5x18 Cause and Effect

[8.7/10] “Cause and Effect” may not be the best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It lacks any deep philosophizing or morality plays. There’s little in the way of character stakes or development. But it may be the cleverest episode the show ever did, and it’s certainly one of my favorites.

The episode is basically Groundhog Day in space. The crew of the Enterprise is repeating the same day over and over again, only they don’t quite know it. Each loop results in the destruction of the ship and everyone aboard. And it takes strange inklings and some extraordinarily deft problem-solving to break our heroes out of this endless temporal conundrum.

The gimmick alone could sell an outing like “Cause and Effect” but there are so many sharp choices made throughout that elevate this installment to something special. That starts with the cold open, showing the Enterprise facing a crisis in medias res, and blowing the entire ship up before the opening credits have even rolled, immediately investing the audience in whatever’s happening next.

From there, the episode gives us four distinct loops, each a little different from the last, showing the ways in which the crew of the Enterprise slowly but surely becomes aware of their predicament, and steadily tries to find not only the source of that problem, but a trademark Starfleet way to solve it.

The results are exciting and engrossing. The script, from eventual franchise showrunner Brannon Braga (not my favorite writer, for the record), is as tight as a sweater that’s two sizes too small. The story is chock full of moments big and small that find ways to show progression amid repetition, no easy task. His approach makes for thrilling television, no small feat in a high concept episode that forces the audience to see similar events play out time and again.

A great deal of credit owes to director Jonathan Frakes (who also plays Riker) and his team on this one. Despite hinging on that sense of repetition, “Cause and Effect” is never visually dull. Frakes and the series’ crew find ways to shoot the same scene in multiple different ways -- using different angles and perspectives -- so even when we’re watching the same bits play out, we’re seeing them in a distinct way. It’s a seemingly small detail, but it’s a big part of keeping the episode engrossing even when it’s treading the same ground as something the audience saw ten minutes earlier.

That extends to the editing. Scenes are cut together differently from loop to loop. In one loop we may witness events that were only described in previous ones. Even when the same shots are deployed, they’re stitched together in unique ways. Sometimes that means violating traditional editing rules -- like jumping from a wide overhead shot to a framing that leaps to the other end of the conference table. But the reason those sorts of transitions are frowned upon is because they give the audience a subtle sense of unease, like something is wrong in light of the visual presentation. And here, that works to the episode’s advantage, helping the viewer feel the same sense of something familiar and yet slightly unnerving that the characters are feeling.

At the same time, Braga and Frakes are smart to open up on a poker game. Not only does it begin a fairly out there premise with a familiar motif for the series, but it’s the perfect setting to hint at the setup. Guessing which cards will be dealt and calling other players’ bluffs is a brilliant, concrete way to show Dr. Crusher and others realizing that their strange sense of events repeating themselves is more than just deja vu. The differences in knowledge of the game from loop to loop demonstrate the progression in our heroes’ levels of awareness and perturbation over what’s happening admirably.

The episode is also nigh-perfect in its pacing. Every loop reveals a little more information to Dr. Crusher and company, having them come a little closer to understanding this mystery and eventually, to fixing it. Everything from Crusher recording the voices she heard, to the fluctuations in Geordi’s VISOR, to Picard re-reading the same pages from his book help the crew to piece together what’s happening to them in organic, earned ways.

There’s also a small but exceptional touch that I hadn't noticed until this rewatch. In the third loop (or at least the third full loop the audience witnesses), Beverly moves the glass she’s accidentally knocked over and broken in previous loops from her nightstand to a nearby table. And yet, when she calls Engineering to let them know her concerns, we hear her knock it over anyway. It’s a subtle suggestion that even if our heroes change their behavior, some results may be destiny, adding stakes to whether they’ll be able to avoid total destruction of the ship even if their choices differ from the prior decisions that led them to that path.

Likewise, the solution is clever as hell. TNG is not a Harold Ramis movie, so the time loop can’t be overcome through personal growth. Instead, we need a sci-fi solution to a fantastical problem that nevertheless feels legitimate enough to feel earned while still seeming risky enough to feel exciting. The notion that Beverly and Geordi can send a message to Data in the next loop using the same sort of phase shifts that affected Geordi’s VISOR fits the bill. It builds on prior information, and the limits and simplicity of what they can transmit to Data makes the outcome more perilous and uncertain, so that there’s still tension in the final act.

I also love the notion that this sort of message basically amounts to a post-hypnotic suggestion. Data dealing all threes, or three-of-a-kinds, or turning up all threes on a diagnostic is a great way to encode a mysterious message whose import is not clear. The connection between the magic number and Riker’s pips leading Data to take the commander’s advice is another deft story beat and solution, fixing the sci-fi obstacle of the day in an ingenious fashion.

The appearance of Captain Batesman is the cherry on top. More and more, TNG had embraced its own continuity and franchise history. Revealing that the ship which had crashed into the Enterprise in all of those time loops was, in fact, a TOS era ship and crew creates the thrill of recognition, the inherent loss of men and women out of time, and a confirmation of the grisly fate our heroes narrowly avoided.

You would be hard-pressed to find a better-constructed episode in all of Star Trek. There’s certainly episodes in the franchise that touch on deeper truths, reveal more character, touch on more salient issues. But there’s no episode better at building its clever science fiction mystery and then breaking it back down, piece by piece. The inventive central concept, the sharp direction and editing, and the elegant methods of showing progression amid repetition make “Cause and Effect” an episode well worth watching over and over again.