https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)


 It is the penultimate episode of the season and was first broadcast on June 1, 1992.

In the story, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is struck with an energy beam from an alien probe. While minutes pass for the rest of the crew, Picard experiences 40 years as Kamin, a humanoid scientist whose planet is threatened by the nova of its sun. Picard learns that the purpose of the probe was to keep alive the memory of Kamin's race long after the death of their civilization. The probe also contains Kamin's flute; Picard, having mastered it as Kamin, finds he retains the skill to play it. He keeps it as a memento for the remainder of the series.

The episode is widely considered by critics and fans as one of the best episodes of the entire Star Trek franchise.[1][2][3][4] In 1993, "The Inner Light" won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. The flute melody, featured prominently in the episode, was composed by Jay Chattaway and has since been re-arranged for a full orchestra.[5] The episode is also a favorite among both fans and members of the show's cast and crew

##Plot
On stardate 45944.1, the Enterprise has just finished a magnetic wave survey of the Parvenium System, when they find an unknown probe that scans the ship and directs an energy beam at Captain Picard, rendering him unconscious.

Picard wakes up to find himself on the surface of Kataan, a non-Federation planet. A woman identifies herself as his wife, Eline, telling Picard that he is Kamin, an iron weaver recovering from a feverish sickness. Picard talks of his memories on the Enterprise, but Eline and their close friend Batai try to convince Picard that his memories were only dreams, and acclimate him into their society as Kamin. Picard begins living out his life as Kamin in the village of Ressik, starting a family with Eline, and learning to play the flute. Kamin spends much time outdoors and with his Dobsonian telescope studying nature. As the years pass, he begins to notice that the planet is suffering a worldwide drought owing to increased radiation from the planet's sun. He sends reports to the planet's leaders, who seem to ignore his concerns.

Meanwhile, on board the Enterprise, the crew continues attempts to revive Picard. They try to block the influence of the probe, but as a result Picard nearly dies, so they are forced to let it continue. They trace the rocket's trajectory to a system whose sun had gone nova 1,000 years before, exterminating all life in the system.

Years pass and Kamin grows old, outliving his wife. Kamin and his daughter Meribor continue their study of the drought. They find that it is not temporary; extinction of all life on the planet is inevitable. Ultimately, Kamin confronts a government official who privately admits to him that the government already knows this but wishes to keep it a secret to avoid a panic. The official gravely points out to Kamin that they only just recently managed to successfully launch artificial satellites using primitive rockets: their race simply does not possess the technology level needed to evacuate even a small colony's worth of people before their planet is rendered uninhabitable.

One day, while playing with his grandson, Kamin is summoned by his adult children to watch the launch of a rocket, which everyone seems to know about except him. As he walks outside into the glaring sunlight, Kamin sees Eline and Batai, as young as when he first saw them. They explain that he has already seen the rocket, just before he came there. Knowing that the planet was doomed, the planet's leaders placed the memories of their culture into a probe and launched it into space, in the hope that it would find someone who could tell others about their species. Picard then realizes the entire context: "Oh, it's me, isn't it?", he says, "I'm the someone...I'm the one it finds."

Picard wakes up on the bridge of the Enterprise to discover that while he perceives many decades have transpired, only 25 minutes have passed. The now inactive probe is brought aboard the Enterprise and the crew finds a small box within it. A somber Riker gives the box to Picard, who opens it to find Kamin's flute. Picard, now adept at the instrument, plays the melody he learned during his life as Kamin.