I had forgotten this rare time travel episode with essentially no time travel in it. What it also has that few others offer is a look into Picard's heart and that the self doubt the haunts so many of us haunts him as well. And also that he is at his best when he doesn't doubt. It is also implied that the ship may have been stuck in this loop for more than one repetition, but it may also have only been the second time through. The fact that it doesn't try to technobabble its way out is a strong point in its favor.
The episode opens with a gag scene of Riker meticulously making omlettes for Worf, Data, Geordi and Pulaski. The joke is the eggs are awful but Worf loves them any way. Also, can Data taste? Luckily for us all the a summoned to the bridge. While on their way to some planet or another they have detected a signal from a Federation shuttle, but there are no large ships in the area so it is a mystery where it could be from. When it is brought on board they find it is from the Enterprise and that it is also not missing from the Enterprise. (You would have thought they could have figured this out from a basic scan but whatever.) On the shuttle is an unconscious Picard!
Pulaski is unable to revive the second captain and Picard numero uno is understandable alarmed. Scans show the doppelganger is out of sync with their time which is confirmed when Geordi and Data retrieve the log from the shuttle which is from six hours in the future. Also on the log is video of the Enterprise being destroyed and Picard talking about how it is sad and that he left but not why. This sends uno Picard into a spiral of self doubt which is only made worse by the sudden appearance of the vortex seen in the log destroying the Enterprise. They try to warp away but are only drawn further into the vortex. A beam keeps shooting out and scanning both Picards and it looks like uno is going to leave in the shuttle but in fact he is going to sickbay.
Dos Picard is now awake and wants to go to the shuttle which Uno insists the doctor allow. When they get to the shuttle Uno demands to know what the other option that they didn't try was and when Dos tells him it is fly into the vortex Uno kills Dos with his phaser because, "there can be only one," and I guess to close the causality loop. They fly straight in and are back on course in no time. Even better the other shuttle and corpse of Dos disappear so I guess Uno gets to stay captain.
Review: This is a fun episode with serious character and serious scifi. It has more Pulaski than I prefer, but she is almost bearable in this one. Also any episode with Patrick Stewart talking with and then killing Patrick Stewart gets and least one bonus point from me.
8 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment