Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: May 31, 1995
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302812224
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #411,425 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

On their way to the Morgana Quadrant, which has yet to be visited by a manned Federation ship, the Enterprise runs across an amoeba-like hole of blackness in space. Sensors do not indicate any energy or form, probes shot into it disappear without a trace, and even Counselor Troi can get no sense from it. Worf calls for a yellow alert, relating an old Klingon legend of a giant black space that devours entire ships. When the void engulfs the Enterprise, they find themselves lost within it, unable to find their way out. Then things start to get weird. Other vessels show up. A Romulon battle ship and a Federation star cruiser appear, but they are strangely empty. Turns out the void is one of those giant, uncharted sentient beings that is trying to learn about humans and the concept of death, and is doing so by killing members of the Enterprise one at a time. Once again, the contradictions of humans are on trial, and it's up to Captain Jean-Luc Picard to talk the ship and all of humankind out of trouble. --Andy Spletzer

From the Back Cover

Traveling to the Morgana Quadrant, the Enterprise is trapped in a dimensionless void. Giant human eyes soon appear on the main screen, and the being identifies itself as Nagilum (Earl Boen). Nagilum tells Picard (Patrick Stewart) that he has decided to use the ship's crew to study the ways in which humans meet death. After killing one crew member, Nagilum tells the captain that his "experiment" will result in the extinction of at least one-third of the Enterprise's population.

Unwilling to stand by and watch a systematic slaughter, Picard makes one of the most difficult decisions of his career. With Riker's support, Picard programs the auto-destruct system of the ship. Unless Nagilum can be stopped within twenty minutes, the Enterprise and its crew will be destroyed.

Costarring Diana Muldaur as Dr. Kate Pulaski.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great episode, November 3, 2000

By 

Ted "Ted" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 28: Where Silence Has Lease [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In this episode the Enterprise encounters a void.. and becomes trapped in it. Soon a mysterious alien entity speaks to the crew and tells them the he is curious about death and wants to perform experiments on the crew!

This episode has a guest star Earl Boen as the voice of the alien probable best known for Dr. Silberman in the "Terminator" movies

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Negilum Strikes, June 14, 2001

By 

picardfan007 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 28: Where Silence Has Lease [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Nefarious Negilum

The alien name of Negilum is a play on words. Originally Richard Mulligan of Empty Nest and Soap was sought to play this role. Unavailable the producers had to utilize another actor for this one. It's an average entry. However there are some good scenes in the beginning with Worf on the holodeck in his training program. There's another good scene were Worf and Riker beam aboard another galaxy class ship to investigate this ridiculous Negllum nemesis. It turns out the alien wants to investigate the crews reaction to senseless death at the cost of the lives of the Enterprise crew. With the few dramatic sequences I'd have to say that it was worth the price.

The scene where Data asks Picard "What happens when one dies" was very poignant and showed there's an intelligent life form writing the script. For all it's faults it was an enjoyable episode that stands up to repeated viewing.

3.0 out of 5 stars "Yes, absolutely, I do indeed concur wholeheartedly!", August 24, 2006

By 

Steven Y. "Pop Culture Addict" (Marvel Universe 616) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 28: Where Silence Has Lease [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Where Silence Has Lease" is the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode with an important warning for all spacefarers. The warning is to avoid all holes in space unless you want your crew to wind up as laboratory rats.

The Enterprise-D finds itself consumed by a void in space. While in this void, the ship encounter facsimiles of a Romulan ship and the U.S.S. Yamato and is teased with the possibility of escape from their predicament. Soon an entity called Nagilium (voiced by Earl Boen) reveals itself and tells the crew they are serving as subjects of study in his experiment to learn more about humans. Unwilling to cooperate with their captor's plan, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) activate the Enterprise-D's auto-destruct system.

You know space travel is dangerous when even the potholes along the road possess the ability to wipe out your crew. Imagine yourself just chugging along toward your destination when of all a sudden the stars disappear and you are besieged by illusions of other ships and members of your own crew. Oh my. It is a situation like this where one is grateful that your ship has the ability to destroy itself before you meet your end anyway at the whim of a superior life form. All it takes is one viewing of this episode to learn how it feels to be on the lower end of the evolutionary ladder. Yep, exploring the great unknown is not a job for the meek.