As this episode opens the Enterprise receives a distress call from a Romulan war bird; Riker orders the ship to head to their aid but to also to assume it could be a trick. Meanwhile Picard, Data, La Forge and Troi are aboard a runabout returning from a conference. As they share anecdotes about the various boring lectures they attended something strange happens; for about five seconds Picard, Data and Geordi appear to freeze. Troi tells them but they have no idea that anything happened. It soon becomes apparent that they have entered an area of space that contains numerous temporal anomalies. They manage to negotiate their way through them and eventually get to the Enterprise; it appears to be frozen in time along with the Romulan ship. They manage to create a device that enables them to enter the 'time bubble' and beam onto the Enterprise. It looks as though a Romulan attack is underway but that isn't the most important worry; the warp core has breached and it is established that time hasn't actually stopped, it is merely moving incredibly slowly so this breach will destroy the ship
and as the breach has occurred that destruction is unavoidable... or is it?
This is an enjoyable episode that plays with the way time works in an interesting way. The opening set up nicely leads us to believe that the Romulans are likely to be the cause of the problems just by telling us they are in the area. This is reinforced when those in the runabout return and find Romulans on the Enterprise and in their frozen state it looks as though they are attacking. While we can guess that ultimately a solution will be found and the Enterprise saved it is intriguing to guess just how this could be achieved since the core has been breached. This breach also gives us one of the funniest and most surreal moments in all of 'Star Trek' Picard starts laughing uncontrollably and as the others turn to see why we see he has drawn a 'happy face' in the vapour coming from the breach don't worry this strange behaviour is explained. Interestingly this episode refers back to a previous instalment when Troi uses her knowledge of Romulan ships to enable them to see what is happening in their engine room and ultimately learn the truth behind what is happening and save the day. Overall a tense episode which is carried by the main cast of four.
This is an enjoyable episode that plays with the way time works in an interesting way. The opening set up nicely leads us to believe that the Romulans are likely to be the cause of the problems just by telling us they are in the area. This is reinforced when those in the runabout return and find Romulans on the Enterprise and in their frozen state it looks as though they are attacking. While we can guess that ultimately a solution will be found and the Enterprise saved it is intriguing to guess just how this could be achieved since the core has been breached. This breach also gives us one of the funniest and most surreal moments in all of 'Star Trek' Picard starts laughing uncontrollably and as the others turn to see why we see he has drawn a 'happy face' in the vapour coming from the breach don't worry this strange behaviour is explained. Interestingly this episode refers back to a previous instalment when Troi uses her knowledge of Romulan ships to enable them to see what is happening in their engine room and ultimately learn the truth behind what is happening and save the day. Overall a tense episode which is carried by the main cast of four.