“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.
Picard’s “military log” for “combat date” 43625.2, in which he refers to the Enterprise-D as a battleship, helps paint an even bleaker picture of the situation. Their records indicate that their predecessor disappeared–presumed destroyed–22 years earlier near a Klingon outpost, Narendra III, which suggests the Enterprise-C has traveled through a temporal rift to its future. A distress signal fills in some of the details: They were attacked by Romulans. Riker leads an away team to the crippled ship to recover its crew, render assistance, and get it battle ready.
Guinan makes a rare appearance on the Bridge and tells the captain that things aren’t “right.” She remembers things differently; there should be children on the ship, and its mission is meant to be peaceful, not waging a war against the Klingons. “That ship from the past is not supposed to be here,” she says. “It’s got to go back.” Picard is incredulous; if this information had come from anyone but Guinan, he would have discounted it entirely.
Dr. Crusher patches up Captain Rachel Garrett and her crew from the Enterprise-C. Picard finally admits to Garrett that she’s now in the future, and she explains that they were attempting to help the Klingon outpost, which was under attack by four Romulan warbirds. Picard gives her some bad news:
The Narendra Three outpost was destroyed. It is regrettable that you did not succeed. A Federation starship rescuing a Klingon outpost might have averted twenty years of war.
Why, things might have turned out so differently! While Yar liaisons with a senior officer from the Enterprise-C (nudge nudge, wink wink), Lt. Richard Castillo, Picard begins entertaining the notion that they should send them back to put right what once went wrong. Data confirms that it is possible–and that it would be a suicide mission. The captain tries to get more information from Guinan.
GUINAN: There is no more. I wish there were. I wish I could prove it. But I can’t.
PICARD: Then I can’t ask them to go back.
GUINAN: You’ve got to.
PICARD: Guinan, they will die moments after they return. How can I ask them to sacrifice themselves based solely on your intuition?
GUINAN: I don’t know. But I do know that this is a mistake. Every fiber in my being says this is a mistake. I can’t explain it to myself so I can’t explain it to you. I only know that I’m right.
PICARD: Who is to say that this history is any less proper than the other?
GUINAN: I suppose I am.
PICARD: Not good enough, damn it. Not good enough. I will not ask them to die.
GUINAN: Forty billion people have already died. This war’s not supposed to be happening. You’ve got to send those people back to correct this.
PICARD: And what is to guarantee that if they go back they will succeed? Every instinct tells me this is wrong, it is dangerous, it is futile.
GUINAN: We’ve known each other a long time. You have never known me to impose myself on anyone or take a stance based on trivial or whimsical perceptions. This time line must not be allowed to continue. Now, I’ve told you what you must do. You have only your trust in me to help you decide to do it.
Picard calls a meeting, but he’s already made up his mind: He’s listening to Guinan. It turns out the Federation is on the verge of losing the war, and this is their last, best hope for peace–by preventing the war from happening in the first place.
Garrett’s game, but she’s soon killed in a surprise attack by the Klingons, leaving Castillo in command to carry out their final mission. Yar sends him off with a passionate kiss, then seeks out Guinan to question her about the odd looks she’s been giving her. Yar pressures her to share her fate in the alternate timeline; all Guinan knows is that she was killed stupidly.
To avoid this unappealing fate, Yar convinces Picard to let her transfer to the Enterprise-C, helping to even the balance of Garrett’s loss and give herself a meaningful death she can, uh, live with.
Klingon ships attack as the Enterprise-C limps back toward the temporal rift. Enterprise-D takes a heavy beating while holding them off. The Galaxy-class battleship begins falling apart under the superior assault: shields are failing, a warp core breach is imminent, and the Bridge is burning. Commander Riker is killed in an explosion. Picard leaps into action to take down as many Klingons as he can before the ship is lost, and Enterprise-C crosses back into the rift…
And things change back to normal. In the restored timeline, the anomalous sensor reading vanish as abruptly as they appeared. The Enterprise crew prepares to resume a course to Archer IV, none the wiser that anything strange ever happened. Guinan calls the Bridge to check up on stuff, and reassured that reality is as it should be, she asks Geordi to tell her about Tasha Yar.
Analysis
I’m sure no one is surprised to learn that this is one of my favorite episodes of TNG, and that hasn’t changed in the slightest. This is simply among the best episodes ever done, and it seems that many other fans and production staff agree with me; it’s made a number of “best of” lists, and most notably was featured in the viewer’s choice marathon that coincided with the final episode in 1994.
Okay, I’ll admit that there’s a lot of hand-holding in the script, as they painstakingly connect the dots so viewers would know what the heck was going on. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve seen it so many times before, or because I’m such a nerd about parallel universes, but I had no trouble following along–almost to the point of impatience. But hey, this was a pretty bold story, one that was quite literally darker than most we’d seen up to that point. I should be annoyed that Guinan’s strange intuition is never really explained in the series continuity, ever, or that we never find out what past she and Picard share. And to be honest, when I first saw TNG, I had never heard of the whole “magical negro” trope…
But I tell you, this episode is exciting, not least because it fills in some of the time between Kirk’s era and the TNG years, with the introduction of the Enterprise-C. (It hits some of the same buttons for me that “Babylon Squared” on Babylon 5 does, my favorite episode of the first season in which the Babylon 4 station reappears due to a temporal anomaly…) And I love this vessel, a beautiful melding of the best features of the Constitution-class and Galaxy-class designs. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” also has high stakes, gruesome deaths, and it looks and sounds more cinematic than anything on the show previously. I’m also a sucker for stories in which one ship or one person makes a huge impact for others–even in failure; we always root for the Enterprise to survive, but the idea that one crew’s sacrifice could still be a victory of sorts is gratifying.
The episode title even hearkens back to some of the original series-style episode titles, and this was the closest TNG ever got to giving us a “mirror universe” episode. There is so much attention to detail, with many subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the sets, costumes, sounds, even makeup to illustrate the differences in the timeline; it’s easy to miss some of them. (In fact, even the production crew missed one. The Nitpicker’s Guide by Phil Farrand first made me aware that Geordi’s uniform in the last scene still has black cuffs from the alternate timeline, and now I can’t unsee it!) It feels like a lot of work and money went into redesigning the Bridge for a one-off appearance, but I think it pays off.
If anything, all this loving attention might highlight the fact that perhaps more things should be different. Picard scoffs at the idea of children on Enterprise, but there’s one sitting right there on his bridge: Wesley Crusher, in uniform for the first time with the full rank of Ensign. I guess they promote people young during the war, or they made an exception for Dr. Crusher. But part of the charm is extrapolating what else might be different in this timeline. I was at first surprised that Picard would still be as just and moral as the captain we know, weighing the lives of the Enterprise-C’s crew. But then I realized the timeline had changed only 22 years before, when he was already an adult with his values in place. So really, Wesley should have been different, since he grew up knowing only war.
This episode also gives us our first woman captain, of the Starfleet flagship no less, though she isn’t long for the world. And it was unexpectedly great to see Tasha again, Denise Crosby’s best acting to date. And it’s pretty amazing that Guinan basically preserves the timeline, right?
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 6 (on a scale of 1-6)
Thread Alert: I’ve always liked the red Starfleet uniform jackets introduced in Star Trek II and used for the rest of the original series films. It’s neat when they turn up on TNG, mostly in time travel episodes to the recent past, but somehow the missing turtleneck really throws the whole look off. I recall reading (or maybe one of the commenters here mentioned?) that those collars were supplied by only one source and were impossible to replace. Otherwise, I really like the alternate, militaristic TNG uniforms used throughout, with their higher collars, Sam Browne belts, and black cuffs.
Best Line: Picard: “Let’s make sure that history never forgets… the name… Enterprise.”
Trivia/Other Notes: The origin of this episode lies in two separate scripts, one from Ganino in which a past Enterprise returns with no alteration to the timeline, and one where a Vulcan science team messing with Harlan Ellison’s™ Guardian of Forever accidentally kills their philosophical leader Surak, and Ambassador Sarek must travel back in time to replace him. (Now that sounds a bit like “Babylon Squared” and “War Without End,” doesn’t it?) Either way, Tasha Yar would have returned to face a better death.
The episode was rushed into production to meet Denise Crosby’s and Whoopi Goldberg’s schedules, requiring the script to be written in a few days over the Thanksgiving holiday by four writers. Michael Piller did a final polish, but went uncredited because of Writer’s Guild regulations.
If the budget and time had allowed, Wesley would have been decapitated onscreen and Data would have been electrocuted. Now there’s an alternate timeline I’d like to visit.
Christopher McDonald (Castillo) had auditioned for the role of Commander Riker. He was also raised in Romulus, New York.
Tricia O’Neil (Garrett) returned to Star Trek as a Klingon in the sixth season of TNG and a Cardassian on DS9.
The consequences of this episode are seen in the two-part episode “Redemption,” in which Denise Crosby returns to play Yar’s daughter, Sela.
The discovery of planet Archer IV is seen on Enterprise (“Strange New World”). The planet is named after Captain Jonathan Archer, the first captain of a starship named Enterprise.
Roberto Orci cites this episode as the main inspiration for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, though that film abandons the concept of a single alterable timeline.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 14 – “A Matter of Perspective.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 16 – “The Offspring.”
Absolutely one of the best episodes from the entire series. It’s astonishing that they cobbled it together from two separate stories over a long weekend. And the leftovers obviously gave them more ideas. Simply bringing back Sarek resulted in another excellent episode and the business with Sarek becoming Surak may have influenced the whole Spock becomes the apostle to the Romulans thing.
The weakest point is the business with Guinan. The whole “Ooh, she’s so mysterious” thing never quite gelled, no matter how hard they tried, and they went to the well of Guinan senses something is wrong too often. There’s also the problem of how Guinan first met Picard (though not necessarily the other way around; which of them is River Song?) if Picard doesn’t wind up in 19th century San Francisco. But then even the best time travel stories start to get shaky if you poke at them too closely.
Decapitating Wesley sounds like a bit of gruesomely unnecessary fan-service for the Wesley haters. The character had finally started to turn around this season and was by no means as awful as he had been. Plus, they decided he looked good in a real uniform and gave him one a few weeks down the line.
They must have found a source for those collars at some point. Kelsey Grammer has one in “Cause and Effect” in season five, and I think the future uniforms from the various Time Patrol stories on Voyager feature something similar.
Single. Best Star Trek Episode. Ever.
I’ve always been a sucker for alternative histories and timelines, but this episode just shines. Among its great qualities:
* An immaculate script, with hardly a line out of place or a flicker to spare. Clearly establishes a distinct world and world history in mere moments, but still has time to imbue the characters with additional depth. Though he’s only on the screen a few seconds, the script even has time to yield some humorous dimension to Worf.
* The Federation is at WAR. With a familiar enemy. And losing.
* Dark, dark. Battlestar Galactica dark.
* The captain is never more incisive and commanding than here. There’s a grim, no-nonsense fatalism to this war captain, yet he is still capable of compassion for his crew.
* Related to above, I get the sense it is the more the utter hopelessness of the current situation more than Guinan’s persuasion or Picard’s confidence in her gifts that girds the captain’s decision: Ultimately, this is not a reality worth preserving.
* Does anyone else on board know what the captain knows, that the Federation has only a few months of life remaining? He confides it in whispers to Garrett, as if the truth revealed would be unbearable to the crew.
* Do we ever see another woman on TNG in actual command of a Federation starship? I’m wracking my brains to think of one. There was a woman starship captain in Season One, but we see her only in isolation, and she barely speaks a word. At any rate, Garrett gives a believable, commanding tough-as-brass-nails performance. She strikes a tone of command Janeway would have to work at.
* Enterprise Captain Garrett brushes off the doctor, and the doctor snipes back. Some things transcend all realities.
* All the little details that tell us this is another reality. Hardest to accept among them is that the Enterprise D, lavishly configured as it is, could be a Federation battleship.
* The ONLY time Yar is portrayed in a flattering light. Subsequent yarns, where we learn she was taken alive and subjected to a life of daily rape and captivity, diminish this.
* Deanna Troi does not give advice, nor is she asked for advice. She does not appear at all in the alternate timeline. This is also her finest appearance in the series.
* Wesley never looks or acts better than here. If this kid was on our familiar Enterprise-D, no fanboy would’ve wanted him gone.
* This is not our Enterprise, and never was! This crew and their histories disappear forever never to be seen again, like the ‘Mirror Mirror’ Kirk and crew. No one from “our” Enterprise interacts in anyway with this crew. That makes it really unique among alt-timeline stories.
* Piller: “Hell, Picard sends 500 people back to their death on the word of the bartender. Come on, that’s hard.”
Love it.
I loved this episode- but is 22 years really long enough for such drastic changes in uniform and ship design? Remember 22 years ago for us is 1991. While there are obvious technological changes, a member of our military from 1991 would still see the same aircraft carriers, most of the same aircraft, tanks, etc. Even uniform design hasn’t changed that much- watch videos from the first Gulf War.
Thoughts?
@2 Lemnoc
Memory Alpha reminded me how this episode influenced Diane Duane’s Dark Mirror and Peter David’s Q-Squared–two TNG novels I loved. At some point I’ll have to reread them and post some thoughts, but I like this non-canonical explanation for Troi’s absence:
“The novel Q-Squared establishes that in the military timeline from this episode, Deanna Troi’s absence from the Enterprise was due to the Betazoids being wiped out by the Klingons. The novel also indicates that in this version of the military universe, when the Enterprise encountered the Enterprise-C, the entire crew had already perished- life support having failed and the crew dying over a day before the Enterprise-D arrived in the area-, and so Picard simply orders the ship’s destruction.”
@3 Scott
I think the distinction here is that the timeline changed before the TNG-era uniforms were designed or the Galaxy-class starship was on anyone’s drafting board. In wartime, I believe there might be differences in aesthetics and ship construction. The uniforms are not too different; I mean, they even changed over the course of three seasons, when you think about it, and the addition of phasers and belts makes sense. But the Enterprise possibly should be more different. As Lemnoc points out, aside from some cosmetic changes, the ship seems to have about the same military capabilities in either timeline. Maybe it needs an extra phaser cannon or something, as in “All Good Things…”
@5 Eugene
You make some valid points, and in wartime technology (at least for the military) tends to advance at a more rapid rate than in peacetime out of necessity. I do agree that the Enterprise-D should have had some more advanced weaponry and a cloaking device in the changed military timeline.
@3 Scott
Those are good points. Starfleet apparently has a history of rapid uniform changes, though. The jumpsuits of TMP are nothing like the TOS uniforms and it’s only been 10 or 12 years. Then immediately following that came the red uniforms with turtleneck/dickey, which did away with the old color coding scheme. TNG changed uniforms 3 times in the first 3 years. The original unitards could be seen as a callback to TOS, but red and gold were switched. Later on, they kept changing uniforms as a way to give the various series their own.
As for ship design, there really should have been a lot of old designs still around, but we didn’t see other Starfleet ships all that often. It was OK for Enterprise to be different, since it was meant to be a new ship with new technologies, but yeah we should have seen more ships like the C from time to time.
@6 Scott
You’re right that war would likely dispense with any pretense for the Federation not to employ cloaking technology. But the technology wouldn’t be applied herein any case; the D is pretty clearly (and appropriately) providing cover to the C. Maybe the D does have the capacity, wouldn’t use it here.
—
One other gem in this episode is when Guinan tells the captain he can either take her word or forget it. Leaves. In the following close up, Stewart is practically exploding, trembling with exasperation and no retort. Beautiful.
A fabulous episode. One of my favorites. One downside was that I found myself wishing the way the Enterprise D and her crew looked and acted in this episode was far more appealing ( and believable on a ship with hierarchal command structure ) than much of the series so far. Call me old school but it almost hearkened back to the TOS era.
Another interesting difference was that in this timeline, there was apparently less of a cozy nature to Picard and Riker’s relationship ( “I believe I’m aware of your opinion, Number One” ).
A final note; I find the score to this episode heartbreaking at times…one of the few TNG scores that I find memorable. The cue when Guinan reveals Tasha’s fate to her and when Picard let’s her go to NCC-1701-C make me well up each time.
The one thing I would have changed; During the final battle, when NCC-1701-D is taking so much damage and destruction is imminent, it would have been cool ( and perhaps shocking ) to see the Enterprise-D beginning to blow-up as the Enterprise-C enters the rift. Then have the jump cut to the original timeline. I think that would have added even more impact… knowing that in the altered history, the “D” and our familiar crew was destroyed.
Sorry, that sentence should have read: “One downside was that I found myself THINKING..” not “wishing”.
One thing we’ve forgotten in our gushing over this episode is that this is where Guinan introduced Worf to prune juice. It gave us a running gag that went across two series.
@11 DemetriosX
Am I mistaken that this is also the first time someone makes Worf laugh?
Can anyone not love this episode?
This hits all the right notes for me in all the right ways.
1. One person can make a difference. Tasha Yar gets a better send-off than she ever deserved (soon to be diminished, as Lemnoc mentions). I appreciate that she does this for her own reasons, and not for Picard’s or Guinan’s or anyone else’s. Sure she does it for Castillo, and to a lesser extent for the promise of a better history, but mostly she does it for herself–for honor. It’s basically the only personality trait the show ever gave her and they let it feel genuine for the first time. It’s… dare I say it?… empowered. I also like the sweet awkwardness of her and Castillo’s budding relationship, awkward goodbyes, and sad but resolute final decision. They both take joy in the same things and even in the end, Castillo has some hope, however small, that they would meet again (but of course he knows not then how soon).
2. One event can change history. #1 is perhaps tied to #2 here, but the show beautifully conveys the paradoxes and surprises and collateral effects of seemingly minor events. I love historical catalysts like this, ways in which one little thing changed everything. I was thinking about this recently with the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and how there were so many things that would have avoided or mitigated the disaster that took place. If there had been enough life boats, if they had turned into the iceberg instead of away from it, if they hadn’t been going at max speed, if only four compartments had flooded instead of five, etc. It’s not so incredible to believe that the Federation, in a single desperate act of human kindness, showed just the Klingon sense of honor that proved a friendship was possible.I love this idea.
3. Experiences shape people, but there’s also an unalterable innateness. Everyone here is different yet very much the same, Picard most of all. This Picard is shaped by war, and I agree with Lemnoc that he’s persuaded more by the sorry state of this universe than by a strong conviction in Guinan. And Dep1701’s comment makes me want to re-re-watch the episode just to track Picard again, because the final scene implies that the decision Picard was making–the real decision beneath the surface, all along–wasn’t whether to send Garrett’s crew to their deaths, but his own. I think he knew that it would be a suicide mission for the both of them, either at this moment or in the next six months or in the decades of submission to follow, and this is a last, desperate hope for a better future.
And like Dep1701, I also really like the moment where Picard shuts down Riker, showing the change in their relationship.
4. All successes have a cost. I like the zero-sum aspect of all this, which I think is critical to any kind of mirror universe story. They can’t both be saved. They can’t send an empty ship through the portal, they can’t preserve both the past and the future. There’s a point at which you have to weigh the bad choices and pick the one that helps the most. Picard sacrifices two ships to save tends of billions of lives. It’s very Star Trek II in that way, and again I admire it a great deal for taking that plunge.
5. Lighting is more effective than a good script. Okay so this isn’t a theme but even if this were a Tasha Yar/Data boink story I would love it anyway just because it’s a BRILLIANT primer on what lighting can do. As a (I suppose at this point, former?) lighting designer, I squee over the effective use of toplight to minimize atmospheric light and create eerie shadows, and the blasts of sidelight to add depth to the action scenes. The “good” times are frontlight, flat and consistent and neutral. But the side and toplight create a dynamism that works very well here, and most importantly, feels like a different place and a different space.
Sadly, my complaints:
1. Magical negro. This is just awful and looks awful and feels awful and no part of it works. The idea of Guinan as an embodiment of space woo is a depressing waste of talent and opportunity. We hates it, precious. It wouldn’t be so bad if it happened once, but the show winds up going to this well over and over again and it’s an embarrassment.
2. The rest of Garrett’s crew. Okay, so there’s a perfunctory “some of the crew want to go back” line, but I am having a SERIOUSLY difficult time imagining that all 125 people who narrowly escaped death would be eager to go back and finish the job. My guess is some would feel they had been given a second chance. And given that Picard is being hush-hush over the real reasons, I just don’t see a mass movement to die for a seemingly pointless cause. I wish the show had had the time and interest to find out what the non-Castillos felt about this, and the tension that must have created, and if there were any defectors, and if it mattered. Because if the only people who NEED to be there are in engineering and on the bridge, then can’t the other 100 stay on the D with a slightly better chance of survival?
3. Starfleet. Where are they in all this?! Don’t you think they’d be involved in this kind of thing?
Still, this is hands-down one of the best of the series. Warp 6.
—many of us–throughout our relationship with star trek–have come to our own conclusions about the best example of the canon—some are still ‘city on the edge of forever’ fans–or perhaps they hold up ‘wrath of khan’ as the best product—to me–this episode and ‘all good things’–are the two best trek episodes ever–the scenes in this, are relentless–from guinan and worf–(yes, i think this is the only time he laughs on tng)—two aliens having a conversation about prune juice?–that is roddenberry through and through—the darkness in the shots weighs on the mood—especially on the bridge–guinan’s scenes with the captain, at first worried then resolute—this is the point in the series where ms.goldberg starts to become that mysterious woman from that scattered race we all remember, i’m glad she’s around as a guide—the briefing in the ready room when the dots are connected–‘who knows if we’re even dead or alive’?—tasha and the captain—amazing job ms. crosby–your character is far more approachable and organic this time, this was your episode—pathos, and tragedy—you say this was written in rapid fashion?–it has the feeling of urgency– another reason to admire this work—
@12 Lemnoc
I think this is the first time Worf laughs. I’m not sure he’s ever even smirked up to this point. Not that he ever laughed much in his entire run through 2 shows and all the movies, but he does seem to start to loosen up right here. (OK, I realized “loosen up” may have been a bit too apposite for the prune juice moment, but I decided to leave it.)
Something I keep forgetting to mention: Apparently, they’ve tried to retcon Guinan’s perception of time gone wrong in the later books as the result of her experiences with the Nexus. That’s a bit hard to buy really and certainly doesn’t give them any excuses here.
@11 DemetriosX
I wanted to mention the prune juice, but I figure we can’t mention everything — we need all of you to help! And look, it worked :)
@13 Torie
Good point on Garrett’s crew, but on the other hand, would they want to live in such a bleak future, particularly if they knew their presence on the C might have helped prevent it? They made such a big deal about Garrett’s death, and how the ship wasn’t meant to go back without her… I was struck later by the fact that they essentially traded one woman for another, even if Yar didn’t take command. Not sure how I feel about that.
And yeah, good call about Starfleet. Maybe they were too far away to bother? Or it’s possible that they knew Starfleet would say, “Oh, another ship! Excellent. Get it back into service and forget this nonsense about an alternate timeline. Who do you think you are, James Kirk? The man was a menace.”
@15 DemetriosX
I keep waffling on whether to comment on the non-canonical Trek trivia, but I found that one interesting. I think episodes like this certainly suggested they put Guinan in the Nexus in Generations, but I just have to assume at this point in the series, they were just using her because she was conveniently mysterious.
Was it just the different lighting or my imagination, or were Data’s eyes different in the alternate timeline?
Does raise the question, if one wants to get picky, about why it is the Federation flagship is operating alone without an armada. I mean, that’s kinda what being a flagship is all about, leading a fleet.
OTOH, I’m glad the Higher Ups weren’t consulted; made the decision all Picard’s and he handled the duty well. in fact, most of the episode was him going from place to place gathering pieces of information that allowed him to make the decision. Most of the time in ST, the admirals are effete ignoramuses and busybodies; and the whole notion of consulting them vitiates the feeling of a remote and isolated cosmos.
As for why the admiralty was not consulted, the reasons could be many. One being a general order to maintain radio silence while operating in enemy space.
I’ve been hesitant to comment and mark myself as the odd man out but the truth is, I’m not particularly fond of this episode.
Generally, I agree that it was extremely well written and beautifully put together. Production value alone was better than almost anything else we’ve seen, even with the mistakes that were made due to the particularly tight production timeline. But the story itself doesn’t really do anything for me. Then again, Star Trek is generally responsible for my distaste regarding time travel stories in the first place, and by the time this episode showed up in my own personal chronology, I was outright disdainful of them.
Aside from that, I don’t like Denise Crosby or Yar and I can’t help but blame this episode for every annoying instance in which the actress crops back up again like a bad rash. I agree that it was a great opportunity for her character to get a decent death, but the thing is, I liked that her death was so casual the first time around because that’s so contrary to popular storytelling. I never wanted her to get a do-over death. To say nothing of the notion that she doesn’t actually die when she goes back and suffers who knows what sort of torture and torment at the hands of the Romulans.
Finally, I just don’t like dark warlike Trek. I’m not surprised at all that this episode inspired Abrams in his making of the reboot, and frankly that alone makes me like this episode even less. Abrams is all about the dark warlike Trek and I hate it so much I can’t even stand to watch the previews for Into Darkness. If going back in time and dropping this episode from the line-up somehow prevented Abrams from making Star Trek and Into Darkness (to say nothing of Denise Crosby in that crazy Romulan hairdo) then I’d consider it a noble cause.
Yes. This is a strong episode. So good that it almost seems out of place with the preceding episodes.
Others have commented on Wesley being in uniform, but I don’t think anyone has touched on this point. Seeing Wesley in uniform could be taken as a visual clue to the nature of the information Picard is guarding. When Picard finally shares that information with the viewers, Wesley being in the uniform confirms this. Star Fleet is desperate enough to do what Germany did during the declining months of WWII. They put uniforms on children and old men then placed them in combat situations. How many other teenagers might we see if given a chance to wander through the ship in this timeline?
For me, the most thought provoking line is Picard’s “Who is to say that this history is any less proper than the other?” What I find interesting is that that line can be used with equal resolve by beings in any timeline.
@18 Toryx
This is a great observation in general about the substitution over time of combat and violence versus exploration and human adventure in ST. I suppose what redeems this episode is that it ultimately is about avoiding a future of combat and violence.
The Enterprise-C perhaps makes the most noble sacrifice among all our Enterprises in this regard, another captain’s solution to the no-win scenario.
@18 Toryx
No one should ever hesitate to disagree with us! Of course these things are a matter of taste, and we all have certain things that we love in fiction (time travel and alternate universes for me) and things that we hate (for me, it’s wiping people’s memories).
Personally I do like an edgier Trek, which feels more dramatic and more real to me than an idyllic future. But you’re right that Tasha’s original death, as empty as it was, is more realistic. It wasn’t her death that bothered me so much as how little impact it had on her crewmates, and ultimately the series. She was just a redshirt who got to hang out with the rest of the crew and maybe lasted longer than most. Granted, no one will notice her sacrifice this time around, except for us and Guinan, though her crew will find out about it later.
And it seems to me that war (primarily, averting it) was always a big part of the original series, and it had some very dark moments, and this is especially true of the films. I guess dark time travel stories are what many other fans want too because if you look at the best films, they revisit these themes: Star Trek II (dark), IV (time travel), VI (war), First Contact (dark/time travel/war). I don’t blame you for being tired of time travel stories, but fortunately Star Trek found lots of interesting ways to do it differently.
@ 16 Eugene
Garrett’s crew: I’m sure some of them would have preferred to go back, no question. But ALL 125? I just don’t buy that, and in any case I would have liked to see that as a struggle rather than just have it dismissed with one line from the captain that this plan is universally accepted.
@ 17 Lemnoc
Maybe they’re alone because the war is really going that badly? It just seems weird to me. The command structure should be stronger, not weaker, during war.
@ 18 Toryx
All completely fair criticisms. I don’t like WarTrek either, but I think this episode works because it doesn’t endorse WarTrek. In fact, every one there agrees that this alternative sucks compared to even a HOPE of non-WarTrek. It’s fun world to imagine–briefly–before we go back to the real ST.
And yeaaaah Trek Into Dimness or whatever is going to be a thing that happens that I guess I have to see.
@ 19 Ludon
I wouldn’t go that far… Wesley would be in uniform right now if he had made it into the Academy that first round two years ago in Season 1. Maybe in this version the Benzites were wiped out by the Klingons so he got in? But he’s not a child soldier.
I like that line, too. It’s all a matter of perspective…
Hey all,
Just a heads-up that this week’s post will be delayed until next week. I’m entering finals and we’ll be on a less regular schedule for the next few weeks.
Best of luck in the exams.
I have to wonder if Gene Roddenberry couldn’t do the dark, warlike Trek a heck of a lot better than someone like J.J. Abrams because he knew what a god-awful tragedy it was. Roddenberry was in the army in New Guinea in 1942-43. This isn’t someone who learned what violence was from Hollywood – and probably explains why the older Trek is so committed to peace.
Chillingly enough, maybe that explains why they could have the whole crew of the Enterprise C head back? Roddenberry had the experience of being in a awful and brutal place at a awful and brutal time when people were knowingly ordered to their deaths, and went.