“Half a Life”
Lwaxana returns, and she meets the Kaelon scientist Dr. Timicin who is testing stellar ignition theories that may enable him to save his world’s dying star. Timicin is nearly sixty years old, the age of the resolution, when Kaelons have to commit ritual suicide. When Picard refuses to intervene, she tries to persuade Timicin to stay alive, also to be able to save his planet. Timicin asks for asylum, and his people even send warships to retrieve him. Eventually, his daughter convinces him to return and fulfill his duty. Surprisingly, Lwaxana beams down to join him in his last moments. summary by Ex Astris Scientia
Touching! I really felt for Lwaxana here. I generally hate older, hysterical women and I usually don’t care much for Mrs Troy, but not here. I could undestand her feelings, I was in two minds about Timicin (a very Russian character, btw - wouldn’t you say?), I was trying hard to understand his daughter (and succeeded just a little). Yep, inter-cultural tolerance taken to the extreme here. Excellent episode! And Mrs Troy finally showing some class at the end. Nice. (one other episode I really liked her in was the one with Odo in DS9 but we’ll come to that later).