Cause and Effect

TNG Season 5 Episode 18

Air Date: March 23rd, 1992

The Enterprise is caught in temporal causality loop when they encounter a spacial distortion. A old Federation starship emerges and crashes into the Enterprise destroying both ships. Then the last day repeats itself.

Each iteration does seem to have an effect on the last though. Everyone on the ship starts experiencing deja-vu. In a poker game, Doctor Crusher is able to predict the cards that will be dealt. Lt. Cmdr. La Forges visor causes him to experience dizziness. Doctor Crusher also hears voices in her quarters which in the later iterations she is able to record.

With this recording they are able to determine they are in the time loop and they are able to send a primitive message back to Data which he uses to determine that Riker's suggestion during the encounter was the right one saving the Enterprise.

The other ship was the USS Bozeman which was stuck in their own time loop for 90 years. The captain of the Bozeman was played by Kelsey Grammer.

Quotes

"All hands abandon ship! Repeat: all hands abandon" - Captain Picard

"Captain's log, stardate 45652.1 - The Enterprise has entered an area of space known as the Typhon Expanse. We're the first Starfleet vessel to chart this unexplored region." - Captain Picard

"Sometimes I wonder if he's stacking the deck." - Cmdr. Riker

"I assure you, Commander, the cards are sufficiently randomized." - Lt. Cmdr. Data

"I hope so." - Lt. Worf

"How'd you know I was bluffing?" - Cmdr. Riker

"I just had a feeling." - Doctor Crusher

"I guess it's better to be lucky than good." - Cmdr. Riker

"It's the way your left eyebrow raises when you're bluffing" - Doctor Crusher 

"At first I thought the catwalk was spinning. As it turns out, it was me. I was lucky Ensign Fletcher was there to grab me; it's a long way down to the bottom of the warp core." - Lt. Cmdr. La Forge

"Captain, do you know what year this is?" - Captain Picard

"Of course I do. It's 2278." - Captain Bateson

"Perhaps you should beam aboard our ship. There's something we need to discuss." - Captain Picard