Teleplay by Ira Steven Behr, Richard Manning, Hans Beimler, and Ronald D. Moore
Story by Trent Christopher Ganino and
Eric A. Stillwell
GUEST CAST
Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Denise Crosby
Captain Rachel Garrett: Tricia O’Neill
Lieutenant (j.g.) Richard Castillo: Christopher McDonald
A living ghost from the past, the Enterprise, NCC-1701-C, lost with all hands twenty-two years ago, emerges from a temporal rift. In “real” history, that ship answered a Klingon outpost’s distress call, paving the way for the current union of the Federation and the Klingon Empire. By journeying through the temporal rift, the older ship has missed its appointment with destiny and created an alternate time line; in this universe, where Tasha Yar is still alive and well, the Enterprise-C was not destroyed, and the Klingon-Federation detente never occurred. Instead, the two governments are engaged in a decades-old conflict that has claimed the lives of billions.
Only Guinan detects the changes in history. She tells Picard that the war, his dark and somber battleship, and time itself are “wrong” and that he must return the old Enterprise-C through the temporal rift to meet its intended fate.
Among the older ship’s officers are Captain Rachel Garrett and helmsman Richard Castillo, who falls in love with Tasha. Picard, to the disbelief of his officers, is finally convinced of the truth of Guinan’s story and prepares to send the Enterprise-C back through the rift. Then Garrett is killed in a Klingon attack; to take her place, Yar (who has learned of her senseless death in the “real” time line) volunteers to go back with the doomed ship; Picard reluctantly grants her permission to do so.
Attacked by three Klingon ships, the Enterprise-D holds out just long enough to allow its predecessor to enter the temporal rift. History immediately resumes its normal course, a change that goes unnoticed by all ­ except Guinan.
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In spite of the multitude of writing credits, which suggest a patched-together episode, this show is continually cited as one of TNG’s most popular and most powerful. Yet according to story writer Eric Stillwell, the writing staff didn’t think the show would work because its teleplay was written by committee and rushed to final draft in just three days to meet a pushed-up shooting schedule. This was necessary because Whoopi Goldberg’s and Denise Crosby’s schedules made them unavailable during the original filming window in January.
“Most of the writers were not very happy with the script,” said Stillwell (a gofer during TNG’s first two seasons and a script coordinator for the next three, listed as a pre-production associate in the credits). “They thought it was going to be horrible, because they don’t like having to write [something] and make it work in three days.”
The tale actually began as an idea pitched by Trent Christopher Ganino a year earlier, in which the Enterprise-C comes forward in time and, while not changing the future, forces Picard to decide whether or not to reveal their fate to them before sending them back. Among the characters that would not survive to the final draft was Capt. Richard Garrett, whose last name was taken from a pizzeria in Ganino’s hometown, San Diego.
Later on, Ganino and Stillwell joined forces on another alternate time line story that used material from three original Star Trek episodes. A Vulcan team on an archaeological mission accidentally change history through the Guardian of Forever (“City on the Edge of Forever”) when Surak, the founder of Vulcan’s peaceful, logical way of life (“The Savage Curtain”) is killed. His absence leads to a “new” time line in which the violent Vulcans join with their brethren, the Romulans, in a super empire, wiping out the Klingons and turning on the Federation. After being captured as a spy, Spock’s father, Sarek (“Journey to Babel” and Star Trek III, IV, and VI), persuades Picard to let him takes Surak’s place in the past, restoring the time line.
“We thought it would be really cool that someone from the future would replace someone in the past, and I always thought it was funny that their names were so similar, anyway,” Stillwell said. But after hearing that idea, Michael Piller nixed the use of both Sarek and the Guardian ­ which he called a “gimmick” from the original series ­ but urged them to combine the story with Ganino’s Enterprise-C tale, enlarging Tasha’s part and bringing in Guinan. After eight days of brainstorming the eventual story emerged, with a female captain who dies to make room for Tasha’s sacrifice and a more “honorable” death.
After another rewrite the regular staff took over and each wrote an act, with Piller sharpening Guinan’s role in the incident and Ron Moore contributing the Yar-Castillo romance. Moore also stated that time constraints cut his own plans for a longer, bloodier ending for the alternate Enterprise-D, in which Data was electrocuted, Wesley’s head blown off, and so on; of the sequence, only Riker’s death was retained. Piller voluntarily took his name off the credits to meet the stringent Writers Guild credit limit of four names, and, the rest, as they say, is history.
As in original Trek’s “Mirror, Mirror,” little touches are used to subtly point up the differences between the real and alternate universes: the substitution of “military log” for captain’s log, “combat date” for stardate, and the absence of a counselor and a friendly Klingon. On the bridge, steps replaced the side bridge ramps, the captain’s chair was more thronelike, and sidearms were the norm. Other nice touches: Dr. Selar ­ an allusion to “The Schizoid Man” ­ is heard being paged, as is Lieutenant Barrett, an homage to Gene Roddenberry’s wife, Majel Barrett.
Among the outstanding post-production effects ­ the show won an Emmy for sound editing and nominations for sound mixing and dramatic score ­ this episode finally provided the chance for model maker Greg Jein to build a miniature from Andrew Probert’s Ambassador-class design. And costume designer Bob Blackman’s use of the film-era costumes (minus shirt) is a nice continuity touch, the first of many TNG appearances for the maroon jackets.
