I hate that these episodes are on the "Time Travel Collective" DVD set instead of "Time Squared" (one of my favourites) and "Clues". If any of you voted for "Time's Arrow" to be on that set, I shake my head disapprovingly at you.
“Clues” is one of my favorite TNG episodes.
I enjoyed seeing Guinan step into the realm of Dixon Hill as his cousin from
Cleeeveland (her helping poor Madeline say “incommunicado” and snapping her garter and “So, this is what you do for fun?” or “I think I’ve had enough fun for today” are all great) to Data’s idea to pipe the comm into the phone inside the holodeck(so very, very Data) in order not to be too disruptive.
Then the beautiful shots of the T tauri system in the beginning as we hear Picard’s log over the shots of the crew. I liked how the episode started out as another routine survey until the camera pans out to see everyone unconscious all over the bridge. That was a great moment that allows for an intriguing way to get the show started. It immediately threw me into a feeling of there has to be more to it but what exactly? The episode just started it can’t be over yet. So what is up?
I liked that for a while the show continued as nothing was wrong with the crew returning to their normal duties after everything quieted down. But it didn’t take too long to realize something wasn’t quite right. Once again the fiery Dr Crusher is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery and is the first to suspect something is off by noticing her Diomedian scarlet moss. The gradual discovery each time of the unexplained various 'clues'(the moss, Troi’s scare, Worf’s broken wrist, the loss of a whole day, Data lying, the probe’s falsified image) that suggested more was going on made for intriguing & unsettling moments that only further pulled me in as I pondered what really happened and what was exactly Data's involvement in all of this and how was the mysterious nebula connected?
The crew take smart, sensible steps to investigate and confirm their suspicions from Beverly checking the ensign’s biological cycle to Geordi checking the ship’s internal chronometer. And seeing the crew keep Data out of the loop and working behind Data’s back was very odd to see as he has been a fellow officer now his loyalty is being questioned. I liked the little details the writers thought of and included which helped to create a tight script such as crew thinking about such a minute detail as the lack of beard growth to sending a probe; the idea of a wormhole to account for any discrepancies in the ship’s chronometer was also very clever by the Paxans. Of course it would be truly unsettling and unnerving not knowing what could have possibly happened to you or was done to you during a period of missing time. So I obviously liked how the writers held off until the very end to fill it all in. That way it allowed you to ruminate on possible scenarios. The choice to use flashbacks to show the missing day and watching earlier preconceptions about what happened and how they were quickly disproven was fun. The flashback technique was put to great effect here as all the fragmented clues all come together for an interesting replay of events--sorta like LOST.
The idea of a stalemate with the Paxans was an interesting idea not really used often in stories so it was definitely fresh I thought. This episode had a lot of wonderful twists like when Data reveals Picard was the one who had ordered him to lie.
Picard once again demonstrates why he is a captain and puts in a great performance and Brent does a great job with Data trying to follow secret orders and steer the crew away from the secret that could destroy them. Picard deftly handled the Paxans giving his crew a reprieve for a second time from a certain death at their hands. There were also plenty of nice character moments:the friendship between Data/LaForge comes through nicely in their scene in engineering as Geordi runs a diagnostic. It is clear Geordi wants to do anything he can to help his friend out of this bind and seeing Geordi uncomfortable with being the one to gather the evidence to incriminate Data was also good; Worf revealing Klingons normally wouldn’t discuss minor discomfort was an interesting tidbit too.
It is always nice to see Nurse Ogawa. I just absolutely love her.
The ending choice of choosing to fade into another day with the crew unconscious like we saw at the beginning of the episode was a great choice. I also really, really liked the camera lingering on a Data for a few seconds as the show came to an end satisfied for being able to successful pull all of this off for a second time without a hitch and saving his crew.
