PLOT
A betazed, Tam, who is a specialist in first contact is brought onboard to deal with a life form like none the Federation has seen before. Also, unfortunately, the Romulans are eyeing it, and hell no Romulans aren’t getting that shiz. Also also unfortunately, the life form is orbiting a star that’s about to go Nova, so it’s literally going to die. 

Eventually we learn that the life form was actually a ship, well, an organic ship, that was in a symbiotic relationship with its crew. Then, one fateful event killed all those crew members, and the sentient ship, labelled the “Tin Man” by the Federation, became listless and infinitely depressed. So. Much. Sadness.

Meanwhile, Tam, is a telepathic genius because he literally grew up with the ability to read other people’s minds, a power that all Betazeds have, but that most develop in their adolescence. So Tam has pretty much been skirting severe mental illness for his entire life. He finds a friend in the Tin Man, and the emptiness that surrounds it. 

QUOTE
TAM: “It calls itself Gomtuu. It’s old, captain. It’s roamed the universe for many thousands of years.”
PICARD: “Where did it come from? How many—”
TAM: Far away. Maybe beyond the galaxy. Once there were millions of them.
PICARD: Once?
TAM: It hasn’t seen another of its kind for millennia. It’s alone. It may be the last of its species.
PICARD: Perhaps we can help it in some way. Can you ask it to return with us to Federation space? At least persuade it to leave the vicinity before the star explodes?
TAM: Captain Gomtuu knows the star will go nova soon. That’s why it’s here. It wants to die. There was an explosion in space. Radiation penetrating the outer layers. The crew… The crew died. Such loss. Empty pain. Hollowness. Tin man hurts and wants to die.”

“It is humanity he is fleeing.” - Data, talking about Tam

OBSERVATIONS
It is episodes like this that remind me that human depression, in relation to depression possible in space, is quite pathetic. It’s like that movie, “The Fountain.*”

*walks away, cries

QUOTE
KASINSKI: “Do you realize how many great advancements of humankind have been tied to speed?” you mean meth? I’m guessing not a lot. 

the TRAVELLER: “Thought is the basis of all reality….. Ah yes this could seem like magic to you.”

PLOT
Some Starfleet Yahoo (named Kasinski) wants to test out his advancements in warp speed on the Enterprise. Bad idea. They end up two galaxies away from ours. Turns out the “scientist” was actually making shiz up. His “assistant” is actually a being (who calls himself a traveller) from another galaxy who possesses the knowledge and ability to do some crazy physics stuff. 

Anyway, the Enterprise ends up in a weird galaxy where thoughts can be turned into intermittent matter. Oh yea, and then Picard yells at everyone including an ensign who’s daydreaming she’s dancing in a ballet, and then at Riker, for interrupting his daydreamt conversation with his dead mother. What a hypocritical french jerk.  

OBSERVATIONS yo star trek I love it when you attach horns on an earth animal and suddenly it’s a targ. that is mad fresh.

1) A cloud is consuming planets.

2) The cloud threatens to destroy a planet called “Mantilles.”

Wedge? Wedge Mantilles? It strikes me as a RIDICULOUS name.

3) I believe Captain Kirk only invokes the prime directive when it serves his own, selfish purposes.

4) While Captain Kirk is talking to a planet’s governor, he tells the governor that Katie will be alright. When McCoy asks “Who’s Katie?” Kirk says: “He’s daughter. She’s eleven.” WTF? How do you KNOW that? I barely even remember my middle name. And yet Kirk is just galavanting around with all the knowledge of his acquaintances’ children floating around in his head. WTF?

5) This episode is actually a fascinating examination of what people think antimatter is. And, two quick questions:

first, does antimatter explode if it touches ANY form of matter?

second, if that’s the case, air is matter, so wouldn’t antimatter explode if it was in something other then a vacuum? 

6)  At the end of the episode the Enterprise has to remove itself from an energy being which is pretty much organized like the human body. Spock informs the Captain that they can exit from a grit (?) at the top of the brain, saying that this is a place where sensory information is received. He must be talking about the cribiform plate! Thru which olfactory nerves pass. MEDICAL ANATOMY FTW.