I remember this episode being among my favourites as a kid. The time travel concept is flipped around as our crew instead has to deal with someone else who has travelled back to meet them. But watching it now, I find it a difficult episode to recommend. It also really hit me that Matt Frewer's performance comes across as so slimy and often way too over-the-top.
It's a bit of a laugh, certainly and the argument between this time traveller and Captain Picard is wonderful.
And then the end of the episode leaves a sour taste in my mouth, because I suddenly feel genuinely sorry for the Professor. He's clearly terrified and the crew are utterly cold to him. He actions were going to be quite destructive to the timeline, no doubt, but the crew's absolute lack of empathy about the situation he's now in is a bit much to take. They don't even bother to figure out whether or not keeping him from returning to his own time will affect their history. Like he clearly says, "I don't belong here!"
A really fun episode with a nice twist on the time traveller being from the past rather than the future. Matt Frewer hams it up a bit too much but the final reveal was, as ever, classic Trek.
One of the more enjoyable episodes, with its double plot line: saving the planet from its “nuclear winter” and a time-traveler from the future. It’s well written and guest star Matt Brewer, as the time-traveling historian, gives a wonderful, spot-on, performance. The problem, as usual with any time-travel story, is that they inevitably fall apart. In this case… SPOILERS AHEAD… Picard spends an inordinate amount of time in his Ready-Room practically begging the good professor to give him a hit as to whether his rescue mission of the planet might succeed, but, moments later, it becomes evident that he, and the crew, are all too aware that the good future historian is a complete con artist. So why that entire scene? But then, if as a viewer one can set that aside, still one of the more enjoyable episodes.
An episode I never held in high regard. Matt Frewer plays great but at times he is a bit over the edge. There are also some red flags about him early on. He claimed vast knowledge of the past yet in the future no one seemed to know the length of Picards ready room? That's a bit unlikely. And he only reacts after something has happened. But I admit that is me speaking after the fact. I think I bought the story the first time, too, until he started to take things.
It is for sure not the worst episode but also not one above average.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-05-20T22:39:51Z
[7.2/10] You can’t spoil a good story. That’s not give people free reign to blast key details from barely-out superhero movies or hold up signs giving away the ending to Harry Potter books. There’s something unique about consuming some piece of art without knowing what comes next, and fie on anyone who would try to pop that bubble for someone else. But something genuinely well-done can never be fully spoiled, because even when the surprise has faded, what’s left is (hopefully) still a compelling tale full of excitement, emotion, and vibrancy.
“A Matter of Time” is...not that. I’ll confess that I remembered the twist here from childhood -- Berlinghoff Rasmussen is not a historian from the future, but a conman from the past. And rather than adding intrigue from the dramatic irony of knowing Rasmussen is full of shit when our heroes aren’t quite sure, that knowledge simply takes all of the dramatic air out of the balloon.
That owes to lots of different reasons, from performance and pacing to simple aesthetic choices. But I think the problem boils down to three key things: 1. The crew blindly accepts Ramsussen’s story for most of the episode, 2. They then don’t really react to him and 3. His plan isn’t terribly interesting.
The first is the most baffling. Rasmussen shows up, claims to be a timeline-hopping student of history, and Picard’s response is to “extend him every courtesy.” For starters, that strains credulity and plays as a story contrivance. In fairness, giving randos the run of the place during time travel escapades is nothing new for Star Trek (see “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” from The Original Series), but it seems unlikely, to say the least, that Picard would just let this totally unknown guy with a fantastical story roam around his ship and learn as many details about it as possible.
(As an aside, the crew’s ignorance about future historians time traveling for research purposes doesn’t track with “Assignment: Earth” from TOS, where Kirk’s Enterprise randomly traveled back to the 1960s for historical study, but I’m happy to chalk that up to broad strokes continuity for the sixties show.)
The bigger problem is that it robs the episode of dramatic intrigue. How do you treat a time-traveler who might be real or might be bluffing? What proof would you have them provide (and seriously, what “credentials” could Rasmussen possibly have that would be convincing?) and how would you evaluate it? What level of trust do you show someone who could be a fellow explorer or could be a grifter, or worse yet, an enemy? These are all fascinating questions that would withstand the ultimate reveal, and “A Matter of Time” blows right by them.
Likewise, there’s little to be gleaned from how the rest of the crew treats this supposed man of the future. The tension in the episode comes from the way our heroes are attempting to save the planet of the week from a frosty disaster. Rasmussen hints that it’s a big deal, a pivotal moment in history, that will be remembered for years to come, with the excitement meant to emerge from the mystery of what form that will take.
And yet, the crew of the Enterprise treat the mission, and Rasmussen, like it’s just another day at the office. There’s something realistic about that. After all, Riker, Geordi, Data and the others are professionals, and over the last four years they’ve seen plenty of what the Official Starfleet Manual refers to as “pretty weird shit.” It’s not crazy that they’d take the arrival of a supposed researcher from the future and a planet on the verge of catastrophe in stride.
But it leads to a surprisingly staid episode. None of the crew seems to take Rasmussen’s hints or warnings terribly seriously, which removes any emotional tension from his presence and the current crisis. As a result, it doesn’t feel like there’s much at stake when the fateful moment comes for the Enterprise to try to restore the nearby planet’s atmosphere while Rasmussen pulls up a front row seat for the big event. They mostly treat him like just another guy, and he doesn’t really impact the choices they make, so it doesn’t really matter that he’s lying about his origins and purpose.
That tack makes the exceptions to these moments stand out, and create the best scenes in the episode. At one point, Rasmussen hits on Beverly, and she’s plainly creeped out by it while trying not to make a scene. The uncomfortableness of the whole thing points to the off-putting vibe a huckster like Rasmussen has, and Dr. Crusher recognizing something off about him helps sell the eventual twist.
For all my gripes with the writing here, Matt Frewer actually does a very nice job as the time-traveling flim-flammer. He’s annoying in the role, but in a believable sort of way, with a nerdy, supercilious glee about everything that helps mask his real intent. He has a carnival barker air about him, which lets him give off a bad vibe even before the truth about his path to get here becomes known.
That comes through in his blasé attitude to Picard’s request for help with how to deal with the situation down on the planet. The captain acknowledges that there’s probably rules against tampering with the timeline, just as he observes rules about not interfering with other species’ natural development. But he also acknowledges that there are twenty million lives at stake, and that he’s reexamined his convictions and broken the rules for less. He asks Rasmussen to do the same here.
It’s a hell of a scene, bringing to bear the philosophical ethos of Star Trek and the real intrigue of the situation. Is it ethical to ask someone with knowledge of the future to help you change it? Is there anything sacred about the timeline as they know it or is Picard right and we rewrite the future with every choice we make anyway? Does Rasmussen have a point when he says that for someone from the future, those twenty million people are all long dead regardless, that everyone dies eventually, so the lives in the balance don’t carry the same moral weight to him.
These questions all matter independent of whether Rasmussen is telling the truth. They take on added meaning when the viewer knows that he’s a con artist from the path who (probably) doesn’t have the knowledge of the future he claims to posses, nor the moral hang-ups he claims to be bound by. And Picard’s choice to act rather than “play it safe” speaks to who he is regardless of his scene partner. It’s a five-minute glimpse of the approach his whole episode should have taken.
Of course, Picard’s choice works out and despite a few dicey moments, the planet is saved. But before things wrap up, our heroes have to expose Rasmussen. Rather than finding him out organically, there’s some exposition-laden final scenes that reveal they were secretly onto him for some time and tricked him into letting the crew scan his vessel and deactivate the vessels inside. His whole plot was just to sneak aboard, steal some future tech, and return to the past to sell it. It didn’t require much cleverness or even the elaborate ruse he put on, rendering his whole song and dance retroactively less interesting.
It’s frustrating, because there’s some clever irony here. The man claiming to be from the future, trying to flim-flam people who are actually more advanced than him, and getting trapped two centuries after his time feels appropriately poetic. The conman getting conned is always a satisfying out. There’s a good concept here, one that buoys the episode even when the way it's constructed weakens its ability to realize that potential.
Maybe it’s just that the whole episode builds to those twists: what’s Rasmussen’s real deal and what is he here to witness firsthand? For a great episode, knowing the answers to those questions would only enhance the thrills of seeing how The Next Generation builds to those answers and resolutions. For a merely “pretty good” one like “A Matter of Time”, a rewatch is liable to try the viewer’s patience.