Outstanding Trek
This episode is certainly worth owning. To me, it embodies everything that was great about Patrick Stewart's classically influenced TNG acting chops, and the quality and sensibilities that made/make Star Trek so great. In fact, it is this sort of writing that makes science fiction thick and rich with potential. It's about imagination, but imagination within the realm of possibility. How many other worlds are out there now? How many have come and gone before us? This episode explores those very ideas and does it with class, style and panache. I can't explain this episode. Well, I could, but I can't do it justice, just watch. Watch with an open mind and an open heart, and I guarantee you'll come away a bit more sensitive towards the universe around you. You may also notice a haunting tug each time you look at a distant star.

Wonderful episode, haunting melody
I agree with everyone else - this may well be the most wonderful episode of TV drama ever. I have seen it again and again and I always love it. I am a lifelong Star Trek fan and I wanted to share a wonderful recent experience. My daughters and I went to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform "To Boldly Go, (narrated by Leonard Nimoy)" at Wolf Trap in Virginia, and they included the melody from "The Inner Light" in the program.
Legions of Star Trek fans were absolutely thrilled!

A quiet ode to a lost people
Overall setting: The U.S.S. Enterprise is the flagship of the Federation's Star Fleet, and is captained by the somewhat aloof, intellectual, but also passionate Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Almost one hundred years after Captain Kirk led an earlier Enterprise on its trek through the stars, this Enterprise continues to explore the galaxy and seek out intelligent life.

This episode: In the opening moments, the Enterprise encounters a small ship or probe, adrift in space. They do not know if it's hostile or not, and before they can begin to figure out what is, a transmission from the probe renders Captain Picard unconscious on the bridge of his own ship.

But, to him, the story goes on, as he finds himself on the planet Kataan, in the village of Ressic. He knows that he is Jean-Luc Picard, but everyone around him, including his wife, Eline, and his friend, Batai, know him as Kamin, a respected member of the community, who is recovering from a severe illness. Picard does his best to convince everyone of who he is, but his life as Jean-Luc Picard fades into memory, as the years go by. Picard, as Kamin, enjoys his marriage to a good woman, and watches his son and daughter grow up. He mourns the death of his friend, Batai. He rejoices in having grandchildren. He battles with his son, who seems a bit aimless or idealistic. He, and the rest of Kataan, come to grips with the fact that their sun is heading toward nova-stage, which will spell the end of everything they know, unless they can find a way to keep a bit of themselves alive, and get that bit of themselves away from their doomed world. And, Kamin learns to play the flute. But, the unconscious Jean-Luc Picard has never left the bridge of the Enterprise.

Many episodes of "Star Trek - The Next Generation" were attempts to not follow a formula, and to be good, original story-telling. This episode is a triumph. Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Kamin, as he gradually accepts who he is, and leaves his Picard identity behind, is done to perfection. Kamin and Picard are the same in personality, but Kamin's dramatically different life gives us a chance to see Patrick Stewart in a very different light. Kamin's love and passion about his wife, his children, and his community shine quietly but brightly. His learning to play the flute symbolizes his struggle to become a different person. The flute also resurfaces in a few subsequent episodes, when Captain Picard gets to cherish the memories given to him by the probe.

"Star Trek - The Next Generation" had a debut episode that made it clear that the goals were a series with lots of action, but also lots of dialog and thinking about ethical, moral, and social issues. This episode ranks with "Darmok," "Below Decks," and "The Crystalline Entity," as excellent drama that just happens to be set in space and in the future.

Patrick Stewart dominates "The Inner Light," as far as acting goes, but the true stars here are a very creative premise and an excellent script. Kamin starts off trying to raise his children as any parent would, trying to teach them to be cautious and wise. Then, as Kamin comes to grips with the fate of his world, he switches to advising his children to make the most of every moment. The people of Kataan could not save themselves, but they gave the gift of themselves (i.e., their culture, their customs, their ways) to the great unknown. Jean-Luc Picard was just lucky to be the one to find this gift, and we were lucky to see him experience it.

By far the best episode of this series.
I agree with other 5-star reviewers. This is not only the best episode of this long-running series, but one of the best hours of television, period.
The story first struck me in this way (and by the way, I think you need to be of a certain age to think of it this way -- teenagers can skip over this thought): What if I were to suddenly awaken and find that I was back in, say, 1976 -- when I was 20? And realized that the last 30 or so years had been a dream, that my wife and children and friends, the things I had done and places I had been, were all gone -- and I had to start all over again, with an entirely different future ahead of me? The psychological impact would, of course, be staggering. Thinking in these terms, you can feel what Picard felt when he was returned to his former life.
But there's another element I didn't think about until later: The issue of the Kataanians (or whatever they're called) doing something like this to an innocent bystander. They violated Picard's mind to a horrific extent; their desire to be remembered motivated them to carry out a heinous crime against Picard. There's more food for thought in this episode than in probably the rest of the series combined.
By the way, my favorite scene was this: Kamin (Picard), after several "years" have passed in his new life, finally and grudgingly begins to accept the fact that he never was Jean Luc Picard, and there never was an Enterprise or a place called Earth, etc. And then he picks up his flute and plays... "Frere Jacques". A brilliant scene.

I Love This Story
For someone who digested almost every episode of this show over it's run I guess I slept on this for awhile.But when I revisted it after the series ended and now it is one of my top five favorite stand alone episodes and I know it is to alot of other people.I think one reason is you don't have to be a Star Trek fan to enjoy it.Little of it takes place in the Star Trek universe.But the story touches the viewer in some very unexpected ways with alot of emotional twists and turns.
What is it about?The Enterprise encounters this ancient probe in space and it zapps Captain Picard.He awakens to find himself in another world in someone elses life-a man named Kamen living with his wife on the planet Kataan.At first he still doesn't believe his surroundings but soon that changes.As years pass he learns his world is suffering a drought and he and his best friend Batai are working to change that in some way.Sadly his friend passes on before the birth of his second child,a boy who is named after him.As years pass the drought becomes worse until "Kamen" finds himself an old man with grandchildren whom,sadly,he knows will have their lives cut abruptly short by the conditions of his planet.The last thing that occurs is when Kataan launches their first robotic
space probe and guess what?It is the same probe that zapped Picard.Turns out that Kataan's sun went nova,the cause of the draught and the entire life he experienced only occured within a few minutes.But now he will doubtless ever forget anyone on Kataan again.
This story is full of emmotional release,a wondefully written story and very likable characters.By the end you find yourself sad the the relateable people of Kataan no longer exist in Picards world.The solitary and,I belive lonely starship captain finds himself with a loving family of his own and even a kindly supportive friend in Batai.By the way Patrick Stewarts son Daniel portrays Kamen's grown son of the same name (Batai that is).And since he was granted the gift to remember what happened to him on Kataan I always believed this was the rallying cry to Jean-Luc Picard to become less of a solitary inividual.Just amazing writing,acting and storytelling all around.And it is this type of dyamic by which I tend to measure all other Trek stories by,for better or worse.