Suddenly Human (S04E04)
Airdate: October 15th 1990
Written by: John Whelpley & Jeri Taylor
Directed by: Gabrielle Beaumont
Running Time: 45 minutes
Jeri Taylor is one of the most significant figures from Star Trek’s so-called Golden Age, her later work as executive producer and co-creator of Star Trek: Voyager cementing her reputation for navigating the franchise’s complex character dynamics and moral dilemmas. It is somewhat ironic, then, that what is often cited as her writing debut for the franchise—the fourth-season Next Generation episode Suddenly Human—stands as arguably one of the most disappointing and forgettable works from a period widely considered the series’ creative zenith. Co-written with John Whelpley, the episode attempts to grapple with themes of cultural identity and nurture versus nature but ultimately collapses under the weight of its own contrivances, logical omissions, and a startlingly awkward execution.
The plot commences with the USS Enterprise-D responding to a distress call from a Talarian vessel. Five teenage crew members, the survivors of what was ostensibly a training ship, are brought aboard. Four are Talarian, but the fifth is a human boy who goes by the name Jono (Chad Allen). The presence of a human among a species known for past hostilities with the Federation immediately puzzles the crew, a confusion compounded by Jono’s defiant, snarling demeanour; he identifies utterly as Talarian. It is subsequently revealed that his birth name was Jeremiah Rossa, that his parents were killed a decade earlier in a Talarian attack on a Federation outpost, and that his grandmother, Admiral Connaught Rossa (Barbara Townsend), is a decorated Starfleet officer.
Medical scans conducted by Dr. Crusher reveal a history of broken bones and other injuries, prompting an immediate, perhaps reflexively human, assumption of abuse. The script nods vaguely to the possibility that such physical trials might be a normative part of Talarian coming-of-age rituals, but this ambiguity is never satisfyingly explored. Counsellor Troi, diagnosing Jono’s need for a strong authority figure, improbably nominates Captain Picard for the role. Picard’s renowned discomfort with children is here played to a parodic extreme, rendering his reluctant acquiescence less a character beat and more a clumsy plot mechanism. Their forced bonding sessions, including a holodeck excursion to play a futuristic, squash-like game, feel painfully stilted, culminating in a moment of sheer melodrama when Jono, confused and angry, stabs Picard in his quarters.
The central conflict escalates with the arrival of a Talarian ship commanded by Endar (Sherman Howard), who claims Jono as his adoptive son and threatens war if the boy is not returned. The episode’s resolution sees Picard, in a move that feels less like enlightened diplomacy and more like narrative surrender, placing the decision entirely in Jono’s hands. The boy chooses to return to Endar and the only culture he has ever known. This conclusion proved deeply contentious. Some viewers criticised the episode for implicitly condoning what they interpreted as a narrative of child abuse, allowing a traumatised boy to be returned to a potentially violent environment. Conversely, the alternative—the Enterprise crew refusing to countenance Jono’s own stated identity and desires—would have presented a strangely anthropocentric and illiberal stance, one fundamentally at odds with the series’ professed ethos of tolerance and cultural relativism. The episode manages to stumble into both criticisms simultaneously, pleasing no one.
The fundamental flaws, however, lie in staggering omissions. Suddenly Human was the third consecutive episode to focus on family dynamics, and it is easily the weakest. The core concept of a person raised within an alien culture had been the very bedrock of Worf’s character for four seasons. Astonishingly, Worf—who appears in this episode—is never consulted, nor is his profoundly relevant experience even mentioned in passing. This is a baffling failure of internal logic. Equally egregious is the introduction of Admiral Rossa, a character with immense dramatic potential given her personal loss and rank, only for her to be rendered utterly inconsequential to the plot’s resolution.
Chad Allen, a capable teenage actor who would later find acclaim, struggles valiantly against a script that requires him to veer between wooden defiance and peculiar, almost feral outbursts, complete with a soundtrack of generic ‘80s-style alien metal. His performance feels as forced as the surrounding narrative. There are fleeting moments of levity, such as the slapstick incident in Ten Forward where Jono accidentally ruins Wesley Crusher’s uniform with a banana split, but these do little to alleviate the episode’s pervasive dreariness and narrative inertia.
Ultimately, Suddenly Human fails not merely because it is dull, but because it is intellectually lazy. It introduces complex questions of cultural assimilation, trauma, and identity only to resolve them with simplistic, emotionally unsatisfying choices. It ignores its own series’ rich history to tell a story that feels both derivative and hollow. For an episode appearing in the heart of what many consider to be The Next Generation’s finest season, it remains a conspicuous and disappointing misfire, a curious footnote in Jeri Taylor’s otherwise commendable Star Trek legacy.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo
LeoDex: https://leodex.io/?ref=drax
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
BCH donations: qpvxw0jax79lhmvlgcldkzpqanf03r9cjv8y6gtmk9