I’m happy to be back at The Next Generation’s season 3 for now, and I re-enter at “The Bonding.” In this episode, a young boy, Jeremy Aster, experiences the loss of his mother, who is killed at the episode’s beginning by a land mine-like explosive while she is researching some ruins with a team led by Worf. Jeremy’s father died long ago, so he is now an orphan. While the Enterprise crew is grieving for the boy’s loss, some energy-beings on the planet on which his mother died send a materialization of her up to the ship. Their goal is to bring the boy down to the planet, take care of him, and recreate the life he once knew, as a sort of amendment for the grief caused by their planet’s past warring. Picard and the crew don’t feel that this is in the boy’s best interests, naturally, so they attempt to convince both Jeremy and the energy-being that it is best for him to accept his loss than to live forever in a lie, however convincing and similar to reality that lie might be.

This was a good episode, but I feel it could have been better if it had explored some of the other philosophical avenues it opens. The plot focuses on Jeremy’s willingness to accept the lie so that he can have his mother back, and it ends with Picard eventually convincing him that his mother has truly died and that it is best to move on rather than cling to the past. Ultimately, “The Bonding” is about understanding that death is inevitable and must be accepted in order for us to be happy. To refuse to acknowledge death is to prevent oneself from finding personal fulfillment. This is not a new idea, but it is depicted here poignantly.

Various other, more profound ideas come up in “The Bonding,” but they are not explored nearly as much as is Jeremy's coming to accept his loss. The most interesting to me is the concept of a perfect recreation of reality. The world the Koinonian beings create for Jeremy is exactly the home he knew and longs for. His “mother” has the personality and memories of his real mother, the home created for him is the same as the home he had, and even his construct-cat knows who he is. The question that inherently arises is whether a perfect simulation of reality such as this could be said to actually be reality. Even though it was created by mortal beings of some sort, why should this world be considered any less real than what we call the “real” world, considering it is a perfect copy? This idea is not addressed. The characters (except for Jeremy, who is the one being fooled by the constructs) work totally within the understanding that the world being created for Jeremy is false. They never ponder the concept of reality itself. Of course, this is not what the episode was meant to do, but even as good as the episode is, I think the reality question is far more engaging. Again, that's a personal thing.

Worf involves Jeremy in his R'uustai Ceremony

On a note closer to what the episode is shooting for, Worf’s conflicted anger and guilt at Jeremy’s mother’s death comes across as more human than Jeremy’s own sadness, which is mostly just plain sadness. Worf simultaneously blames himself and the Koinonians for the woman’s death. It is one of this episode’s several examples of how, during times of catastrophe, we tend to blame those leading the victims when we can't blame those who actually committed the offending acts (in this case, because the warring races are extinct). Jeremy feels similarly, and we even hear from Wesley, who had this kind of feeling when his father died. In the case of Worf, he is the leader blaming himself, essentially because he cannot punish those who are truly responsible. The weight with which this guilt hits Worf tells us something about his character, too. It is a side of him I don’t believe we have seen until now.

There is one more interesting death-related idea in this episode. Data observes that when Tasha Yar died, there was more of a sense of loss (I can’t tell whether he’s referring to a sense of loss within himself or among the whole crew, but it doesn't really matter as it relates to the point he brings up). He then asks Riker whether, theoretically, they should feel an equal sadness at the death of anyone: “Does the question of familiarity have some bearing on death?” Philosophically, there is an argument to be made here. Even though we all have our friends and family, perhaps we should be equally sympathetic toward any human (or otherwise sentient being) and equally regretful at losing anyone. Riker has perhaps the perfect response. He states that Data may be right and that if we did feel the same about everyone’s death, the world would be a less violent place. Ultimately, as Riker explains, it boils down to human nature. This is just how we are. We can’t help but feel more pain at the loss of those who were close to us than at the loss of those we didn't know or didn't know well. It may be a flaw of our race, but if so, it is an unavoidable flaw.

To me, these smaller aspects of the episode are more relevant than Jeremy dealing with the loss of his mother and then being placed in a copy of his former life. In fact, I found my mind wandering off and thinking about these other ideas while the characters talked about Jeremy and his mother. Again, the focus on Jeremy is fine; it’s just not as interesting to me as these other ideas that arise.

Finally, I noticed more artful camerawork in this episode that what I have seen (or at least noticed) so far. During the conversation between Riker and Data, the camera holds close and intently on the speaker’s face, as if it finds this conversation so fascinating and important that it cannot back away. Later, when the energy-being has come aboard the ship, the camera points directly at Worf on the bridge. He says something to a transporter room, at which point Picard stands up from his chair below the camera’s field of view, popping his head into the frame and delivering a security command. The way this moment is coordinated demonstrates the coordination among Picard and the Enterprise crew. They are perfectly in step with each other, even to the point of catching us off-guard with their presence and diligence.

"The Bonding" has its merits, and it isn't bad by any means, but I see a lot of untapped potential. Maybe this is just because it goes in a different direction from where I would have liked it to go. Either way, I consider this a good, not great, one. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to accomplish. I can't fault it much for that.

Next week: The Original Series, episode 1.15: "Shore Leave"