Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 28: Where Silence Has Lease [VHS]

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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

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.

"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.

It is a virtual certainty that creatures with incredibly long life spans would be unable to comprehend the concept of death. In this episode, the Enterprise encounters a void of total nothingness. Every attempt to obtain information from the void yields the absence of data. Suddenly, the Enterprise finds itself inside the void and all is black. They travel around, but nothing changes. In an attempt to gain their bearings, they discharge a marker buoy and travel away from it. Suddenly, they receive signals from another buoy in front of them, and they quickly realize that they have traveled in a circle.
Suddenly, holes appear in the void and they can see stars. However, all attempts to use those stars as a navigational fix to leave the void fail. As soon as they attempt to exit through the hole, it closes up and reappears elsewhere. Picard orders the Enterprise to halt and a face appears on their monitor. It is a being calling itself Nagilum and it is immensely old. It has been studying them and is fascinated by the concept of death. It kills one of the bridge crew and announces its' intention to kill one-half the crew of the Enterprise in order to study the many ways in which humans die.
Since the Enterprise is powerless to leave the void and cannot stop the experiment, Picard sets the auto-destruct mechanism in order to deprive Nagilum of his data. Shortly before the ship is scheduled to blow up, Data and Troi visit Picard and express their wish that they not die. Picard quickly realizes that they are images sent by Nagilum to test his resolve. Suddenly, the Enterprise is released from the void and the self-destruct order is cancelled. In a final chat with Picard, Nagilum notes that there are many similarities between humans and himself, most notably in the characteristic of curiosity. Picard objects, but of course he knows that Nagilum is right. If the subjects of study were not humans, Picard's objections would not have been so strong.
A being with the power and longevity of Nagilum would fit the human definition of god and could easily consider humans a legitimate subject for laboratory study. The distance between the levels of intelligence of Nagilum and humans is greater than that between humans and the mammals used in laboratory studies, so Nagilum's actions are reasonable. This point of the episode is what makes it interesting in the philosophical sense. How would humans react if we were the "guinea pigs" of the laboratory experiments of a species of creatures whose power would by definition make them gods? Would we choose to deprive them of their experimental subjects or accept the losses as simply the "will of God?"

As scientists traveling the galaxy in search of new civilizations to observe and hopefully interact with, it's been all too rare when those tables are turned on the crew of the Enterprise. Early on in this series the recurring character of Q was introduced who would return from time to time to attempt to confound Picard and crew. Here the Enterprise encounters another being not unlike Q who traps the starship in an experimental laboratory.

While visiting the Morgana Quadrant on an exploratory mission the Enterprise sensors pickup a void in space. Upon investigation the null space initially perplexes the crew as they survive an attack by a Romulan starship and witness an inexplicable appearance of their sister ship, the Yamato. When the Yamato doesn't answer the hails from Enterprise and scans show no life forms present Riker and Worf beam aboard it. They discover the ship completely empty and that it isn't composed of the metals normally used in a starship construction - and it also has the annoying habit of randomly altering the design. The away team returns and the Enterprise attempts to leave the void but finds they are mysteriously trapped. After Dr. Pulaski suggests that they are in a laboratory of sorts an entity appears onscreen, having only eyes and a mouth. He introduces himself as Nagillum, a scientist who wishes to continue his research on the crew so he can gain an understanding of their emotions and limited life spans. To prevent the unacceptable loss of a third or more of his crew Picard initiates the auto-destruct sequence and that presents an interesting riddle for Nagillum.

The main problem with this episode is that there simply isn't enough time to define the plot elements; the ending seems particularly rushed also. The reasons for Nagillum's establishing a vast laboratory in space and the apparent super-powers at his command aren't satisfactorily handled. Data makes many statements such as "Sensors detect nothing," or "I still cannot detect anything", etc., but this isn't adequate enough as a potential explanation. When they first begin experiencing the conundrums no one brings up the possibility of Q's presence; when Nagillum finally makes his presence known explaining his purpose, shouldn't Q naturally come to mind? Maybe not, but I thought so. Some other events happen that don't seem to make sense either: When they first encounter the Yamato why don't they attempt to download the ship's logs to read them before boarding? Nagillum can create replicates of Troi and Data - why doesn't he do the same with Picard and have him abort the auto-destruct sequence with an unsuspecting Riker? When Picard and Riker initially set the auto-destruct sequence they go to the Engineering section - why? If they wanted privacy they could've gone into the captain's Ready Room or his quarters. It seems an odd choice to go to Engineering. And Haskell's presence at the helm is all too convenient, serving only to remove Wesley from harm's way; also Haskell's dialogue is a bit strained as well, he comes off as being too unstable to be considered for a bridge officer's position.

On the upside there is a great opening sequence with Riker and Worf defending themselves against some rather formidable looking alien ogres. The scene develops nicely convincing you they are on an away mission that has gone horribly awry before revealing they are on the holodeck - an obvious parallel to the encounter with Nagillum. In addition Worf receives some further interesting character definition here. Dr. Pulaski is eased along here also, having some interaction with Data and contributing the needed insight and sensibility of a skilled scientist. Riker's frustration with his experience aboard the Yamato and his anxiety about terminating the auto-destruct sequence adds some levity as well.