Transfigurations (TNG episode)

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Star Trek: TNG episode
"Transfigurations"
John Doe and Beverly Crusher in Transfigurations.
Episode no.	73
Prod. code	173
Airdate	June 17, 1990
Writer(s)	René Echevarria
Director	Tom Benko
Guest star(s)	Mark LaMura Charles Dennis Julie Warner Colm Meaney
Year	2366
Stardate	43957.2
Episode chronology
Previous	"Ménage à Troi"
Next	"The Best of Both Worlds"

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

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Enterprise discovers a crashed escape pod in an unexplored star system. Investigating, they find there is one critically injured passenger in the pod, and the crew brings him aboard the ship. Dr. Crusher determines the survivor will live, due to the stranger's own amazing recuperative powers. Crusher also notes that the survivor's cells are mutating in some way.

A couple of days later, the stranger finally awakens, but has no memory of his life or identity. The crew decides to call him "John Doe".

Some time passes and John has recovers physically, but still has amnesia. In addition, from time to time he suffers from severe pain which is somehow tied to his ongoing mutation. He also begins emitting strange, bright energy bursts. John soon learns that he is able to use this energy to heal injuries.

In the meantime, Geordi LaForge has determined the pod the Enterprise discovered was a kind of storage device. Geordi is also able to interpret a star chart and find the location of John's home planet. However, John's memory has begun to return, and he senses that he must not go back to his home planet yet.

A day or so later, a vessel intercepts the Enterprise, and John declares he has to leave. He tries to steal a shuttle, and accidentally injures Lieutenant Worf. Then, John uses his healing powers to heal Worf's injuries. Prevented from escaping, John explains that he wanted to leave as he is becoming a danger to the crew.

Captain Sunad, of the intercepting ship, communicates with the Enterprise and announces he is from the planet Zalkon, and wants John returned to him. John, he explains, is a criminal who has been given a death sentence.

Captain Picard considers the situation, but refuses to release John to the Zalokians without more information as to the charges. He contacts the other ship and mentions John's strange powers, which alarms Captain Sunad. Sunad immediately triggers a device which causes the entire Enterprise crew to become unable to breathe. John resists the device and heals everyone aboard the Enterprise with one bright flash of his energy.

His memory now restored, John transports Sunad to the Enterprise using his powers. John explains that his race has reached a new stage in evolution, in which they are evolving into beings of energy. He soon becomes the first to transform into a being of energy and is now impervious to harm.

John offers to help Sunad make this transformation as well, but Sunad refuses. John sends Sunad back to his own ship after warning Sunad that he could no longer be stopped, the Zalkonian ship then leaves the area. John bids the crew good-bye, transforms into energy and departs the ship. While it's not known where John went, the implication is that John left for his homeworld so that other Zalkonians would have the chance to join him.

[edit] Notes

Transfigurations was one of a long line of Star Trek episodes dealing with the effects of accelerated humanoid evolution. In several science fiction realms, including Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, and Babylon 5, the highest evolutionary form is suggested to be an intelligence no longer bound by physical form, but instead constituted as pure energy. In several of these contexts, the highly-evolved beings are gifted with extraordinary healing powers. This concept was first explored in Charlie X, but was given more rhetorical force in Errand of Mercy.

This episode was the first to mention Miles O'Brien's love of kayaking. The sport would be mentioned many times in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

It has been hypothesized that Data was also affected by Sunad's device, but due to his android nature this is unlikely. Examination of the opening of the scene on the bridge after John heals the entire crew with the flash of light shows Data rising from a kneeling position, not getting off of the floor.