Timescape
Once more, Brannon Braga sets out to find some new ways of
manipulating time to create an interesting story, and in this
case I think it's largely a success. There are some obvious
parallels between this story and Doctor Who's massively popular
"City of Death" story, in that we have
time running at different speeds in different areas of space,
which is a nice concept. Where the Doctor Who version says that
is pretty much a useless thing to create because one timestream
has no way of interacting with the other until the one snaps back
into perfect sync with the other like an elastic band that had
been stretched too far, Braga here delves into the Trek warehouse
of technobabble and devises a way to make that interaction happen
which works for the episode. I'm not going to say it's
scientifically airtight, but I think the mechanisms for making
it work are fleshed out and visually demonstrated well enough
that we can go with the premise for the episode.
And what Braga seems to have achieved here where so many other
writers failed is to realize the time travel fantasy so popular in
Star Trek and American sci-fi of the "rewind machine", where you can
roll time back and have another go at something. I usually balk
at these sorts of things, but by the time they get around to
that concept in this episode, enough groundwork has been laid for
it to fit in really well and in quite an acceptable manner.
If there's a drawback to the scientific concepts here, it is perhaps
that they seem to get a bit too cerebral and intangible at times
while the technobabble goes into overdrive.
Thankfully, there are good visuals like the black spots in the
singularity, and the recurrence of frozen people all through the
episode helping to keep the main ideas clear.
And there is a healthy palette of interesting ideas all through
the piece, including non-scientific freak-out moments where
the characters deliver strange emotions or other responses,
helping to keep things lively and unpredictable. Nice.
Two minor aspects of the main plot seem a bit out of place.
Why does the second alien try to stop Data's plan to fix everything,
other than to artificially create a bit of extra excitement
in the climactic moments? If he/she had been on the ball and truly
known what he/she was doing, surely he/she would have helped him
instead of hindering him.
Secondly, there is a curious vagueness to astronomical geography
in this episode. Specifically, where is all this supposed to be
happening? We ask because it seems like we're on the Federation
side of the neutral zone, particularly after the clue we get in
the dialogue in the wrap-up, and we don't see a way for a Romulan
ship to innocently be here without violating the treaty. Even if
it isn't on the Federation side, there isn't really any space
where both of these ships could be innocently engaged in helping
each other out. This episode seems to echo "The Next Phase"
from the previous season a bit too closely,
while ignoring the political ramifications a bit too completely.
There is a bit of a B-plot here exploring the human condition,
specifically how the passage of time can be viewed differently
based on perception - and the A-plot has certainly worked extremely
well in externalizing a sci-fi metaphor for that. Interestingly,
this B-plot only really gets two scenes. The first one comes
before the titles before the main story kicks in, but sadly
I think the point is a little too lost while the characters
seem to be rambling on about nothing in particular. You have
to wait until the very last scene of the episode before any sense
is made of why we had all that rambling at the beginning in the
first place, after which it is all tied up rather nicely.
It would have been nicer to get a stronger immediate reason
for that first scene, like better humour, but at least these are fun
characters that we don't mind spending extra time with anyway.
I've always taken issue with Riker's statement that
"humans don't have an internal chronometer", which stuck out
for me as I had recently taken courses teaching people how to
focus their mental powers to, among other things, use
internal biological rhythms to keep track of the passage of time,
and to know internally when to wake up or how to stay in sync
with the natural world. In fact, check out the female lead
of the TV series "JAG", Major Sarah Mackenzie, who is as human
as ever and boasts an internal chronometer that is never more
than 30-seconds off. With training, we could all do that.
"Humans don't often become aware of
or learn how to use their internal chronometer" is probably
a more accurate statement. But of course, we're splitting hairs
over one line, while the rest of the scene works really nicely.
As time travel episodes go, "Timescape" is one of the better ones.
It's fairly unique, full of interesting ideas, and makes fair
and poignant comment on the human condition. When all is said
and done, this one gets my blessing.
International Titles:
Deutsch: "Gefangen in einem Temporären Fragment" | (Trapped in a
Temporary
Fragment)
|
Français: "Arret sur Image"
Español: "Marco de Tiempo"
Italiano: "Frammenti di Tempo"
(I think the Germans meant "temporal fragment",
but perhaps the translator was not a sci-fi buff.
At any rate, this gaffe remains consistent throughout all the dubbed dialogue
in the episode.)
Season Six Rankings:
- Tapestry
(This one surpasses a few ugly early moments and bobs up into first place
with its highly potent philosophical concepts and a somewhat more subtle
side to the rapport between Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie.)
- True Q (This episode poses a lot of healthy questions and leaves them hanging
for audience interpretation. Plus it's a good story. Definitely a favourite.)
- The Deep Space Nine Pilot: Emissary
(Captain Picard, Chief O'Brien, and the Enterprise involved in a big can't-miss adventure
that explores philosophies with great depth and unusual perspective, and
significantly changes the political and cultural map of the galaxy....
Not bad! And always a part of any of my TNG season 6 re-watches! ;-) )
- Relics (This is how to do a cross-over episode right.
Plus the Dyson sphere concept hits household awareness;
a nice strong piece of sci-fi. Good one.)
- Second Chances (A fascinating sci-fi twist brings two regular characters into a
unique focus, giving the story loads of heart. A bit light on plot tension,
but making up for it by digging deeply and organically into areas
of great interest to the show's fans.)
- Ship in a Bottle (a most satisfying battle of wits with sci-fi twists and eye-candy.
What was teased four years earlier is finally delivered. Excellent.)
- Frame of Mind (another exceptional mind-bending thriller, very difficult to predict,
memorize, or thus get bored of. Plus we get off the ship for a while.
Or do we...?)
- (Birthright Part I might go here if its parts were ranked separately)
- Face of the Enemy
(a brilliantly conceived and executed thriller, but without any truly
shining philosophical power.)
- The Quality of Life (a fascinating issue-driven sci-fi episode
that still shines while obsessed with a mis-framing of the main idea.)
- Birthright (a most oddly structured two-parter with mixed fortunes. Data's sections
contain inspired gold, with the additional fun of adding my favourite DS9 regular
Dr. Bashir to Data and Geordi's explorations... but this completes itself by the end
of the first episode. Worf's plot works less well, building throughout Part I
and swallowing all of Part II. It gets a boost from the production value of
traveling to a new world, awakening memories of good ol' Kirk-Spock-McCoy adventures,
and has some worthy themes to tackle. But it's a bit slow, and after a decent climax
it manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, using invented Klingon custom
as the excuse to once more side with secrecy instead of truth. Yes, it leaves a
bad taste in the mouth as the credits roll, but let's give it credit for Data's plotline
and for Worf's considerable efforts with truth, which also had their own lesser victory as well.)
- The Chase (This one unfortunately dramatizes quite a few unconnected petty conflicts early on,
making it feel more de-focused than it really is. But the episode engages Picard
fairly nicely in his archeological passions, and has a really nice puzzle for the crew
to put together, celebrating a wonderful archetypal truth that happens to be quite Trekkian in nature.
Good one. With more focus and polish, it might even have taken a higher rank.
Curiously, we go to a lot of planets in this one, but only put the characters
on the surface of one of them on screen. Oh, for a grander budget....)
- Realm of Fear
- A Fistful of Datas (good family fun, and some unique opportunities for humour...)
- Timescape (intellectually interesting, with good visuals)
- Suspicions (fairly decent, with unusual highs and lows)
- Man of the People (Today's lesson seems a bit obvious, but may yet still be worthy of
a reminder to many people... meanwhile it spawns a decent, polished episode with good intrigue.)
- (Birthright Part II might go here if its parts were ranked separately)
- (Time's Arrow Part 1 might go here if its parts were ranked separately)
- Rightful Heir (Klingon spirituality leaves a stronger impression
as a manipulation of politics than as worthy philosophical wisdom
when this episode is said and done. Not bad, but better episodes have gone before.)
- Schisms (a clever way to mirror and address alien abduction phenomena within the Star Trek format,
yielding a decent but somewhat disturbing episode. Lots of dry technobabble
and dramatically empty bits, especially during its "hook".)
- (Chain of Command Part 1 might go here if its parts were ranked separately)
- Descent (Parts 1 & 2)
- Rascals (Star Trek finds an interesting and worthy way to explore the main idea for the episode,
but the Ferengi action plot that pads out the second half is nearly impossible to take seriously.
Enterprise crewmembers would normally have put up a much better fight before being boarded.)
- Aquiel (a fairly decent mystery plot repeatedly trips up with sustaining audience interest,
particularly when we anticipate that Geordi will spend a LONG time going through
someone's boring logs. This even becomes audience repulsion when she sings.
But the bad bits don't actually take up as much time as they seem to,
and to my surprise,
this episode is still a more pleasant viewing experience than some other tales this season.
- Lessons (This is a lovely musical concert. But not so great an episode.
"Lessons," eh? Hmmm.... What are you teaching?
I find I'm neither opposed to Picard's relationship, nor invested in it.
It probably would've worked better as a subplot over three episodes
rather than trying to hold a single episode together all by itself.
And although it's fine if they want to highlight a potential problem
that they want to be sensitive to, they went too far, conveniently remolding
the universe to squeeze the characters with that problem.
Wimping out of the relationship
instead of tackling its challenges always struck me as the wrong direction
for Star Trek, and the opposite direction to "Tapestry". Then they name
the wrong direction as "Lessons", as if we should all learn the wimpiness.
Hmmph. NOT!! Very bad emphasis.
Greater wisdom says the relationship was actually doomed
by TV's usual "fling-of-the-week" syndrome.
This one had some potential, but ends up as just a slow stinker instead.
In fact, Nella's habit of assuming a teaching role,
in response to Picard's musical modesty for example,
also rubbed me the wrong way, making me wonder if the writers
weren't exposing their habits, given the title of this show.
Interestingly, the French translation of the title limits the lessons to musical ones,
which may be slight improvement.
Kudos to the Germans for renaming this one after one of its better images
"Der Feuersturm" [The Firestorm], which removes a big chunk of my irritation with this one. )
- Time's Arrow (Parts 1 & 2)
- Starship Mine (This concept should've produced a much better episode,
but the action is somehow limp, the plot should've escalated much better,
the humour is dodgy and isn't leading anywhere,
the resolution demonstrates no cleverness,
and there's no real point to the tale either.
Not bad perhaps, but the rest of the season sets a much higher bar.)
- Chain of Command (Parts 1 & 2)
(This story, no matter how greatly acted out,
doesn't seem to be about anything but showing
how weak-minded people create misery for others. Not a repeat draw;
no great lessons here. The imagery for bettering ourselves is elsewhere.)
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