Alara discovers her body is adapting to human gravity and her strength is fading. She returns to Xelaya and has to reluctantly accept that she’ll be with her family until she heals.

This is the best episode the show has done to date. It’s the first time the often cited similarities to ST: TNG have felt like an asset rather than an albatross and the show takes a plot that its predecessor revisited more than once and does something new and brave with it. In doing so it makes the world of the show feel more well rounded, gives a well loved character a surprising send off and ends on a note perfect scene the likes of which even Next Gen rarely reached.

This is Alara’s swan song and Halston Sage is excellent here. Not just as the ship’s cheery, powerhouse of a security officer but as the youngest daughter of an unintentionally cruel family. She has scenes with Robert Picardo as her dad that are gut-wrenching to watch, as he admits she was always a little ‘slow’, belittles her choices and finally comes to rely on her. The moment at the end where he breaks down and apologizes for being a terrible father is heart-breaking and realistic in a way very few shows come close to.

But it’s the ending itself and how we get there that stays with you. This isn’t ‘Skin of Evil’ [in which Tasha Yar was killed off] and any jokes about that are being made by people who didn’t actually watch the episode. No one dies, nothing terrible happens. Instead, a brave, tough officer makes a brave, tough choice. This feels untidy and realistic in a very familiar way and the show has never done familial drama better, or with this much affection. Sage, apparently, won’t be back this year but she leaves on a hell of a high note.

And in doing so, she cements the crew as a family. The final scene where they all arrive to see her off really does play like it’s full of genuine emotion. And anyone doubting MacFarlane as an actor should look at the very final shot here. The payoff on what Alara’s gift is, and the complex knot of sadness, happiness and pride on Ed’s face, is almost impossible to pull off. MacFarlane nails it.

Verdict: Sweet, odd, clever and compassionate, this isn’t what the show was. But I think it’s what it’s becoming and I’m thrilled to see where it goes next. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart