Var Picard ersätter någon annans liv i "The Inner Light?"

Kataanerna gjorde en bärbar "holodeck". Picard bodde i denna "snabbare än realtid" -holodeck, och allt runt honom konstruerades för att låta observatören lära känna Katans kultur.

Från avsnittet:

Years later, an extremely old Kamin is playing with his grandchild, Meribor's son. He laments that his grandson deserves a long and full life, but like the rest of their world he will not survive. Kamin goes along with everyone else to view "the launching", which only he seems not to know about. Kamin asks, "What is it they're launching?"

His daughter, Meribor: "You know it, father. You've already seen it."

"Seen it? What are you talking about? I haven't seen any missile."

Batai: "Yes, you have, old friend. Don't you remember?"

Kamin turns to see his old friend, Batai, but in the prime of his life. Batai explains, "You saw it just before you came here. We hoped our probe would encounter someone in the future – someone who could be a teacher, someone who could tell the others about us."

"Oh... oh, it's me... isn't it? I'm the someone. I'm the one it finds. That's what this launching is – a probe that finds me in the future!"

Och senare:

Stunned, Kamin turns and sees Eline, glowing in youthful beauty, with the rest of his family. She says, "The rest of us have been gone a thousand years. If you remember what we were...and how we lived...then we'll have found life again."

Den observation som gjordes av Picard (eller någon som skulle hämta sond-signalen) skulle ha levt den här holodeck-versionen av ett liv med Katans som till exempel Data lever Sherlock Holmes liv på samma sätt.