Timescape (S06E25)
Airdate: 14 June 1993
Written by: Brannon Braga
Directed by: Adam Nimoy
Running Time: 46 minutes
By the latter stages of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the series had reached such a pinnacle of general quality that the distinction between a truly classic episode and a merely competent one began to blur. What might have been lauded as a masterpiece in the show's inaugural year was often now looked upon with a sense of mediocrity and forgetfulness. This observation is particularly poignant when examining Timescape, the penultimate episode of the penultimate season. It stands as a testament to the show's high standards, yet it also serves as a reminder of how the extraordinary became the expected, creating a context where even well-crafted narratives are judged against a backdrop of consistent excellence.
The episode opens with the USS Enterprise-D receiving a distress signal emanating from a Romulan warbird, a classic procedural hook that quickly pivots to a more intimate character study. The plot then switches focus to Captain Picard, Commander Troi, Lieutenant Commander Data, and Lieutenant Commander LaForge, who are returning to the Enterprise aboard a Danube-class runabout following a scientific conference. It is during this leisurely journey that Troi suddenly notices that three of her crewmates have seemingly frozen in time. As the episode progresses, the temporal anomalies intensify; moments later, Troi herself becomes ensnared in this temporal stasis. Once the time distortion stabilises, they experience further peculiarities, such as their ship's nacelles mysteriously expended and food items spontaneously spoiling. These events strongly suggest that time is flowing at vastly different speeds in their vicinity, implying that their runabout has been subjected to severe ruptures in the space-time continuum. Consequently, they are forced to rely on their skills to navigate through or avoid these dangerous areas of space where the laws of physics appear to be breaking down.
Upon their return to the main ship, the situation escalates dramatically; both the Enterprise and the Romulan warbird are found frozen in time, locked in a standoff that appears to be moments away from battle. To counter the temporal stasis, Picard, Troi, and Data improvise transporter armbands designed to negate the effects, leaving LaForge behind on the runabout to maintain a surveillance post. The trio beams over to the Enterprise to investigate the frozen vessel, only to find a scene of absolute chaos. The ship is caught in a stasis field that has trapped its crew alongside the Romulans, who were being beamed over at the exact moment the incident occurred. Investigating the Romulan vessel separately, they discover an apparent warp core breech, which seems to be the central catalyst for the temporal freeze.
Further investigation into the Romulan ship reveals a shocking revelation: not all the beings on board are Romulans. They are in fact aliens from another dimension who have assumed the shape of the Romulans. Their true motive was to use the Romulan warp core as a singularity to care for their offspring, as their own dimension lacked a natural black hole. As the aliens return to their home dimension, the instability of the Romulan core becomes catastrophic. Data manages to reverse the flow of time to prevent the ultimate destruction of both ships. While the Romulan vessel cannot be saved from the damage sustained before the timeline was reset, Captain Picard ensures that the Romulan crew are rescued once normal time is restored, ferrying them to the safety of the Neutral Zone. The episode concludes with Data alone in Ten Forward, experimenting with temporal mechanics in an attempt to better understand the human sense of time.
Written by the highly respected Star Trek writer and producer Brannon Braga, Timescape was also directed by Adam Nimoy, the son of Leonard Nimoy. The production team faced significant technical challenges, tasked with creating convincing illusions of time being stopped while simultaneously executing complex special effects, including another instance of the Enterprise being destroyed on screen. The script itself features several interesting and well-crafted tidbits. One particularly memorable moment occurs when Picard suddenly begins hysterically laughing while gazing at the breached warp core. This erratic behaviour is explained by the script as an effect caused by temporal disruptions in a manner analogous to deep-sea divers experiencing nitrogen narcosis—the pressure of the temporal field distorts his perception, leading to laughter.
However, at the end of the day, while Timescape is undeniably well-made and competently executed, it ultimately feels formulaic. It resembles a collage of various other episodes that featured the Enterprise being in danger of destruction through time-space anomalies or the protagonists having to experience these phenomena from a different dimension. A direct comparison can be drawn with the Season 5 episode The Next Phase, which aired approximately a year earlier. The Next Phase shares a significant structural resemblance with Timescape, dealing with dual-dimension interactions and Phantoms. When viewed in this light, Timescape looks slightly inferior in comparison, as the earlier episode managed to execute the concept with a freshness and innovation that this later entry, despite its technical polish, struggles to match.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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