First off, let me say that I was completely caught off-guard at the beginning of the episode. I genuinely had no idea what was going on, which is very rare for me. When the Enterprise encounters a rift in space and a second Enterprise emerges from it, I figured we were in for another Time Squared situation - maybe this time a version from the past instead of the future. But then... Tasha Yar was back! And not on that other Enterprise. She was just... there, standing on the bridge instead of Worf. What?! And why was Guinan wearing blue when she was just wearing purple? And why did the lighting suddenly feel way more dramatic? What is going on?
See?? That's engaging television.
But seriously - Tasha is back? After they let her die to that ridiculous slime monster back in season one? Now she’s just standing there like nothing happened?
Well, turns out the old Enterprise - the Enterprise-C - was supposed to be destroyed in a pivotal battle. But during that fight, a temporal rift sent the ship 22 years into the future, creating an alternate timeline where the Federation is in a decades-long war with the Klingon Empire. All because of that one battle. And now everyone believes this is their reality - everyone except Guinan, who can sense something is wrong.
Now she has to convince Picard to send the Enterprise-C back through the rift to die like they were supposed to, restoring the "real" timeline.
I gotta say, this whole episode felt like the writers were trying to say, "I'm sorry" to Denise Crosby and finally give her character, Tasha Yar, a proper send-off - and I mean that in the best way. Denise Crosby drew the short stick by being part of the worst season of Star Trek and dying in a way that didn’t feel heroic, earned, or even logical. In this episode, they openly talk about her senseless death in the alternate timeline, and she gets the opportunity to do it all over again, this time on her terms - in battle, standing her ground, doing what's right. It was actually emotional in a very meta kind of way.
Also, the writers do the smart thing here and take the Enterprise-D to its very limit. They kill off main characters. They nearly destroy the ship. And all of it is in defense of a doomed ship heading back through a wormhole to save the timeline. And then - just like that - nothing.
The lights come back on. Worf is back on the bridge. Guinan is wearing purple again. No one remembers anything. They have no idea what just happened or what was sacrificed. But Guinan knows. She can feel it. The end.
And there you go. A perfect sci-fi episode. A wonderful Star Trek episode. And a much-deserved redemption arc for a legacy character. Beautiful.
If this is what's waiting ahead, set course to the stars, because I can't wait to see what else TNG has in store.
