THE PLOT
When the Enterprise encounters a temporal phenomenon, Guinan is immediately disturbed. With good reason. As the bridge crew observe this space/time rift, Worf reads a ship coming through. The ship appears... and everything changes.
The Enterprise is much darker, with a command chair that stands alone rather than being surrounded by other chairs. Uniforms change, to reflect a more military style. And the crew changes. Gone are Worf and Troi. Wesley is a full officer. And the security chief is Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby).
None of the crew notice the change in their world. To them, this is their reality, fighting a decades-long war against the Klingons. But Guinan can sense that this reality is "wrong." When the ship that came through is revealed to be the Enterprise C, the predecessor to the current Enterprise, which disappeared when responding to an attack on a Klingon outpost just before the start of the war, Guinan reveals her intuition to Picard. The ship has to go back, Guinan tells him, in order to restore a timeline in which there is no war. There is some anecdotal evidence to support her claim, that if a Federation ship had fought to the death to protect a Klingon outpost, it might have been enough to help pave the way for peace. But if Picard does order the ship back, it will mean the certain deaths of every man and woman on board!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: One thing I appreciate about this episode is that, in either timeline, the characters are recognizably the same people. Picard is still a thoughtful individual, one who weighs the consequences of his decisions carefully before acting. Military Picard is a bit crisper in his deliveries than "our" Picard, and seems less inclined to digest everybody's input before making his decisions. Still, he deals just as fairly with his Enterprise C counterpart as one would expect "our" Picard to do, and is quite compassionate in his big scene with Tasha. Patrick Stewart seems to sense that the material here is just a bit richer than average, as he ups the ante on his already very good regular performance.
Riker: In either reality, Riker is always ready to play devil's advocate to Picard, arguing the other side of the captain's decisions. In the military reality, Riker seems to be the voice of compassion. When the Enterprise C comes through and the damage is detected, Riker insists that they render aid, though he agrees to withhold details about their time until Picard assesses the situation. As Picard wrestles with the decision to send the Enterprise C back to its battle with the Romulans, Riker argues against it, insisting that to do so would be to send more than 100 people to a certain death.
Tasha: More than a season and a half after Tasha was offhandedly slimed in one of the first season's crappiest episodes (itself an achievement), she finally gets a great character episode, complete with a proper sendoff. Despite a hairstyle that could diplomatically be dubbed "bizarre," Denise Crosby rises to the good script with her best performance in the series. It would have been a cute touch to have put her name on the main titles for this one episode, though I suppose carping about something that would have been contractually expensive (if not impossible) would be foolish.
Guinan: After her generic start in early Season Two, Q Who managed to make Guinan an intriguing character. That continued in Deja Q, and is raised to a new level here, with Guinan being the only person aboard Enterprise who is able to sense that something has changed. When she encounters Tasha, she can sense that Tasha "doesn't belong" on the ship, and her nonverbal reactions lead Tasha to seek her out and push her to a full explanation.
THOUGHTS
Yesterday's Enterprise wastes absolutely no time getting into the story. We are firmly in the alternate timeline by the end of the teaser, thrown into this new reality and left to catch up with an entirely new backstory very, very quickly. It works a treat, in part because the script is extremely economical.
The rules of the new reality are established quickly in a way that doesn't seem at all forced. When the Enterprise C is detected, Picard asks if it's an "enemy" ship - telling us that Starfleet is at war in this timeline. Mentions of the Klingons are sprinkled through the next Act, with everyone going on alert when a Klingon ship is detected moving in their general area - which tells us, through entirely natural dialogue and character reactions, that the Klingons are the enemy. All neatly established, with no ham-fisted expository speeches. Very good scriptwriting.
This is a terrific-looking episode. David Carson, who vies with Rob Bowman for the title of TNG's best director, effectively dims the lighting for the military reality, casting the bridge and other areas of the ship in shadows. This greatly elevates the drama as the two Enterprise captains must reach a decision. Frankly, "our" Enterprise could benefit from being lit this way more often.
Amusing in retrospect are references to "Archer IV," in which Starfleet delivered "a pasting" to the Klingons in the alternate timeline. I guess we know where the producers drew inspiration for naming the lead character on Enterprise.
Overall, an outstanding episode, one of the series' very best. Densely packed, more is conveyed in this single parter than most 2-parters manage. Performances are extremely good, the script largely holds together through the tangle of temporal complexities, and the climactic battle against the Klingons is among TNG's best action sequences. Terrific television, full-stop.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
When the Enterprise encounters a temporal phenomenon, Guinan is immediately disturbed. With good reason. As the bridge crew observe this space/time rift, Worf reads a ship coming through. The ship appears... and everything changes.
The Enterprise is much darker, with a command chair that stands alone rather than being surrounded by other chairs. Uniforms change, to reflect a more military style. And the crew changes. Gone are Worf and Troi. Wesley is a full officer. And the security chief is Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby).
None of the crew notice the change in their world. To them, this is their reality, fighting a decades-long war against the Klingons. But Guinan can sense that this reality is "wrong." When the ship that came through is revealed to be the Enterprise C, the predecessor to the current Enterprise, which disappeared when responding to an attack on a Klingon outpost just before the start of the war, Guinan reveals her intuition to Picard. The ship has to go back, Guinan tells him, in order to restore a timeline in which there is no war. There is some anecdotal evidence to support her claim, that if a Federation ship had fought to the death to protect a Klingon outpost, it might have been enough to help pave the way for peace. But if Picard does order the ship back, it will mean the certain deaths of every man and woman on board!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: One thing I appreciate about this episode is that, in either timeline, the characters are recognizably the same people. Picard is still a thoughtful individual, one who weighs the consequences of his decisions carefully before acting. Military Picard is a bit crisper in his deliveries than "our" Picard, and seems less inclined to digest everybody's input before making his decisions. Still, he deals just as fairly with his Enterprise C counterpart as one would expect "our" Picard to do, and is quite compassionate in his big scene with Tasha. Patrick Stewart seems to sense that the material here is just a bit richer than average, as he ups the ante on his already very good regular performance.
Riker: In either reality, Riker is always ready to play devil's advocate to Picard, arguing the other side of the captain's decisions. In the military reality, Riker seems to be the voice of compassion. When the Enterprise C comes through and the damage is detected, Riker insists that they render aid, though he agrees to withhold details about their time until Picard assesses the situation. As Picard wrestles with the decision to send the Enterprise C back to its battle with the Romulans, Riker argues against it, insisting that to do so would be to send more than 100 people to a certain death.
Tasha: More than a season and a half after Tasha was offhandedly slimed in one of the first season's crappiest episodes (itself an achievement), she finally gets a great character episode, complete with a proper sendoff. Despite a hairstyle that could diplomatically be dubbed "bizarre," Denise Crosby rises to the good script with her best performance in the series. It would have been a cute touch to have put her name on the main titles for this one episode, though I suppose carping about something that would have been contractually expensive (if not impossible) would be foolish.
Guinan: After her generic start in early Season Two, Q Who managed to make Guinan an intriguing character. That continued in Deja Q, and is raised to a new level here, with Guinan being the only person aboard Enterprise who is able to sense that something has changed. When she encounters Tasha, she can sense that Tasha "doesn't belong" on the ship, and her nonverbal reactions lead Tasha to seek her out and push her to a full explanation.
THOUGHTS
Yesterday's Enterprise wastes absolutely no time getting into the story. We are firmly in the alternate timeline by the end of the teaser, thrown into this new reality and left to catch up with an entirely new backstory very, very quickly. It works a treat, in part because the script is extremely economical.
The rules of the new reality are established quickly in a way that doesn't seem at all forced. When the Enterprise C is detected, Picard asks if it's an "enemy" ship - telling us that Starfleet is at war in this timeline. Mentions of the Klingons are sprinkled through the next Act, with everyone going on alert when a Klingon ship is detected moving in their general area - which tells us, through entirely natural dialogue and character reactions, that the Klingons are the enemy. All neatly established, with no ham-fisted expository speeches. Very good scriptwriting.
This is a terrific-looking episode. David Carson, who vies with Rob Bowman for the title of TNG's best director, effectively dims the lighting for the military reality, casting the bridge and other areas of the ship in shadows. This greatly elevates the drama as the two Enterprise captains must reach a decision. Frankly, "our" Enterprise could benefit from being lit this way more often.
Amusing in retrospect are references to "Archer IV," in which Starfleet delivered "a pasting" to the Klingons in the alternate timeline. I guess we know where the producers drew inspiration for naming the lead character on Enterprise.
Overall, an outstanding episode, one of the series' very best. Densely packed, more is conveyed in this single parter than most 2-parters manage. Performances are extremely good, the script largely holds together through the tangle of temporal complexities, and the climactic battle against the Klingons is among TNG's best action sequences. Terrific television, full-stop.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
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