How Experience Shapes What We Love: A Star Trek Episode Review

Did you know Captain Picard plays the flute?

One could hardly be blamed for not knowing this aspect of the iconic Enterprise captain since it’s hardly a defining feature of him. Nothing like Commander Riker and his trombone. In fact, the show seems as reluctant to mention this as Picard himself as it only comes up a couple times in the entire series.

But it is a defining feature of the character. Because it gives us a unique insight into who Picard is, his desires and most importantly, his regrets. That’s something that comes into acute focus when one watches the season six episode, “Lessons.”

At first, the episode seems rather mundane, and it does move at a rather glacial pace. Which does a lot to explain why when upon viewing it, I couldn’t recall a single solitary detail of it despite a childhood spent watching Star Trek.

In fact, I could easily imagine nine-year-old me flipping right past this in my channel surfing days. I mean, an entire episode devoted to Picard falling in love? Going on dates? Musical duets? What the hell is this thing?! Not in my Star Trek!

But late at night, when I should have been drifting asleep to the soft hum of the Enterprise’s engines, I found myself transfixed by this particular episode. And by the end, it moved me in a way a Next Generation episode hasn’t in quite some time. And it hasn’t left me since.

The episode starts off, ironically enough, with Picard getting ready for his own sleep, starting with a replicated cup of his favorite tea. But when he finds replicators have been turned off at the request of the science division’s stellar cartography, Picard goes on a bit of snooping to see what the hell is up.

Let me say from experience, you never keep an addict from their favorite source of caffeine.

“Now, perhaps you can tell me what was so important that it required depriving the Captain of his cup of Earl Grey?” Picard demands upon interrupting the team’s experiment.

“Earl Grey? No wonder you can’t sleep,” came the response from the one in charge, Lieutenant Commander Nella Daren.

Hey now captain, she’s cute. And adorably age appropriate. For a tv show in the 90s, anyway. Picard was always the classiest of the captains.

Daren wastes little time charming our dear captain, introducing him to a new flavor of tea, which he actually seems to hate. But that’s only the Daren herbal blend number 3. She has others he might enjoy.

“I look forward to sampling them,” the captain says. Picard, you cad.

Later, Picard cuts short his dinner with Doctor Crusher, one of his few true confidants throughout the series, so they could attend a concert put on by Data.

There, Picard again finds himself charmed by Daren, who plays piano alongside Data’s violin. And she fucking kills it. The woman is a marvel with those fingers. And you gotta imagine Picard is wondering what other miracles she can perform with them.

Right? Am I right?

Just me?

Fair.

Afterwards, Picard wastes no time praising Daren’s performance. With Data standing right there, no less. He has nothing to say to Data, who quickly departs. Poor Data. Good thing he doesn’t have the emotion chip yet. Crusher, reading the vibe, leaves as well.

There are subtleties in Picard that stand out. It’s no secret he is smitten with Daren. When she steals a glance at him during the performance he seems to almost swell with joy. And here, when talking after the concert, despite being flanked by his two closest friends on the ship, Picard’s entire focus is on Daren. His whole body is pointed in her direction.

I always call that penis targeting. I’ve…… never called it that. I’ve never even used those two words in a sentence before…… I don’t know what I’m writing.

It’s at this moment at the concert, Picard mentions something he’s never talked about before, his playing of the flute. And from that point, a bond is born.

Soon, the two are playing music together, and it’s here we see a side almost never seen from Picard, vulnerability. Because you see, he’s not very good at the flute. And he knows this.

In this scene, Picard is bashful, nervous. He’s completely out of his depth. He’s no longer the captain in charge with all of the answers and authority. And he’s put himself in this uncomfortable situation because he wants to get closer to Daren.

It’s a story as old as time. Or at least as old as people trying to fuck each other. She gives him a brief lesson and coaxes some pretty fine fluting out of him.

“You’re definitely better than you think,” she says.

And the smile that washes over his face tells everything we need to know about how he’s feeling. It’s an almost childlike joy he displays.

On one of their dates, tucked away in a Jefferies tube Daren says has the best acoustics, he plays a song for her that he describes as an old folk melody.

“I’ve never heard you play with such feeling,” she says.

They play together.

MUSIC. I know what you were thinking. Patience, young one.

Cause you better believe they’re gonna make some sweet music between the sheets soon enough.

Right?

Ok, I’ll stop.

Seriously though, these two need to fuck already.

But first, Picard needs to discuss a matter of protocol with Councilor Troi.

“I have to be concerned with more than my own happiness,” he says. Remember this because it cuts to the core of who Picard is and explains his decisions going forward in this episode and indeed, the entire history of the character.

They discuss the ramifications a relationship between himself and Daren could have.

“Are you asking for my permission, sir,” Troi says at the scene’s end with a smile.

Picard says yes, and she readily gives it. It’s a cute scene.

Picard, like a boy with a new game, rushes off to see Daren. It’s then he sits her down and discusses the origins of his flute playing.

In a rare moment for Star Trek at this time, Picard’s flute is actually a callback to a previous season episode. One in which Picard, well, he explains it best:

“The enterprise encountered a probe that had been sent from [a destroyed] planet before it was destroyed. And it scanned me; I lost consciousness, and in the space of twenty-five minutes, I lived a lifetime on that planet. I had a wife and children. And a grandchild. And it was absolutely real to me. And when I woke, all I had left of that life was the flute I taught myself to play.”

She asks why he would tell her this.

“Because I want you to understand what my music means to me and what it means for me to be able to share it with someone.”

Daren and Picard sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes….. ahem. I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I?

And for just a second, we need to take a quick jaunt into the past to the event of which he speaks. Or more importantly to one particular scene and one particular line. Because when he first gets knocked out by the probe and awakens on the alien planet, he still reclaims all his memories and demands they return him to the Enterprise.

But eventually, he relents. And he accepts that he is indeed the man they call Kamin. And that Eline is his wife. And this planet is his home.

At one point, his wife comments on his memories of the Enterprise. “It must have been extraordinary. But never in all the stories you've told me have you mentioned anyone who loved you as I do.”

And later, at a party in which he is watching his children dance and enjoy life, Picard, no, Kamin now, says, “I always believed I didn’t need children to complete my life. Now I can’t imagine my life without them.”

That’s touching, man. I’m not crying.

When Picard reveals the origins of the flute to Daren, he isn’t just opening up to her. He’s allowing a side of himself that he’d always kept dormant a chance to exist.

And he doesn’t do it with just her. In a small scene earlier in the episode, Picard approaches Riker and invites him to a fun jousting session.

No, not that kind of jousting! Although…… No, I’m not googling Picard and Riker slash fiction. Neither are you. Stop it! Don’t do it!!!

Did you do it? Neither did I……….

Fucking anyways. Riker is both reluctant and astonished at Picard’s request. Because while Picard is always supportive and friendly with his crew, they don’t hang, bro. Not until the series finale does Picard even join Riker’s famed poker game.

Except for Crusher, the only crew member he had a relationship with prior to the Enterprise, Picard is deliberately emotionally separate from his crew. He knows he has to be. As much as he loves and respects Riker, he knows that at any moment, he may have to make a command decision that will send him to his death.

And speaking of that scenario…….

The Enterprise has to save some colonists in danger! Shock! Utter surprise!!! That never happens in this show!

And guess who has the expertise necessary to travel to that planet and help stave off the deadly storm threatening to kill hundreds, no thousands, of innocents?

Well duh.

And as the storm threatens the location of Daren and her team, hundreds of colonists are still left to bring aboard the ship.

“Captain, I need more time!”

Dammit Scotty, this is not your show!

Picard, after a second of hesitation, orders the perimeter teams, Daren’s included, to hold their ground until the last of the colonists are brought to safety. The storm overruns them, leaving Daren as one of those missing when it’s all over with.

Now a weaker show would have left it at that. Picard is devastated by her loss and vows to never love or play the flute again. Life is just filled with random, chaotic things. No lessons to be learned here. Just tragedy. Cut to credits.

But this is Star Trek, baby! You don’t get clean endings and simple platitudes. Because Picard, in a state of grieving, which apparently for him is just sitting solemnly at the end of a couch, is informed more survivors have been found.

He rushes to the transport room where he watches Daren, clutching an injured officer in her arms, beam aboard the ship. She struggles past him. They don’t even share a word.

Later, she describes to him the scene on the planet, as she watched one of her team members be taken by the storm, swallowed whole, as she puts it. He apologizes, but she brushes it off.

“Don’t say that,” she intones. She describes how she never questioned his decision to keep them on that planet till all the colonists were safe. It was their job.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

Not your show either, Spock. Fuckin love you though.

“But in the end, I was more afraid you’d blame yourself if I’d died. Would you have?”

Of course!

Picard’s actual response was a little more nuanced. And in the end, he acknowledges he could never put her life in danger again. And he tells her he loves her for the first time.

She says he’ll have to put her in danger if she remains on the ship, and he jokingly says, hey, just resign your position and take a role here, as uhhhh, what would that be? Captain’s fuck buddy? Ya, she didn’t seem too thrilled with that.

She tells him he could resign and they could live on a starbase together. And Picard’s bemused smile says all you need to know about that scenario.

Still not willing to give up, Picard says they could plan shore leave together.

“People do that,” he says with a hint of desperation. “And in the future, who knows?”

“Of course,” Daren says. But they both see the writing on the wall. They have no future.

In the end, they share one last kiss, a hug, and Daren leaves Picard’s life forever.

And it truly is forever when it comes to Picard’s love life. Sure, he has a few romantic interests in both the show and later in the movies. But they never reach this level of potential commitment for him.

In the episode he gets the flute, “The Inner Light,” we see a Picard living a full, happy existence. He’s let go of his Enterprise days and learned to cherish the family he has.

It’s a life he’ll never get a chance to experience in the real world. When we see him in the latest Star Trek show, Picard, decades later, retired, he’s living a life of isolation at his winery with only a dog and a couple romulan workers as companionship. He’s never been anything more than a starship captain. And it’s no wonder he’s so eager to jet off in a new ship on another adventure.

“Lesson” is not the most exciting TNG episode. A phaser is never fired. Shields are never raised. Worf never gets to scowl and bark “patak.” And we never even get to see Picard and Riker clash penises. I mean swords. I mean penis swords. That’s a sword with a mushroom tip……… And it squirts…. nevermind.

It’s all built on a side of Picard we almost never see. And for many, it’s a side they may never understand. Because it’s the tragic side. Nine-year-old me would have never gotten it. Cause some things you just have to experience in order to see and feel.

And by the time I finally saw “Lesson,” I felt the message it imparted.

As much as Picard wants to love, as much as he wants someone and something to bring back the feeling of belonging he felt as Kamin, it’s just not in the cards for him. He’s made too many decisions that put his life on a path away from that. And this is the episode where he learns that and comes to accept it.

And he may, given the opportunity, always make those same life decisions if given a chance to make them again. He is a hero after all, and an idol and inspiration to many. But that doesn’t mean he won’t always live with the regret of what he lost along the way.

Perhaps a scenario existed in which Picard could be concerned with just his happiness, and he could find the love and commitment he almost had with Daren. Maybe a future existed where they did indeed stay in touch and eventually came back together when circumstance made it possible.

But that story was never told. Picard would instead continue to exist as Crusher puts it in this episode, “a deeply private man.” Isolated. Only solos left to play on the flute.

That’s a masturbation joke.