Episode #26, segment 1 - What Are Friends For?

#26a: WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? (episode #2 of 2nd season)
written by J. Michael Straczynski Directed by Gus Trikonis

The concept of the perennial friend, the eternal childhood, goes back to at least Peter Pan. It can be a little scary, as it's the antithesis to growth, the natural order. A divorced writer (Tom Skerritt) brings his son (Fred Savage) to his childhood vacation home. The son initially doesn't like the area (reacting to the divorce) but soon finds a friend in Mike (Lukas Haas), who plays with him in the woods. Mike seems to have... powers.. to create fun stuff like horses to ride on. It's later revealed that this is the same Mike who played with the writer when he was a kid. Thing of it is, if the son continues to play with Mike, he'll get too spoiled to play with real kids...

This is not some great episode in terms of revelation or mind-blowing concepts, but it holds together pretty well as a modern fable, with a touch of the dark side; the viewer gets worried that something disturbing will happen, like the father losing the son or vice-a-versa; this doesn't happen, as it's a benign sort of message and the entity known as Mike is not really hostile, but there's some tension generated by the midpoint. There's a vague explanation of what it is at the end, basically like some kind of tree spirit which has always been there, recalling classic fairy tales. Alien entities arriving as children is an often-used plot, such as the TNG episode IMAGINARY FRIEND. Skerritt gives a good performance. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

you can watch some of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqsKotn3Gfo