House," blah, blah, blah), then immediately asks him to dinner.

"We're... kind of busy," says Picard, clearly trying to save this new stranger.

Lwaxana is having none of it, and sweeps Timicin out into the corridor, with Picard trailing behind.

"That dude's in trouble," La Forge tells O'Brien.

Dramatic music! Opening credits break!

Picard's Log 44805.7: "So Kaelon II, where this scientist is from, has been working for generations on trying to charge up their dying sun. But like that crappy charge cord you bought at the convenience store last week, no power is getting where it needs to go. The Federation offered to help. And they're reclusive, but they said yes."

The senior crew are in the Obs Lounge with Timicin, who is explaining his plan to revitalize the sun with altered torpedoes.

"Your plan is the shit," says Data in admiration.

They talk about how they're going to test the torpedoes on another sun that's similar, and Picard says he wishes it hadn't taken the Federation three years to find. Timicin then admits that it took him four decades to develop the programming for the torpedoes, and while his people don't like asking for help, they're pretty freaking grateful that the Federation is lending a hand. He's been doing this his whole life, and really just wants to complete the process before he dies.

Lwaxana is dicking around on the bridge, pushing buttons and calling Worf "Mr Woof." When the meeting lets out, she rushes forward, but pushes between Deanna and Riker, grabbing Timicin by the arm and turning on the charm full blast. Timicin apologizes, he can't come play with her now, he has to go to Engineering because, you know, he has to save his planet.

"You gotta leave the bridge, Mrs Troi," says Riker. He is, of course, amused when Lwaxana hassles anyone but himself.

"Why?" she asks. "There are other people here."

They're working, yo.

After she leaves, Timicin says that he is surprised that Lwaxana is old enough to be Deanna's mother. He calls her "vibrant."

Deanna gives him a polite smile that fades when he looks away.

Timicin is working with Data and La Forge at the pool table in Engineering when Lwaxana interrupts to announce that she and Mr Homn have brought a snack. Then she proceeds to sweep all the padds off the table because those aren't important at all. And when Timicin looks askance at Mr Homn, she explains that he is her valet, and doesn't say much.

"How can he?" La Forge mutters to Data.

Data then pipes up that they have been working for a while, and organic lifeforms do require sustenance to continue working at a high level -

"Don't you start, too," warns la Forge.

Timicin graciously accepts her offer of food, calling her Mrs Troi, but the Mrs Robinson of Space tells him that only Data and La Forge call her that.

"Call me Lwaxana."

Later in the lift, Lwaxana and Timicin discuss their families (each has a grown daughter, and Timicin has a grandson), and Timicin admits that he is a windower. Lwaxana moves in for the kill. Exiting the lift, she asks him why his people have not vacated the planet, knowing their sun was dying. He explains that it is their home, and defines who they are as a people, and they both hope that the Federation will help the people of Kaelon II fix their dying sun.

When they reach Lwaxana's quarters, she invites him in, adding that Mr Homn sleeps elsewhere. They share some laughs, and he seems delightfully surprised that he is having a good time with her, but declines. They're both mildly disappointed when he leaves.

Dramatic music, for some reason? Commercial break!

Picard's Log 44807.5: "Made it to the test sun."

Lwaxana is in her quarters, trying on dresses, while Deanna tells her to just fricking pick something. Lwaxana gets on her case for not speaking telepathically. Deanna points out that, with Mr Homn in the room, they are not alone, and that shit is rude. Lwaxana holds up a dress and wonders telepathically if Timicin likes green.

Sassy Troi Moment: "That's not very telepathic of you."

"I tried," Lwaxana admits. "Wrong species. Right species for everything else, though."

Girl, did you scan his brain, and his pants?

They tease each other: Lwaxana is a slut, and Deanna needs to find a man.

A scene with Lwaxana and Deanna will also occur at the end of the episode,
and will also largely feature Lwaxana standing in front of mirror, with Deanna
mostly shown in the reflection.

On to the experiment! La Forge and Timicin are down in Engineering, while the bridge crew handles the torpedo launch. They fire the torpedoes, and all is going well. Timicin looks incredibly relieved. But then the sun starts to overheat, and they're forced to warp the fuck out of Dodge before the thing explodes. 

Timicin shakily sits down in the nearest chair, and fighting tears, comms Picard to offer his gratitude to the crew for their help. Picard accepts, and sets the course back to Kaelon II.

Later, Timicin is sitting by himself in Ten Forward, nursing a drink, when Lwaxana approaches him to offer her condolences. She sits and tries to cheer him up by fishing for a compliment, but he tells her that he isn't good company now. She starts to get up to leave him alone, but he asks her to stay, lamenting that they met now, rather than several years earlier.

"What difference does a few years make?" she asks.

"Kind of a lot," he says. "I'm on my way home to die."

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard's Log 44812.6: "Back at Kaelon II, gonna talk to Science Minister B'tardat."

Ever the eager beaver, Picard tells B'tardat that even though the experiment was not a success this time, they can totes do more experiments til they get it right. Riker offers to let Timicin have all of their info and facilities so he can continue his work.

"That's cool of you," says B'tardat, "but Timicin has other stuff to do at home, and we don't have anyone to replace him."

Picard and Riker exchange a glance. "We can hang out."

"We're cool," says B'tardat. "Thanks for helping us."

He signs off. Picard, Riker, and Data are baffled.

Lwaxana marches in without ringing the bell. "Oy. Did you know that this fucking planet has a ritual where you kill yourself when you reach 60? It's their thing. You hit 60, they throw you a party, and you kill yourself."

Picard, caught off guard, looks at his walking encyclopedia

Data shrugs. "They're isolationists. We don't know anything about them." 

"Timicin just told me!" Lwaxana rages. "You can't let them do that!"

"I don't have any choice," says Picard. "It's a cultural thing."

It's a Prime Directive thing, too.

"My hands are tied."

She yells at him to go down there, and "educate them," but he flat-out tells her that he can't go around the PD, even if his personal feelings diverge from the situation.

"That's your Prime Directive - not mine!" She storms from the ready room.

Anticipating trouble, Picard pages Deanna.

Whipped into a frenzy by a mixture of grief and anger, Lwaxana goes down to the transporter room and demands that O'Brien beam her down to Kaelon II so she can yell at Timicin's people about a custom that she disagrees with. O'Brien is at a loss. He hasn't been given orders to beam anyone down, and doesn't know what to do with her.

Deanna comes in. "Mother, what are you doing?"

Lwaxana screams that O'Brien needs to beam her down, and Deanna puts on her counselor hat to explain that O'Brien does not have orders to follow her directions. Lwaxana steps off the pad and begins sobbing that 60 is still young, and it's not fair. O'Brien makes up a bullshit reason to walk away, but locks the transporter before doing so.

The Trois sit on the transporter pad. Lwaxana sobs that it doesn't make sense for her to cry, that she never cries, but Deanna reminds her that she cried when her husband died. It takes some coaxing, but Lwaxana finally admits that, at her age, sometimes she feels tired and afraid, and Deanna guesses that her mother is worried about becoming one of those people who "dies before they die."

Lwaxana goes to see Timicin. He is wracking his brain, trying to figure out where his calculations went sideways, and she hugs him. He tells her that she is kind, but she disagrees.

"I'm hateful. Because I hate what you're going to do, and I kind of hate you for doing it."

He tells her that it's part of his culture, but he isn't arguing. They just both seem sad about the whole thing. They kiss.

Worrying music? Commercial break!

When we come back, it's obvious that Lwaxana and Timicin have slept together, as she's watching him sleep. Timicin wakes up, and he tells Lwaxana that he wants to explain The Resolution to her so that she understands what's about to happen and why.

He then launches into a description of a system that sounds... familiar. Fifteen or twenty generations earlier, the elderly on Kaelon II would grow older and infirm. Their families could not care for them, and they were put into deathwatch facilities to wait it out, sometimes for years. Their lives had had meaning, but at that point, meant nothing.

"We are no longer that cruel," he tells her.

"No, you just kill them," she argues. "You got rid of the problem by getting rid of the people."

"It's a celebration of life," he replies. "You pass the responsibilities of life from one generation to the next."

"Uh-huh. So no one is caring for the elderly? You take care of your kids, but then it isn't their turn to take care of their parents?"

"That places a huge burden on the kids," says Timicin. "No parent should expect to be paid back for the love they've given their children."

"Why the hell not?" She angrily orders oskoids from the replicator.

He's interested in the oskoids and asks what they are.

"Betazed delicacy. Should have tried it while you were alive. No point now."

Ouch. Damn.

They then get into it concerning the chosen age of the Resolution. Lwaxana argues that someone could still be vital at 70 or 80, but hopelessly sick and frail at 50.

"Why make them wait so long to commit suicide?"

He tells her that by picking a uniform age for the Resolution, it takes the burden off the families to choose when their loved ones will die. She counters by saying that they wouldn't have to choose if they just let people die when they were ready to die. Then she switches tack and asks about his grandson - wouldn't it be better if his grandson knew him in person, rather than remembering him as some vague memory? 

No chill. None.

He tells her that this is a custom that he has known all his life, and that he attended the Resolutions of his parents, and that they are beautiful celebrations.

They've reached the part of the argument where neither answers the other directly, they just throw out points.

Now she hauls out an example: the women of Betazed used to wear enormous wigs with holes in the middle, and they used to put tiny cages with animals in the hole. Started out as a weird fad, then it became the custom. It was uncomfortable for the woman, and cruel to the animals. One day, a woman said, "this is kind of fucking stupid," and she quit doing it. The custom ended.

Timicin smiles. "That woman must have been a lot like you."

Final arguments:

Lwaxana points out that no one on his planet is more qualified to save it than he is, and he's about to take himself out of the game. If Kaelon II only has 30 or 40 more years, will anyone be able to save it at all? Will his grandson live to see his own Resolution?

She kind of crosses a line there, and he briefly gets angry, but then calms himself: Younger scientists will take up his work, and it will continue. He doesn't sound 100% convinced, though.

"Why should anyone bother trying, though?" she asks. "If it's time has come, let it die."

Neither seems terribly angry now. They just seem... sad.

Later, Timicin is back down in Engineering, going over the test results with Data and La Forge. They discuss what might have gone sideways, and Timicin realizes that he could build a new experiment to test a new theory.

"It'll just take some time," he says happily.

But then he realizes that he hasn't got any more time.

Picard is in his ready room when Timicin comes to see him.

"Hey, so... I need to request asylum aboard the E?"

Zoom-in on Picard!

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard and Timicin call B'tardat, who is angry that Timicin is asking for asylum.

"Your family and friends are gathering for your Resolution. It's part of our culture. Get your ass back here."

"But I have new theories about how to save our planet," argues Timicin. "It would take other scientists a decade or more to set things up and test them. I need to finish my work."

"Others started your work, others will finish it," says B'tardat. "Are you being coerced?" He eyes Picard.

"Influenced, maybe," admits Timicin. "But I made the decision of my own free will."

Riker pages Picard: there are Kaelon warships headed for the E.

"We're here in friendship," Picard tells B'tardat. "We're just here to help you figure out how to revitalize your sun."

"You leave orbit with our guy, you're toast," says B'tardat.

He signs off.

"Am I doing the right thing?" asks Timicin quietly.

"You're the only one who can answer that," Picard replies.

"Lwaxana thinks I should lead some kind of revolt," Timicin smiles. "She's a woman of strong conviction."

That is definitely something Picard can agree with.

Rae sighting!

On the bridge, Riker tells them that the warships haven't contacted the E, but have taken up attack positions. Timicin is very insistent that there be no blood shed over this. In what appears to be her only line in this episode, Crusher assures him that the E's bridge crew will avoid it at all costs.

Down in Engineering, La Forge and Data break the news to Timicin that the Science Ministry on Kaelon has broken the interlink. They will no longer accept any data he sends them.

"I will not terminate my life, so they terminate my work?" he roars at the computer screen. "Alive, I am a bigger threat to my people than I am dead."

He looks up to find a thoroughly gutted Lwaxana standing before him.

Timicin and Lwaxana argue in the corridor: she thinks that Picard can fix things here, despite the fact that Picard has said the PD blocks him from doing anything. Timicin, knowing his people and having seen how B'tardat has reacted to the news, knows that Picard can probably do very little. his people are already isolationists, interference from others could drive mistrust of outsiders on Kaelon II. Things get heated, but once again, he calms down right away, and tells her that he wants to live because, in her, he sees that his life still has value. But what does it mean if he can never go home, and his people won't accept his work?

Riker pages Timicin: his daughter has come aboard.

Dara is waiting in Timicin's quarters. He introduces her to Lwaxana, and Dara tells Timicin in earnest that he needs to come home.
"I have to finish my work," he says.
"I'm not concerned about your work. I'm concerned about you. It's your time to rest."
Lwxana has had this argument like five times over the past few days, and she gets a little impatient. "Maybe you'll feel differently about that in a few years... say, approaching 60?"
Dara, who is smart enough to catch onto the fact that her dad's new friend probably has a lot to do with this change of heart, turns her ire on Lwaxana. "How dare you attack me and my culture, and make my father turn his back on the Resolution?"

Timicin directs her back to him, but she asks the questions that he has already been asking himself: "Where will you go? Where will you die? I hate the idea that you won't be laid to rest on our homeworld, and that you won't lie beside my mother, and that I won't lie beside you when it is my turn."
Timicin is openly crying. Dara is openly crying.
She takes his hand. "I love you. But I am ashamed."
Ooh, too far. Come on, Dara. That last bit was shitty. Don't be that person.
She stands up, and stares daggers at Lwaxana as she slowly withdraws her hand from Timicin's, then leaves.
GOOD. GOD.
That was brutal.

Lwaxana reaches for his hand, but he asks to be alone.

In her quarters, Lwaxana has decided to completely unpack everything from this latest trip on the Enterprise: was it wrong of her to ask him to put aside his deeply-held beliefs? Was she asking him to do so just to keep her company? Deanna, in full counselor mode, tells her that she was just being honest with him, and that, while Lwaxana definitely wanted Timicin to live so that they could be together, she also was doing it for his benefit.
"Rituals bring comfort," Deanna tells her.
"This ritual is a bad one," Lwaxana answers.
This is really helpful. I don't think we've ever seen a Lwaxana Troi that examines her own actions and how they affect others. She probably won't stop being her, but it does offer a nice dimensional quality to the character.

The door chimes. It is Timicin. Deanna shows herself out.
"Do you believe that I love you?" he asks Lwaxana.
She nods.
He is going back.
"It's not enough, is it?" she asks.
"Almost," he replies. "It was almost enough."
He holds her while she sobs. He is not the person to lead the revolt.

Picard escorts Timicin to the transporter room. Timicin apologizes to Picard for the chaos that this situation has created.
"You're not going back just to smooth things over, are you?" asks Picard.
"No, it's more complicated than that, and more personal," Timicin replies.
They exchange farewell pleasantries, and Timicin says that he will encourage his people to seek out the help of the Federation when they are ready to try more testing. He then tells Picard that he has said his goodbyes to Lwaxana, and is ready to leave.
The door opens. It is Lwaxana, bag in hand, no Mr Homn.
"It's customary for your loved ones to be at this Resolution?"
"You don't have to do this," he tells her.
"Yes, I do," she replies. It is the old "don't contradict me" Lwaxana, if a bit sad.
She asks if she can disembark, then somberly tells Picard that she won't cause trouble on Kaelon II. Maybe she won't, but Dara won't be happy to see her.
Picard grants her permission to leave, and she gets up on the pad next to Timicin.
They beam down holding hands.

What a fucking great episode. It's such a classically Star Trek thing to present a current problem as one that exists in the future as well, and to present it in such a way that no solution is given: it is left up to the viewer to decide personally how this problem should be solved. It is expected that the viewer will mull over the arguments presented, will argue with other viewers, will come to their own conclusions.
And both sides make good points: is euthanasia the correct antithesis to "deathwatch facilities"? Is it preferable to ask someone in good health to commit suicide because the agreed-upon age has arrived? For people like Timicin, whose important work needs to be completed within a certain timeframe, should they still comply with that cut-off, or could they petition for more time? In this case, it was denied outright, but were the people of Kaelon II consulted first? No. I wonder if this might just be big enough that the people should be given a vote instead of leaving such things up to their leaders. is the governing body of Kaelon II even democratic like that? We have no way to tell. We also don't know the final outcome for this planet - if they were able to find a solution - because Memory Alpha doesn't say. (It shows up on stellar cartography star chart four years later, so we know it is still viable then, but the forecast for the sun dying was 30-40 years out, and we do not have a show that far in the future yet.)
The choice to make this a Lwaxana story was a good one. Majel Barrett has far better acting chops than I'm sure she gets credit for, but the role of Lwaxana had thus been largely one of comedic farce: she exists to irritate Deanna and Picard, and to amuse Riker, and generally shake up the militant precision of the Enterprise. She hasn't been given many meaty roles to play, so a script like this affords us a deeper look. She'll get several more episodes in the future that explore aging and mortality, where Lwaxana is a more well-rounded character, and not just a cardboard cut-out where she talks to herself via the computer.
While this is pretty classic Trek storytelling, it is not really TOS storytelling. TOS did an episode that involved rapid aging (The Deadly Years), but didn't involve the natural aging process. TAS also covered rapid aging as well in The Lorelei Signal, but again, it involved "how to reverse the process of aging" rather than dealing with end of life care and such things. In fact, the only time when TOS dealt with aging in an earnest, realistic way was in Wrath of Khan, when Kirk must come to terms with the fact that he is getting older and cannot solve problems in the same fist-fighting cowboy way that he always had (long-time readers will recall that this was one of the few times that I actually liked the character of Kirk). In fact, the only time that aging ever comes into anything is when they goof about the grouchy older doctor. No, TNG is the correct show for this topic, with an older, more settled cast, and a more nuanced feel to subject matter. Coincidentally, the age cut-off for the Kaelon Resolution was probably not chosen randomly. While we don't know how old Lwaxana would have been at this time, Majel Barrett was 61 at the time of this filming, while David Ogden Stiers was 49.

There was one thing that sent me down a rabbit-hole for this episode, and it concerned Lwaxana yelling at Picard that the Prime Directive was his thing, and not hers. Is Lwaxana Troi, an ambassador and diplomat of Betazed, bound by the Prime Directive? The answer is... yes and no. While Betazed is part of the Federation, the Prime Directive is specifically attached to Starfleet and the Merchant Marines. Starfleet is the Federation's military arm, so they are related, but not the same. Lwaxana Troi is employed by the Federation, not Starfleet, and as a private citizen, is not bound by the PD per se. Does this mean she can ignore it completely? Could she get away with it if she interfered with another culture on Picard's watch? No to both. While not bound by the rules and regulations of the PD, members of the Federation were encouraged to uphold the principles of the Prime Directive. Could they be punished for it if they went around it? Ehhh, maybe. Civilians being encouraged to go along with it seems to have come from the Vulcans, who, according to memory Alpha, were already practicing such a thing in Earth year 1957, despite the fact that the Federation would not be formed until Earth year 2161. It seems that the Federation took principles that it liked from already-established groups of people and incorporated them into its charter. (Along with the PD, the episode "The Drumhead" mentioned that the Federation had a built-in clause for being able to plead the fifth.)
So Picard was correct in telling Lwaxana that he could not help her convince Timicin's people to put the brakes on his Resolution, as he was in fact bound by the Prime Directive. He couldn't actually do anything until Timicin claimed asylum, in which case, he did what he could, which was to hold a bit of a conference between Timicin and B'tardat. Lwaxana felt free to throw up a middle finger at the PD, because she was probably not going to get more than a warning for convincing a single member of a race to go his own way. She would have most likely gotten into trouble for beaming down and leading a revolution herself, but talking one guy out of a custom? Small potatoes, and no guarantee that it would go farther than Timicin.

I have a weird, random question: were there no mentorships on Kaelon? Was Timicin working by himself, or did he have a team of scientists that worked with him? They make it clear that he was the foremost guy on this project (you know, this project where he is trying to save their planet from total destruction, and their people from annihilation), but it seems likely that he would have at least a team of helper scientists, or maybe someone he was mentoring to take his place? Dude knew he was checking out soon, seems like he would have appointed a successor in this case, or that he would have picked someone several years earlier to train up for when his Resolution came up. I know in terms of story, it was more dramatic for him to say that it would take someone else 10 years to do what he could do in five, and that time was running dreadfully short on all of them, but it's just not logical for there to be one guy who can do the work properly, and who they are going to ax very quickly. It really only drives home that cage-in-a-wig analogy that Lwaxana brings up - surely they can make an exception here when there isn't a back-up?


- Fun Facts:

- This is the first Star Trek appearance for Michelle Forbes (Dara). Her performance here impressed producers so much that she was selected to later play the recurring role of Ro Laren in season five.
- This was a different kind of Lwaxana Troi episode, one where her devil-may-care attitudes come into play less, and we see a more vulnerable side. It was also a different kind of episode in that it focused on two guest stars, rather than the regular cast of characters.
- This was writer Peter Allen Fields' first time writing for Star Trek, and he went over the scripts for Haven and Menage a Troi to get a feeling for Lwaxana. "I couldn't figure out how much rank and privilege she had and then I realized you give her as much as they'll let her have. She takes it."
- This episode has similar themes of aging and how society cares for the elderly, in much the same way as "Sarek."
- This is the only episode where Troi does the opening log.
- The brooch that Lwaxana wears in the final scene was first seen on Palor Toff from the episode "The Most Toys." This dude:

- An homage to David Ogden Stiers' time on M*A*S*H is found in one shot in Engineering. One of the tests on a display is labeled as "Composite Sensor Analysis - 4077," a reference to the MASH unit 4077 from the show.

- This episode was nominated for an Emmy for music composition.
- According to Memory Alpha, the custom of wigs large enough to hold caged animals was once practiced by humans as well (horrifying), but I couldn't find evidence of it online. However, it was a gag in a Bob Hope - Lucille Ball film called "Fancy Pants."

Yep, there's a live bird in Lucille Ball's hair

Red deaths: 0
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Bower is broken