TNG · SEASON 33×15

Yesterday's Enterprise

NOMADIC PICK · ESSENTIAL VIEWINGA time-travel classic with real stakes.
FIRST SHOWN (US)
19 February 1990
ON
First-run syndication
STARDATE
43625.2
DIRECTED BY
David Carson
PRODUCTION NO.
163

WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Ira Steven Behr & Richard Manning & Hans Beimler & Ronald D. Moore; story by Trent Christopher Ganino & Eric A. Stillwell

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

A rift in space delivers a ship from the past, the Enterprise-C, and in an instant everything about the Enterprise-D and its crew has changed. Only Guinan senses that something is wrong.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSISHIDE SYNOPSIS

A temporal rift opens and the Enterprise-C, a ship lost decades earlier, emerges. Instantly history changes: the Federation is losing a long war with the Klingons, the Enterprise-D is a warship, and Tasha Yar is alive at tactical. Only Guinan senses that this is wrong, and she urges Picard to send the older ship back, though that means certain death for its crew. Captain Rachel Garrett explains her ship was answering a Klingon distress call when Romulans attacked. She agrees to return, but is killed in a Klingon raid, and Lt Richard Castillo takes command. Learning from Guinan that in the other timeline she died a pointless death, Tasha transfers to the Enterprise-C. As Klingon battle cruisers attack, the Enterprise-D holds them off while the older ship escapes, and Riker is among the dead. The Enterprise-C passes through the rift and history is restored. Guinan, sensing something, asks La Forge to tell her about Tasha.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. 01The story merged two pitches by Ganino and Stillwell. Michael Piller also worked on the script but took no credit because of Writers Guild limits on shared credits.
  2. 02Filming was moved up to December 1989 to fit the schedules of Denise Crosby and Whoopi Goldberg.
  3. 03In the alternate timeline the captain's log becomes a “military log”, the stardate a “combat date”, and the bridge was redressed to look darker and more militaristic.
SOURCES WE CHECKED