No-One Is Alone on the Enterprise: Stress and Star Trek
The date is July 6th 2021 at 9:45pm and as I write this, it’s day 1 million of the COVID pandemic. I’m used to the pandemic, but it’s still very tough, and it’s hard to not feel the toll it’s taking on everyone. Yet, I feel better about things than I have in a long time. Part of it is because things are opening up, but if I’m being honest, its because of Star Trek. More specifically, it’s because of Captain Picard.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in the mood for some Season 3 of TNG. So, I opened up Netflix and scrolled through the episodes. Finally, I decided to watch “The Bonding”. “The Bonding” (in case you don’t remember the name of every single episode ever made because you are a normal person) is the one where twelve-year-old Jeremy Aster loses his mother to a landmine. In the episode, Jeremy grieves for his mother and deals with all the things one might expect. Of course, because Star Trek likes to be Star Trek, an alien entity realizes the pain Jeremy is experiencing and takes the form of his mother.
While all of the sci-fi stuff is great, what really spoke to me was how everyone was trying to help him. Troi wanted to help Jeremy express his grief in a healthy way. Worf wanted to make sure Jeremy wasn’t left alone. Crusher wanted her son, Wesley, to speak with him about the experience of losing his father.
But what really stood out to me was when Picard told Jeremy that no-one was alone on the Enterprise. For some reason, those words really spoke to me. In that moment, I felt as if Captain Picard himself looked right at me and told me that I wasn’t alone and would never be alone. I knew I wouldn’t be alone because I have very supportive friends and family, and everyone is in the same boat. But in that moment, I believed it with all my heart. It was because of those words that, for the first time in a long time, I could truly take on the pandemic. All because Captain Picard told me, “On the Enterprise, no-one is alone.”
Cristian Fox is a hardcore Trekkie. By day, he is a community mediator who tries to help resolve conflicts (as inspired by Captain Picard himself). By night, he is either watching Trek or talking about it on his podcast/YouTube channel, Yelling About Star Trek.