Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) The Bonding (1989) User Reviews

Underrated episode about bereavement

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 13 June 2021]

An Enterprise crew member dies on an away mission.

This is a strong episode centred around bereavement and grief with a number of great character moments.

The plot starts off quite simple with the surviving family member being informed and helped through the tragedy by various members of the crew. These for me are the best moments. The sci-fi element kicks in later, which for me is okay, but unnecessary.

Given that the Enterprise is portrayed as a ship with families, I like the idea of looking at the fallout from a death suffered on an away mission. I love the depiction of crew members pulling together to help one in a tragic circumstance. After all the redshirts who died without much acknowledgement in the original series it feels badly needed.

Worf, Troi, Wesley and Picard make great contributions to the story and have some fairly memorable scenes that work not just for Jeremy's story but also for the ongoing arcs of both Wesley and Worf. It's a shame that the character of Jeremy is not followed up in other episodes in relation to his bonding with Worf. I also enjoyed the philosophical discussion between Data and Riker.

The sci-fi plot involving the alien species ties into the episode themes, but I think it could have worked just as well as a straight drama without this aspect. Whether or not Gabriel Damon could have pulled it off though as it probably would have required more emotional scenes.

All performances are excellent, particularly Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Patrick Stewart and Will Wheaton. Gabriel Damon was not really challenged with enough emotional scenes to really see what he could do.

A Child's Loss

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 14 August 2014]

An archaeologist loses her life on what appeared to be a safe mission. A leftover explosive device from a centuries old war explode causes her death. Unfortunately, she has a ten year old son, Jeremy, who is now orphaned, his father succumbing to disease earlier. As Troi tries to work with the boy, a manifestation arises from the planet. Suddenly, the dead woman appears in the boy's room, whole again and promising never to leave him. Picard assumes the activity on the planet is causing this, but in his delicate condition, the boy latches on to hope that this is, indeed, his mother. The "woman" wants Jeremy to go to the planet's surface and it is necessary to use the transporter. They do everything to withhold the transporter from the pair, but the thing is persistent. It even recreates the childhood home including a cat that the boy loved. It is sad that the finality of death is such a part of our being, but the sterility of the this entity would prove harmful to the boy's psyche. It is up to the real living to end this. Also, the explanation of the entity itself is quite unique.

Somewhat spooky episode

[CCsito · 7/10 · 12 August 2010]

This episode dealt with death, grief, and coping with the loss of a close family member. A young boy loses his mother when she goes out with an away team. The episode brings up things that come out with trying to deal with losing someone close to you. The real twist of this episode occurs when the person who was thought to have died appears to have been "resurrected". The crew then has to figure out how the supposed deceased appears to be alive again. Several of the crew are impacted by the death of the crew member and it brings out emotions of their previous personal loss. Wesley, Worf, and Data are particularly affected by the crew member's death. This was a thought provoking episode that was made a bit eerie with the plot twist concerning the accident victim.

Solid Episode

[M_Exchange · 7/10 · 10 January 2017]

I understand the reviewers who state that in some regards this episode is outlandish because a child wouldn't be nearly as calm and reserved in such a situation, but I think that Gabriel Damon did a good job as a child actor. He was working within the limits of the writing. Susan Powell also put in a solid performance as his mom. I'm rather surprised that those two actors don't even work anymore.

Near the end of this episode Picard makes an argument that is very reminiscent of the things that he says in the "Generations" movie (my personal favorite from the Trek cannon). Wesley Crusher also lets some inside secrets slip. It's a good episode.

Misguided space entity.

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 14 March 2021]

Interesting episode.

I was genuinely surprised that the alien entity ended up having a misguided benevolent need to take care of Jeremy after his mother became the last victim of a war between an organic race living on the planet. They could have easily gone the other way with the alien entity causing the destruction of the organic race and feeding upon human energy.

I feel for Jeremy in this one. Being reconnected with your dead mother who is actually an alien entity would be a crushing trauma to endure.

I liked the Worf scenes and the Klingon approach to dealing with loss.

This one explores the trauma of loss and the process of dealing with it in an organic/believable manner with respect. I've experienced loss and it takes years to work through that stuff ---- but the general idea of acceptance and relying upon those around you is a solid message to convey.

Great! if you can suspend your disbelief

[cake-26 · 7/10 · 10 November 2013]

Interesting philosophical questions about loss and suffering and a different and moving dimension to the characters and acting of most episodes. It all seems a bit silly because any kid, even a Starfleet kid would just totally freak out at the events in this one. However, like most trek episodes, there is enough in the story to make a feature length movie. It stands to reason therefore, that a lot of potential character and story development has to be cut down to make it fit into 45 minutes. Understandably, it can seem a bit unrealistic at times. Still, great sci-fi provides insights into the human condition by exploring fantasy scenarios, which this episode does, if you can just suspend your disbelief.

Death and it's meaning.

[russem31 · 17 April 2006]

ST:TNG:53 - "The Bonding" (Stardate: 43198.7) - this is the 5th episode of the 3rd season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

This episode brings the question whether it's wise to have children onboard a starship like the Enterprise (as Picard ponders with Troi) because of an accidental death of a crewman and how her son now has to cope with this - however, Troi makes a counterpoint that leaving the children away from the parents serving on the starship isn't good in itself.

Trivia note: in the previous episode "Who Watches The Watchers", Ray Wise guest starred (he was also in "Robocop"). In this episode, Gabriel Damon guest stars (and he was also in "Robocop 2"). Also, you see another Klingon ritual called appropriately "The Bonding".

Worf joins Big Brothers

[chris-cerar · 6/10 · 29 July 2018]

Worf leads an away mission where the ships archeologist, Marla Aster, is killed, leaving behind a son, Jeremy. An energy based alien wants to be surrogate mom, but everyone gangs up on it until it gives up. Worf engages in a bonding ceremony with Jeremy and they become brothers. Jeremy is never heard from again.

Great Episode

[Kaleko · 10/10 · 27 February 2008]

So far from my chronological viewing of the series, this is the most moving episode yet for me. For anyone who has lost a parent, they can relate.

But this episode deals with death on different levels. It deals with the concept of the temptation of living in the past and ignoring the reality of loss, and mentions the strength of humanity in overcoming the acceptance of our mortality.

There is a great conversation between Data and Riker, where Data questions why we do not equally mourn the loss of those we are close to and those we are not. Riker makes a compelling comment while explaining this to an android, and it ends with Riker saying that if we mourned all loss of life equally, humans would have a much less bloodier past.

This episode brought laughs and tears. The ending with Worf and the boy was great, it made Worf out to have a decent and likable character inside of him.

A lot of wasted potential

[rcyoung-02426 · 6/10 · 25 March 2023]

This episode had a lot of potential. The first half was very strong, involving the death of a woman who had a newly orphaned son on board the Enterprise.

There are a lot of great character moments here. Some great character moments from Picard, Troi, Worf, and Data. In particular, I loved how the episode involves a meditation on the ethics of bringing children on board the Enterprise, and putting them in danger.

The big problem I had with this episode is the way the plot twists towards the end. Rather than exploring the character of the boy, or the ramifications the death has on the crew, it devolves into an alien of the week story.

I found myself wishing that the original story for this episode was used. Instead of the alien of the week, we could have had one involving the holodeck.

It is by no means the worst episode, but I was let down by the plot, because I saw the potential for something a lot more interesting.

Worf Adopts a Kid

[Samuel-Shovel · 5/10 · 20 September 2019]

In "The Bonding" an away mission gone wrong leaves the Enterprise with an orphan and Worf with a guilty conscience for the death of the boy's mother. Worf attempts to bond with the boy while Geordi tries to figure out what causes the explosion on the planet's surface. Soon an energy being from the planet takes the form of the young boy's mother as a show of comfort, complicating his mourning. Picard and Wes must step in and set the boy and energy being straight, no matter how painful the truth is...

This one is fairly slow. The entire episode takes place on the ship, we never get to see the planet's surface (budget constraints I assume). The B plot of who planted the bombs is underdeveloped so we're left focusing on this terrible child actor and his ghost mom. I like how much Worf we get here but in the end it's Picard and Wes that cause the resolution. We're supposed to get this big parlor scene where Wes pours out his heart about his dad's death but Wheaton isn't a good enough actor to make it resonate. It's a really underwhelming end to a fairly average episode.

Life and death in the outer reaches

[Mr-Fusion · 9/10 · 9 November 2016]

I don't have the experience of a deceased parent, but I still know that loss is a fundamental part of the human condition. 'The Bonding' takes that and applies it to life onboard a starship. A Starfleet archaeologist is killed during a routine mission, leaving behind a young boy; Worf deals with his own guilt after leading the expedition, Riker and Picard contemplate the after effects from a command perspective and Wesley vividly recalls the news of his own father's death. Throw in an alien being whose only aim is to relieve suffering and this is a heartfelt look at how we deal with personal pain. All of this can easily become syrupy, but it doesn't. There's sensitivity involved here, and even though the pacing feels a little compressed, this is a very well written episode.

Touching, to the last.

9/10

Robocop Kid

[Johnny_West · 1/10 · 16 February 2023]

Gabriel Damon plays the robotic Jeremy, who has no emotional reactions or facial expressions as he is bombarded with shocking situations when his mother is killed.

Jeremy's mother is an archaeologist that beams down to do some research with Worf. Due to some unexploded ordnance, Jeremy's mother, played by Susan Powell, is killed. Jeremy barely reacts. Later on, when an alien from the planet shows up as his mother, Jeremy reacts even less. Talk about a poker face! Gabriel Damon also played the evil kid who was the leader of the mob in Robocop 2.

This episode seems like a battle over control of the child. The options that the aliens were offering the child seemed a lot better than listening to Picard's platitudes and Counsellor Troi's politically correct advice. Counsellor Troi was the last person you wanted to get advice from in most episodes. She usually provided the least useful point of view, which was often what was also recommended by "The Federation."

Counsellor Troi was a flaky corporate drone who had a vested interest in spouting "The Federation" line. After all, by the end of this series she had been in a relationship with just about everyone on the Enterprise, along with numerous aliens, and various other guest characters. Good thing for her that most STDs had been cured by the 24th Century. Personal ethics were not a consideration for "The Federation" when it came to therapy.

By comparison Data was a lot more reliable when it came to honest advice, since he was an android. Data also seemed like he usually cared more about people than Troi did, and actually thought about the advice he gave to others. Fortunately for Troi, malpractice lawsuits and personal injury law firms had been abolished by the 24th Century.

Death comes a knocking.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 15 November 2014]

During a seemingly routine away team mission to a planet long wiped out by some war, an away team member is accidentally killed by some ancient war device left behind. Lt. Marla Aster's death and its consequences are the subject of this episode. As for her son, Jeremy, he is very stoic and needs to react emotionally to her death. Because of this, Wesley is asked to talk to the boy about his own father's death. But it's not only him--Worf is also affected strongly. Because of his own issues as an orphan, Worf's planning on asking Jeremy to join him in the Ruus'tai ceremony--by which Klingons become blood brothers or sisters. However, what happens next...well THAT certainly wasn't expected!! To see what this is, try watching "The Bonding".

While this episode is all about death and is a serious downer, it is interesting and worth exploring this aspect of space exploration. Very emotional and it might just bring a tear to your eye as the characters discuss their own losses. Also, what happens to the boy is really strange...but in a very good way, as the planet feels bad about what has happened and tries, in a way, to make things better.

WORF is a good parent

[awbusa · 2 November 2020]

JEREMY is still more likable than ALEXANDER and should've come back on DS9

Just why did these spirits need him?

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 9 September 2019]

Lt.Worf leads an away team to a lifeless planet where the humanoid life extinguished itself in a relentless war centuries ago. Susan Powell an archaeologist is one the mission when she's killed.

Powell leaves behind a young son Gabriel Damon who cannot accept his mother's death which leaves him an orphan.

And then, spirits of the dead appear one in the form of Powell to the kid wanting to take him down to the planet. They never really explain why they want him which is the crux of the show.

Nevertheless this is a good episode about letting go of deceased family members. Regulars Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, and Gates McFaddden all who lost relations are outstanding here in their scenes with young Damon.

Enjoyable episode of death and remembrance.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 19 March 2014]

This strange episode begins when an away-team, lead by Worf, encounter a problem which leads to the death of one of the members, Lt. Marla Aster. She is killed leaving a young son, Jeremy Aster, to face the her death head-on. But while Jeremy is grieving his mother's death, she all of the sudden appears in his room stating her death was a big mistake and she want Jeremy to come live with her on the planet.

Jeremy is now torn between his mother alive and the crew of the Enterprise telling him that it's an alien presents that is acting like his mother. When the Enterprise takes action to remove the alien from the ship, it returns with a vengeance.

A very nice story that involves death and remembrance. We will learn that the alien's motive is respectable but misunderstood in human's perception. Some good emotional scenes with Wesley and another with Worf. Entertaining story that was enjoyable to watch and learn.

A Senior Trekker writes......................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 9 January 2022]

New uniforms, new credit sequence and Doctor Crusher returned to us but was Season 3 of The Next Generation really as good as we remember? Some of that enthusiasm may have have been generated by relief that the series had not been cancelled but the 1990's also heralded an era of considerably more stability behind the scenes. Senior Trekker will continue to score every episode with a 5.

The Bonding is a straightforward story about a mysterious alien that takes on the form of a little boy's deceased mother in an attempt to make up for her accidental death. Counsellor Troi gets some serious work to do as a psychologist at last and her scenes rise above the "I feel pain" that we have become so used to in the first two seasons. It's interesting to hear how her rather strange, made up accent falters as she projects a more professional character on screen.

The actress herself was no great fan of the accent, which became more and more anomalous as the seasons progressed. Various actors portrayed members of her family without being expected to chew their words in that peculiar fashion and it was allowed to become gradually less pronounced as the years went by until 2020 when, during her appearance in Picard, she abandoned it entirely.

The child actor, Gabriel Damon, who played the boy Jeremy Astor more or less quit the screen by his early twenties. Apparently he was not particularly popular with the main cast which seems rather mean considering what we now know about the treatment of child actors in the business of the time. No plans were made to return to his storyline later in the series and he was quietly forgotten.

Given that the bonding ceremony was such a big deal to Worf, its abandonment left this episode a little bit "out there" in the progression of the characters. Nowadays we are so used to following the episodes of our favourite shows in sequence that it is easy to forget how self-contained the writing was expected to be in those days.

Senior Trekker noticed how skilfully and tenderly the child held onto his pet cat during their scenes together. Possibly he was more nervous in front of the camera than people gave him credit for. Anyway, Gabriel proved a better small animal handler than Brent Spiner ever did and Patches (now long since gone to the great mouse hunt in the sky) could give that monster Grudge an acting lesson or two.

An EXCELLENT episode about Loss and Life

[jseph1234-262-617488 · 10/10 · 20 July 2022]

A wonderful illustrative episode featuring Leiutant Worf and a young fellow traveler on the nature and need for understanding people to help make through life.

This, of course, has that Star Trek twist but is illustrative of the fraility of Life and how we deal with its downers.

Made me cry and I assume that was the point and goal :)

The Bonding

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 12 June 2012]

On an archaeological mission on a planet once home to a now extinct intelligent race called the Koinonians, who destroyed themselves in a centuries-long war, the chief archaeologist on the away team, Marla Aster would be a inadvertent victim of a weapon used during that long-forgotten people, an explosive device that caused a cavernous collapse on top of her while Worf and the others were wounded. Marla had a young boy child named Jeremy, on the Enterprise, his father dead of a disease, now all alone. Because he is now an orphan, Worf (also orphaned when the Romulans attacked the Klingons at Kitimer) wants to share R'uustai with Jeremy, a "brothers" ceremony called the bonding. But Jeremy will need to come to terms with the pain and anguish, the anger and bitterness he hides behind a façade of bravery and maturity. This will not be easy when a strong energy source from the planet manifests into the form of Marla Aster offering Jeremy a home (an exact replica, including pet cat, of their Earth home) absent all the hurt and suffering that loss of life belies. Picard, Troi, and the others understand that Jeremy must see past the "mask" that the energy source puts on Marla's demise, to face and acknowledge the grief and mourning process that comes with losing your mother. Convincing a boy of this will be quite a task, but Troi and Picard will have help from Wesley Crusher who must once again address the loss of his father (...told to him as a child by Picard). With Worf the commanding officer of the away team when his mother was killed, Jeremy will need to get it out so he can release all of the deep emotions buried inside; it is important that he faces Worf who will be a catalyst in drawing out the anguish. This episode, as I have described, is about loss and dealing with it in a healthy way, not embracing a fiction that isn't real even if it looks the part. You see how difficult it is on those who have lost, those who have the duty to tell the ones left behind the bad news, and how this loss never truly leaves, that you just find a way to move on without forgetting about them, cherishing their memory and meaning in your life. Susan Powell is the mother and energy source version of her with Gabriel Damon the child trying to deal with a unique situation. The mother's "re-emergence" is quite a stunner: it definitely had me going, "What the hell?!?!"

Good episode. I agree with alien !

[Filmreader · 8/10 · 27 October 2019]

In this episode I disagree completely with Picard and Troi. Is not a fantasy what the Alien offer to kid. He can touch and feel that reality. Also the alien CAN offer AND education, his health, his growth, career, wife. Picard try to brainwash the kid with Wesley ! I would prefer to stay with Aliens ! They could make my mother to live for ever ! No Picard, NO Troi, I don't want your pain that you offer. Keep it for yourself.

"I'm all alone now, Sir."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 30 November 2023]

This is a well crafted episode dealing with the pain of a lost loved one. It also demonstrates how others close to the victim can be affected. When an away team led by Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) suffers an unexpected death due to an ancient explosive device while exploring an uninhabited planet, Marla Aster's (Susan Powell) twelve-year-old son Jeremy (Gabriel Damon) is left an orphan aboard the Enterprise. Now both of his parents are gone, his father having died of rushton fever five years earlier. Personally, I thought the kid dealt with the emotional trauma pretty well, although some of that could be attributed to the effect of shock in his situation. It seemed like he didn't really get emotional until an energy force impersonating his mother came aboard the Enterprise and tried to return the boy to the planet on which the accident occurred. At that point, he became torn between the image of a comforting mother, and the rational assurance of Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) that there would be no productive life for him on the planet below, shielded as he would be by the 'mother' force. For his part, Worf took on a huge responsibility by performing a Klingon rite of R'uustai' with the boy, bonding them as brothers with similar history, Worf having lost his parents as a boy himself. The patience and understanding of the Captain, Troi, and Worf made the episode a noteworthy one, with an able assist from Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), who was also able to relate to the youth's loss by admitting the anger he felt when his own father died on a mission led by Captain Picard. The episode nicely tied together some past history of those on board the Enterprise and how they came to terms with their own situations of grievance and loss.