With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself
"How did I get here?"
Harry Kim is asleep, and we hear Captain Janeway calling for an emergency transport. He awakens and finds himself in his old apartment in San Francisco, beside his girlfriend Libby. Struggling to make sense of what's going on, he learns that he's in the present, that his friend Danny was stationed on Voyager instead of him, and as far as everyone else knows, the ship was destroyed. Libby hurries him off to an important meeting. Along the way, he bumps into Cosimo, a friendly coffee shop owner, who treats him like a regular customer.
Kim meets Lieutenant Lasca, his partner in his important meeting. It turns out to be a presentation for a new shuttlecraft they've designed, but Kim has no idea how to answer the presiding admiral's questions, so he claims he's sick. He returns home and spends some quality time with Libby after so long apart, but he remains restless. He looks up Voyager's crew manifest and finds that Tom Paris was never stationed on the ship either, so he travels to Marseilles to find him. In the real Chez Sandrine's, Paris turns out to be a drunken wastrel whose life spiraled downward since getting rejected for duty aboard Voyager. He rejects Kim's request for help. As the ensign leaves, he fails to notice Cosimo sitting at the bar.
Returning home, Kim finds security personnel there to arrest him. He's brought before the admiral and accused of using "stolen" codes and associating with a known Maquis sympathizer, Paris, making Kim look like a spy. Kim finally spills the beans on his situation, but he has no proof, so he's fitted with an ankle bracelet pending investigation. Kim wanders around the city until Cosimo catches up with him for an Info Dump. He admits that he's from an interdimensional race who are responsible for Kim's situation. The ensign's shuttlecraft bumped into their "time stream," which sent him into a new timeline. Cosimo urges Kim to make a life here, but Kim feels honor-bound to return to his own timeline. Cosimo warns him that flying back into the time stream could pop him anywhere on the timeline of the universe, but Kim is determined.
Libby catches Kim tampering with the ankle monitor and tells him she barely recognized him anymore. Kim asserts that he's the same person who fell in love with her. When security forces arrive to arrest Kim for his tampering, he flees, and Libby helps stall the guards. One of them catches up to him anyway, but Paris arrives and knocks the guard out. He's decided to help out Kim. They fly out in Kim's new shuttlecraft with a Nebula-class starship in hot pursuit. By the time the ship reaches the time stream, it's going into core breach. Paris shoves Kim into the transporter pad and transports him just before the ship explodes. In his own timeline, Kim is successfully transported onto Voyager. Finally home, he promises to tell Janeway the whole story. Later, he tells a befuddled Paris that he owes him one.
This episode provides examples of:
- Aliens Among Us: Cosimo, the owner of a coffee shop Harry goes to, has been sent to make sure Harry fits into his new timeline.
- Alternate Timeline: Where Harry did not get posted to Voyager but was assigned a job at Starfleet Headquarters.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Well, ambiguous phrasing, anyway; Libby gets confused when Harry says he's going to Marseilles to see Paris.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Starfleet promises they will look into Harry's story of alternate timelines, but point out that the facts also fit the far-more-likely explanation of Harry being a Maquis spy.
- Call-Back:
- Apparently Tom's confrontation with Quark in the pilot episode went a bit differently, and he got thrown into the brig by Odo, so didn't go on Voyager's mission.
- The Cochrane Prize relates to Zephram Cochrane, inventor of the first warp engine.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Cosimo turns out to be involved in how Harry got here.
- Cutting the Electronic Leash: Literally. Harry's attempt to remove his anklet has Starfleet Security teleporting right to his location, requiring him to immediately run.
- Eye Open: Harry after jumping to the correct timeline.
- Future Loser: Or in this case an Alternate Timeline Loser with Tom Paris, who's become a drunken loser.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Tom chooses to die heroically on the off chance of helping Harry, rather than live as a loser on Earth.
- Harry himself makes a non-lethal one, choosing to save his old friend Danny Bird from being lost in the Delta Quadrant in his place and Tom Paris from becoming a washed-out, drunken ex-con, at the price of stranding himself on the other side of the galaxy (and being separated from Libby) once more.
- Infinite Supplies: Another shuttle down.
- I Owe You My Life: Harry to Tom after returning to Voyager. If Harry knew what traumatic events await him in future episodes, maybe he'd change his mind.
- It's a Long Story: Harry after getting back to Voyager.
- Modesty Towel: Libby is wearing one when Harry returns from his canceled meeting.
- My Girl Back Home: After Kim has made several references to his undying loyalty to his girl back home, Libby, we finally meet her.
- Negative Space Wedgie: Albeit an unseen one.Cosmo: We exist in what you would call a temporal inversion fold in the space-time matrix. It's not necessary to understand.
- Not Helping Your Case: Harry accessing the classified files on Voyager, as he's not supposed to have those access codes in this timeline. Contacting Tom Paris makes him look like a Maquis sympathiser passing on that classified information.
- Now Do It Again, Backwards:Kim: The alien said that if I recreate the conditions of the accident and fly into the timestream, there's a chance I might be able to get back into my reality.Paris: Might?Kim: He couldn't give me any guarantees.
- Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Averted; when Harry realises he's suspected of treason, he refuses to continue without legal counsel.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Or in this case, other Tom annoys Harry.
- Plot Armor: Cosimo tells Kim that he could end up in some far distant point in time, but of course, that simply doesn't happen.
- Point of Divergence: Because Harry Kim was never chosen to be part of the Voyager crew, Tom Paris was also left behind after an incident at Quark's and ended up spending his free time at Sandrine's.
- Poor Communication Kills: If Kim had come clean to Starfleet authorities right from the very beginning rather than keep his experiences a secret, he might not have had to steal a runabout and get Paris killed in order to return to his timeline.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tom Paris refuses to believe Harry's loony story or help in any way, eventually taking a swing at him. Harry takes him down easily. "Funny, I remember you being quicker. I guess in this timeline you'll always be a loser".
- Stock Footage:
- A matte painting of the Golden Gate Bridge is taken from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- An establishing shot of Starfleet Command (a combination of miniatures, matte painting and live action extras) is recycled from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
- Another (night time) matte painting of the bridge, along with Starfleet Headquarters is lifted from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
- The runabout take-off also reuses the Dyson Sphere door from TNG's "Relics".
- Talking Is a Free Action: After stealing the runabout, Tom and Harry are pursued and fired upon by a starship which almost knocks out their shields in mere seconds. The two then spend a full minute brainstorming how they might buy themselves more time.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Garrett Wang complained that his character should have more romance and action. So Brannon Braga decided to put it all in this one episode.
- Time-Travelers Are Spies: Or in this case, accidental timeline hoppers. Harry's efforts to find out what's going on end up convincing Starfleet that he's a Maquis spy.
- Tracking Device: Harry is released after questioning, but only after being fitted with a monitoring anklet.
- Undying Loyalty: Harry is determined to return to Voyager regardless. Libby helps him escape Starfleet Security, even though she suspects he's crazy.
- Waking Up Elsewhere/Bedmate Reveal: The opening shot.
- Who's on First?:Libby: Where are you going?Harry: Marseille, France.Libby: What for?Harry: I've got to see [Tom] Paris.Libby: But, you just said... you were going to Marseille.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Harry to Starfleet and Libby.
