From: tlynch@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.info
Subject: Synopsis, "Man of the People"
Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek.current
Date: 7 Oct 1992 18:17:52 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Reply-To: tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu
Summary: == synopsis
Keywords: TNG, Troi, anger, lust

WARNING:  The following post contains spoilers regarding this week's TNG 
offering, "Man of the People".  Those not wishing to be exposed to spoiler 
elements prematurely are advised to keep clear.











After the ship he originally traveled on is damaged in an attack, the 
respected Lumerian ambassador Ramid Ves Alkar comes on board to journey to a 
dispute in the Rekag-Cironi system.  Also with him is a very aged woman, Sev 
Maylor, whom Alkar refers to as his mother, and who is by all appearances a 
mean-spirited, nasty-tempered woman.

As the Enterprise journeys to Cironia, Troi and Alkar hit it off rather 
nicely.  Their friendship is hindered, however, by Maylor, who persistently 
keeps after Troi, threatening that she will always regret any attachment she 
forms with Alkar.  Troi, disturbed, is distracted when Riker comes to work on 
the crew evaluations, but cheers up with his reassurance and begins to work.  
However, just then, Maylor dies--and strangely enough, Alkar seems almost 
completely undisturbed.  He asks Troi, as a fellow empath, to assist him in 
the funeral ritual, a request she happily grants.  However, at the end of the 
ritual, Alkar touches his (now glowing) funeral stone to Troi's dormant one, 
and Troi reacts with something akin to shock.

Some time later, Troi seems very edgy and concerned with her appearance.  
Beverly's examination of Maylor, meanwhile, turns up high levels of 
neurotransmitter residue and no trace of any disease.  She asks Picard for 
permission to conduct an autopsy, but since there's no obvious threat to the 
ship and Alkar says it's against Lumerian custom, Picard refuses.  Not long 
after that, a very distracted Troi goes to see Alkar and attempts to seduce 
him.  When Alkar turns her down, saying that their relationship "just can't 
be that way," she angrily leaves and instead makes a pass at a random ensign 
in the turbolift with her.  When Riker arrives not long after this to work 
again on the crew evaluations, the ensign hurriedly leaves and Troi badgers 
and snaps at Riker about perceived jealousy.  Riker, realizing Troi is in no 
condition to work, attempts to make a graceful exit.

Later, with the Enterprise having arrived at Cironia, Picard and Alkar work 
with two other members of Alkar's delegation (Liva and Jarth).  With 
tentative arrangements made to bring both sides to the negotiations, all 
seems well.  However, Troi shows further signs of strain when she upbraids 
one of her patients for "whining" and "complaining" all the time, and Geordi 
and Beverly find evidence of *dramatic* deterioration in Maylor's condition 
in the three days she was on board.  That evening, as Alkar relaxes in 
Ten-Forward, Troi (who now looks two decades older and is dressed as slinkily 
as possible) marches in and accuses Alkar of flirting with Liva.  She insults 
everyone she can until marched out by Riker--and then, once Riker has brought 
her back to her quarters, she attempts to seduce him, then deeply scratches 
his face with her nails.  Riker, decidedly uncomfortable, hastily leaves, as 
Troi, all but hysterically, begs him not to.

That hysteria becomes even more evident the next morning, when Alkar informs 
her he's going down to the surface.  She reacts with jealous rage, accusing 
him of going to Liva and then attacking him in the transporter room with a 
knife when he attempts to beam down.  The assault is unsuccessful, although 
Picard is grazed, and Alkar beams down as Troi and Picard are taken to 
sickbay.  An analysis shows that Troi (now looking as aged as Maylor did) 
also has extraordinarily high levels of neurotransmitter activity.  Now an 
autopsy is justified, it seems; and as Alkar is incommunicado in negotiations 
planetside, Picard approves it.

The autopsy shows two mysterious things:  first, that Maylor was in many 
respects a scant thirty years old physically; and second, that her DNA shows 
she was most definitely *not* Alkar's mother.  With Troi's condition 
deteriorating rapidly, Picard and Worf beam down to confront Alkar.  He 
informs them that he has the ability to channel his unpleasant, distracting 
emotions into others, thus freeing himself to be the perfect diplomat.  
Unfortunately, the results are the rapid aging and death of his 
"receptacles".  Although Alkar sees nothing wrong with this, Picard is 
completely appalled, and threatens to take Alkar back immediately.  However, 
Alkar refuses, and Picard and Worf come under threat.  They leave 
empty-handed, but immediately work to plan a way to bring him back.

In the end, Beverly temporarily "kills" Troi to get Alkar to break his link 
with her.  Alkar, sensing that death, returns to the Enterprise to conduct a 
new "funeral ritual" with Liva.  With time running out, Beverly revives Troi 
just as the ritual is concluding, and as she begins the neurotransmitter 
decontamination, Alkar suddenly collapses, then attacks Liva.  Liva is beamed 
to safety, and Alkar, unable to cope with the dramatic overload of emotional 
feedback, ages rapidly and dies in mere moments.  Troi, returned to normal in 
both appearance and attitude, returns to her duties aboard the Enterprise.

NEXT WEEK:

A certain Scottish engineer we all know makes a trip to a new century.  

Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET:  tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET:  tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Um...foreplay's usually more fun with someone else, Counselor."
		--us, while watching Troi's solo scene on the holodeck
--
Copyright 1992, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...