| The Next Generation | |
| 111 | |
| Hero Worship | |
| 45397.3 | |
A science ship has been lost in the BlackCluster™ and the Enterprise has been tasked to find out what happened. "To go where no-one has gone before" doesn't seem to be part of their job specification any more. They don't have any trouble finding the Vico, but it looks like it met with an unfortunate accident. Several decks are open to space and the remainder are likely to join them soon. So who do they beam into this extremely hazardous environment? The bridge crew obviously!
The search reveals the dead bodies of many unnamed ensigns, as well as serious structural damage. Fortunately for them they are not searching for survivors, merely for the ship's computer log. They eventually find the black box, and much to their surprise a white kid! It may be a short association though, as he is pinned under a girder. Beaming him directly to sickbay doesn't work as there is too much interference, so it is left to Data to do a bionic man impersonation and lift the girder from him.
Timothy tells Dr Bev of his harrowing ordeal - the ship was attacked and troops beamed over with phaser rifles! Why can't we see action like this? The Vico's logs were scrambled so there is no useful information obtainable from them. Who could it have been? Maybe the attack was by the Breen? Who are the Breen?
Troi decides that since the boy has bonded to Data that Data should be his plastic pal. Timothy takes it just beyond the realms of sanity and decides that he is an android too. Ugh.
The Enterprise still wants to find out what happened to the Vico, so it enters the BlackCluster™. This is not a nice place to be. The Enterprise's sensors are useless and the phasers reflected. Data thinks that Tim was fibbing when he said that they were attacked, since no energy weapons would have worked here. Tim finally admits that he killed them all - his arm hit a computer panel and the ship destroyed itself! His view of himself in the cosmic scheme of things is a little overrated - he couldn't possibly have done it. So what did?
Probably something like the shock-waves that are hitting the Enterprise! They aren't just buffeting the ship, they are disrupting the warp field. There is nowhere to run. The shields are having no effect as the shock-waves are just increasing in power. Geordi reroutes warp power to the shields, but it doesn't look like it is going to be enough to survive the incoming wavefront.
Just in the nick of time, Tim remembers that this is exactly what happened on the Vico - they put warp power to the shields and were destroyed! Data thinks about it for a while and tells Picard to drop the shields. Dead if they do and dead if they don't - the light show should be impressive though. Picard hesitates, but orders them down and braces for the impact that never arrives. The shields were being reflected back as shock-waves! Tim has saved the day.
