If you've never watched the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The inner light", or if you have watched it and NOT watched it several times, then you owe it to yourself to enjoy this masterpiece.
To put it simply, this is one of the best, most original, well written pieces of science fiction ever produced.
A short synopsis: Captain Picard is entranced by a beam from a probe created and launched by a long extinct alien culture. During his short encounter, his medical condition is closely monitored by the crew of the Enterprise, meanwhile Picard lives an entire lifetime on the alien world, in his mind.
During Picard's encounter, he realizes that he's in an unfamiliar reality, accepts his situation and goes on to live a full and normal life. He takes a wife and has children and grandchildren, helps his community and makes and loses friends, including his best friend. As Picard ages in the alternate reality, his new home planet is threatened by global drought and a warming star and is doomed for destruction. Towards the end of his apparent lifespan, Picard helps to launch a rocket from his alien home world containing scientific equipment meant to study the drought problem.
To tie things together in the episode, the rocket that Picard helps to launch, actually contains the probe that eventually entrances Picard. The probe was actually meant to find someone to tell the tale of the alien culture to, long after the culture was extinguished, to preserve their history. That someone turned out the Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
When Picard wakes from his entrancement, the life that he lived was still vividly real to him, and he later finds an artifact (a flute-type instrument) from his encounter.
This is one of the top 3 or 5 Star Trek episodes ever created, and one of the best pieces of science fiction ever made. It tells a different story, from a different perspective in a different way. It is well worth the watch. ~ SRC
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