Somewhere in between scenes like this, we get a little backstory for Picard.
Original air date: May 2, 1988
Picard meets an old flame, whose husband has been affected by a dimensional experiment accident.
Tropes in this episode:
- Applied Phlebotinum: Just like in several Original Series episodes, antimatter is apparently the cure for everything.
- Bittersweet Ending: The disaster is averted, at least for now, and Picard gets some closure with his old flame, but he's still left sad about the life he left behind. In the end, he perks up with a lighthearted exchange with his bridge staff.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the climax, all the Datas have open expressions of stress/dismay at points, and one of them uses a contraction. "Me! It's me!"
- Eiffel Tower Effect: A gloriously blatant example, where in the holographic recreation of the Paris cafe, the Eiffel Tower is visible in the background in multiple, mutually-exclusive camera angles.
- Flynning: The episode begins with a fencing match between Picard and another officer that is pretty standard stage sword fighting.
- Gone Horribly Right: Dr. Manheim (Rod Loomis) was attempting to open a door to another dimension. He succeeded, but at the cost of his research team's lives and very nearly the galaxy.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Dr. Crusher gives a few sharp glances at Picard and Jenice whenever they're together. Troi confronts her about her obvious dismay, and she admits that she can't compete with Picard's memories of his old flame.
- Picard is very uncomfortable whenever he watches Jenice interact with her husband, Dr. Manheim.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Dr. Manheim (who knows about Picard and Jenice's past relationship, and fears he hasn't been the husband she deserves) asks him to look after her if he doesn't survive. Conversely, when Manheim recovers at the end, Picard seems somewhat glad to see how happy Jenice is with him.
- Meaningful Background Event: When Manheim and Jenice work out that Jenice will accompany him on his further experiments, Picard is standing in the background in the space between them, visually separating them. But they come together anyway, and Picard is left alone.
- Must Make Amends: The episode ends with Picard having champagne in Paris (well, the holodeck's version of Paris) with Jenice, like he failed to do many years ago.
- Old Flame: Jenice, Dr. Manheim's wife, is this for Picard.
- The One That Got Away: Jenice. A variation in that Picard let her get away, as he was too scared of settling down and living a normal life with her instead of achieving his dream of captaining a starship.
- Phlebotinum-Proof Robot: Because Data is an android he perceives time different from organics and can therefore handle the effects better than the others. He's sent to fix the device. Even when it splits him into three versions from three slightly offset timeframes, he can figure out which version is the only one that can fix the device.
- Portal Slam: Picard asks if Data closed the dimensional door. Data replies that closed is not appropriate as his solution was not final, but rather the doorway has merely been "patched."
- Romantic False Lead: Dr. Manheim, the husband of Picard's old flame.
- Shout-Out: The title is from the classic film Casablanca. Picard, Riker, and Troi, looking forward to shore leave on Sarona VIII, talk about visiting the Blue Parrot Café, which was the name of the rival bar to Rick's Café Americain in that film.
- Temporal Paradox: Manheim's experiment creates "echoes" in the space-time continuum. In one case (as seen above), it causes Picard, Riker and Data to meet themselves in a turbolift.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Data's response to Manheim's security system is to roll back and forth, dodging the phasers, until he can shoot them down.
