Lessons (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
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"Lessons" is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the nineteenth episode of its sixth season.
Synopsis
Picard, acted by Patrick Stewart, becomes enamored with Lt. Commander Nella Daren (actress Wendy Hughes), a Starfleet officer in Stellar Sciences, who shares his love of music. He is forced to send her on a dangerous mission because of her special expertise, and suffers incredible loss and pain when he hears, mistakenly, that she has died during the mission. Upon her safe return, Picard realizes that he is incapable of carrying out a relationship with someone under his command. He fulfills his duty to Cmdr. Daren and approves her request for a transfer. She leaves, but urges Picard not to give up playing the flute.
"Lessons" brings out of storage Picard's beloved Ressikan flute, which he learned to play during the critically acclaimed episode "The Inner Light". For this and additional episodes, Stewart had to actually learn to play the instrument.[1]
A highlight of the episode is the duet with Picard on the flute, and Daren playing her keyboard (the actual performance you hear is one later compiled based on the theme).
Notes on the music
- During many of the practice sessions, Lt. Cmdr. Daren's keyboard is roughly a half-step sharp.[citation needed]
- Early in the episode, Picard comments on Lt. Cmdr. Daren's interpretation of the "second arpeggio" in Chopin's Piano Trio (op. 8). He has noticed that she replaced a minor triad with a fully diminished triad.[citation needed]
- The score to Star Trek: The Next Generation rarely makes direct allusions to archetypes of art music. However, during the scene where Picard silently reflects on the assumed death of Lt. Cmdr. Daren, the score seems to have been modeled closely on the contrapuntal sequences of high Baroque slow movements (such as operatic laments and dance-suite passacaglias), the tradition responsible for the appropriately named minor-scale "lament bassline".[citation needed]
- Picard's Ressikan flute prop does not actually play (see the article on "The Inner Light" for details). Nevertheless, Patrick Stewart was given a hand double when Picard improvises on the tune of Frère Jacques.
References
- ^ http://www.webcitation.org/5lC1jII2v{{Dead link|date=January