Plot Synopsis: Investigating the disappearance of several ships, the Enterprise discovers two scientists who claim that warp drive is harmful to the fabric of subspace.
Plot A and B Analysis: The teaser has nothing to do with the episode. Geordi is about ready to murder Spot. Given her awful behavior he recommends Data get Spot trained. Plot A is about the danger of warp drive, plot B has to do with Data and his cat. The crew are investigating the disappearance of a ship in the Hekara Corridor, where warp travel isn’t possible except for a narrow strip of space. We run into a Ferengi ship whose engines appear shot, only to get fired on. They claim their ship was attacked by a Federation device that disabled them, and they give our crew a clue about their missing ship. The Enterprise runs across a trap that shuts down the ship’s engines, and are promptly boarded by two scientists (brother and sister), who claim warp drive is destroying subspace. Picard asks Data to review their research, but when he recommends more research the siste gets frustrated. She later blows up their own ship to create the rift she has been telling them about. The rift generates distortion waves which endanger the ship they came to find. Geordi does some soul searching with Data, they coast in, transport the survivors from the Fleming, and surf out of there riding the distortion wave. It ends with new directives that will impact the rest of the series: “… all Federation vessels will be limited to a speed of warp five, except in cases of extreme emergency.” What?
Favorite Scenes: An unexpected funny moment I’d completely forgotten happens at 8:30. Data says he’s trying to train Spot and not having much success, to which Geordi jokingly suggests a phaser. Data looks surprised and whispers, “Geordi… I cannot stun my cat.” Perfect delivery. The rift itself does look beautiful.
Use of Cast/Characters: Geordi and Data own the the majority of this episode and get a little character development. We learn of a friendly rivalry Geordi has with an engineer he went to the academy with, while Data’s cat takes up much of his screen time. Picard does make a couple of decisions but is mostly a captain instead of a character. Riker doesn’t do much except make a suggestion Data suggests would destroy the saucer section, and Worf doesn’t do anything special. Troi and Crusher each have two lines, they are barely in it. None of the guest stars really distinguish themselves.
Blu Ray Version: The graphic of the rift is improved and looks gorgeous. The original weekly promo for next week’s episode is included with all of the discs, and I watch each one to determine if it’s worth mentioning. In this case it is, as even for a promo it’s too dramatic. “Now the Federation’s most critical tool of exploration (warp drive) could trigger the galaxy’s ultimate destruction.” Really? Really??
Nitpicks: The Hekaran starship in this episode bears a strong, almost twin-like resemblance to the Talarian warship back in Suddenly Human.
Overall Impression: This is a much-maligned episode of TNG, and rightly so. It potentially endangers warp drive, which the Star Trek franchise depends on. Darn you Naren Shankar! Even subsequent episodes this season feature the irritating ‘authorization to exceed warp speed limitations’ as a result. How does the episode itself hold up? The first half is about Data’s cat. That’s right, his cat. While it is nice to have some scenes revisiting Data and Geordi’s friendship, that’s about the only positive thing I can say about this episode. This is a prime example of a badly-structured episode, alternately boring or bland, and a subtext that alienates the audience it’s trying to persuade. Honestly the best thing we can do for this episode is forget about it. I rate this episode 1.5 out of 5 stars, wishing I could say it’s the worst episode this season. It isn’t.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: Geordi mentions his sister briefly, who we first learn about in Interface. For some reason all these years later I still remember Geordi saying “well our Commander Data is no slouch. If there’s anything there, he’ll find it.” There’s a subtle change here as Spot is referred to as ‘she’ for the first time, spontaneously changing gender–gotta watch out for those space cats. Fortunately I think there are only two episodes in season seven that refer to a warp speed limit, The Pegasus and Eye of the Beholder. Overall this episode seems to have been forgotten, and we can assume the brain trust at the Federation altered warp drive so it no longer impacts subspace. Whatever.
But we’re not done! Want to know how this episode came about? We really have Jeri Taylor to thank, who by now was an executive producer. She sent two of the writers to a breakfast with an environmental watchdog group and “they came back inspired.” Inspired isn’t the word I would choose to describe this pile of donkey excrement. Naren (the writer) even tried to explain how plot A and B were linked: “The slightest dramatic connection between those two is the notion that you can’t control a force of nature like a cat.” I’m not one to encourage violence, but if someone out there meets Naren one day and happens to kick him in the nuts…well don’t, but I’d understand if you did.
Missable/Unmissable? Definitely missable. In fact if you have seen this episode, try to forget it. The next one is slightly better.