Cause and Effect (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Cause and Effect" is the 118th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 18th episode of the fifth season.

Plot

The Enterprise is severely damaged. Attempts to stabilize the ship fail and the ship explodes, killing the entire crew.

Data, Worf and other senior crew play poker. The crew are summoned to the bridge, where a space-time anomaly has been detected. As the Enterprise approaches the anomaly, another Starfleet vessel suddenly emerges on a collision course with the ship. Helm control is unresponsive, so both Data and Riker suggest different methods to avoid contact. Picard chooses Data's method, but it is unsuccessful, and the unidentified ship strikes one of Enterprise's nacelles, causing a chain reaction which destroys the ship.

The senior officers are once again playing cards. Various incidents occur where the crew have slight feelings of déjà vu, although there is no obvious reason for this. As before, the Enterprise is destroyed. As each loop proceeds, the feelings of déjà vu become stronger, with the crew sure that they are repeating something. After several iterations of the Enterprise's destruction the crew begin to suspect that they are caught in a time loop, experiencing the same sequence of events over and over again. Dr. Beverly Crusher hears numerous conversations before going to bed, and during one cycle, manages to capture the voices on a tricorder, and in the oft-repeated card game all the players correctly predict the cards as dealt by Data. Analysis reveals that the voices are Enterprise crewmembers during the hours before the destruction of the ship, with Picard identified as yelling "all hands abandon ship!" Geordi theorizes that the time loop is caused by the initial collision. Every time they collide again, they have feelings of déjà vu. Dekyon field distortions near the space-time anomaly are perceived by Beverly, and although they cannot prevent their own coming destruction, Data's positronic brain can be used to send a short message to his next iteration where it may be of some use. Data sends the signal seconds before the ship is destroyed again.

On the next iteration, the crew still experiences déjà vu, but actions performed by Data, such as dealing the poker cards, instead reveal the number three, going against their expectations. They draw the same conclusions from the previous iteration, but are unable to establish the significance of the numbers' frequent appearance. The Enterprise arrives at the anomaly, and as the other ship emerges, both Data and Riker again suggest alternate plans to avoid a collision. Though Picard opts for Data's plan as before, Data realizes that the "three" message was in reference to the number of insignia pips worn by Riker, and initiates his plan instead. The Enterprise is able to avoid being struck and thus the time loop is broken. The crew discovers they have been stuck in the loop for 17 days, while the ship they narrowly avoided, the USS Bozeman, has been missing for 90 years. The Enterprise welcomes the Bozeman to the 24th century at the end of the episode.

Production

The production team had hoped to get Kirstie Alley in a cameo role behind Kelsey Grammer in the USS Bozeman shots, reprising her role as Lt. Saavik from the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but could not do so due to scheduling difficulties.^[1] The novel Ship of the Line by Diane Carey followed up on the events of "Cause and Effect".^[2]

Notes

Reference

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cause and Effect

• Cause and Effect at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Cause and Effect at StarTrek.com
• Cause and Effect at the Internet Movie Database