They could have utilized this in his show. That android girl they introduced could have been a way to generate pathos, about the family he lost in the blink of an eye. But no its gotta be about data, because they only ever saw the fucking movies.
They would never think to make an episode like this anymore. Another example is Darmok. That episode is about 2 people learning to communicate and work together. There are so many quiet scenes and episodes in TNG that didn't need space battles or effects. This series gets more impressive and profound as the years go by
Probably one of the greatest callbacks. It'd hard to imagine the melancholy, the memories he associates to that music, and what it represents. Kinda hoped there'd be a spot in a museum on Earth somewhere, where a copy of the music, both written and recorded, as well as a duplicate of the flute, and a record of all that Picard could remember of that civilization is. So they were never forgotten.
@sweetblackblood1 "If only she knew" means 'If only Cdr. Nella Daren knew that Picard learned that flute folk melody on another planet....1,000 years ago.....in another lifetime that he lived while unconscious for only 25 minutes in the present (S5, Ep. 25, "The Inner Light")'. Picard does explain to Daren later in the Episode shown here (S6, Ep. 19, "Lessons") why it means so much to him.
Have to say, this is quite possibly one of, if not, my favorite TNG moment. Picard's most sacred life experience reawakened and given a new warmth, shared in a way he could never imagine.
Tom Gervais Well put. I felt so sorry for Picard, living 40 years with family and kids in 25 minutes. I have 10 or so episodes left of TNG but I am sure The Inner Light will be one of the most memorable episodes.
Picard's flute theme is 100% original, made specifically for the episode "inner light" (S05E25). it was composed by Jay Chattaway (a composer for film and television scores including frequent work for TNG, DS9, VOY and Enterprise) for the episode and was rearranged for a full orchestra for the 30th anniversary. The flute arrangement for Inner Light remains his most popular single piece.
@@WirzWorld What's always been funny to me is that this duet during the episode differed from the original piece and the orchestrated version in a few ways. I think I actually heard this duet version first, and I've always loved the harmony from the piano. This one always felt a bit brighter and happier to me than the original.
I don’t know if the writers of this episode meant to do this when bringing back this melody from “The Inner Light” episode, but hearing Picard play, seeing her reaction, and then watching a love spring from it made me extremely happy because - in a way - it accomplished the probe’s task of keeping the dying race from “Inner Light” alive through their influence. A very touching and meaningful scene for me.
Man, the way he looks at her, like he STILL doesn't quite know if he trusts her with this sacred part of him, and the absolutely respectful way she adapts it and plays with him, I can't imagine how much it meant to hear the song reborn.
The reason I love this scene so much is because it brings some continuity into the series. While the script writers of the week may have forgotten that Picard spent half his life in a memory on another planet, the audience has not.
Musical accompaniment, production & creation of music, & general hi-tech accurate recordings made TNG an acoustic treasure to both watch and listen to...watch the "Minuet " introduction episode with "Riker", the short piece of music won an award.
@@mckinleymac3452 what in the actual fuck is wrong with you? Attacking people for there feelings is a tactic of the weak and mentally ill. Either way get your shit together and grow up
@@TheVFXbyArt People always, and I mean always, overproduce it and add too many layers. I think that what most people want is just a simple rendition with the flute and piano, exactly like how it was played here.
Kudos to The Inner Light. An episode so perfect that a simple reference to it a year later in a different season could still bring fans to tears. Thank you, Morgan Gendel.
It's the Inner LIght which makes this scene truly powerful. Otherwise it would just be a nice little romance scene....maybe enough to make a Picard shipboard romance believable but nothing more....it's for true TNG fans that know the background to the tune that makes it a poignant and emotional moment and brings the believability of their relationship to the next level.
I"m with Richard on this one. The haunting pseudo-Celtic style of the piece makes it "work its magic" in the junction, but the TRUE power behind that musical magic was the legacy, the experiential nature, of the emotion behind it. It's why most of us that hear this tune or watch its episode sob on command. THE scene, beyond this actual performance, in "Lessons" that makes me cry follows this scene by a few minutes. It's when the Captain "apologizes" to Nella for appearing to blow her off in the turbolift. In his apology, he reveals his true gratitude for his experience on Kataan, and how wonderful it finally felt for him to SHARE that with someone on such a level. I had a somewhat similar experience in how I met my own wife, so I knew EXACTLY where Picard was coming from. Very well written and well executed scene on Stewart's part. It's a bit sad that the rest of the episode (outside the shared music etc) was so ordinary. The scene in his quarters makes me cry everytime.
This is the quote: kills me every time Captain Jean-Luc Picard: ...And when I awoke, all that I had left of that life... was the flute that I'd taught myself to play. Lt. Cmdr. Nella Daren: Why are you telling me this? Captain Jean-Luc Picard: 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.
To this very day, this melody brings to tears to my eyes, which is a rare thing to do. It's just something about the original storyline, from Picard living an entire life on a dying planet, and holding on to the one memory that brings him back to that life. When he plays that flute, he goes back to that life. It is a part of him now and it will never leave him. That is why it is a very moving and emotional melody to me. It almost brings back my Soul to where I was before this life. I can't grasp it or remember it, but I know it's there. I am very happy he shared it with us. :D
Paul Callaghan-Fowler Don't blame you a bit my friend. This is also a truly wonderful episode. I think TNG was at its best when it explored characters and emotional issues like this. No need for big explosions and the like when the story is so well written, directed and acted.
I know of few songs that can so beautifully convey grief, loss, hope, responsibility, happiness and love all at the same time. The gift and burden of what Picard went through in "The Inner Light" can not be over stated. The magnitude of it all is awe inspiring. This song was his connection to it in this life. "Remember us... Remember that we once lived."
This was the first scene in star trek I ever watched when I was 12 and I remember thinking it was so boring before picking up a lightsaber and going to play with my sister in the yard. I'm 17 now and every time I hear the song tears come to my eyes. I'm studying to become a professional musician partly because of this show. I live with the hope that I can one day move someone in the way this show has moved me.
Agreed. While I always root for a Picard-Crusher coupling, Nella Darren is my second choice for Picard's ideal soulmate. She can follow all ihs wits, matches his temper, and read his mind like a book. The type of woman you wish would've been your own soulmate as well.
I don't know if I'd go that far. The scene when Picard learns that the probe being sent up from Resik would find him in the future and when his deceased wife and friend come back to say goodbye again was way more moving. "It's me, it's me it finds."
His smile when she starts improvising around the melody, elaborating on this very personal composition, is perfect. As if this melody is holy ground to him, yet he doesn't mind, is in fact pleased to allow this extraordinary woman to walk around in it.
Whenever I hear this song I get chills... And tears. He played this song for each of his children. They may have been part of a computer program, but he was living a lifetime in it. He raised them. They were his. And he'll never see them again.
But it felt like Picard got to see "the road not taken", a gift no one actually gets. He felt the joys and sorrows of a rich family life. Helene, the children, and his grandson were a wondrous experience. He richly lived for having lived a lifetime with them.
Thank you. I was looking for that. Seems to me now that you mention it that when I was in choir in middle school, we sang something that was based on this tune but had its own lyrics.
I love how Picard learned to improvise around the original tune and made it even more amazing. The happiness in the melody, compared to the haunting one, conveys Picard's emotions perfectly. He is able to freely express himself through music to another that understands its interpretation. Something that until now had been a very personal secret.
@@DeFilmKaterThe initial riff is the same but the rest of it is not. Plus Picard actually changed it over the years to a slightly happier yet still haunting tone. Listen to the original from the Inner Light again to hear the difference.
But it took six years to get to that point.... First season Picard would NEVER have been this open either, so how about actually giving Picard a chance, instead of dumping on it, and killing any chance of it developing to this point?
@@threatmaker I doubt that. NuTrek has almost everything wrong, I see no light at the end of the tunnel. Very different with TNG. It all looked improvised and stiff, but all the ingredients were present from the start.
There is no feeling like hearing some else play your music, for the first time. Like hearing someone else read you poetry, there is a sense of validity, of honor and appreciation.
Notice the gentle and careful way the kiss at the end happened, it's perfect. It's like a careful embrace, because they're both vulnerable and a bit scared to hurt/be hurt.
It wasn't often that Captain Picard had a relationship with a woman, but when he did, such as this one, it was a beautiful and meaningful experience. I hope a lot of people enjoyed the meaning, depth, and beauty of the episode, especially this scene as I did.
Geordi: I hear music Data: Music? Geordi: It seems to have stopped. Data: Intriguing, All I hear is Captain Picard boning the head of astrophysics in one of the Jefferies tubes. Rhythmic, perhaps, but I would not call it music, Geordi. Geordi: You have no soul, Data. Plus...eww.
Yeah, I know that was made in humor - but please, "boning"? Ick. All they showed was kissing.. Not even "making out" You know, like Hermione's comment about Cormac having more tentacles than a Snargaluff plant, Ginny's about Ron and Lavender thrashing around like a pair of eels, things seen in high schools across America every day (at least the US, I don't know about other countries).
Picard is playing "The Skye Boat Song" A tune recalling the escape of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) from Uist to the Isle of Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
Thank you so much for that!!! I have spent years trying to figure out where this came from. I should have knows why this is so haunting since I married my Scotish Lass in 2006. Makes it so much more special!
Can you imagine a Discovery episode with this level of feeling? I love the callback to "The Inner Light", it shows that what he experienced during that 22 minutes would affect him forever.
Yup. The episodic nature of TNG (and most of 90s tv) often leaves you wondering why people barely react to major events (Geordi & Ro dying & reappearing at their funeral? nbd). But the writers did a good job of re-acknowledging things like Picard's assimilation by the borg and living a *WHOLE life* on Kataan. I swear, most enterprise crewmates should have crippling PTSD after all the stuff they go through in space!
I see them trying to make Mary Sue Burnham go back in time and help the old white man (Picard) defeat the Borg, because shes so good and hes so incompetent that without her it wouldn't succeed.
@@OneofInfinity. I was looking for confirmation that all the discovery hate is because of racist and idiots. Thanks for the proof. Can't wait to watch discovery
Data: "Computer: Identity source of music near main engineering" Computer: "Music is coming from the 4th intersect of Jefferies tube #25" Data: "Computer: On screen" Data & Geordi: !!!!
Here's hoping "Star Trek: Picard" has more moments like this where Picard is thrown into a world of emotion and memory from his other lifetime in the episode "The Inner Light"
The next generation is by far the climax of Star Trek....and story telling. The first time I watched the inner light episode I was so taken back. Could you imagine living a whole life then brought back to reality that it was real and all those moments are now haunting you for the rest of your life....then you get captured by the Borg. Resistance is futile
I will always adore Next Generation. and this (along with the episode that this is a callback to) are some of the major reasons why. absolutely beautiful. legitimately brings tears to my eyes, even after all this time.
Two children, grandchildren, a wife, an entire lifetime of experience, increasing his mental age by nearly half a century. And all he has is a melody to show that it was real.
The glory of having a show having many seasons under its belt and given a scheduled season being 20+ episodes, you just get (not so) quiet wonderful moments, spec scripts from fans, and just great memories
Only -six- *seven episodes from 1988 to 2001 were spec. Four were TNG episodes. TNG - The Bonding, Measure of A Man, The Offspring, Tin Man DS9 - Starship Down, Only a Paper Moon VOY - Prime Factors
I remember this from the series, I thought it was most beautiful then and I still do. They found a place, a blanket fort or a tree bowl, whatever you want to call it, where they could be totally honest and unguarded and then they were! It the kind of situation that comes up in First Love and makes it the most special of all.
Groove Mistress Well said...i too lost an aunt to Cancer last year....this is one of my favorite episodes. Hearing and watching this episode helped my mother deal with the loss of her sister. In fact this melody was played at her service,when we laid her to rest. I'm in tears when ever i hear it....it was my aunt's favorite episode too.
This story arc was always my most favorite I really wish that they would have continued With It Captain Picard deserve to have someone in his life like that that was so magical and Powerful it brought tears to my eyes with them playing the song together with the flute and the piano chills all over
Some people say the best parts of a show or any other kind of media are the action, the epic battles, and the story, but it is the scenes like this that bring me joy.
0:55 oh man, that Inner Light music, it gets me every time.... Thank you, Jay Chattaway,for sneaking in this masterpiece during the Rick Berman era of blah wallpaper music scores.
Say what you want about Berman, but he held the ship steady, didn't rock the boat and didn't crash it and he had the guts to admit mistakes (see interview with him on ENT ending episode) - or, well, at least acknowledge viewers feelings and respect them.
@@piotrd.4850 New drinking game: Take a shot every time someone credits Rick Berman with things Michael Pillar did. You'll be d e a d before you reach page two of a comment section.
Still to this day I notice little things in Star Trek that I haven't noticed the the rewatches before. Like the piano stopping before the flute, indicating that she initiated it, not Picard. Little character implications the show never spoke out loud.
This tune makes me bawl my eyes out. It's so bittersweet. An entire society lives on in it, but no one from it will hear it again. It makes me think about what I will leave behind.
such a simple and Beautiful tune. never get tired of hearing it. But no recording I've ever found that tryed to repeat this has never been as good as the rendition in this video.
Without getting all mushy, I think this is one of the most romantic scenes of television I've ever seen. As far as I'm concerned, after Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard married Nella Daren and they lived happily ever after playing music in the Jeffries Tube.
Not with this kind of music. This would send me into a meditative zone and probably help me to keep a level head while piloting the ship, an invaluable asset in what would be some decidedly high stress situations.
I remember when this first aired on tv, I watched that scene a few times (on my VCR) because of how beautiful that song sounded with the piano accompaniment and the echo of the Jeffries tube. It's hauntingly beautiful in that scene.
Does anyone else remember them asking Patrick Stewart about his flute that was sold, along with all of the other memorabilia from the show when it wrapped? He said that he would have liked to have it, but that it didn’t play, and was just a sold piece of wood. He mentioned if he could have had one thing from the show, it would have been the trench coat from when he played the holo-deck detective Dixon Hill
The version in this episode is far more upbeat and hopeful, whereas the one in 'The Inner Light' and the recorded version is a lot more melancholy and uses far more minor notes. I also much prefer this one too. Possibly my favourite scene in the entire Star Trek franchise.
