We'll Always Have Paris (episode)

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Captain Picard encounters a woman from his past after her scientist husband's experiments begin to unravel the fabric of time.

Summary

Enterprise-D fencing room, 2364 — Fencing with Dean

The USS Enterprise-D is on its way to Sarona VIII for shore leave. Captain Jean-Luc Picard is getting a head start by fencing with Lieutenant Dean. Although he loses the first point, he wins the second. As Dean congratulates him, time loops, and the moment is repeated. Picard hails Riker, who confirms that it also occurred on the bridge. Picard goes to the bridge, where Data reports a moment in time repeated itself. Worf receives an automated distress call from Pegos Minor from Paul Manheim, calling for help and directing them to a set of coordinates.

Picard remembers that Manheim left Earth fifteen years previously, along with a team of scientists, to perform experiments on non-linear time. Data adds that he was highly respected, but his theories didn't find acceptance. Picard says that he knew of Manheim teaching at the university in Paris when Picard was there, but never met him. After he orders Riker to check how widespread the time distortion was, Deanna Troi approaches him. She tells him Manheim's name caused an emotional response in him, and advises him to try to analyze his feelings in this area. Picard brushes off her concerns and leaves the bridge.

File:Paris2342.jpg

"A warm, spring day..."

Picard goes to the holodeck, where he recreates Café des Artistes, Paris, 22 years previously on April 9th, "a warm spring day", as he recalls it. He enters and is greeted by the waiter. He admires the view, and tells the waiter he had a rendezvous with a woman there many years before, and he didn't show. He sits at a table, and overhears a conversation between two women. One of them, Gabrielle, is waiting for a man to show up. The other gets frustrated and leaves. Gabrielle asks Picard why her man didn't show. He answers that maybe he was afraid, but then gets annoyed with himself, declares "enough of this self-indulgence" and leaves for the bridge.

Riker tells him that the USS Lalo and the farming colony on Coltar IV both experienced the loop. Since Manheim was performing time-gravity experiments, it could be linked to him. They reach the given coordinates, but there is nothing there. Then new coordinates arrive, directing them to the Vandor system, a binary system of a red giant and a pulsar. When they reach Vandor, Data detects activity on Vandor IV, a planetoid in orbit of the binary system. There is a small force field on the planet. Picard hails the planet, but doesn't mention his name. A woman answers, saying Manheim is having convulsions. She lowers the force field, and both are beamed directly to sickbay. Picard heads there with Data and Riker.

Site to site transport — Beaming into sickbay

Dr. Crusher puts Manheim on the biobed, and when Picard enters, the woman calls him Jean-Luc. He introduces her as Jenice Manheim, and asks her what happened. She says a second lab was completely destroyed in an accident, killing everyone else. Manheim believed that there were infinite dimensions, and that by changing the linearity of time, a window could be opened to these dimensions. He had been trying to do this in his lab. She tells them the team spent two years searching for a location before settling on Vandor, and that he thought he was very close to proving his theories. He had installed a security system and force fields, and he made her stay in a protected room whenever he performed an experiment. As he neared his goal, he became more and more obsessive, maybe causing his judgment to be clouded.

She tells Picard he's done well, being the captain of a great starship. Then Dr. Crusher enters and asks to do some tests on Jenice, who kisses Picard on the cheek as she leaves. Crusher tells Picard that Manheim is dying, but she doesn't know why. The three officers enter a turbolift, and head for the bridge, but when the doors open they see themselves before they got on the lift. As the doors close, the "past" Data states that the Manheim Effect is becoming more pronounced, before they enter the lift. In the captain's ready room, Data says there is immense energy emanating from the planetoid's core being focused at the lab. Riker says if they want to find out what's going on, they're going to have to beam down. An away team tries to beam down, but they can't materialize on the planet, as the signal is being bounced back up.

Manheim effect double — *"We are **both** us."*

In sickbay, Manheim wakes. He tells Jenice that it was all worth it, and that he has been on the other side. His mind is still floating between two places. Picard and Data arrive, and Manheim tells them he was able to open a window to another dimension, but when he learns how far the effect has spread, he tells them it must be shut down. He will give them the transporter coordinates and the security codes. In the observation lounge, Data says the closing of the window must be timed to match the occurrence of the effect, or the new dimension will rip further into the galaxy. Jenice comes in as they are leaving, and Picard remains behind to talk to her.

She asks him why he didn't come. They joke about it, but he eventually tells her he was afraid of staying, of losing himself. She says the real reason was that he thought life with her would be ordinary. Troi visits sickbay. She asks Crusher how Manheim is doing, but she really wants to talk about how Beverly feels. She says she can't compete with a ghost from the past, which is what Picard sees when he sees Jenice. On the bridge, Data says the next distortion will occur in 28 to 47 minutes. Manheim asks to see Picard alone. He warns him he might have forgotten some of the security codes. Then he asks him to take care of Jenice if anything should happen. Picard agrees, and Manheim tells him she's had a terrible time the last few years. He gave her no attention, and he thinks she deserves better.

Picard tells Data he wants him to go down alone, since he is not affected as badly by the time distortion as the others. Data agrees, and he beams down successfully. He is fired on by phasers mounted on the wall, but manages to destroy them. He keeps an open comm channel as he goes into the lab. The next distortion will occur in 90 seconds. He has to add antimatter to realign the system. He gets the antimatter and goes to the opening. Suddenly there are three Datas, only one of whom is in the correct time continuum. They figure out which one it is and he releases the antimatter and seals the hole.

Manheim has returned to normal, but is unable to describe his experiences. As his lab is intact, he wants to go back and finish his experiments, telling Jenice he has learned too much, and that he owes it to his friends. She agrees. Troi brings her to the holodeck, where Picard awaits in the Paris program. He tells her he wanted to say goodbye properly. She thanks him for Paris and Picard returns to the bridge, where he orders Geordi La Forge to set course for Sarona.

Log Entry

Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), 2364

Memorable quotes

"You've done well. A great starship – on the far reaches of the galaxy. It's everything you'd hoped."
"Not exactly. Nothing works just as you hoped...."

- Jenice Manheim and Jean-Luc Picard

"I've been away far too long."

- Picard, upon viewing the holographic simulation of Paris, France

"Enough of this self indulgence."

- Picard, exiting the Café des Artistes holosimulation

"Mr. Data, what's going on?"
"Dr. Manheim forgot to mention one of his security precautions, sir."

- Picard and Data, after Data is attacked by Paul Manheim's security system

"Oh, we are us, sir. They are also us. So, indeed, we are both us."

- Data, on duplicate versions of the crew

"Are you all right?"
"Why wouldn't I be? I've got one of the medical wonders of the galaxy dying in my sick bay!"
"That's not what I meant."
"I don't think I want to talk about what I think you mean!"

- Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher

Background information

Production history

Final draft script: 22 February 1988
Premiere airdate: 2 May 1988
UK premiere airdate: 13th March 1991

Story and script

This episode was affected by the Writer's Guild strike of 1988, with the result that filming had to be shut down while the show's ending was written. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
Its title was a direct reference to the classic 1942 film Casablanca. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) Indeed, Riker recalls a bar on Sarona VIII, and Picard recalls its name – the Blue Parrot Café. This is the name of Signor Ferrari's bar in Casablanca.
In the original draft of "We'll Always Have Paris", writers Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer wanted to create a romantic mood with the insistence that Picard do "the wild thing" – discreetly, during commercial – some time in the course of the episode. The idea was vetoed by a number of men involved in the production – most notably Patrick Stewart. (Trek: The Unauthorized Behind-The-Scenes Story of The Next Generation)

Music

The episode's score, composed and conducted by Ron Jones, was recorded on 19 April 1988 at Paramount Stage M. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Ron Jones Project liner notes [1]) The complete episode score, totalling 25 minutes 38 seconds, appears on Disc Four of the Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Ron Jones Project collection.

Cast and characters

Michelle Phillips is best remembered as one of the four members of the 60s music group, The Mamas & the Papas, which had such hits as "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday". (Star Trek 30 Years)
Jean-Paul Vignon, the actor playing Edouard, the waiter of the Café des Artistes, is the only actor (main actor or supporting actor) playing a French person in TNG who actually speaks French as a first language.
Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) does not appear in this episode.

Continuity

Denise Crosby, We'll Always Have Paris — Crosby appearing in the episode

When Data attempts to determine which version of himself is in the correct time continuum to patch the time disparity, Data uses a contraction when he says "Me! It's me!"
A scene filmed earlier including Patrick Stewart and Marina Sirtis on the bridge also includes the arm and shoulder of Denise Crosby's character Natasha Yar who died in "Skin of Evil".

Sets, props and costumes

The diamond shaped chrome shelf unit in the Café des Artistes was originally part of James T. Kirk's apartment room furniture in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and was also used in the TNG pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" as well as Counselor Troi's quarters in "The Naked Now".
The continuity issues associated with door signage continue in this episode. The characters refer to this holodeck as "Holodeck Three" (a problem which also occurred in "The Big Goodbye") when the signage clearly indicates the holodeck is four (or more formally, holodeck area 4-J). And the turbolift, first seen in "The Big Goodbye", which is seen to the right of the main door into the holodeck shows signage which is more appropriate to a room.
According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion by Larry Nemecek, the menu at the Café des Artistes includes such delicacies as "Croissants D'ilithium", "Klingon Targ a la mode," "Tribbles dans les blankettes," and "L'antimatter flambe."

Reception

A mission report for this episode by John Sayers was published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 6, pp. 61-63.

Remastered version

Two seconds of footage could not be located when CBS Digital remastered this episode as part of the TNG Season 1 Blu-ray collection. Occurring twelve minutes, twenty-five seconds into the episode, this brief shot of actor Jonathan Frakes was included as an upconverted image from the original standard-definition videotape. This shot constitutes the only bit of missing footage in the entire Season 1 Blu-Ray collection.

Video and DVD releases

Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 12, catalogue number VHR 2441, 7 May 1991.
UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 1.8, catalogue number VHR 4649, 5 October 1998.
As part of the TNG Season 1 DVD collection.
As part of the TNG Season 1 Blu-ray collection (see previous heading for missing film footage).

Links and references

Starring

Also starring

LeVar Burton as Lt. Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf
Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data

Guest stars

Michelle Phillips as Jenice Manheim
Rod Loomis as Paul Manheim

Co-stars

Uncredited co-stars

Previous episode:
"Skin of Evil"

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 1

Next episode:
"Conspiracy"