[7.4/10] Sooner or later, every Starfleet crew has to go back in time. It’s basically a rule. Why? Well, because it allows producers to save money by using other sets already on the Paramount backlot. You can gin up some excitement from showing futuristic space explorers interacting with present day randos. (Hello Sarah Silverman fans!) And it’s an excuse to have the crew meet famous historical figures without the need for holodecks or quasi-magical rock monsters.
But Star Trek: The Next Generation does it for slightly different reasons (or at least one additional reason) -- to explore the notions of destiny and mortality. Much as in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, the journey to turn back the clock certainly plays up the cool factor, with an alien threat and the thrill of seeing folks from another time. But also like that episode, it contemplates whether it’s worth it to make that temporal trip, with the threat of death looming over the journey, because it’s what’s necessary to preserve the timeline and to make your life more meaningful by what you choose to risk or even sacrifice it for.
Honestly, I like the first half of the episode better than the second for that reason. Sure, it’s fun to see Data palling around in 1800 San Francisco. He wallops a shiver of card sharks at poker. He constructs futuristic technology using old-timey materials. He even meets a younger, more rebellious Guinan (afraid he’s been sent by her father) and none other than Mark Twain himself. But the discovery of Data’s head buried underneath Starfleet Academy creates the specter of death for the theoretically ageless android. Watching him and his comrades confront that is more engrossing than all the timeline hopping excitement this episode offers.
These scenes, prior to the time portal shenanigans show off the more philosophical and humanist side of Trek. Commander Riker and Counselor Troi discuss the fact that they now have more direct knowledge that their friend will die on some mission, which leads to an amusing scene where Riker expresses fondness for Data on the android’s own terms. Data expresses relief about the discovery to his best friend, Geordi, reasoning that it adds a certain conclusiveness to his life that he appreciates. More than anything, Data’s crewmates treat him differently in the wake of his impending demise.
It raises those big questions that Star Trek is always asking. What makes a life worth living? Guinan turns out to have lived for five centuries. Data wondered whether he would remain alive for the foreseeable future. Our heroes have met gods and microbrains and other entities whose lifespans and existences vary greatly from our own. Data’s head, this tangible reminder that the end comes for us all, forces the crew of the Enterprise to consider their own mortality, and why the conclusion of life bears so greatly on how we think about it.
But once again, as with “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and “A Matter of Time”, Captain Picard must decide how to proceed knowing that his actions could spell disaster in a future that’s already written. Only this time, Guinan puts a thumb on the scale, telling him to go on the latest away mission and practically announcing to him that it’s necessary to preserve a stable time loop.
The plot of all this isn’t terribly interesting, to be honest. Some uniquely weird-looking aliens are traveling to the past to collect and feed on human beings’ last moments. The Enterprise crew investigates the phenomenon after finding traces of the species on Data’s recovered head. The experience sends our favorite android back in time, and the rest of the senior staff (sans Worf) engages in a similar “phase shift” that seems to point them toward the San Francisco of five hundred years ago as well.
The character element of it all is more interesting though. Picard and Riker have new reticence about assigning Data to the new away mission, fearing that it could be the one that kills him. Data himself plays fish out of water, running into an annoying but resourceful bellhop who feels like a character from Newsies. And our test case for the aliens’ soul-sucking powers as a “poor forty-niner” who doesn’t get much in the way of character, but Jack Murdock gives him instant personality and pathos with his delivery, especially when his mortal illness makes him fodder for the extraterrestrials’ life force-mining gambit.
Of course the unexpected star of the show is Samuel Clemens. Jerry Hardin plays the renowned writer with a sly, cantankerous aplomb, and the screenwriters, Michael Piller and Joe Menosky, do a nice job of approximating Twain’s sardonic and oft-pointed wit. His presence, alongside with Guinan’s salon, make for one of the more memorable parts of this closing outing for season 5.
The catch is that beyond the novelty, the first half of “Time’s Arrow” doesn’t have much juice. Time travel stories, especially ones that involve a past recognizable to the audience, are inherently fun. They allow us to see characters in different settings, create an instant problem to be solved, allow costumers and character actors to go a bit wild, and necessarily prompt questions about interfering with the natural order of things. All of these are trademarks of Trek in regular tales, so the show’s well equipped to do it here.
And yet, the most compelling moments in the first chapter of this duology hinge on what it means for Data and his friends to know that one day the android will die and how knowing his destiny in the past and future affects their decision-making in the present. Famous sharp-tongued writers and familiar characters popping up in the past is fun. Mysterious aliens mucking around in the timestream in the here and now is fine as threats go. But the best Trek stories find something more, in the reflections on how knowledge of the past or future affects our heroes, and seeing the ripples of lives and choices across centuries puts our own existences into perspective.
(One quick aside, filled with MAJOR SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: PICARD: It’s fascinating hearing Data’s comments about death being part of his journey toward becoming human in the context of that show’s first season. Obviously it’s a desire Data held over the course of many years, and even if I didn’t love the way the show executed that idea, to say the least, I appreciate it honoring the character’s sentiments here in its send-off for him.)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-13T04:12:17Z
[7.4/10] Sooner or later, every Starfleet crew has to go back in time. It’s basically a rule. Why? Well, because it allows producers to save money by using other sets already on the Paramount backlot. You can gin up some excitement from showing futuristic space explorers interacting with present day randos. (Hello Sarah Silverman fans!) And it’s an excuse to have the crew meet famous historical figures without the need for holodecks or quasi-magical rock monsters.
But Star Trek: The Next Generation does it for slightly different reasons (or at least one additional reason) -- to explore the notions of destiny and mortality. Much as in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, the journey to turn back the clock certainly plays up the cool factor, with an alien threat and the thrill of seeing folks from another time. But also like that episode, it contemplates whether it’s worth it to make that temporal trip, with the threat of death looming over the journey, because it’s what’s necessary to preserve the timeline and to make your life more meaningful by what you choose to risk or even sacrifice it for.
Honestly, I like the first half of the episode better than the second for that reason. Sure, it’s fun to see Data palling around in 1800 San Francisco. He wallops a shiver of card sharks at poker. He constructs futuristic technology using old-timey materials. He even meets a younger, more rebellious Guinan (afraid he’s been sent by her father) and none other than Mark Twain himself. But the discovery of Data’s head buried underneath Starfleet Academy creates the specter of death for the theoretically ageless android. Watching him and his comrades confront that is more engrossing than all the timeline hopping excitement this episode offers.
These scenes, prior to the time portal shenanigans show off the more philosophical and humanist side of Trek. Commander Riker and Counselor Troi discuss the fact that they now have more direct knowledge that their friend will die on some mission, which leads to an amusing scene where Riker expresses fondness for Data on the android’s own terms. Data expresses relief about the discovery to his best friend, Geordi, reasoning that it adds a certain conclusiveness to his life that he appreciates. More than anything, Data’s crewmates treat him differently in the wake of his impending demise.
It raises those big questions that Star Trek is always asking. What makes a life worth living? Guinan turns out to have lived for five centuries. Data wondered whether he would remain alive for the foreseeable future. Our heroes have met gods and microbrains and other entities whose lifespans and existences vary greatly from our own. Data’s head, this tangible reminder that the end comes for us all, forces the crew of the Enterprise to consider their own mortality, and why the conclusion of life bears so greatly on how we think about it.
But once again, as with “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and “A Matter of Time”, Captain Picard must decide how to proceed knowing that his actions could spell disaster in a future that’s already written. Only this time, Guinan puts a thumb on the scale, telling him to go on the latest away mission and practically announcing to him that it’s necessary to preserve a stable time loop.
The plot of all this isn’t terribly interesting, to be honest. Some uniquely weird-looking aliens are traveling to the past to collect and feed on human beings’ last moments. The Enterprise crew investigates the phenomenon after finding traces of the species on Data’s recovered head. The experience sends our favorite android back in time, and the rest of the senior staff (sans Worf) engages in a similar “phase shift” that seems to point them toward the San Francisco of five hundred years ago as well.
The character element of it all is more interesting though. Picard and Riker have new reticence about assigning Data to the new away mission, fearing that it could be the one that kills him. Data himself plays fish out of water, running into an annoying but resourceful bellhop who feels like a character from Newsies. And our test case for the aliens’ soul-sucking powers as a “poor forty-niner” who doesn’t get much in the way of character, but Jack Murdock gives him instant personality and pathos with his delivery, especially when his mortal illness makes him fodder for the extraterrestrials’ life force-mining gambit.
Of course the unexpected star of the show is Samuel Clemens. Jerry Hardin plays the renowned writer with a sly, cantankerous aplomb, and the screenwriters, Michael Piller and Joe Menosky, do a nice job of approximating Twain’s sardonic and oft-pointed wit. His presence, alongside with Guinan’s salon, make for one of the more memorable parts of this closing outing for season 5.
The catch is that beyond the novelty, the first half of “Time’s Arrow” doesn’t have much juice. Time travel stories, especially ones that involve a past recognizable to the audience, are inherently fun. They allow us to see characters in different settings, create an instant problem to be solved, allow costumers and character actors to go a bit wild, and necessarily prompt questions about interfering with the natural order of things. All of these are trademarks of Trek in regular tales, so the show’s well equipped to do it here.
And yet, the most compelling moments in the first chapter of this duology hinge on what it means for Data and his friends to know that one day the android will die and how knowing his destiny in the past and future affects their decision-making in the present. Famous sharp-tongued writers and familiar characters popping up in the past is fun. Mysterious aliens mucking around in the timestream in the here and now is fine as threats go. But the best Trek stories find something more, in the reflections on how knowledge of the past or future affects our heroes, and seeing the ripples of lives and choices across centuries puts our own existences into perspective.
(One quick aside, filled with MAJOR SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK: PICARD: It’s fascinating hearing Data’s comments about death being part of his journey toward becoming human in the context of that show’s first season. Obviously it’s a desire Data held over the course of many years, and even if I didn’t love the way the show executed that idea, to say the least, I appreciate it honoring the character’s sentiments here in its send-off for him.)