The Chase
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 26 April 1993
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- 46731.5
- DIRECTED BY
- Jonathan Frakes
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 246
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Joe Menosky; story by Ronald D. Moore & Joe Menosky
Picard's old archaeology teacher arrives with a discovery he will not explain, and soon Klingons, Cardassians and the Enterprise are racing across the galaxy to finish a puzzle billions of years old.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Professor Galen, Picard's former archaeology mentor, visits the Enterprise and urges his old student to give up his command and join him on a secret research trip. Picard refuses. Soon after, Galen's shuttle is attacked and he dies in sickbay. Picking up his work, Picard finds that Galen had been collecting DNA fragments from species all across the galaxy, and that together they form a pattern, a kind of computer program hidden in living things. Klingon and Cardassian ships are chasing the same prize, each suspecting a weapon, and a Romulan crew joins the race in secret. When the final piece is found, a hologram of an ancient humanoid appears. Her people seeded life on many worlds, leaving the message as a map in the hope their descendants would one day find it together. The Klingons and Cardassians react with outrage, but the Romulan captain suggests that perhaps Romulans and humans have more in common than they think.
- 01The episode was screened at a StarFest convention in Denver in April 1993, before it aired.
- 02Inspirations included Carl Sagan's Contact and the comedy film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, although Michael Piller and Rick Berman asked for the latter influence to be toned down.
- 03Co-writer Ronald D. Moore deliberately left open the idea that the ancient humanoids were the Preservers from the original series' “The Paradise Syndrome”.