Clues
Season 4 Episode 14
Original airdate: February 9, 1991
Netflix Synopsis
After passing through a wormhole, the crew uncovers clues that they were unconscious for more than the 30 seconds they were led to believe.
My Brief Review
I’ve made it to 50 reviews! Beyond that, I watched this episode 30 years to the day after it originally aired. (My God, has it been that long?) It’s one I remember well.
The episode begins with what seems like a throwaway Holodeck scene where Picard is re-enacting a film noir mystery, with a special visit from Guinan dressed in 1940s garb. Of course this scene has a symbolic relevance to the episode’s main story, which is the crew’s persistent unraveling of a big mystery… if they were only unconscious for 30 seconds, how did Dr. Crusher’s moss samples show a day’s worth of growth? And how did Worf’s wrist get broken and set? And why did Data apparently tamper with the ship’s clock, as well as… lots of other stuff? And why is Troi freaking out?
The mystery was not so exciting for me this time around because I remembered the basic gist of the story, and in retrospect it’s pretty obvious given the pretty blatant clues we’re given. But it’s still fun… Mystery Trek!
Memorable Moment
The whole thing is vaguely memorable, but the scene where Troi screams is stuck pretty firmly in my brain… I remembered her exact lines of dialogue as she was about to say them.
Crew Rando
Is Nurse Alyssa really a rando? This was only her second appearance in the show, but she would go on to be in 14 more episodes over the remainder of the show, including the series finale. She still seems like a bit of a rando at this moment though. There’s also Ensign McKnight at the helm, who is here for the first of three appearances.
Distance Rating: 3K
IMDb score: 8.3/10