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Future Imperfect (episode)

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Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)
"Future Imperfect"
TNG, Episode 4x08
Production number: 40274-182
First aired: 12 November 1990
← 81st of 176 produced in TNG →
← 81st of 176 released in TNG →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 176 released in TNG Remastered  
← 188th of 727 released in all →
Written By
J. Larry Carroll & David Bennett Carren

Directed By
Les Landau
44286.5 (2367, 2383)
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For the Pocket TOS novel of the same name, see Future Imperfect (novel).

After an away mission to Alpha Onias III interrupts Commander Riker's birthday party, the first officer suddenly awakens in sick-bay sixteen years in the future where he is the captain of the Enterprise and about to negotiate a peace treaty with the Romulan Star Empire.

Contents

[edit] Summary

The USS Enterprise-D detects unusual readings from an M-Class planet near the Neutral Zone. Captain Picard sends Commander Riker to lead an away team to investigate whether the Romulans are involved. The mission is aborted after the surface unexpectedly fills with methane gas. The away team falls unconscious and is beamed up.

Riker awakens in sickbay. He learns that he is now sixteen years into the future when Dr. Crusher explains to him that he is recovering from a virus he picked up on an away mission sixteen years ago. This virus has caused a form of amnesia, destroying all his memories from the moment he became infected to the present.

Riker tries to piece together what has happened in the sixteen years since that away mission. He is now captain of the Enterprise, a position he has held for the past nine years. As he enters the bridge, he is pleased to see that Data is now his first officer. He is also surprised to see that his helm officer is a Ferengi ensign.

Captain Riker temporarily places the Enterprise on alert when a Romulan warbird decloaks. He is then informed that the warbird was expected. The Enterprise opens communications, and Admiral Picard appears on screen. Admiral Picard and Ambassador Tomalak have arrived to sign a peace treaty between the Romulan Empire and the Federation. Captain Riker has been a key figure in these negotiations.

Riker also learns that he has a son named Jean-Luc, after the admiral. While Riker talks with his son, the young boy mentions his mother. Later, Riker tries to access images of his late wife, and he realizes that he is not in the future. The computer shows him an image of Minuet, a woman who never really existed. She was merely a holodeck creation. Riker goes to the bridge to tell everyone that he has discovered the lie. He confronts his first officer, who cannot complete computations as fast as the real Data would. In fact, Riker catches Data saying "can't" instead of "cannot," immediately calling him out for using a contraction when the real Data would not. Riker demands to know the truth.

It seems that this has all been a holodeck fantasy put on by the Romulans for their own purposes. The holo-images vanish, and Riker finds himself with "Jean-Luc", who identifies himself as Ethan, apparently the only real character whose likeness was used for the holo-character of Jean-Luc, who helps him escape from his would-be Romulan captors. Eventually, Ethan slips up by referring to "Ambassador Tomalak" when Tomalak in reality was only a Romulan captain. Riker realizes that he's still in a fantasy and orders the boy to end it. The Romulan ship disappears, leaving Riker with Ethan in a large cave-like structure. The boy reveals that he was stranded here by his parents intentionally to save his life, and given technology up to the level of a sophisticated holodeck. He has lured Riker into this because of his desperate need for a surrogate parent. Riker agrees to take him back to the Enterprise. The boy then shows his true identity as an insectoid child named "Barash". Just before transporting up to the ship, Riker says, "to me you will always be Jean-Luc."

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"I'm running a level 1 diagnostic!"
"For thirty hours? That would never take you more than four. You're incapable of that level of incompetence Mr. La Forge!"

- Captain Riker to La Forge when he discovered the future is false


"Shut up!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said shut up! As in close your mouth and stop talking."

- Captain Riker to Admiral Picard after he discovers the future is false


"You don't have to stay here anymore. You don't have to be alone anymore."
(Transforms from human to his true form) "My name is Barash."
"To me, you'll always be Jean-Luc."

-Commander Riker and Barash

[edit] Background Information

  • This episode's title is a play on words. The false reality created by the alien for Riker was inaccurate (or, imperfect) in ways that allowed him to find out what was going on.
  • The turbolift scene with Riker and Barash was added because the episode was running short; it was written only the night before it was to be shot. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
  • The song Riker plays on his trombone is called Misty.
  • This episode is uncannily prescient:
    • Riker comments on the unlikelihood of a Ferengi ensign, though Nog became an ensign just seven years later in DS9: "Favor the Bold".
    • A female Klingon appears as a Starfleet officer on board this version of the Enterprise. About four years after this episode airs, a female half-Klingon by the name of B'Elanna Torres works as a chief engineer of USS Voyager, a Starfleet vessel.
    • This episode takes place 16 years into Riker's future. This would be 2383, four years after the events seen in Star Trek Nemesis. Admiral Picard states that the peace talks with the Romulans originated in an event four years prior, the same time period as Nemesis.
    • Although non-canon, the Star Trek: Titan novel Taking Wing states Riker's first assignment in command of the USS Titan is a diplomatic mission with the Romulans after the events of Nemesis. Also, these negotiations did include Tomalak, who has become proconsul of the Romulan Senate rather than an ambassador.
  • Several items from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including a component from the Romulan holodeck. [1]
  • This episode marks the first appearance of Alyssa Ogawa as a nurse in Sickbay when Riker first wakes up in his fictional future.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

Admiral Picard

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] References

Alpha Onias system; Alpha Onias III; Altarian encephalitis; Barash; class M; coma; compression attenuator; Curtis Creek; Curtis Creek program; D'deridex-class; Decius, IRW; Earth Outpost Station; Ferengi; fictional Starfleet uniform; Fornax Disaster;Greenburg, Mister; holodeck; hydrogen; Jean-Luc Picard (hologram); Melbourne, USS; Miridian VI; Nelvana III; Onias sector; Outpost 23; Parrises squares; Romulan cruiser; Romulan Neutral Zone; Starfleet Command; Troi, Deanna (hologram); trombone; VISOR


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