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Episode
123
Where Silence Has Lease
Charting a previously unexplored section of the galaxy, the Enterprise is trapped in an inky blackness. An even inkier blackness than the void of space through which she normally cruises. It is governed by a being who is very interested in humans. Mostly how they die. Man looks in the abyss and finds Where Silence Has Lease in the Mission Log.
Season Two cast photo
Early season 2 article
Cast photo used in above article
Wow. Never saw that one before. Nice find!
Call me crazy, but I distinctly remember reading that the skull monster was made with the actual mask used in the 1987 Masters of the Universe movie.
That’s interesting! Any idea where you heard/read this? Would love to confirm it if possible.
FOUND IT! Sorry I took so long. Turns out I read it in the Star Trek Encyclopedia (published in 1994).
Oh that is funny.
Nagilum/ Earl Boen – (Dr Silberman from Terminator)
Nagilum: “You seem to find no tranquillity in anything. You struggle against the inevitable. You thrive on conflict. You are selfish, yet you value loyalty. You are rash, quick to judge, slow to change. It’s amazing you’ve survived. Be that as it may, as species, we have no common ground. You are too aggressive. Too hostile. Too militant.”
Picard: “Says the big space face who killed our beloved Haskill for no good reason.”
No, but seriously, how did Nagilum come up with all that guff? That’s a lot of condescending attitude considering all he did was throw up some space/time tricks and a fake ship.
It’s interesting that the writer of Wrath of Khan also wrote this episode, because it occurs to me that the Nagilum scenario (allow a space creature to wipe out a third to half of her crew, or blow yourselves up) might make for a good Kobyashi Maru alternative.
My favorite moment was when the fake-Data asked Picard, “What is death?” I think the real Data might ask that, and I wish he had. Picard’s response was interesting: he mentioned either the cliche’ view of a Heavenly hereafter — or that everything ends, and there is completely Nothing. And concluding that he thinks it is something beyond, or greater than that.
I never like it when we open with a strange scene, then it turns out to be a Holodeck illusion. It’s like when it all turns out to only be a dream. There is a place for that, but if it’s just done as a trick, I feel it’s a bad dramatic cheat, misleading the audience.
Also, while the prologue was exciting, it seemed like a waste of their limited budget, to create that jungle setting, and two creatures, just for this one moment. And after all this effort, as John said, they didn’t really follow through on this telling us something about Worf.
I thought Nagilum’s final verdict on humanity came out of left field; it didn’t really follow from how our crew responded, trying to make sense of — and survive — his lame tests. The same story in TOS, would have had a better conclusion, as with the Organians. And he’d have brought poor Haskell back to life.
Early Special Effects test footage for this episode seen here:
Wonderful stuff!
I agree about Worf. It totally felt like there was a specific through-line that was leading to something but then never happened.
I also kind of missed Spock in this episode. The bending of space was really cool- freaky, but cool. Instead of the fear that both Worf and Riker acted with, I wish someone was there to remark “fascinating.”