Tin Man (TNG episode)

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Star Trek: TNG episode
"Tin Man"
"Tin Man".
Episode no.	68
Prod. code	168
Airdate	May 6, 1990
Writer(s)	Dennis Putman Bailey David Bischoff
Director	Robert Sheerer
Guest star(s)	Michael Cavanagh Peter Vogt Colm Meaney Harry Groener
Year	2366
Stardate	43779.3
Episode chronology
Previous	"Captain's Holiday"
Next	"Hollow Pursuits"

"Tin Man" is the title of an episode from the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The story originated as a fan-submitted script by Dennis Russell Bailey (under the name Dennis Putman Bailey) David Bischoff and Lisa Putman White, based on a 1970s short story "Tin Woodman" and later novel (The Tin Woodman ISBN 0-385-12785-5) cowritten by Bailey and David Bischoff. The short story had been nominated for a Nebula award in 1977 [1].

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The USS Hood intercepts the Enterprise, bringing new orders and a passenger. Picard is ordered to bring Federation emissary Tam Elbrun to a distant star system. Tam is a Betazoid, who knows Deanna Troi, and specializes in first contact situations with new alien life.

Tam is extremely sensitive to the thoughts of others and has difficulty filtering them out. He establishes a friendship with Data due to the fact that he cannot read the android's mind, which provides Tam with a much-needed relief.

Tam's mission is to establish communication with Tin Man, a strange alien lifeform that appears to be some kind of an organic spaceship. Tin Man is currently orbiting a star that is about to go nova, and the Enterprise must reach the alien before the star explodes, and before the Romulans who claim the system as their own, can get there.

Arriving at the star system, the Enterprise encounters a Romulan warbird. The vessel immediately fires on Enterprise and then moves to destroy Tin Man. Tam sends a telepathic warning to Tin Man, and the strange organic ship produces an energy wave that destroys the Warbird and damages the Enterprise.

With the star's nearing the point of explosion and more Romulans on the way, Picard requests Tam to try and convince Tin Man into moving into Federation space. Tam tells Picard what he has learned about the entity to this point. Tin Man, who calls itself Gomtuu, is a very ancient lifeform, and has come to the star system to die in the supernova. Years before, the sentient ship actually had a crew, and all of them were lost in a radiation accident; Gomtuu, terribly grief-stricken over the loss, no longer wishes to live.

Tam requests that he be beamed aboard Gomtuu so he can better establish contact, but Picard is not certain of this course of action. But, when a second Romulan vessel arrives, Picard decides to send Tam accompanied by Data on an away mission to Gomtuu.

Once aboard, Tam is initially overwhelmed by the sensory stimulation of being in contact with the ancient life form. But this soon passes and Tam develops a strong sense of identification with the alien. Tam tells Data that he must stay with Gomtuu, as "this is where I belong."

Suddenly, the organic vessel breaks out of its orbit and sends the Enterprise and the Romulan warbird spinning through space just before the star explodes. Data is returned to the bridge, where he explains that Tam has decided to remain with Gomtuu.

Data is later with Deanna Troi, and says that, when asked by Tam to explain the situation to the crew, Data believes he meant Troi. Data shows an understanding of the emotional attributes of loneliness and the respective joy that was brought to both Gomtuu and Tam.