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Episode 25: Timescape

I love time shenanigans.

It is nice seeing Picard relax more around his crew, laugh at silly stories and even get in some light mockery of a complete bore. I always appreciate how everyone implicitly believes everyone else whenever something odd happens. The way he begins to whisper his orders betrays how rattled this time stuff has got him. Losing his mind at the warp core breach is hilarious.

Riker lost a fight to a cat, which is quite relatable. Doesn't much care for the adorable creatures, which isn't. Bit reluctant to even acknowledge the Romulans. Wary of Data's quarters now.

La Forge got a moment of geeking out over a plasma field. Like a child with a new toy. First to notice that Troi's a bit distressed. Appreciate him lightly overruling Picard with better advice. Very jumpy on the Romulan ship.

Worf would rather not mention the Romulans at all and clearly puts it off as long as his job allows him to get away with.

Crusher's in full doctor mode, which means lightly exasperated at everyone's injuries. Has the correct attitude to cats.

Troi's impressions are beautiful. She needs more moments like this where she's just another member of the crew and can feel free to mock idiots with no self awareness. Naturally worried about time shenanigans. I like that she uses her own relaxation techniques. I thought her dizzy spell might have been from suddenly sensing the entire crews of both ships, but apparently time is just a weird thing. I love that she gets to draw on her prior experience and even project some of the authority she got from that.

Data doesn't quite get the banter. Man's too innocent. Keeps trying to be helpful and is genuinely interested in La Forge's story. From the way he leans and stares at the frozen ops station operator, he's quite intrigued by this effect. No idea what to make of Picard's breakdown. It seems he managed to get some info out of that kettle, after all.

It's an interesting collection of crew members to hang out together. One of the better things about Rascals was the unusual quartet, so, seeing them try out new dynamics and spend time just having them interact is proper great. Some very cool cuts with Picard's hand suddenly waving in front of Troi. Having the 47 days not be seen at all is more interesting than literally nothing usually ever would be. Nice foreshadowing with having the rotten bowl of fruit be center frame before Picard notices them. The frozen ships mid battle are pretty cool, too. But grim to have some quick cuts of frozen Romulans menacing the bridge. The screwy time effects, especially the reversing Enterprise explosion are quite fun.

Like Cause and Effect, the time weirdness, apart from being a fun high concept that will never go amiss in my book, is basically an excuse to engage in some fun directing. We also have an interesting and rarely used team dynamic and the continued redemption of Troi, who's doing a bit better than Crusher in that department now, and the Romulans. And the Romulans are used quite intelligently. They're set up as inherently untrustworthy by Riker and Worf's reaction to their existence and, of course, the time freezing seals them in a rather damning snapshot. The actual villains, if you can call them that, are disguised as Romulans, which basically makes the whole species look bad and the cause of the problems is the Romulan's engine. Yet as more is learned, these people are exonerated. Turns out, they're perfectly reasonable and helpful and any problems are due to genuine mistake (shooting Crusher) or misunderstanding. And if they bother to look and remove their biases, the audience doesn't exactly have a difficult time of figuring this out far earlier than the characters. Many background characters are completely unconcerned with their prescence and even Worf, who hates them, is doing his bit to help the wounded.

Another great time story that continues to right the ship on a couple of persistent problems and even makes one of them the central theme of the exercise.

We close with Descent.