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[[Image:Data\'s-realisation -causeandeffect396.jpg|thumb|200px|Data realises the significance of the number "3"]] |
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| − | Power is restored and Picard asks Data what happened. Data speculates that 'three' referred to the number of rank insignia on the neck of Riker's uniform, indicating that his suggestion would be the successful course of action. Red alert is cancelled and Picard orders Worf to access a Federation [[time-base beacon]] to ascertain how long they have been in the causality loop. The beacon confirms that the ''Enterprise'''s chronometers are off by 17.4 days and Data resets them accordingly. The ''Enterprise'' is then hailed by the other ship, which the ''Enterprise'' identifies as the ''[[USS Bozeman]]'', a [[Soyuz class]] starship (Soyuz class starships had been out of service for more than eighty years). The ''Enterprise'' opens a channel and the captain of the ''Bozeman'', [[Morgan Bateson]] offers assistance while Picard was going to offer assistance as well. Bateson is unfamiliar with the configuration of the ''Enterprise'' and he explains that they found a temporal distortion then the ''Enterprise'' appeared with the Bozeman nearly colliding with it. [[Image:Bateson |
+ | Power is restored and Picard asks Data what happened. Data speculates that 'three' referred to the number of rank insignia on the neck of Riker's uniform, indicating that his suggestion would be the successful course of action. Red alert is cancelled and Picard orders Worf to access a Federation [[time-base beacon]] to ascertain how long they have been in the causality loop. The beacon confirms that the ''Enterprise'''s chronometers are off by 17.4 days and Data resets them accordingly. The ''Enterprise'' is then hailed by the other ship, which the ''Enterprise'' identifies as the ''[[USS Bozeman]]'', a [[Soyuz class]] starship (Soyuz class starships had been out of service for more than eighty years). The ''Enterprise'' opens a channel and the captain of the ''Bozeman'', [[Morgan Bateson]] offers assistance while Picard was going to offer assistance as well. Bateson is unfamiliar with the configuration of the ''Enterprise'' and he explains that they found a temporal distortion then the ''Enterprise'' appeared with the Bozeman nearly colliding with it. [[Image:Bateson.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Captain Bateson is unaware that the ''Bozeman'' was caught in a causality loop for ninety years.]] Picard tells Bateson that the ''Enterprise'' was caught in a causality loop and suspects that the same happened to the Bozeman but Bateson dismisses Picard's suggestion, claiming that the Bozeman left [[starbase]] only three weeks previously but when Captain Picard asks Bateson what the year is, Bateson replies saying that it is 2278. Picard suggests that Bateson beam aboard the Enterprise as there is much to discuss (the Bozeman and her crew have been caught in the causality loop for ninety years). Bateson agrees with a very concerned look on his face. |
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Revision as of 21:50, 15 July 2005
| "Cause and Effect" | |
| Series: | TNG |
| Episode: | 5x18 |
| Original Airdate: | 1992-03-23 |
| Production Number: | 218 |
| Year: | 2368 |
| Stardates: | 45652.1 |
| Story by: | Brannon Braga |
| Directed by: | Jonathan Frakes |
| The Enterprise-D is destroyed. | |
The Enterprise is caught in a time loop, causing the crew to relive the events that lead to disaster.
Summary
The Enterprise is in serious trouble. It has sustained an impact to its starboard warp nacelle and it is venting warp plasma. The threat of a warp core breach is imminent and efforts to eject the core have failed. Captain Picard orders all hands to abandon ship but it is too late and the Enterprise is destroyed when the core breaches.
Act One
The Enterprise is at impulse through a region of space.
- "Captain's Log, Stardate 45652.1. The Enterprise has entered an area of space known as the Typhon Expanse. We are the first Starfleet vessel to chart this unexplored region."
Data, Riker, Worf and Dr. Crusher are in Riker's quarters ready to play a game of poker. Data shuffles the cards in his typically fast android fashion and Riker and Worf question whether Data is really shuffling the cards randomly or in his favor. Data deals the cards (the value of the card is significant as you will see later) and Beverly has the highest hand. The four officers play and eventually a standoff comes between Riker and Beverly.
Beverly wins the hand.
Beverly calls Riker's bluff and wins the hand, somehow knowing that she would win. After winning, she is called to sickbay. Upon arriving at sickbay Lt Cmdr La Forge tells her that he is feeling dizzy. Beverly finds that although he has the symptoms of an inner ear infection, there is nothing physical to suggest that he has such an infection. After examining him, Beverly prepares a hypospray of vertazine but she has the feeling that she already performed this examination. Geordi has no recollection and suggests that she was talking about another patient but Beverly is insistent that it was Geordi whom she treated. She shrugs her deja vu off and administers the hypospray. Later that night, Beverly gets ready to go to bed and shortly after she does, she starts to hear a voice and that voice soon becomes many voices, which are completely undecipherable. As Beverly puts the light on, the voices stop. The following morning, the senior staff (except for Lt. Worf) are briefing each other on the vast undertaking of charting the Typhon Expanse. As they are about to return to duty, Beverly reports the voices that she heard the previous night. The other staff are curious about Beverly's report and they are interrupted when Worf (from the bridge) reports that there is a distortion in the spacetime continuum in the vicinity of the Enterprise. The staff return to the bridge. Picard orders the Enterprise to be backed off slowly but maneuvering thrusters fail to respond. The distortion begins to fluctuate and power levels drop. Counselor Troi warns the Captain that they have to leave immediately.
A starship emerges from the temporal distortion
Data reports that something is emerging from the distortion and a unidentified starship emerges from it. The ship is on a collision course with the Enterprise, just thirty-six seconds from impact and the helm still fails to respond. There is no response when the Enterprise hails the other ship. Picard asks for suggestions. Riker (standing closely on Data's left) suggests decompressing the main shuttlebay allowing the explosive reaction to push them clear and Data suggests using the tractor beam to alter the ship's trajectory; Picard opts for the latter. The Enterprise emits a tractor beam but it is too litte too late; the ship collides with the Enterprise's starboard warp nacelle, causing it to explode. The previous events begin to replay themselves and again the Enterprise is destroyed when its warp core breaches.
Act Two
The Enterprise is at impulse through a region of space.
- "Captain's Log, Stardate 45652.1. The Enterprise has entered an area of space known as the Typhon Expanse. We are the first Starfleet vessel to chart this unexplored region."
Data, Riker, Worf and Beverly are in Riker's quarters and are to begin playing a game of poker. Data shuffles the cards in his typically fast android fashion and Riker and Worf question whether Data is really shuffling the cards randomly or in his favour. Data deals the cards and Beverly, once again, has the highest hand and she can't help but look at Riker's cards and feel anything but Déjà-vu. Each player bets and as Data is about to make another deal, Riker now feels deja vu and eyes Beverly, having a strong feeling about the outcome of the game and he folds, telling her that she will call his bluff. Beverly eyes Riker back in surprise and asks him how he knew. Riker "just had a feeling", as did Beverly. Beverly is called to sickbay and upon arriving at sickbay, Geordi tells her that he is feeling dizzy. Beverly finds that although he has the symptoms of an inner ear infection, there is nothing physical to suggest so. After examining him, Beverly prepares a hypospray of vertazine but she has the feeling that she already performed this examination. When she asks Geordi if she did this examination before and Geordi has the feeling that he has but they cannot remember when. Beverly checks the medical logs on Geordi and finds that although Geordi had complaints about pain with his VISOR, he had none regarding dizziness. Geordi suggested that it was deja vu but it was unlikely as both of them had the feeling.
Picard and Beverly share their recent feelings of Déjà-vu
Later that night Beverly is in her quarters getting ready to go to bed and as she does, she hears whispers turning becoming louder and more frequent. She gets up and calls Captain Picard. In the ready room Picard and Beverly share their recent feelings of deja vu and Picard orders a ship-wide diagnostic with a report to be made in the morning. At 0700 hours, the senior staff (except for Worf) discuss the results and found no anomalous readings in the diagnostic although Beverly found that ten other people aboard the Enterprise heard voices at the same time of the night as she did. Worf interrupts (from the bridge) and reports that there is a distortion in the spacetime continuum in the vicinty of the Enterprise. The staff return to the bridge. Picard orders the Enterprise to be backed off slowly but maneuvering thrusters fail to respond. The distortion begins to fluctuate and power levels drop.
The fate of the Enterprise is sealed.
Counselor Troi warns the Captain that they have to leave now. Data says that something is emerging from the distortion and a starship emerges from it. The ship is on a collision course with the Enterprise just thirty-six seconds from impact and the helm still fails to respond. There is no response when the Enterprise hails the other ship. Picard asks for suggestions. Riker suggests decompressing the main shuttlebay allowing the explosive reaction to push them clear and Data suggests using the tractor beam to alter the ship's trajectory; Picard opts for the latter. The Enterprise emits a tractor beam but again it is too late; the ship collides with the Enterprise's starboard warp nacelle, causing it to explode. The previous events begin to replay themselves and again the Enterprise is destroyed when its warp core breaches.
Act Three
The Enterprise is at impulse through a region of space.
- "Captain's Log, Stardate 45652.1. The Enterprise has entered an area of space known as the Typhon Expanse. We are the first Starfleet vessel to chart this unexplored region."
Worf experiences nIb'poH
Data, Riker, Worf and Beverly are in Riker's quarters ready to play a game of poker. Data shuffles the cards in his typically fast android fashion and Riker and Worf question whether Data is really shuffling the cards randomly or in his favour. Data deals the first set of cards, face down, and Worf is agitated having the feeling of done this before quoting the Klingon equivalent of deja vu (nIb'poH). Riker says that they did last Tuesday but Worf means deja vu and Beverly has the same feeling. Data now deals the cards face up and Beverly predicts that she will get a Queen; she does. She then predicts that Data will get a four; he does. She then tells Data to deal the cards and she, Riker and Worf are overcome with deja vu, flawlessly recalling the order of the cards that would be dealt. The all wonder how they knew. Beverly interrupts the puzzlement and calls sickbay asking if Geordi is present; he isn't but he soon arrives and the CMO leaves to go to sickbay. Picard arrives in sickbay seeing Beverly and Geordi - Geordi's VISOR is being examined with a diagnostic tool while a test is being done on his visual receptors. Beverly asks Picard if he has been experiencing deja vu as of late; he has, as have many other people aboard the ship. Beverly has foregone running a standard test on Geordi in favour of running an optical diagnostic where the results came back positive for a phase shift in his visual receptors, which caused his dizziness as the phase shift was projecting images that didn't exist. Small distortions were found in the surrounding dekyon field and Geordi's VISOR was converting these distortions in to the images that he was seeing, causing his dizziness.
Later that night, Beverly is getting ready for bed (dressed in her uniform) and as she goes to bed she starts to hear voices again. She immediately gets up, prepared with a tricorder and records the voices. She calls Geordi, reporting the voices and Geordi reports that something strange happened as well. Beverly joins Geordi and Data in main engineering. Geordi reports that there was a distortion in the dekyon field. They analyse Beverly's six-second recording and Data discovers that there are over one-thousand voices, all from the crew of the Enterprise.
Act Four
Beverly calls all of the senior staff (Worf is now present) to the observation lounge early in the morning with a suggestion as to what was causing all of the unusual events that happened recently on the Enterprise.
Geordi describes the causality loop
Geordi reports that the Enterprise has most likely been caught in a temporal causality loop, where they have been repeating events over and over again but they have little knowledge of how many times they have repeated events or how long they have been stuck in the loop for. Beverly feels that if Geordi is correct, then the voices that she heard may be 'echoes' from previous loops. Picard enquires how the Enterprise may have been caught in the loop. Data hypothesises, from the recording, that the Enterprise had encountered a disaster so serious that the Captain would order all hands to abandon ship and replays three segments of the recording - Worf's report of the distortion, Data's report on the collision course and Picard's call for all hands to abandon ship; the staff are clearly disturbed by what they just heard. Geordi suggests that if the distortion was a temporal distortion then the destruction of the Enterprise may have caused a rupture in the spacetime continuum, catching them in the loop. Picard suggests that they do everything they can to avoid the collision but Geordi warns that there may be no way of avoiding the collision until it is too late. If this happens they will forget everything that they learnt in this loop. Geordi and Data suggest modulating a dekyon emission which would if correctly done would set up a resonance in Data's positronic subprocessors, leaving a message. However the message would be very short (a sentence or even just one word) and Data would not know what the message is immediately; it would be more like a post-hypnotic suggestion.
Data and Geordi perform the modifications
Geordi, Data and Beverly are in main engineering where Geordi is making some modifications to the circuitry in Data's head and he attaches an emitter to Data's right arm. Neither Geordi nor Beverly recall having done this before so they feel encouraged. Geordi tests the modifications and finds an active dekyon field. Red alert is called and the three officers return to the bridge. The distortion is present again and the same events happen like before but this time Data is able to make quick calculations and inputs commands in to the emitter on his arm just before the Enterprise is destroyed.
Act Five
The Enterprise is at impulse through a region of space.
- "Captain's Log, Stardate 45652.1. The Enterprise has entered an area of space known as the Typhon Expanse. We are the first Starfleet vessel to chart this unexplored region."
Data, Riker, Worf and Beverly are in Riker's quarters ready to begin playing a game of poker. Data shuffles the cards in his typically fast android fashion and Riker and Worf question whether Data is really shuffling the cards randomly or in his favour. Data deals the first set of cards, face down, and Worf is agitated having the feeling of done this before. Riker says that they did last Tuesday but Worf means deja vu and Beverly has the same feeling. As Data is about the deal the next set of cards, face up, Beverly predicts the order of the cards last time but they are all threes. Beverly is surprised as she was certain about which cards would be dealt. Worf shared the same surprise and conviction. Data deals twice more and this time all four officers are dealt three of a kind. They are all surprised with the improbability of what just happened. Beverly is then called to sickbay. When she arrives at sickbay, Geordi complains of dizziness and she performs an exam and the results came back negative. She then runs an optical scan and calls Captain Picard down, reporting to him of her findings as she did previously. Geordi then leaves and returns to main engineering.
One of several occurrences of the number "3"
Data and Geordi are in main engineering and Data runs a diagnostic on the warp subsystems. When he finishes the diagnostic, the results come up entirely as threes. Data says that he has encountered the number three several times in the past two hours and Geordi receives an alarm of a distortion in the dekyon field on Deck 9. Beverly (from her quarters) calls Geordi and reports the voices while Geordi reports the dekyon distortion. Beverly leaves her quarters and heads for main engineering.
Some time later, the senior staff are in the observation lounge, half-way through discussing the theory of being caught in the causality loop. Geordi and Data report the many sightings of three occurring all over the Enterprise, knowing that it is more than a coincidence. Nothing was wrong with the ship but a diagnostic revealed that there was a dekyon field modulation in Data's positronic subprocessors. They didn't know what caused it but Geordi said that if he wanted to send a message, he'd do it in a similar fashion. The staff discuss the significance of the number three and they are interrupted by Ensign Ro Laren (from the bridge). The staff return to the bridge and once again the distortion is present. Picard orders the Enterprise to be backed off slowly but maneuvering thrusters fail to respond. The distortion begins to fluctuate and the Enterprise's power levels drop. Counselor Troi warns the Captain that they have to leave immediately. Data says that something is emerging from the distortion and a starship emerges from it. The ship is on a collision course with the Enterprise just thirty-six seconds from impact and the helm still fails to respond. There is no response when the Enterprise hails the ship. Picard asks for suggestions and Riker suggests decompressing the main shuttlebay allowing the explosive reaction to push them clear while Data suggests using the tractor beam to alter the ship's trajectory; Picard opts for the latter but just as Worf engages the tractor beam, Data looks at Riker and somehow realises that using the tractor beam will not succeed. He quickly decompresses the main shuttlebay. In space (now in view of the main shuttlebay of the Enterprise) the bay door opens with gas violently escaping the bay, pushing the Enterprise gently out out the path of the other ship.
Data realises the significance of the number "3"
Power is restored and Picard asks Data what happened. Data speculates that 'three' referred to the number of rank insignia on the neck of Riker's uniform, indicating that his suggestion would be the successful course of action. Red alert is cancelled and Picard orders Worf to access a Federation time-base beacon to ascertain how long they have been in the causality loop. The beacon confirms that the Enterprise's chronometers are off by 17.4 days and Data resets them accordingly. The Enterprise is then hailed by the other ship, which the Enterprise identifies as the USS Bozeman, a Soyuz class starship (Soyuz class starships had been out of service for more than eighty years). The Enterprise opens a channel and the captain of the Bozeman, Morgan Bateson offers assistance while Picard was going to offer assistance as well. Bateson is unfamiliar with the configuration of the Enterprise and he explains that they found a temporal distortion then the Enterprise appeared with the Bozeman nearly colliding with it.
Captain Bateson is unaware that the Bozeman was caught in a causality loop for ninety years.
Picard tells Bateson that the Enterprise was caught in a causality loop and suspects that the same happened to the Bozeman but Bateson dismisses Picard's suggestion, claiming that the Bozeman left starbase only three weeks previously but when Captain Picard asks Bateson what the year is, Bateson replies saying that it is 2278. Picard suggests that Bateson beam aboard the Enterprise as there is much to discuss (the Bozeman and her crew have been caught in the causality loop for ninety years). Bateson agrees with a very concerned look on his face.
Background Information
- The female bridge officer standing next to Captain Morgan Bateson on the USS Bozeman was originally intended to be Saavik. She was also to be played by Kelsey Grammer's Cheers co-star, Kirstie Alley,
- The Bozeman would be later referenced in the TNG series finale "All Good Things...", Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact.
Links and References
Guest Stars
References
USS Bozeman; catwalk; causality loop; dekyon; escape pod; plasma; poker; Soyuz class; vertazine; VISOR; warp core breach; warp core ejection system; warp nacelle
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