Clues (episode)

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This article is written
from the Real World
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This article is written
from the Real World
point of view
"Clues"
TNG, Episode 4x14
Production number: 40274-188
First aired: 11 February 1991
← 87th of 176 produced in TNG →
← 87th of 176 released in TNG →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 176 released in TNG Remastered  
← 194th of 726 released in all →
Teleplay By
Bruce D. Arthurs and Joe Menosky

Story By
Bruce D. Arthurs

Directed By
Les Landau
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The Enterprise seems to pass through a wormhole, but the clues simply do not add up. Only Data knows the truth, but can he be trusted?

Contents

[edit] Summary

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The Enterprise discovers a T-Tauri type star near the Ngame Nebula. The system has one planet, a frozen gas giant similar to Tethys III, and a small, unstable wormhole that flings the vessel 0.54 parsecs from the system as it approaches – and causes the entire crew, with the exception of Lieutenant Commander Data, to fall unconscious. Data notes such phenomena are not uncommon in T-Tauri systems – thirty-nine had been observed since 2267. Data informs Captain Jean-Luc Picard that the crew was knocked out for only 30 seconds; but anomalies soon are discovered by the crew – the growth of Diomedian scarlet moss in Dr. Beverly Crusher's lab, Lieutenant Worf's broken wrist having been repaired, and others. Data tries to explain away these contradictions, at one point quoting an obscure theory by Pell Underhill, but the anomalies indicate not only that the period of unconsciousness was in fact much longer than 30 seconds, but that a full ship's day had passed. It is then clear that Data is apparently concealing information and fabricating false data to keep the crew's organic members from discovering the truth.

When Picard investigates the clues and demands to know why Data will not tell him the truth, the android informs him that he, Picard, had ordered Data not to. Backtracking to the T-Tauri system, the crew finds that the system in reality contains a Class M planet inhabited by the Paxans, a violently xenophobic and highly advanced race. They terraformed their planet in order to conceal it from intruders. When an intruder comes within their space, the "wormhole" (actually an energy field) renders the ship's crew unconscious in biochemical stasis, and the ship is transported out of their space through a wormhole to just over half a parsec away from their space.

The body of Counselor Deanna Troi is possessed by a Paxan representative to communicate with the crew and warns that their prior attempt to "undo" the contact has failed. In order to prevent the Paxans from destroying the ship and killing all aboard, Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew again work to alter or erase all records concerning the true nature of the planet. Only Data is allowed to retain any knowledge of what happened to the ship and crew during the missing day.

[edit] Background Information

  • This episode shares a similar plot to the 1989 Red Dwarf episode "Thanks for the Memory". In each instance, the crews of both ships discover that their memories have been erased, and inexplicable injuries appeared. Both crews strive to determine the cause of this, only to discover they were better off not knowing.
  • Worf's Mok'bara classes are first seen in this episode.
  • Alyssa Ogawa is given her first name in this episode. Her last name would not be mentioned until TNG: "Identity Crisis".
  • Data references the USS Trieste, a ship he stated he was familiar with in TNG: "11001001".
  • To differentiate the flashbacks, longer and more fluid camera takes are used than in the "present" scenes.
  • Joe Menosky's rewrite of the script won him a staff job on TNG. (ST: TNG Companion)
  • In the scene from the Dixon Hill holodeck program, a man holding "Dix" at gunpoint is killed and falls to the floor on his back. Picard turns the dead man's head to look at his face. The dead man is looking to his right as he lies there dead, and then moves his eyes to the left as his head is turned toward Picard.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Guest Stars

[edit] Co-Stars

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

[edit] Uncredited Stunt double

[edit] References

ADTH; Big Good-Bye, The; cigarette; class M; Cleveland; emergency plan ZZA; Gloria; helium; nitrogen; oxygen; Packard; Paxans; Starbase 410; Tethys III; USS Trieste; T-Tauri type


Previous episode:
"Devil's Due" 		Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 4 		Next episode:
"First Contact"
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