June 14th, 1993, "Timescape"
CRUSHER: I give up. What was it?
RIKER: I was trying to feed Spot.
CRUSHER: Data's cat?
Is there more than one Spot on board?
(Data joins the others for a meal. The runabout is huge, there is even a corridor between the cockpit and this area)
I find it odd that they'd use the larger budget of TNG to make a rear runabout set, only to never use it again on DS9. If I was the creators, I'd be exploiting the larger TNG budget to make things on DS9 all the time!
TROI: I was just leaving the reception when this Ktarian walks up to me and says, (slightly Irish) hello, Diane. I understand you're an empath. I'm a very sensitive man myself. I'm doing a thesis on interspecies mating rituals. Would you care to join me in some empirical research?
This is a great scene, but instead of copying all the dialogue I'll just
link to a YouTube video.
PICARD: There was no opportunity. There was no pause. (mock Teutonic) He just kept talking in one long, incredibly unbroken sentence, moving from topic to topic so that no one had a chance to interrupt. It was really quite hypnotic.
Has enough time passed that I can provide a link to the [[
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-x8nrwqx0 Picard Song]] again?
LAFORGE: The starboard antimatter pod is completely drained. The fuel reserves are empty.
PICARD: Is there a fuel containment leak?
LAFORGE: No, sir. The containment field is intact. all engine systems are operational. The fuel is just gone.
DATA: Geordi, I believe I have an explanation. According to the plasma conversion sensor, the starboard engine has been in continuous operation for forty seven days.
Okay, I'll buy that the strut on each side has a separate warp engine and antimatter pod. What I don't buy is the runabout still being intact if only one half of the ship has a functional warp coil. That sounds like cause for a spinout followed by an explosion.
(Picard goes to the console, then smells something. The fruit in the bowl has become moldy. He reaches towards it and shouts in pain. His fingernails have grown a good half inch. The others rush in.)
Yeah, this is impossible. If his hand intersects with a bubble of space where time is passing at a different rate, that would result in an amputation at the edge of the bubble. Or rather, his fingertips disintegrating upon crossing the boundary.
TROI: The cells are metabolising at an incredible speed. Almost fifty times normal.
How? The energy available for fingernail growth is limited to what's in the blood contained in his hand. The fingernails wouldn't be superlong, he'd have a dead lump of flesh where his hand used to be!
DATA: Captain, I am detecting a temporal disturbance intersecting the table. It appears that within the disturbance, time is moving at an accelerated rate, approximately fifty times faster than normal.
Like SF Debris said, that's WAY too slow for the fingernail growth that we've seen (if you ignore the problems in the prior paragraphs, that is).
PICARD: Scan for life signs.
DATA: Sensors cannot penetrate the subspace field. I am unable to scan within the vessels.
What subspace field? You mean the temporal bubble? You wouldn't be able to scan ANYTHING inside radius (or see anything either, for that matter).
DATA: That would be inadvisable, sir. In each of the three instances we came into contact with one of the temporal fragments, we were integrated into its time frame.
LAFORGE: If we beamed aboard the Enterprise, we'd be frozen in time just like they are.
No, the transporter beam wouldn't be able to penetrate the boundary of the temporal bubble! They shouldn't be able to even SEE the ships!
PICARD: Well, we have to find some way of staying unfrozen. Mister La Forge, what about a subspace forcefield like the one we used on Devidia Two?
SF Debris liked the continuity drop, but I'm not sure how similar the two phenomena would be.
LAFORGE: Possibly. We'd need an awfully sensitive phase discriminator in order to moderate that kind of field.
DATA: The emergency transporter armbands contain a type seven phase discriminator.
Are you seriously telling me that in less than a year the phase discriminators in ordinary equipment is better than it was in DATA?
LAFORGE: Yeah. Yeah, that would certainly isolate us from the effects of the other time frame. But if we wanted to interact with that environment, we'd have to restrict the field. It would have to be practically skintight.
"Practically" skintight? Try BETTER than skintight!
LAFORGE: We've channelled all communications through the subspace relays in the armbands. That way we'll be able to be in continual communication.
Because the sound waves of their speech wouldn't penetrate the field anyway.
(Geordi switches on the armbands and Troi falls into Data's arms)
DATA: Counsellor?
TROI: I got a little dizzy for a second.
LAFORGE: We've created an artificial pocket of time around you, so it's probably playing tricks with your equilibrium.
No, it cut Deanna off from the telepathic "white noise" that she's used to experiencing. Why would a time-warping effect affect her sense of space?
DATA: Captain, the equipment is no longer functioning. However, the information currently displayed indicates that there was a massive power surge in Engineering.
I'm not sure if "frozen in time" is the same as "nonfunctional."
(Picard checks the tactical station. Worf is not on duty)
Stewart forgot that the equipment wouldn't respond. I wonder why they didn't reshoot the scene.
DATA: Captain, I believe I have found the cause of the power surge. There is a warp core breach in progress.
(there's a puff of smoke/steam coming out of the warp core)
DATA: It is the flashpoint of a warp core explosion.
What's smoke doing in a warp core explosion? Matter/antimatter explosions don't really burn in the traditional sense.
PICARD: Counsellor, you spent several days on a Romulan vessel. You probably know more about the layouts than anyone here.
It seems odd that Troi wouldn't write down everything she learned about Romulan layout.
The amount of continuity in this episode is staggering. It really shows how the show evolved past what Gene wanted it to be.
DATA: Geordi, the engine core is completely inactive.
TROI: That's impossible. The Romulans use an artificial quantum singularity as their power source. Once it's activated, it can't be shut down.
Actually, it stands to reason that a properly calibrated subspace field could "smother" the singularity given enough time.
DATA: I am not certain. They exhibit a complex bioelectric patterns. Very possibly organic.
LAFORGE: Organic?
Trek uses "organic" as a synonym for "life" far too often. It's not that simple, especially when you remember in chemistry the word means carbon compounds and we've seen plenty of non-organic life forms.
TROI: There isn't time. He's dying.
(she takes Geordi's armband off)
TROI: At least this way, he'll be alive in the other time frame. We might have a chance to save him later.
Deanna's really come a long way since the pilot, hasn't she?
ALIEN: We must use a natural gravity well to incubate our young. We thought the Romulan core would suffice. It did not.
Oh, the screed of Treknobabble I could come up with about the difference between a black hole and a quantum singularity if I wanted to.
PICARD: Is it possible to lock onto the core itself, beam it into space?
DATA: No, sir. We would have to surround the core with a subspace isolation field. It is not possible to generate a field of that magnitude from the runabout.
Actually this wouldn't work. Even if you could surround the core with a subspace isolation field there'd be a split-second during which the core would experience normal time, enough time to explode.
DATA: The alien who attacked me has vanished, sir.
PICARD [OC]: The warbird has vanished as well.
DATA: Judging from the residual temporal fluctuations, I believe they have returned to their own time continuum.
What? What does spatial location have to do with temporal location?
The Fiver
Data: "Used to?" Ah! As in "accustomed...inured...desensitized...mmm-mmm-mphh!"
Picard: Thank you, Mr. La Forge.
La Forge: No handyman should ever be without duct tape.
As a Minnesotan I've been in the Church of Duct Tape since childhood. Duct tape jokes will never not be funny to me.
Troi: (finishing a joke) "...but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit has to go!"
(Picard, Data and La Forge remain completely motionless)
Troi: Uh, guys...do I need to explain the punchline or what?
Now there's a subtle Generations joke. Although it does occur to me that the Farpoint mission was too early for Ferengi jokes to make sense.
La Forge: No. There must be a temporal anomaly affecting us.
Picard: Oh, good Lord, I hope I don't get turned into a kid again....
"Rascals" didn't have a temporal anomaly.
Picard: Ha-ha-ha! Look: Mr. Warp Core Breach!
Data: Perhaps I should try that with a tricorder someday.
That was a fun scene in Generations.
Memory Alpha
* Brannon Braga wanted to out-do his work on "Cause and Effect."
* Troi takes the opportunity to do some plexing, like she taught Barclay back in "Realm of Fear."
Nitpicker's Guide
* Phil questions how this combination of senior officers would be allowed to be off the ship at the same time.