Timescape

TNG Season 6 Episode 25
Air Date: June 14th, 1993

The Enterprise responds to a Romulan distress call but they get caught in a time distortion bubble. Captain Picard, Lt. Cmdr. La Forge, Lt. Cmdr Data and Counselor Troi are returning from a conference when they start encountering these distortions. When they get back to the Enterprise they find it frozen in time, at least from their perspective.

Data and La Forge figure out a way to use a personal shield to keep them in their time frame while transporting aboard the Enterprise. When they arrive they find Romulan's on the bridge, sick bay and Engineering, in what looks like an attack. Even the warp core on the Enterprise is in the middle of a breach.

But when they go to the Romulan ship they find some kind of temporal creature inside the Romulan warp drive. They figure out they can send a signal from a tricorder to reverse time for a few minutes and are able to give instructions to the Enterprise on how to prevent the warp core breach. They also discover that the Enterprise wasn't under attack by the Romulans, but rather they were helping in stopping these temporal creatures.

Quotes

"You've gotta stop playing parrises squares as if you're twenty-one years old. One of these days, you're gonna fall and break your neck, and I'm not gonna be able to heal that as easily." - Doctor Crusher
"I wasn't playing parrises squares." - Cmdr. Riker
"Worf's calisthenic program?" - Doctor Crusher
"No." - Cmdr. Riker
"I give up. What was it?" - Doctor Crusher
"I was trying to feed Spot." - Cmdr. Riker

"I have been testing the aphorism, A watched pot never boils. I have boiled the same amount of water in this kettle sixty-two times. In some cases I have ignored the kettle. In others, I have watched it intently. In every instance, the water reaches its boiling point in precisely 51.7 seconds. It appears I am not capable of perceiving time any differently than my internal chronometer." - Lt. Cmdr. Data
"Why don't you turn it off?" - Cmdr. Riker
"Sir?" - Lt. Cmdr. Data
"Data, people do not have internal chronometers. Why don't you see what happens if you turn yours off?" - Cmdr. Riker
"Thank you, sir. I will try that." - Lt. Cmdr. Data
"Just don't be late for your shift!" - Cmdr. Riker