6.25 Timescape

Rating: 3

While commanding the Enterprise, Riker receives a Romulan distress call, and heads to that area of space to investigate. Meanwhile, as Picard, Data, Geordi, and Troi are returning to the Enterprise from a conference, Troi notices that her three crewmembers suddenly and briefly become frozen in time. Further incidents and investigation reveals a temporal rift intersecting the ship, with many other rifts within the area. Careful manuevering gets the shuttle back to the rendezvous coordinates, where they find the Enterprise, frozen in battle with a Romulan warbird.

Comments

This episode was written by Brannon Braga and directed by Adam Nimoy (son of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on TOS). In this episode, as well as in Cause and Effect, Braga was already starting to show a propensity for using time travel in his scripts. Braga’s scripts also tend to be complex, plot-heavy, and completely plot-driven, rather than character-driven.

That’s a great idea: temporal narcosis, similar to deep-sea narcosis, and Geordi’s suggestions to avoid it – to limit the length of the trip, and to stick together – is similar too.

This episode has similarities to the TOS episode Wink Of An Eye,where five Scalosians move among the Enterprise crew in accellerated time.

Nits

For the most part, the ‘frozen’ crewmembers do a great job of both looking frozen and remaining motionless, but there still are a few slight wobbles.

At one point, Picard reaches for a bowl of fruit that is in a temporal anomaly, and the fingernails on his hand grow. However, if you look carefully just before this happens (when he is using the console and walking toward the fruit), you can see that his fingernails are already long on that hand.

When Data’s tricorder causes time to move forward and then back, Troi remember bits of the conversation between the Romulans, and Geordi is the one who notices a Romulan in a new location. Why doesn’t Data notice anything? Shouldn’t be able to remember all these things easily?

Shouldn’t the being that attacked and almost killed Geordi be placed in the brig, or some kind of cage or force field, even though he is unconscious? It seems risky to have him lieing around in the middle of the runabout.

After Data fails to prevent the initiation of the data transfer beam, a crewman informs him that it cannot be turned off. This seems ridiculous. Why can’t it be turned off? What will happen?

When Data is talking to Riker about watching the kettle boil, he uses at least two contractions. He is not supposed to be capable of doing this.

Memorable Moments

•    Picard does an amusing impression of a lecturer with a monotonous voice

•    The still visual image of Crusher’s stomach disintegrating while being hit by a phaser.

•    Picard drawing a smiley face in the cloud from the warp core breach, then giggling uncontrollably

•    Data’s look at the suddenly boiling kettle after he turns off his internal chronometer

Quotable Quotes

Geordi: He’s notororious, but he really is an expert on interspecies mating practices.
Data: Did you help him with his research, Counselor?
Troi: Absolutely not.
Data: I thought it was a topic you were interested in.

Riker: Captain?
Picard: It’s going to take a little time to explain, Number One.

Data: I’ve been testing the aphorism, ‘A watched pot never boils’. I’ve boiled the same amount of water in this kettle 62 times. In some cases, I have ignored the kettle. In others, I have watched it intently. In every instance, the water reaches its boiling point in precisely 51.7 seconds. It appears I am not capable of perceiving time any differently than my internal chronometer.
Riker: Well, why don’t you turn it off?
Data: Sir?
Riker: Data, people do not have internal chronometers. Why don’t you see what happens if you turn yours off?
Data: Thank you, sir. I will try that.
Riker: Just don’t be late for your shift.