TNG · SEASON 66×01

Time's Arrow, Part II

NOMADIC PICK · FUN PICKA satisfying end to the time-travel romp.
FIRST SHOWN (US)
21 September 1992
ON
First-run syndication
STARDATE
46001.3
DIRECTED BY
Les Landau
PRODUCTION NO.
227

WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Jeri Taylor; story by Joe Menosky

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

Picard leads an away team to 1893 San Francisco to find Data and stop the aliens, while a curious Samuel Clemens does all he can to uncover their secrets.

SYNOPSIS

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

Picard, Riker, Troi, Crusher and Geordi follow Data through the portal to 1893 San Francisco, posing as a troupe of actors and renting rooms from a suspicious landlady. Crusher suspects the aliens are using a cholera epidemic to hide their killings, and at a hospital the team find two of them in disguise, feeding on the dying. Reunited with Data, they follow the aliens to the cavern, pursued by Guinan and Clemens. In the struggle Guinan is wounded, Data's head is severed, and the others are swept into the future with Data's body, Clemens following them. Picard stays behind to care for Guinan, beginning their long friendship, and hides a message in Data's head. In the 24th century, Geordi reattaches the 500-year-old head, Data reads the message, and the crew find a way to stop the aliens. Clemens, having glimpsed a better future, returns to his own time so Picard can come home, and the Enterprise destroys the alien base.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. 01Won two Emmy Awards, for costume design (Robert Blackman) and hairstyling.
  2. 02The transformation of the aliens' walking stick into a creature used morphing, the effect popularised by Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  3. 03Jeri Taylor recalled the writing as “a nightmare”, saying it was awful trying to get the story going.
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