The
While enroute to a planet needing assistance following an asteroid strike the Enterprise detects a disturbance in the space-time continuum, when they stop to investigate they're told by the occupant of an unfamiliar craft to have Picard move out of the way. After doing so a human male beams aboard, saying Picard was standing in his beam-in point.
The man is Berlinghoff Rasmussen and he says he's a 26th century time-traveling explorer/historian there to observe this specific mission of the Enterprise's, claiming it's an important one that people in the future still discuss and debate.
Picard and the rest of the bridge crew are initially skeptical of Rasmussen's claims but cannot deny the facts before them (the temporal disturbance, the time-ship and it being made of a material they cannot scan and that Rasmussen is genetically human.) So Picard has little no concern letting Rasmussen observe the crew for a while, letting the crew answer questionnaires and access to sensitive areas of the ship (namely the bridge and engineering.)
On arrival at the planet, Picard works with Geordi and the planet's leaders to work-out a solution to the ecological effects the asteroid impact has had. They come up with a plan to use the ship's phasers to drill into pockets of CO2 under the planet's crust, creating a run-away greenhouse effect which will trap in what little starlight warmth is getting through the debris cloud in the atmosphere.
The plan is initially successful but soon after the planet experiences a number of geological disturbances in the form of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The ash clouds from the volcanic eruptions is blocking out even more of the sunlight, beyond which the greenhouse-effect can compensate for. It seems the good they tried to do has ended up worse for the planet.
During much of thus Rasmussen has been talking with the bridge crew and generally making a nuisance of himself as he tries to hit-on Crusher and then Troi, pesters Geordi while working in Engineering and along the way asks to see contemporary equipment mentioned in the questionnaires. We also observe him secretly stealing a phaser and a tricorder.
Geordi and Data think they have worked out a possible solution to the planet's problems but it's a risky move that will either work to their great advantage or decimate the atmosphere, and all life, on the planet. The idea being to use the ship's deflector to absorb all of the debris and pollutants in the atmosphere and eject it into space, but if their calculations are even slightly off they'll kill everything on the planet.
Picard struggles with the choice he has to make but sees that he has resource open to him he's never had before, Rasmussen. He calls Rasmussen into the Ready Room and tries to persuade him to inform Picard on what happened here, telling Picard what to do. Rasmussen refuses, seeming to hold onto a temporal equivalent of The Prime Directive and being indifferent to the lives of everyone on the planet as -to him- they've already been dead for a very long time. Picard makes an impassioned speech for Rasmussen to talk, but Rasmussen still refuses.
The conditions of the planet are at a point where they're as "good as they're going to get" for Picard's plan to work and decides that he's not one to play it safe and opts to try their plan. The plan works and all of the pollutants removed from the atmosphere restoring it to the quality it was before the asteroid strike. Rasmussen proclaims it's time for him to leave and heads off.
He's greeted in the shuttlebay with the bridge crew by his ship. Picard reports that a number of items have gone missing and they suspect Rasmussen is responsible. They want the items back and are prepared to either destroy the ship to get to them or Rasmussen allows an escort into the ship. Rasmussen agrees, but only Data -who can be ordered to not divulge whatever he sees, save for anything that belongs to the ship.
Inside the time-pod Data finds the stolen equipment and Rasmussen reveals who he really is, a unsuccessful 22nd-century inventor who managed to intercept an actual 26th-century time-traveler/explorer in 22nd-century New Jersey. Rasmussen was able to figure out the time machine and use it to travel to the future to recover future technology. He intends to bring it back with him to his present to "invent" them and make a fortune. But that plan is now pointless as he now has the grandest prize in the form of Data.
He tries to stun Data with the stolen phaser but it's been de-activated by the ship's computer (which detected the stolen phaser once the pod's door was open.) Data and Rasmussen disembark the pod. Rasmussen pleads to be let back in the pod before the auto-timer sends it off; instead Picard takes Rasmussen into custody, welcoming him to the 24th-century.
Overall this isn't too bad of an episode but it pretty much hinges on us having to accept that our crew is very, very, almost uncharacteristically, trusting. There's very little reason for them to take Rasmussen at his word that he's a time-traveler from the future. Sure there's plenty of evidence that the travel pod may be from the future, but why be so quick to accept Rasmussen at his word? (And I know Picard said he checked Rasmussen's "credentials" but, I don't know how you check the credentials of someone who won't be born for another 150 years.) Even if they believed him, allowing him access to sensitive areas of the ship seems to be a bit much. Sure, the questionnaires can be shrugged off as the crew won't divulge sensitive information and even the odd device or two could be seen as acceptable (for all we know the medical device Beverly gives Rasmussen isn't thought of much more than doctors today may think of a blood-pressure cuff.) But the crew way too easily accept's Rasmussen's claims and gives him quite a bit of leeway all things considered.
It's also odd they decide to "trap" him in the present considering they don't know what role he's to play in the past, he could be someone "important", if only on a genetic level to someone in the present not yet born in the past. It seems like they should have let him go back with Data and have Data bring the pod back to present after kicking Rasmussen out.
The B-story on the planet's troubles is interesting in that it sort of shows us how "powerful" Starfleet ships really are in terms of the impact they can have on a planet's ecology with seemingly little effort. It says a lot about how "strong" these ships are if they can just go up to a planet and burn off their atmosphere with little risk or danger to the crew.
Matt Frewer does do a great job in the role of Burlinghoff but the character's plan has a pretty damn big flaw in that what he plans to do cannot work!
Say he's successful, and he brings back with him a tricorder or that medical device or Geordi's VISOR (we see it on the tray of items he's taken. In which case he only has half of the necessary components for it to work) to say nothing of Data.
Then what?! He has in his hands technology that is 200 years more advanced than anything anyone on Earth in his time has. So not only is he unlikely to even know how to figure out how these things work but he doesn't have the tools or equipment to reverse-engineer it and mass-produce it.
Think of it this way, take a man from, say, the 1890s and we'll say this man is even an expert in dealing with contemporary electronics for in the form of telegraph devices, or jump ahead 20, 30, 40 years and look at men dealing with radios, early TVs and even the earliest of "computers." These men are dealing with technology centered around vacuum tube bulbs, thick wires and where doing a simple calculation on a computer involves a week's worth of setting switches to just the right place. Bring one of these men to the present and hand them an iPhone.
What you just gave them is dark-magic and it's a piece of technology less than a century or so away from them. With this device you can communicate with almost anyone on the planet and have at your finger tips an endless source of music, movies and the sum of human knowledge in the form of the internet.
Our time traveler is going to have no idea how this thing works, let alone be able to take it apart, reverse engineer it, and then mass produce it. To speak nothing of that an iPhone in 1890s-1940s is going to be useless without a connection to a voice/data service. And we're giving him the benefit of at least being from a time where he has *some* idea of the existence of electronics and that things like this "might" be possible.
Rasmussen is a man 200 years removed from that tricorder, that PADD, that VISOR and Data so maybe it's not too much to say we're handing our iPhone to a Revolutionary War Veteran.
Now, sure "Enterprise" tells us that "phasers", "tricorders" and other forms of now familiar technology were "new" in the 22nd century but likely in their very earliest forms, they're ENIAC to today's iPad. They work on the same principle, electronic signals stored and manipulated by pieces of hardware. But 22nd century phasers are essentially running on vacuum tubes and 24th century phasers are working on sub-microtransistors.
And he thinks he can reverse-engineer Data, a sentient artificial lifeform. No wonder he's a failed inventor, the time machine owner must have left the manual under the seat or something.
Anyway, still a pretty enjoyable episode even if the plot is kind of dumb, again, Frewer makes Rasmussen fun especially as he tries to hit on Crusher and Troi, and the scene between him and Picard in the Ready Room near the end is probably one of the better Picard talks/speeches/rants from the series.
While enroute to a planet needing assistance following an asteroid strike the Enterprise detects a disturbance in the space-time continuum, when they stop to investigate they're told by the occupant of an unfamiliar craft to have Picard move out of the way. After doing so a human male beams aboard, saying Picard was standing in his beam-in point.
The man is Berlinghoff Rasmussen and he says he's a 26th century time-traveling explorer/historian there to observe this specific mission of the Enterprise's, claiming it's an important one that people in the future still discuss and debate.
Picard and the rest of the bridge crew are initially skeptical of Rasmussen's claims but cannot deny the facts before them (the temporal disturbance, the time-ship and it being made of a material they cannot scan and that Rasmussen is genetically human.) So Picard has little no concern letting Rasmussen observe the crew for a while, letting the crew answer questionnaires and access to sensitive areas of the ship (namely the bridge and engineering.)
On arrival at the planet, Picard works with Geordi and the planet's leaders to work-out a solution to the ecological effects the asteroid impact has had. They come up with a plan to use the ship's phasers to drill into pockets of CO2 under the planet's crust, creating a run-away greenhouse effect which will trap in what little starlight warmth is getting through the debris cloud in the atmosphere.
The plan is initially successful but soon after the planet experiences a number of geological disturbances in the form of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The ash clouds from the volcanic eruptions is blocking out even more of the sunlight, beyond which the greenhouse-effect can compensate for. It seems the good they tried to do has ended up worse for the planet.
During much of thus Rasmussen has been talking with the bridge crew and generally making a nuisance of himself as he tries to hit-on Crusher and then Troi, pesters Geordi while working in Engineering and along the way asks to see contemporary equipment mentioned in the questionnaires. We also observe him secretly stealing a phaser and a tricorder.
Geordi and Data think they have worked out a possible solution to the planet's problems but it's a risky move that will either work to their great advantage or decimate the atmosphere, and all life, on the planet. The idea being to use the ship's deflector to absorb all of the debris and pollutants in the atmosphere and eject it into space, but if their calculations are even slightly off they'll kill everything on the planet.
Picard struggles with the choice he has to make but sees that he has resource open to him he's never had before, Rasmussen. He calls Rasmussen into the Ready Room and tries to persuade him to inform Picard on what happened here, telling Picard what to do. Rasmussen refuses, seeming to hold onto a temporal equivalent of The Prime Directive and being indifferent to the lives of everyone on the planet as -to him- they've already been dead for a very long time. Picard makes an impassioned speech for Rasmussen to talk, but Rasmussen still refuses.
The conditions of the planet are at a point where they're as "good as they're going to get" for Picard's plan to work and decides that he's not one to play it safe and opts to try their plan. The plan works and all of the pollutants removed from the atmosphere restoring it to the quality it was before the asteroid strike. Rasmussen proclaims it's time for him to leave and heads off.
He's greeted in the shuttlebay with the bridge crew by his ship. Picard reports that a number of items have gone missing and they suspect Rasmussen is responsible. They want the items back and are prepared to either destroy the ship to get to them or Rasmussen allows an escort into the ship. Rasmussen agrees, but only Data -who can be ordered to not divulge whatever he sees, save for anything that belongs to the ship.
Inside the time-pod Data finds the stolen equipment and Rasmussen reveals who he really is, a unsuccessful 22nd-century inventor who managed to intercept an actual 26th-century time-traveler/explorer in 22nd-century New Jersey. Rasmussen was able to figure out the time machine and use it to travel to the future to recover future technology. He intends to bring it back with him to his present to "invent" them and make a fortune. But that plan is now pointless as he now has the grandest prize in the form of Data.
He tries to stun Data with the stolen phaser but it's been de-activated by the ship's computer (which detected the stolen phaser once the pod's door was open.) Data and Rasmussen disembark the pod. Rasmussen pleads to be let back in the pod before the auto-timer sends it off; instead Picard takes Rasmussen into custody, welcoming him to the 24th-century.
Overall this isn't too bad of an episode but it pretty much hinges on us having to accept that our crew is very, very, almost uncharacteristically, trusting. There's very little reason for them to take Rasmussen at his word that he's a time-traveler from the future. Sure there's plenty of evidence that the travel pod may be from the future, but why be so quick to accept Rasmussen at his word? (And I know Picard said he checked Rasmussen's "credentials" but, I don't know how you check the credentials of someone who won't be born for another 150 years.) Even if they believed him, allowing him access to sensitive areas of the ship seems to be a bit much. Sure, the questionnaires can be shrugged off as the crew won't divulge sensitive information and even the odd device or two could be seen as acceptable (for all we know the medical device Beverly gives Rasmussen isn't thought of much more than doctors today may think of a blood-pressure cuff.) But the crew way too easily accept's Rasmussen's claims and gives him quite a bit of leeway all things considered.
It's also odd they decide to "trap" him in the present considering they don't know what role he's to play in the past, he could be someone "important", if only on a genetic level to someone in the present not yet born in the past. It seems like they should have let him go back with Data and have Data bring the pod back to present after kicking Rasmussen out.
The B-story on the planet's troubles is interesting in that it sort of shows us how "powerful" Starfleet ships really are in terms of the impact they can have on a planet's ecology with seemingly little effort. It says a lot about how "strong" these ships are if they can just go up to a planet and burn off their atmosphere with little risk or danger to the crew.
Matt Frewer does do a great job in the role of Burlinghoff but the character's plan has a pretty damn big flaw in that what he plans to do cannot work!
Say he's successful, and he brings back with him a tricorder or that medical device or Geordi's VISOR (we see it on the tray of items he's taken. In which case he only has half of the necessary components for it to work) to say nothing of Data.
Then what?! He has in his hands technology that is 200 years more advanced than anything anyone on Earth in his time has. So not only is he unlikely to even know how to figure out how these things work but he doesn't have the tools or equipment to reverse-engineer it and mass-produce it.
Think of it this way, take a man from, say, the 1890s and we'll say this man is even an expert in dealing with contemporary electronics for in the form of telegraph devices, or jump ahead 20, 30, 40 years and look at men dealing with radios, early TVs and even the earliest of "computers." These men are dealing with technology centered around vacuum tube bulbs, thick wires and where doing a simple calculation on a computer involves a week's worth of setting switches to just the right place. Bring one of these men to the present and hand them an iPhone.
What you just gave them is dark-magic and it's a piece of technology less than a century or so away from them. With this device you can communicate with almost anyone on the planet and have at your finger tips an endless source of music, movies and the sum of human knowledge in the form of the internet.
Our time traveler is going to have no idea how this thing works, let alone be able to take it apart, reverse engineer it, and then mass produce it. To speak nothing of that an iPhone in 1890s-1940s is going to be useless without a connection to a voice/data service. And we're giving him the benefit of at least being from a time where he has *some* idea of the existence of electronics and that things like this "might" be possible.
Rasmussen is a man 200 years removed from that tricorder, that PADD, that VISOR and Data so maybe it's not too much to say we're handing our iPhone to a Revolutionary War Veteran.
Now, sure "Enterprise" tells us that "phasers", "tricorders" and other forms of now familiar technology were "new" in the 22nd century but likely in their very earliest forms, they're ENIAC to today's iPad. They work on the same principle, electronic signals stored and manipulated by pieces of hardware. But 22nd century phasers are essentially running on vacuum tubes and 24th century phasers are working on sub-microtransistors.
And he thinks he can reverse-engineer Data, a sentient artificial lifeform. No wonder he's a failed inventor, the time machine owner must have left the manual under the seat or something.
Anyway, still a pretty enjoyable episode even if the plot is kind of dumb, again, Frewer makes Rasmussen fun especially as he tries to hit on Crusher and Troi, and the scene between him and Picard in the Ready Room near the end is probably one of the better Picard talks/speeches/rants from the series.
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