The crew is joined by Tam, who apparently is some sort of Super Betazoid. Since HIPAA clearly doesn't exist in the future, Troi blabs to everyone that she knows him because she has treated him for mental illness. Tam is the type of Betazoid that develops telepathy very early in life and is extremely proficient at it. His ability to read the minds of people immediately sheds light on just how worthless Troi is. While we're being fired at, rather than being subjected to idiotic pablum like "I sense anger, and fear," we get actual useful information like that the captain of the enemy ship doesn't want to destroy us, only stall us. This highlights my frustrations with the character of Troi. She could be this awesome, but instead her and her powers float someone around lame and forgotten altogether. I guess I get why they do this, because her strongest power would then be destroying plots, but then why have her around at all? I think that's why they made her an "empath" not a "telepath." She can only sense what others are feeling. Ya well, so can I.Anyway, Tam is there to help rescue "Tin Man" from being exploded by a star going supernova. Tin Man is both a ship, and a person. It's complicated. Star Fleet guesses that it doesn't know that the star it's orbiting is about to kill it, so they have sent the Enterprise and Tam to tell it to skedaddle. The only problems are that it's technically in Romulan space, and Tam is batshit crazy. Nothing can go wrong here.
It becomes a race between the Enterprise and the Romulans to get there first. The Romulans have the better strategy: injure the Enterprise, beat them to the alien at all costs, and then send another ship to pick up the pieces later. Everyone assumes that the Romulans getting there first will mean death, torture, or dissection for Tin Man. But I don't see how this is a given. What leads us to believe that the Romulans are incapable of ethical scientific exploration? To me it just seems an odd assumption that beating them to the alien means saving the alien. Tam warns Tin Man, who has been in contact with him from a long way out, and Tin Man responds by destroying the Romulan ship and nearly destroying the Enterprise. This naturally pisses Picard right off, but he still allows Tam to go through with his plan to board Tin Man in order to further communicate. Tam says he must "be in contact" with the alien/ship/person. Like touch it. Weird.
What we learn is that Tin Man has a sad because it's the only one of its species left, and its crew is dead. It's aware that the star is going to explode, and that's just fine because it wants to end it all. We get the feeling that Tam is in the same boat. As the two bond, Tin Man throws both the Enterprise and the second Romulan ship clear just as the sun explodes. And I thought that was the end, they both die and are released from their pain. Which would have been a great ending. But that's not what happened. Instead, Data tells us that somehow the two complete each other and they will live happily ever after. Tam has never fit in, and has always been burdened with hearing the thoughts of everyone around him. But on/in/with Tin Man, he just hears one voice. I'm not sure what Tin Man gets out of the deal, honestly. I'd probably rather be alone than constantly surrounded by crazy.
"Tin Man" is just an Adequate episode of Trek. It has the usual makings of an ok episode. There's a new species of alien, a firefight with the Romulans, and being seconds away from total destruction. The lesson at the end kind of falls short, and tries to make the episode more about Data than anything else. But I saw the interactions between Tam and Data as more of a distraction from the real plot, rather than adding to it in any meaningful way. Data doesn't have a mind to read, yet he knows his purpose. I think we already knew this.Published January 29, 2020
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