time travel Archive

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Captain’s Holiday”

– June 27, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

captainsholiday101 “Captain’s Holiday”
Written by Ira Steven Behr
Directed by Chip Chalmers

Season 3, Episode 19
Original air date: April 2, 1990
Star date: 43745.2

Mission summary

Two overdressed aliens transport to the paradise planet Risa… If this sounds like the opening to a joke, you aren’t far off. Unlike most of the people on holiday there, these aliens aren’t looking for a relaxing getaway on a suns-lit beach; they’re only after one thing: Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who wouldn’t be caught dead at a resort like that. When they’re informed that he isn’t there and has no vacation plans on the schedule, they confidently state: “He will come.” Spoilers!

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Tags: action hero, archaeology, ferengi, handwaving mumblemumble, picard gets in a punch, picard is a chuck norris joke, picard's love life, risa, rocks, sexism, sexual harassment, shore leave, time travel, transporters solve everything, wibbly wobbly timey-wimey

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Yesterday’s Enterprise”

Eugene Myers

– April 11, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

yent111 “Yesterday’s Enterprise”
Written by Ira Steven Behr, Richard Manning, Hans Beimler, & Ronald D. Moore (story by Trent Christopher Ganino & Eric A. Stillwell)
Directed by David Carson

Season 3, Episode 15
Original air date: February 19, 1990
Star date: 43625.2

Mission summary

The Enterprise-D runs across an anomaly that may or may not be there. While they try to sort through their confusing, contradictory sensor readings, something emerges… As another ship crosses the threshold, everything and everyone shifts on the Enterprise-D: Their uniforms now have high collars, belts with phasers, and black cuffs. Nothing gets by Guinan; in the suddenly bustling Ten Forward, the wise and cryptic bartender notes, “This isn’t right. It’s changed.” The mystery deepens: On the now thematically darker Bridge, Worf has been replaced at tactical by an old face, Lt. Tasha Yar, who reports that the other vessel is a Federation starship, registry NCC-1701… C: U.S.S. Enterprise.

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Tags: a good way to die, alternate history, angry klingons, history lessons, horrible deaths, parallel universe, romulans, time travel, war, wibbly wobbly timey-wimey

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Time Squared”

Eugene Myers

– September 13, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Time Squared”
Written by Maurice Hurley, story by Kurt Michael Bensmiller
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan

Season 2, Episode 13
Original air date: April 3, 1989
Star date: 42679.2

Mission summary

Riker decides to cook scrambled Owon eggs the old-fashioned way for his friends, but it turns out that while food prepared by the computer might lack “flair or individuality,” the resulting “artistry” is not necessarily palatable. Only Worf is disappointed when their meal is interrupted by an urgent call to the Bridge: sensors have picked up a signal from a Federation shuttlecraft out in the middle of nowhere, with one human aboard.

They intercept and pull the unidentified craft into their shuttle bay, only to discover that it’s one of their own—the El-Baz, shuttlecraft 5. What! Impossible! They already have one of those. When they open her up, they summon Captain Picard to take a look, because there’s another Picard inside. Inconceivable!

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Tags: daddy issues, double your pleasure, energy vortex, handwaving mumblemumble, it was all a dream, mysteries, reverse the polarity, stuff is backwards, time travel

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “We’ll Always Have Paris”

Torie Atkinson

– May 3, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“We’ll Always Have Paris”
Written by Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Robert Becker

Season 1, Episode 24
Original air date: May 2, 1988
Star date: 41697.9

Mission summary

The Enterprise is headed to Sarona VIII for some shore leave, but Picard has gotten a headstart by fencing with a lieutenant. Though he loses the first point he wins the second–twice, as time seems to repeat itself in an eerie deja vu effect. The bridge confirms the temporal anomaly, and they pick up a distress signal from a Paul Manheim, reknowned wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey tinkerer who left Earth fifteen years ago to experiment with multiple dimensions and nonlinear time.

Picard reacts strongly to news of Manheim. Because he’s got a few hours to kill before the ship reaches Manheim, Picard goes to the holodeck to recreate Paris twenty-two years earlier. There he runs into a woman waiting for a man who never shows. She asks Picard why her beau did not come, and Picard tells her it was because ~~of Nazis~~ he was afraid. He then chastises himself for indulging in such fantasies and goes back to the bridge.

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Tags: benign doubles, casablanca, data the expendable, emotion, handwaving mumblemumble, loneliness, lost love, love stories, parallel universes, Picard acts weird, picard is french, science!, star-crossed lovers, time travel, wibbly wobbly timey-wimey

Re-Watching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– October 27, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Movies

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Screenplay by: Steve Meerson & Peter Krikes and
Harve Bennett & Nicholas Meyer
Story by: Leonard Nimoy & Harve Bennett
Produced by: Harve Bennett
Directed by: Leonard Nimoy

Release date: November 26, 1986
Stardate: 8390.0 (aka 1986)

Mission Summary

The crew of the Enterprise has been court-martialed by Klingon request for the ship stolen and the lives lost in Star Trek III. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, a mysterious probe that disables just about everything is headed straight for Earth. The probe sends a signal no one can understand, and when it doesn’t get a response it begins to vaporize the Earth’s oceans and ionize its atmosphere: a recipe for disaster. Spock, newly born again, discovers that the signal is the song of the humpback whale: extinct since the 21st century. In classic Star Trek fashion, the crew go back in time to 1986 San Francisco to nab themselves some humpback whales.

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Tags: admirals, also probably nuclear vessels, angry klingons, Cold War, computers, court-martial, curious lack of moby dick references, double dumbasses, emotional Spock, giant fish tanks, i don't know you well enough to get into that, mind melds, movies, nuclear wessels, russians, time travel, transparent aluminum, whale biologist, whales

Star Trek: The Animated Series Re-Watch: “Yesteryear”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– May 26, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“Yesteryear”
Written by D.C. Fontana
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 2
Production episode: 22003
Original air date: September 15, 1973
Star date: 5373.4

Mission summary

The Enterprise crew is assigned to help a bird creature and a woman historian with their survey of Federation history via Harlan Ellison’s^TM Guardian of Forever, but they somehow end up altering the timeline. Again. Whoops!

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Tags: andorians, emotion, emotional Spock, handwaving mumblemumble, parallel universes, silhouettes, time travel, vulcan

Star Trek Re-Watch: “All Our Yesterdays”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– March 10, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“All Our Yesterdays”
Written by Jean Lisette Aroeste
Directed by Marvin Chomsky

Season 3, Episode 23
Production episode: 3×23
Original air date: March 14, 1969
Star date: 5943.7

Mission summary

Enterprise arrives at Sarpeidon three-and-a-half hours before its star, Beta Niobe, goes supernova, only to discover that the planet has already been evacuated. Where everyone has gone is anyone’s guess, since Sarpeidon hadn’t yet discovered space travel. A strong power reading on the surface leads Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy to some sort of archive, where they are greeted by an old librarian, Mr. Atoz. The poor guy is so happy to have patrons to serve, he doesn’t even notice they’re out-of-towners or bother to check their library cards. Kirk asks him where everyone went, but Atoz is too senile or focused on helping them to give him a straight answer.

ATOZ: It depended on the individual, of course. If you wish to trace a specific person, I’m sorry, but that information is confidential.
MCCOY: No, no particular person, just people in general. Where did they go?
ATOZ: Ah, you find it difficult to choose, is that it? Yes, a wide range of alternatives is a mixed blessing, but perhaps I can help. Would you step this way, please?

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Tags: androids, call PETA, computers, emotional Spock, fully clothed man-wrestling, glacial age, it's almost over, libraries are cool, logic, loneliness, old men, sexy ladies, shakespeare, supernova, time travel, Vulcan sex, witches, yesterday

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Assignment: Earth”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– July 15, 2010 5:16 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“Assignment: Earth”
Written by Art Wallace (story by Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace)
Directed by Marc Daniels

Season 2, Episode 26
Production episode: 2×26
Original air date: March 29, 1968
Star date: 1968

Mission summary

While on a frivolous time travel mission to research Earth’s history, circa 1968, Enterprise accidentally intercepts a transporter signal from an unknown source over a thousand light years away. A well-dressed man holding a black cat beams onto their transporter pad and looks at them dramatically.

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Tags: black cats, Cold War, computers, mysterious strangers, nasa, nosy secretaries, perfect bodies, stock footage, time travel

Tribbles Week: Re-watching Deep Space Nine’s “Trials and Tribble-ations”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– April 14, 2010 2:09 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

The Re-Watch has come upon “The Trouble with Tribbles,” easily the most celebrated episode of the entire original series (if not the whole franchise). It would be wrong—nay, criminal—if we did not properly do our own tribute. As such, we are taking the opportunity to devote this week to everyone’s favorite furry little breeding factory, the Tribble.

“Trials and Tribble-ations”
Story By Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler, & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Teleplay By Ronald D. Moore & René Echevarria
Directed by Jonathan West

Season 5, Episode 6
Production episode: 5×06
Original air date: November 4, 1996
Star date: 3614.9

Mission Summary:

Dulmur and Lucsly from Temporal Investigations have arrived (on time…) on Deep Space 9, wishing to see Captain Sisko. They are dour, humorless g-men, and not ones for chit-chat. They ask him point blank, “Why did you take the Defiant back in time?”

Sisko explains that it was an accident, and Dulmur and Lucsly are thankful, at least, that he doesn’t try and claim a predestination paradox. “We hate those,” Lucsly says.

LUCSLY: So, what happened?
SISKO: This may take some time.
DULMUR: Is that a joke?
SISKO: No.
LUCSLY: Good.
DULMUR: We hate those too.

Sisko begins his story…

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Tags: changing history, deep space 9, fan culture, klingons, predestination paradoxes, star trek's 30th anniversary, temporal investigations, time travel, tribbles, tributes

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The City on the Edge of Forever”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– July 9, 2009 7:44 pmPosted in: Favorites, TOS Re-Watch

“The City on the Edge of Forever”
Written by Harlan Ellison^TM
Directed by Joseph Pevney

Season 1, Episode 28
Production episode: 1x 28
Original air date: April 6, 1967
Star date: no star date (dun dun dun)

Mission summary
The Enterprise is in shaky orbit around a planet, rocking back and forth like a seafaring vessel as “ripples in time” from the surface wash over the ship. An explosion at the helm knocks Sulu unconscious and McCoy is summoned to the bridge to administer medical assistance. He gives Sulu a small dose of “cordrazine,” a powerful and dangerous stimulant, which revives him in a very good mood. Another time ripple rocks the ship and McCoy accidentally empties the entire hypospray of cordrazine into his stomach. He immediately flips out, ranting “Killers! Assassins!” and fleeing the Bridge. The drug has driven him mad, with the paranoid delusion that people are trying to kill him. He attacks the Transporter Chief and beams down to the planet to escape.

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