Conundrum (TNG episode)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Trek: TNG episode
"Conundrum"
"The crew attempt to discover their identities in "Conundrum".
Episode no.	114
Prod. code	214
Airdate
Writer(s)
Director
Year	2368
Episode chronology
Previous	"The Masterpiece Society"
Next	"Power Play"

"Conundrum" is the title of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, from the fifth season. Its production number is 214, and it first aired on 17 February 1992.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Episode Summary

After being scanned by an unknown alien spaceship, the Enterprise crew discover both their memories, along with those of the ship's computer, have been partially erased. Although they retain their practical knowledge and skills, none of the crew can remember who their fellow crewmates are, and have forgotten their own identities. Mysteriously, during the scan, an additional crewmember, in an officer's uniform, with the rank of commander, has joined the group on the bridge.

The bridge crew attempts to gain control of the situation, and Worf - wearing his sash - assumes that because he is decorated that he is the Captain of the ship, and assumes command. Data, with the memory files identifying who he is unavailable, and based on where he was when the scan happened, assumes the job of bartender in Ten Forward.

After considerable time, the ship's computer memory is finally reached, and La Forge brings up the roster of the senior staff members. Among the bridge crew is listed the mysterious new member who is identified as Commander Keiran MacDuff, the Executive Officer. The computer also reveals what is apparently the Enterprise's mission. According to the orders, the Enterprise is part of a fleet of vessels fighting a decades old war with the Lysians. Their current assignment is to destroy the Lysian central command headquarters, which they are to do while maintaining communications silence.

In the meantime Ensign Ro concludes that she and Commander Riker are likely romantically connected, and pursues this relationship, while Deanna Troi also realizes she has feelings for the commander.

Doctor Crusher works to restore the memories of the crew, a process complicated when it's found that the medical records for the crew have been destroyed. She tries an experimental procedure on MacDuff, who apparently reacts poorly to the treatments, but when Crusher turns away he smiles.

Continuing toward the target, the Enterprise encounters a Lysian ship, which is easily destroyed. Picard becomes concerned with how mismatched the firepower of Enterprise is compared to her supposed enemies. Picard complains to MacDuff that he feels as though he has been given a gun, taken into a room and told to shoot a stranger. Ultimately, when faced with the Lysian central command, drastically incapable of fighting them off, and has 15,311 people onboard, Picard calls off the mission, stating that he would not fire on defenseless people. Angered by this action, MacDuff attempts to take control of the Enterprise. Instead, Riker fires a phaser at MacDuff revealing that MacDuff is in fact some manner of alien. MacDuff struggles back to the tatical console, but both Riker and Worf fire their phasers again, killing MacDuff before he can activate the ship's weapons.

Determining that there was an artificial effect suppressing the crew's memories, Dr. Crusher works to quickly restore them to the crew. MacDuff is identified as a Suterran, a race which has been at war with the Lysians for tens of years. Despite their skill with memory suppression, the Suterrans lacked sophisticated weapons technology, and so had plotted to hijack the Enterprise and tilt the war in their favor. The plot foiled, the Enterprise heads off to its next assignment... although, if nobody else was, Riker finds himself particularly uncertain about how things went between him, Ro Laren, and Deanna Troi when they couldn't remember their pasts. When he admits to Troi that he's still a bit confused, she tells him if he's still confused in the morning that he knows where her office is.