Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 3, Episode 15
Original Air Date: February 19, 1990
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| via Memory Alpha |
Our Enterprise - Enterprise D - encounters a temporal rift where they meet a ghost ship from the past: Enterprise C. The chance meeting has dire consequences, shifting D into an alternate history stream in which the Federation is mired in a long and brutal war with the Klingons. C must be sent back through the rift to its own time 22 years before in order to set things right, even though it probably means certain death for the crew of the C.
Not quite complicated enough? Tasha's back. In the alternate history, she's still alive.
This is my third time through The Next Generation. I feel there are five episodes that stand out above all the others, two from Season 3 and three from Season 5. "Yesterday's Enterprise" is the first. Yes, it's completely convoluted and it deals with time travel, something I usually can't stand in a Trek story, and there are holes in the plot and good grief, what is Wesley doing on the Enterprise in the middle of a war?!!! In the end, none of that matters. This one works. Beautifully. From the moment they enter the alternate stream to the moment they leave it, the narrative flow is outstanding.
Major kudos to the design team. The set and costumes for the alternate time stream are stunning, reflecting a darker reality, similar to what the original series accomplished with "Mirror, Mirror." The return of Tasha feels like an unnecessary additional contrivance initially until her confrontation with Guinan on Ten Forward. Guinan's "You're not supposed to be here" line is an absolute knockout, right up there with Mark Lenard's "In a different reality, I could have called you friend" from "Balance of Terror." This is why you have Whoopi Goldberg in your cast.
Question: is next week's episode even better?
Food Notes
This brutally serious story does get one moment of levity in the very beginning: the prune juice exchange.
Acting Notes
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| via SGCommand |
Christopher McDonald plays the role of Lt. Richard Castillo, helmsman of the Enterprise C and Tasha's tragic love interest for this story. McDonald was born February 15, 1955 in New York City. He graduated from Hobart College.
McDonald has been a highly successful character actor, appearing in such films as Thelma & Louise, Happy Gilmore and 61*. In television, he was a regular on Family Law and a recurring character on North Shore, Veronica's Closet and Good Advice.
It’s Guinan’s finest episode, where her unique status shines best (Generations is a close second).
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteThis is an episode I remember, but...
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Maybe I do need to re-watch the series, because I just don't remember this episode this fondly. I was completely annoyed by the return of Yar.
It's jarring at first but in the end, it contributes to a meaningful story.
DeleteYou already know how I feel about resurrections. And, for that matter, how I feel about time travel. Somehow, an alternate time stream/dimension is less troublesome to me. I am okay with exploring what-if scenarios. As one who habitually second-guesses life decisions, they're satisfying. But as with time travel, you have to abide by your own rules. You can't have Wesley sitting at his post on the bridge while Guinan is pointing out the fact that there are no families on the Enterprise. Worf and Deanna are left out of the alternate reality for solid narrative reasons. Wes should have been, too.
But in the end, for whatever reason, it doesn't bother me. The production level of this episode is a rank above everything that has come before and the story carries a rare energy.
I can accept that.
DeleteIf I had the time, I actually would go back and watch the series again. And finish it. But I'm not even keeping up with the all the things I really want to watch at the moment.
I know the feeling.
DeleteThis is one of my favourite even though I wondered what a kid is doing on the alternate Enterprize. I was a bit meh when I saw Tasha Yar but then it made sense and so does the fact that their is no Troi. It is very tragic and I wish they would have left Tasha Yar dead in the past not what the future episodes bring.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you there! It's clumsy when her "daughter" comes back to the story.
DeleteI know this episode is considered one of the best, but I never really cared for it either. Tasha just seemed so wrong to me.
ReplyDeleteYes. But eventually, the story bends around to make that "wrongness" work.
DeleteNot for everyone, I guess. Oh well, for me it helps to average out the the Q episodes that everyone seems to like except for me.
Are we restoring the past or changing it? With ourselves being altered, how could we know? Guinan's species, maybe because of their incredible longevity, has a perception --a special intuition-- regarding huge amounts of time --and time disturbed. Picard trusts Guinan, so Lt. Yar's request cannot be denied. The most poignant line in the episode was Picard's to Yar: "Permission granted."
ReplyDeleteI like that line. I still prefer the "You're not supposed to be here" one.
DeleteIn case I hadn't already mentioned it before, I find most of the Star Trek movies weak. Especially the TNG movies with First Contact being the one exception.
ReplyDeleteSo over the years I wonder what bright boy or girl totally didn't realize Yesterday's Enterprise would have made a fantastic movie. This episode was freaking epic with a story that that could have easily stretched into the 90 minute range.
Instead we got a TNG movie like Insurrection that wouldn't have made a good episode. I also have to include Nemesis in the lackluster column because of how they found Data's less advanced brother. Finding B4 just didn't make any sense to me but I did like the Romulan main story.
In my explorations, I have learned that Star Wars is best in the movies and Star Trek is best on TV. In both cases, the other medium is supplementary at best.
DeleteI think at this point, I can also say that Harry Potter is at its best in the books and Marvel is at its best in comic books, though there's more room for argument on the latter. Generally speaking, the original platform seems to work best for most imaginary worlds.
I don't comment much on these posts as I only watched the older version of Star Trek (and it was reruns even when I saw them). However, you might find it amusing that Star Trek made two "appearances' in this week's sermon :)
ReplyDeletehttps://fromarockyhillside.com
Haha! I'll check that out soon.
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