| The Next Generation | |
| 124 | |
| The Next Phase | |
| not given | |
It's hard to work out who the black-hats are anymore. The Borg and the Cardassians seem to fit the bill, but I'm starting to wonder about the Romulans. A good example of this confusion is the Enterprise rushing to the aid of a damaged Romulan cruiser. Geordi decides that they need a new generator so he beams back to the Enterprise with Ro to replicate a new one. Or at least he tries to - without Chief O'Brien's amazing skills the matter stream can't be reconstruct! Scratch two characters...
Wait a minute, Ro's not dead! However everything is definitely not right - her communicator doesn't work, and the doors to sickbay don't operate for her. In fact, no-one seems to be able to see her at all. Newsflash! Dr Social Conscience is making out her death certificate, and Picard walks right through her! Maybe she's a ghost, or maybe, just maybe they borrowed the plot from SquidQuest!
It wouldn't be fair for only one of them to join the league of undead fiends, so Geordi is bound to pop up sooner or later. Ah, here he is now. Interestingly he and Ro are mutually solid. Ro tells him that they are dead, but he refuses to believe that he's a blind ghost with clothes. Stranger things have happened...
Is this Star Trek or The Twilight Zone? On TNG things are supposed to have at least a pseudo-scientific rational, so why can they walk through walls, yet don't drop through the floor? How do they manage to breathe? Or hear, or see? Oh I see, it's the traditional plot-flaw-big-enough-to-park-a-starship-in. Now back to the story...
Data takes time off from planning Geordi's memorial service to investigate their deaths. He finds strange ChronitonFields™ in the transporter room, but no other evidence. Since the transporters are not to be trusted, he and Worf take a shuttle over to the Romulan ship, and fill the time with idle banter about death rituals. How nice. Geordi and Ro hitch a ride...
Being able to look through things has its benefits. Geordi stares into one of the consoles on the Romulan ship and sees something that looks somewhat like a combination of a phase inverter and a cloaking device. How would he know? Maybe they're phased out, rather than dead! Of course, it's not that easy to kill a permanent character...
The Federation may think that the Romulans are just misunderstood, but no-one apparently told the Romulans that it was supposed to be mutual. They prepare a little present for their helpers - when the Enterprise goes to warp, it will also go to pieces! Geordi overhears it, but how is he going to tell anyone?
Two is company, and three is definitely a crowd, especially when number three is a phased Romulan! He hitches a ride back to the Enterprise and tries to abduct Ro, and he has a friend - a phased disruptor! It's time for the dramatic chase scene: the Romulan chases Ro though the ship - literally - straight through walls! Geordi finally catches up with them and body slams the Romulan though a bulkhead and out into space. Nice one Mr X-Ray Charles!
All this time Data has been spotting new ChronitonFields™ appearing throughout the ship. They're the footprint left when someone walks through a wall - but he doesn't know that. He uses an AnyonBeam™ to remove them, and in the process temporarily rephases Geordi. So to save the day, Geordi and Ro have to get rephased enough to warn Picard not to go into warp. There would need to be lots of people around, and it would be rude to be late to your own funeral...
Ro uses the disruptor to create more fields in 10-Forward, and shoots Laughing Boy in the head for playing his trombone. Unfortunately it doesn't affect him. An AnyonBeam™ sweep rephases them temporarily but to no effect. To create a bigger ChronitonField™, Ro sets the disruptor to overload, and the resulting sweep rephases them enough to be seen by Picard and Data.
Data finally works it out, and has 10-Forward flooded with AnyonBeams™ and rephases them completely. And they all lived happily ever after...
