| The Next Generation | |
| 79 | |
| Remember Me | |
| 44161.2 | |
The Enterprise is once again performing that duty that it was commissioned for - intergalactic taxi. They are picking up one of Dr Crushers friends from Starbase-133 to take him home. How nice. I wonder what the charge on that one will be?
Just to make a change, Wes is stuffing around with the warp engines. I would have thought that moments before departure was not the time for new experiments - especially Wes's! He tinkers and plays and there is a bright flash. "That shouldn't have happened" said Wes. "No shit" we all reply.
After leaving the Starbase, Bev's guest goes missing. Curiously, no-one remembers him and there's no computer record of him ever having existed. Aha, a mystery! A few moments later, Bev has no medical staff and the Enterprise's full compliments has dropped from more than 1,000 to 230. I suppose this is a way to remove excess characters from Paramount's payroll, but you would have thought that dumping all the extras was a little strange. Maybe they were all given red shirts, and told to join an away team...
Maybe Bev's friend Dr Quiace was caught in Wes's warp bubble experiment, but this still does not account for the other crew losses. Bev wants a full ship's diagnostic run. By this stage we all know that it's Bev in the bubble. I ofter wonder why characters never seem to recognise the obvious - maybe if they did, TNG episodes would only be 20 minutes long.
Oh, no. It's a bad cut from "The Philadelphia Experiment" as a strange glowing vortex tries to grab Bev, but she valiantly hold on. Bev reports this but there is no evidence that it ever occurred, and the crew is down to 114. Worf, "the big guy who never smiles" is one of the missing. I knew that Michael Dorn hated the makeup, but this is going a bit far. Bev starts to wonder if she is losing her mind - but with a son like Wes, it is understandable.
To confirm her belief that Wes is driving her nuts, she goes to see him. They once met an Alien Traveller who could combine warp fields with psychic phenomena, and Bev wonders whether Wes simulated it in his warp experiment. What!?! Did the episode suddenly derail? Did the script writers decide that what was at first a promising episode needed a few more illegal pharmecuticals to spice up the plot? The plot, she canna' take it any more Captain...
Now Wes is gone, which is the first highlight of what is fast becoming yet another silly episode. In fact everyone is gone except Picard. Finally he goes too, and there is no record of there ever having been anyone else on the Enterprise. There's no time for musing as another mystic vortex tries to suck her through the main view screen, but once again she hangs on.
Cut back to the real Enterprise. Wes and Geordi have finally given up trying to retrieve Bev when... the Traveller beams in. Of course no-one thinks this is strange. No-one brings phasers to bear when a strange alien just materialises in Engineering. I bet Picard leaves the Enterprises's doors unlocked and the engine running when he just has to pop out. This is supposed to be the flag ship of the fleet, and its security is about as tight as Wes's grip on reality - non-existant.
The Traveller says that it's not all over, but that Bev created her own reality when she was snatched into the warp bubble. As long as she believes that she's alive, she will be. Yay. He can't get her out, but if Wes uses his internal power he can do it. Give me a break! "Use the force Wesley." Ugh! The Traveller wants him to let go of his guilt, and open himself to time and space. Not likely with a guilt debt that high...
Bev decides to go to Tau-Alpha-C, the homeworld of the Traveller to seek help. The only problem is that it doesn't exist, and appearantly never did. Bummer. In fact the entire universe is now a spheroid region 705m in diameter, which just encompasses the ship. Convenient that. Bev finally realises that she is in the bubble. There might not be time for her to gloat over this intellecutual triumph as there is explosive decompression in the forward sections due to a design flaw - the Enterprise is too big to fit in the known universe. Now there's a management stuff-up if I ever saw one.
Back in reality, the Traveller tells Picard that their only hope is Obi-Wan Kenobi - oh, sorry, wrong space opera - is going back to the place that bubble was formed and trying to establish a link there using Wesley's inate chaos powers. This will be a sure thing given how high he rates on that scale.
The Enterprise's computer has clearly lost its grip on what is left of its reality, because it says that the universe will not exist in 4:17, and is contracting at 15m/s. Even if this is a radial contraction, this only requires a speed of 2.7m/s - slightly more sedate than what is claimed. Of course, it's due to trans-dimensional-warp-fudge-factors, and the fact that the script writers have never been very good at maths.
Bev finally works out that her thoughts created her universe, which is a bit narcisistic really, and goes to engineering to get back to where it all began. On the real Enterprise, the Traveller and Wes start going ethereal and in another flash of light, Bev flies in and Wes collapses. Picard immediately rushes to Bev, and everyone ignores Wes. At least this is a fitting end given that the brat did it again. When will he learn not to mess with things?
