The Child (Episode)

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The Child
"The Child" (TNG127)

"The Child" (TNG127)
Series Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 2
Episode 1
Production Number 127


Previous The Neutral Zone (TNG126)
Next Where Silence Has Lease (TNG128)
Released 21 Nov 1988
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Prime Timeline
(The root of all realities)


Stardate 42073.1: An alien entity impregnates Troi

The Enterprise is ferrying samples of a deadly plasma plague for study when Troi stuns the crew by announcing that she is pregnant. What she describes as a glowing white light impregnated her in her sleep. According to new Chief Medical Officer Kate Pulaski, the fetus will grow to full turm in just thirty-six hours. As Captain Picard and his officers debate the security concerns raised by the "invader," Troi announces flatly that she's having the baby. The counselor has a remarkably easy birth — her son, Ian, appears completely harmless but continues his unusual growth rate, aging eight years in twenty-seven hours.

Almost oblivious to all of this is Wesley Crusher, who seeks counsel from the mysterious new hostess of Ten Forward, Guinan, about whether to join his mother, who has left to head Starfleet Medical. He finally decides to stay on board. Meanwhile, one of the plague samples inexplicably begins to grow, threatening to break its containment and infect the crew within two hours. It turns out that Ian — or, at least, the life-force that took the form of the child to learn more about Humans — is inadvertently stimulating the viral sample's growth. A tearful Troi watches Ian revert to his real form; the virus stops growing, and the ship's mission can be finished.

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