Original air date: November 18, 1991
On Penthara IV, an asteroid has struck an unpopulated continent, a catastrophe which has thrown a heavy mass of dust into the atmosphere, threatening to create an impact winter. La Forge and Data are hard at work in Engineering coming up with a plan to save the inhabitants, but on the bridge, Worf notices a temporal distortion and traces it to a small, curiously-designed ship. They receive a message that only says, "Move over." Captain Picard proclaims that the Enterprise isn't going anywhere, but their visitor meant Picard himself — as soon as Picard steps aside, a lanky gentleman beams onto the bridge right where Picard was standing and introduces himself as Professor Berlinghoff Rasmussen (Matt Frewer), a historian from 26th-century Earth.
Rasmussen announces that he's come to witness famous historical events and seems positively giddy as he inspects the ship, confirming his various academic theories. When the crew start peppering him with questions about the future, he invokes a Temporal Prime Directive, saying that he cannot risk affecting the timeline. A scan of the timeship's hull reveals "some kind of plasticized tritanium mesh," a material not on record and impossible to scan through, which is evidently enough to convince Picard of his credentials. Rasmussen asks the crew to complete some questionnaires he's prepared for them to fill in holes in the historical record.
As expected, Penthara IV proves to be in pretty bad shape upon the Enterprise's arrival. As Picard speaks with Dr. Moseley on the planet about how to use Federation technology to help, Rasmussen distributes his questionnaires to the crew. He rebuffs all further attempts to gain some insight about the future, but he certainly has an awful lot of questions for them and has taken to pocketing random pieces of equipment from around the ship.
The crew are hard at work using phasers to drill into Penthara IV to release carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect to warm the planet. As they continue to ponder a solution, Troi is increasingly distrustful of their guest's motives, sensing that he's hiding something from them. The gregarious historian is unfazed by her suspicions and even takes a pass at Crusher while he's at it, though she coolly turns him down. He also takes a special interest in Data, whom he describes as the Model T of androids.
While Riker and Picard are on the bridge discussing what in the blue hell the professor's questions are about, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions devastate Penthara IV. Seems their phaser idea didn't work like they'd hoped, and instead they dramatically increased seismic activity, worsening the ash cover. La Forge and Data figure they can ionize the upper atmosphere with their deflector beam and a modified phaser blast, which will clear the air, but, as Data relays to Picard, they have to do this maneuver precisely or risk burning off the entire atmosphere from the planet.
Picard, with little alternative, decides to consult a source he's never really had before: the future. He explains the plan to Rasmussen and asks the historian to tell him which decision will work out best. Leveraging a time-traveller's perspective is not something Picard would normally do, but he now has "twenty million reasons to do so." As before, Rasmussen staunchly refuses to provide any details from the future for fear of changing his timeline, even invoking Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act. Picard insists that the future from his perspective is unwritten, but Rasmussen is callously unmoved.
Back to square one, Picard returns to the bridge and decides to go ahead with the plan, and the planet's leadership agrees, though as La Forge points out, they only have one shot at this. The Enterprise fires their deflector dish, and after a few tense moments, successfully returns Penthara IV to its original climate. Rasmussen smugly announces that he's seen all he came to see and will now return to his timeline. As the historian leaves to pack, Picard gives a cryptic nod to Worf.
Rasmussen is tickled to see the crew lining his timeship to see him off, until Picard reveals that they're really there to inspect the timeship for some valuable tools that have gone missing. Rasmussen insists that only Data make the inspection, since an android can absolutely be trusted to not reveal any details of the future they'd glimpse while inside. Data agrees, and with an identifying handprint, Rasmussen steps inside with Data. Data quickly spots the missing items laid out in the ship, but when he turns around, he finds that he's being held at phaser-point.
Now we get The Reveal — Rasmussen isn't a historian, and that's not even his ship. A real 26th-century historian had the misfortune of traveling back to the 22nd century and being mugged by Rasmussen, a struggling inventor, who now plans to "invent" one piece of the stolen equipment a year. And to his delight, he now gets to make off with Data as well. With the ship's auto-timer set to transport them back to 22nd-century New Jersey in two minutes, he prepares to stun Data, only to find his phaser has been deactivated. Uh oh.
Data takes Rasmussen back outside and reveals the whole plot. Picard immediately points out the hypocrisy of all his secrecy and reveals that once the door to the ship opened, they were able to scan inside and remotely deactivate all the devices. Rasmussen tries desperately to get back inside his ship, even pleading to Crusher, who is decidedly unmoved by his plight. It's too late for Rasmussen, whose ship disappears, stranding him in the future forever. Picard points out to Rasmussen that some real historians at Starfleet might have a lot of questions for a human from the 22nd century, and he is rather looking forward to turning him over to them. The episode ends with Worf hauling away a horrified Rasmussen as Picard welcomes him to the 24th century.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Rasmussen creeps on Beverly outside of Sickbay. Beverly ain't got time for creeps.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Rasmussen can't seem to get through a conversation without randomly changing the subject to something around the ship that catches his interest. This comes off as excessive enthusiasm about getting to be personally present in an era that he'd studied but is likely a deliberate effort to cover his own lack of actual knowledge.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Data threatens Rasmussen with this, assuming the time ship will accept his hand print as valid even if Data has to knock him unconscious to get it there.
- Break the Haughty: After a holier-than-thou attitude the whole episode, Rasmussen, thanks to some quick action from the crew, gets what's coming to him and more.
- Call-Back: Picard invokes Khan Singh in his argument with Rasmussen.
- Con Man: Rasmussen isn't actually a 26th-century historian, he's a 22nd-century inventor with a stolen 26th-century timeship.
- Contrived Coincidence: Rasmussen arrives on the ship claiming he's there to watch historical events play out. It just so happens that he arrives just prior to events in which 20 million lives hang in the balance, lending credence to his story.
- Cryptic Conversation: Rasmussen spends the whole episode being a huge pain in the ass with this, justifying it in the name of "preserving the timeline."
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Rasmussen uses a time machine, something with a dizzying range of possible uses, to simply steal gizmos and profit from "inventing" them. One would think that even if he'd just decided to live as a normal citizen in the futuristic, post-scarcity utopia of the 24th century, it would be superior to his nefarious scheme.
- Foreshadowing: Carefully analyzing Rasmussen throughout the episode reveals major hints that he isn't what he seems.
- When Picard gives him an As You Know about the Prime Directive, Rasmussen's expression is one of receiving new information rather than being reminding about something he's perfectly aware of.
- At the end of the big Patrick Stewart Speech, when he meekly says, "Please don't ask me to help you, Captain. I can't help you." No, Picard, he literally can't.
- When he witnesses the Enterprise attempting to fix the atmosphere, he can't help but display his tension and alarm, revealing that he had no idea what was going to happen.
- A lot of Rasmussen's dialogue does casually reveal information about the future, hinting that his dedication to not revealing information about the future in the name of preserving the timeline is a farce. He also hits on both Dr. Crusher and Troi, even though that'd obviously be a huge breach of the integrity of history; Dr. Crusher directly points out that for all Rasmussen knows, she could be his ancestor.
- He is utterly confused by Data's ability to listen to four songs at the same time, even though this is only a fraction of Data's abilities. Since Rasmussen claims familiarity with androids that have come after Data, you'd think he'd be aware that an android could do that.
- Future Imperfect: Rasmussen's story is that he's a 26th-century historian who time traveled to the 24th century to fill in gaps in the historical record, thus trying to avert this in his time. When it turns out he's a conman from the 22nd century, Picard thinks 24th-century historians would love to talk to him for this very reason.
- He Knows Too Much: Probably why the Enterprise crew look totally unapologetic about Rasmussen's horrible fate — with all the information he got from them while he was on the ship, he's become a serious liability to the timeline.
- Hell Is That Noise: When Rasmussen goes to Data's quarters, he's immediately hit with an onslaught of four songs loudly playing at the same time. Data eventually settles on one, for Rasmussen's sake, and even then he has to turn down the volume to half.Rasmussen: HOW THE— [catches himself] How the hell can you listen to four pieces of music at the same time?
Data: Actually, I'm capable of distinguishing over 150 simultaneous compositions. But in order to analyze the aesthetics, I tend to keep it to ten or less. - Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Discussed and defied. Rasmussen attempts to invoke this as an excuse not to help the Enterprise, but Picard is unimpressed.Picard: Yes, Professor, I know. What if one of those lives I save down there is a child who grows up to be the next Adolf Hitler or Khan Singh? Every first year philosophy student has been asked that question ever since the earliest wormholes were discovered, but this is not a class in temporal logic. It's not theoretical, it's not hypothetical, it's real! Surely you see that?
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When the crew begin to suspect Rasmussen of thievery, he consents to allowing Data to inspect his timepod, thinking that he can take Data back with him to the 22nd century. And in doing so, he ensures that there's no possible way he could overpower his hostage.
- Hypocrite:
- Rasmussen spends much of the episode stubbornly insisting that the crew having knowledge of the future could have serious repercussions on the timeline. This from the same guy who's stealing Enterprise tools and planning to be the one to "invent" them. (Besides that, who knows what knowledge he would have gotten from those "questionnaires" he made the crew take?)
- Picard tears apart Rasmussen's arguments (as quoted under Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act) as relating to interfering in the past, but has used those exact arguments to justify allowing entire planets that he could easily save to die himself in earlier (and later) episodes. In fact, it's the show's main justification for the darker elements of the Prime Directive.
- Idiot Ball: Troi is unable to do much more with her empathic abilities to see through Rasmussen's facade than a vague sense that he's "holding something back," thus allowing the episode to play out.
- If You Won't, I Will: In the final scene, when Rasmussen hesitates to open the timeship, Worf threatens to do it for him — with explosives. Subverted in that Rasmussen points out that Worf probably can't get through his hull, and Picard resorts to threatening to prevent him from entering the ship.
- Insufferable Genius: Not necessarily "genius" as much as superior knowledge, but Rasmussen's cockiness and generally condescending attitude fit the trope. Subverted when it's revealed that he had no superior knowledge, and everything was an act to convince the crew that he did.
- Ironic Echo: "Now what possible incentive could anyone offer me to allow that?" Spoken by Rasmussen when Picard tries to get him to reveal the result of their risky plan, and then Picard repeats the same thing back at him when the whole ploy is revealed and Rasmussen tries to get back on his ship.
- Joisey: Rasmussen's 22nd-century home is in New Jersey.
- Just Between You and Me: As soon as Rasmussen gets a moment alone with Data in his ship, he pulls a phaser on Data and gleefully invokes this trope.
- Kick the Dog: While Rasmussen at first seems to be simply an overly enthusiastic and slightly smug historian, he reveals that he's a jerk not to be trusted when he wordlessly treats Data like a bathroom attendant. His callousness, condescension and lack of morals crop up a few more times in the episode.
- Large Ham: Rasmussen is just a ball of energy in this episode. Of course, this is Matt Frewer of Max Headroom fame playing him, so '80s pop culture aficionados will know what they're in for.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- The Star Trek Expanded Universe novel The Big Game confirms that Rasmussen went to prison for his crimes in this episode. He was released a year later though in 2369 and travels to Deep Space 9 to partake in Quark's poker tournament.
- In the short story "Research" from the anthology Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Rasmussen retrieves backup plans for the time travel ship, builds a new one and uses it to go to the 20th century. With the help of his ancestor, they both travel to 1964 to meet television writer Gene Roddenberry and tell him about the future. Unfortunately, Rasmussen's luck runs out as he is killed in a car accident in 1999 while driving to Paramount Studios.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Enterprise suddenly has the ability to remotely disable stolen phasers. There are several times before and after this episode where this would've been massively useful.
- Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Rasmussen tries to shoot Data with a stolen phaser, but it doesn't work. Data calmly explains that because the Enterprise computer realized it'd been stolen, it got deactivated.
- Oh, Crap!: When the phaser aimed at Data doesn't go off, Rasmussen is stunned. When the time-locked ship disappears, stranding him in the 24th century forever? Then he's aghast.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: From Data of all people, when Rasmussen, whose handprint is required to unlock the pod door, has him locked in the time pod with a non-functioning phaser. Fortunately for Rasmussen, he backs down from Data, and the ass-kicking doesn't occur.Data: I assume your handprint will open this door whether you are conscious or not.
- Prochronic Product: Attempted when the time-traveling Berlinghoff Rasmussen visits the Enterprise to observe a historic moment. In reality, he's a 22nd century criminal that murdered the time machine's inventor, and has taken various Enterprise devices, intending to foist them as his own inventions back in New Jersey. His kleptomania was detected, and he ends up in the ship's brig, still an insignificant, non-noteworthy criminal.
- Properly Paranoid: Something nags at Troi the whole episode about the reliability of their visitor's whole persona, and she's not shy about telling him this.
- Rewatch Bonus: Looking back on the episode, Rasmussen really does a bang-up job on the whole con, deftly changing subjects and misdirecting the main cast at every turn. He only really stumbles, of course, by getting too cocky.
- In Rasmussen's private conversation with Picard, the former eventually, sheepishly apologizes, "I can't help you." At first, one can think that he's feeling guilty for refusing to help Picard. Once it's known that he's not from the future, Rasmussen's guilt is because he doesn't know the answer and can't help even if he wanted to.
- When the Enterprise ionizes the atmosphere, watch Rasmussen's surprised reaction, especially knowing that he's from the past and never knew the outcome.
- Shout-Out: In a discussion with Geordi regarding his VISOR, Rasmussen mentions Homer, John Milton, Claude Monet, and Stevie Wonder as major historical figures who were blind.
- Shiny-Looking Spaceships: The advanced technology of the timepod is conveyed by how shiny it is, both outside and inside.
- Sticky Fingers: Rasmussen keeps stealing some of the ship's tech, to the point that it ultimately proves his undoing.
- This Is Reality: When Rasmussen tries arguing his point with semantics and theories, Picard invokes this trope and shuts him down.
- Timeline-Altering MacGuffin: Rasmussen's true goal. He hopes to take the stolen goods, including Data, back to the 22nd century, where he'd "invent" them and profit from it.
- Time-Traveling Jerkass: Rasmussen.
- Trapped in Another World: With his stolen ship gone, Rasmussen winds up stranded in the 24th century.
- Villain Ball: Rasmussen spends the episode making foolish decisions that don't help his plan and only make him look suspicious to the crew of the Enterprise.
- He keeps acting like he chose to come to the Enterprise on this specific day to observe a specific event that is about to occur with great historical significance. This works against him because the Enterprise is currently trying to save a planet's people from destruction, so his attitude that he knows what is about to happen makes them concerned.
- He goes to great lengths to pass himself off as a futuristic conman when his plan boils down to stealing a few small gadgets like a tricorder, a neural stimulator, one of Geordi's visors, etc. The Enterprise has replicators and tons of supplies, so if he has simply asked to be permitted to take such objects back with him as mementos or for historical research, they probably wouldn't have had a problem with it. For that matter, he never has the idea to just get information from the Enterprise computer, which would have attracted far less attention and allowed him access to far more valuable data. Picard even lampshades this when he's found out.Picard: A pity you weren't a bit more inventive. If fewer things had disappeared, we might never have suspected you.
- When he's accused of the thefts, Rasmussen makes no serious attempt to talk his way out of things by making up an excuse like the ones above, instead he denies everything and refuses to permit the crew to search his ship. And then when he concedes to let one of them inside, he insists that Data do it. While his justification for choosing Data is sound if he was telling the truth, in practice it means he's trying to take an android hostage, and he surely should know he couldn't possibly overpower Data if it came to it. He also takes the time to explain his scheme to Data instead of just stunning him with a phaser when he has the chance.
- Was It All a Lie?: As he's dragged away to the brig, Ramussen sadly volunteers that he was genuinely attracted to Dr. Crusher.
- We All Die Someday: Part of Rasmussen's argument in his debate with Picard.Rasmussen: You must see that if I were to influence you, everything in this sector, in this quadrant of the galaxy could change. History, my history, would unfold in a way other than it already has. Now what possible incentive could anyone offer me to allow that to happen?Picard: I have two choices. Either way, one version of history or another will wend its way forward. The history you know or another one. Now who is to say which is better? What I do know is here, today, one way, millions of lives could be saved. Now isn't that incentive enough?Rasmussen: Everyone dies, Captain! It's just a question of when! All of those people down there died years before I was born! All of you up here, as well. So you see, I can't get quite as worked up as you over the fate of some colonists who, for me, have been dead a very, very long time.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The time machine that vanishes at the end, stranding Rasmussen in the 24th century. Now granted, it may be virtually useless without Rasmussen's input, but still, there's now a 26th-century time machine just sitting somewhere in 22nd-century New Jersey?
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Putting aside that he's the captain of the Federation flagship, Picard can't understand why Rasmussen would want to visit him, pointing out that there are smarter and wiser humans both in and out of Starfleet.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Discussed at length.
