I guess it is just always easier to write a crazy cliffhanger than to actually resolve things in a way that is as good. At least this time Part II is a worthy successor to the first half. However by skipping over the arrival of the rest of the crew to the past and how they managed to get themselves so well set up feels a little bit like cheating us out of the best part. How did Riker get himself a police uniform? Who knows! How did Beverley get a job working as a nurse? You figure it out! I realize there isn't really time for all that, but it still makes the second half feel a little bit inferior to the first.
We begin with Mark Twain (I know, he is says he is really Samuel Clemens, but lets be honest, they are going full Twain) walking down the street talking to a reporter about the alleged time travelers invading the present. He starts following Data as he emerges from the hotel he is staying at as the two disguised aliens with the snake cane walk by. Cut to Riker and Dr. Crusher examining victims of the cholera epidemic which Beverley seems to think was no big deal really. She does find a victim whose body has been totally drained of life energy or something. Then we get a bit about the crew staying in a rented apartment and being pestered to pay the rent. Back at the hotel the bell boy has let Twain into Data's room for a small bribe and Twain pokes around and picks up a part of the machine Data is building, then he rushes to the closet when he hears Data approaching.
Data and Guinan enter the room and discuss that the mine Data needs into is on a military base, but Data tells Guinan he has faith in her powers to convince people. After some more discussions Twain sneezes from the closet and tries to get Data to admit he is from the future, but of course he won't. Meanwhile Crusher is working as a nurse at a hospital apparently and when the doctor leaves her in charge the rest of the crew come out of the woodwork. The two aliens show up and Riker tries to shoot them with a phaser but they disappear and the police arrive and notice that Riker isn't actually one of them. Riker punches the cop in the jaw and they all flee just in time for Data to pick them up driving a carriage having detected the aliens time shifting. They mess around in the crews apartment a bit more but eventually make their way to the mine under the Presidio.
In the mine Geordi discovers that the mine/cave (they switch what they call it a few times, but it has stairs and stuff which makes me think mine) but suddenly Twain arrives, armed! The two aliens arrive and grab the snake cane from Data but he grabs it back and it turns on and blasts his head clear of his body and his body disappears. A time rift opens and everybody but Guinan who is hurt and the captain rush through, including Twain! One of the aliens also remains behind after the rift closes and laughs at Picard when he says they are going to blow up the aliens in the future, it will only destroy earth in the past! In the future (the shows present) Troi is assigned to Twain and quickly convinces him how amazing and perfect the future is without much effort. Geordi sets to work getting Data operational using the head they found in the cavemine but something isn't working. In the past Picard does something to Data's head and evidently leaves a piece of iron behind which Geordi finds in the future. Data reawakens and tells them to not fire the torpedoes at the planet just in time. They manage to get the rift open again, but only one person can go back and one forward to Twain volunteers and manages to get Picard through just before the planets surface is struck by torpedoes from the Enterprise.
Review: Not as great as the first part, but still a solid conclusion to the various mysteries created. Maybe a little less of Twain and the landlord lady and a bit more of the crew and this one would have been even better.
7 out of 10
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