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| Picard picks a bad time to develop a sense of humor. |
Picard, Data, Geordi, and Troi are on a runabout, returning from a conference about which the less said, the better. Even before they reach the coordinates of their rendezvous with Enterprise, strange things begin occurring. Troi witnesses the others freeze in mid-sentence for several seconds before resuming as if nothing had happened. Then she loses three minutes, as the others watch her freeze. Investigating, they discover that this area of space is surrounded by time anomalies.
But this is just a taste of what awaits when they reach the Enterprise. They discover the ship frozen in space, apparently under attack from an also-frozen Romulan warbird. Some quick improvisation on Geordi's part allows them to beam to the ship. Once on board, they discover Romulans on the bridge and in sickbay, apparently attacking crew members in both places. In Engineering, they find a warp core breach in progress, apparently caused by a beam being reflected by the Romulan ship.
Obviously, something must be done to unfreeze time for both ships. But with the Enterprise mere seconds away from destruction, any action taken will have to be precise - meaning that Picard and the others will need to investigate the frozen situation on both ships carefully to determine exactly what was occurring. They will only have seconds to act when the time comes, leaving them no margin for midjudgment, assumption, or error!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: An early indication of the runabout crew's vulnerability to the time distortion comes when Picard reaches out to touch a suddenly-aged bowl of fruit - only to gasp in pain and horror as his hand suddenly ages upon making contact. Picard's susceptibility continues as he briefly loses it next to the frozen Warp Core breach, drawing a smiley face in the cloud created by the detonation. When not suffering from the distortion effects, he is fully focused on the task at hand, particularly on keeping the others from interfering in any way until they have a firm grasp on the situation.
Troi: Apparently took advantage of her time aboard a Romulan ship to gain a working knowledge of Romulan engineering systems. It may seem a reach for this character to suddenly be the Engineering expert, but it does make sense that she would think to scrutinize some of the Romulan systems during her time with them. It's not like it was an opportunity likely to come along often for Starfleet.
Data: Along with Geordi, gets to carry the Technobabble of the episode, explaining how the time fields work for the benefit of the viewers. Brent Spiner's performance helps to keep Data more than just a source of exposition for the episode, little moments such as his reaction when time moves backward and a crew members is about to back into him keeping him a character instead of just a plot device.
Geordi: The only one to actually enjoy the conference, having been fascinated by a demonstration involving a plasma field. This is appropriate, since Geordi is Technobabble Guy this week. He is the one who makes it possible for them to explore the Enterprise and the warbird, and his scrutiny of the situation makes it clear that while they are shielded from the effects of the distortion, they are not immune to it.
THOUGHTS
With Brannon Braga scripting an episode centering around time moving backward and forward, complete with the Enterprise exploding and un-exploding at one point, it's impossible to watch Timescape without recalling Season Five's Cause and Effect. The earlier episode was better (was arguably Braga's best of the franchise), but that doesn't keep this from being a worthy episode in its own right.
As is true of most episodes, Timescape is much more intriguing while the characters are investigating than it is once the situation becomes clear. The reason for the time anomalies, involving aliens from an alternate time continuum trying to protect their offspring, is not terribly interesting and feels perfuctory, as if Braga stapled something onto the episode to justify "the cool stuff." As a result, the last ten minutes or so of the show represent by far its weakest portion.
However, the actual scenario, with the Enterprise frozen in time while Picard and his companions investigate, is very effective. There are several very memorable moments here: Picard's close encounter with a bowl of rotting fruit, which an eyeblink goes from rotting to disintegrated; Picard drawing a smiley face in the gas cloud of a warp explosion; Troi looking on in horror at the frozen tableau of a Romulan firing his disruptor into a helpless Dr. Crusher.
The episode may be a collection of moments, with the story largely connecting one moment to the next - but these moments come at a steady pace, and each of them creates a reaction. I knew while watching that the episode was utter nonsense - but that didn't stop me from being sucked in. It's a roller coaster style episode: It doesn't matter that the destination isn't too interesting, as long as the ride throws you through a few fun loops along the way.
A fun 45 minute ride, and one that I will certainly take again in the future.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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