Night Terrors (episode)

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

"Night Terrors"
TNG, Episode 4x17 Production number: 40274-191 First aired: 18 March 1991
←	90th of 176 produced in TNG	→
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←	197th of 726 released in all	→
Teleplay By Pamela Douglas and Jeri Taylor Story By Shari Goodhartz Directed By Les Landau
44631.2 (2367)
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The Enterprise discovers the USS Brattain adrift in space with the entire crew brutally murdered by their own hands. When the Enterprise finds they too cannot leave the area, the crew begins to suffer from a lack of dreams which is slowly driving them to the brink of the same insanity responsible for the demise of the Brattain and its crew.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Memorable Quotes 3 Background Information 3.1 Video and DVD releases 4 Links and References 4.1 Guest Stars 4.2 Special Guest Star 4.3 Co-Star 4.4 Uncredited Co-Stars 4.5 References 4.5.1 Okudagram references 4.5.2 Dedication plaque references

[edit] Summary

The Enterprise is given orders to find a lost Starfleet vessel, the USS Brattain. They come upon the ship adrift in a binary star system, the entire crew complement (save one individual, a Betazoid and empath similar to Troi) murdered, seemingly by each other. Soon after encountering the disturbing scene onboard the Brattain, the Enterprise crew begins to experience her own problems, marked by an inexplicable increase in irritability and fatigue. As occurrences of violence aboard the Enterprise continue to escalate, the crew realizes that it is actually trapped inside of a space-time anomaly known as a Tyken's Rift. Picard gives the order for the ship to retreat to a safe distance from the Brattain, only to find that all energy expended by the ship's engines is drained by the anomaly, rendering the ship unable to move.

Enterprise, now adrift, begins to mirror the state aboard the Brattain shortly before her crew succumbed to insanity and became violent. With minimal energy reserves and no clear means of escape, Dr. Crusher hypothesizes that the rampant outbreaks of violence aboard both ships are due to lack of rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, leading to fatigue, loss of concentration, extreme irritability, hostility and ultimately, death. Troi, however, notes that she is the only person aboard the ship who continues to be able to sleep, perhaps due to her unique telepathic abilities, but that all of her dreams are nightmares.

With the ship's energy reserves reaching critically low levels, Data (not needing sleep at all) and Troi (still sleeping intermittently, but having the same recurring nightmares) attempt to analyze the Counselor's dreams, hypothesizing that there may be some sort of telepathic communication from someone else trapped inside the rift. The messages and image repeated each time in Troi's dream "eyes in the dark" and "one moon circles" are interpreted as the atomic structure of hydrogen (one proton in the nucleus with one electron orbitting it). Data then assumes the role of Acting Captain of the Enterprise, ejecting hydrogen into the space immediately in front of the ship through the bussard collectors while Troi attempts to communicate their actions to the unknown beings in a dream.

Just after there is no longer sufficient power to maintain the hydrogen stream leaving the bussard collectors, an explosion erupts in front of the ship, indicating that Troi was successful. Another alien vessel was apparently trapped inside the rift, and used telepathy to communicate with Troi. It was this telepathy that somehow prevented the crew of the Enterprise from entering REM sleep. Power and life support are restored to normal. As his last duty as acting captain, Data orders Picard and the rest of the crew to their quarters to sleep.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"This is a little souvenir I picked up from Magus III. That was setting number one. Anyone wanna see setting number two?"

- Guinan, defusing a tense situation

"Sir... As my final duty as acting captain... I order you to bed."

- Data, to Picard

[edit] Background Information

• As mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, this episode is considered to be one of the weakest of the fourth season and many members of the production staff were unhappy with it. The scenes with Troi "flying" were said to be a "terrible" mistake by Jeri Taylor and Robert Legato described them as "horrible". Marina Sirtis commented that her desire for more action scenes had backfired; she had to grapple with an intense fear of heights in order to film them.
• Michael Piller noted that the pace of the show was so slow that the episode ran nine minutes over and had to be severely cut. (ST: TNG Companion)
• The explosion of the "rift" is reused footage of the explosion of the Genesis Device from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• John Vickery later played Rusot in three episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's final season and the Klingon Orak in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Judgment".
• A room is finally seen behind a seldom used sickbay door that doesn't lead to a corridor or the medical lab. Right after the teaser, Picard and Crusher leave this room which seems to be the morgue and enter the main sickbay room.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 46, May 1992.
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 4.6, 6 August 2001.
• As part of the TNG Season 4 DVD collection.

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Guest Stars

• Rosalind Chao as Keiko O'Brien
• John Vickery as Andrus Hagan
• Duke Moosekian as Gillespie
• Craig Hurley as Peeples
• Brian Tochi as Kenny Lin
• Lanei Chapman as Sariel Rager
• Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien

[edit] Special Guest Star

• Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan

[edit] Co-Star

• Deborah Taylor as Zaheva

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

• Michael Braveheart as Martinez
• Ken Lesco as a security ensign
• Unknown performers as
  • USS Brattain corpses
  • "Sighing Voice"

[edit] References

anicium; antimatter pods; autopsy; Balthus; Betazoid; binary star system; biology; Borg; brain tissue; Brattain, USS; Brink; Bussard collectors; calendenium; Cardilia; catatonic state; Corbin, Tom; cortical scanner; deflector dish; deuterium injector; directed dreaming; distress call; drugs; electron; energy; entorhinal cortex; field generator; frequency; hydrogen; impulse engine; isozyme; Kaladian thorn flower; Kenicki; laticifer; life support system; Magus III; Magus III energy weapon; magnetic containment; matter valves; Melthusian; Melthusian starship; Miranda-class; mutiny; ontogeny; phaser; photon torpedo; plant biology; PGO signal; poison; polymorphism; positron emission sensor; power coil; propulsion system; proton; rat; REM sleep; scientific advisor; snake; somatic drug; telepathy; theta wave; thruster; tractor beam; Tyken, Bela, Tyken's Rift; Starbase 220; virus; visual cortex; warp drive; warp tow; yurium

[edit] Okudagram references

antimatter (antideuterium); bio-genovesium; bioneutralization; blitmanite; carbon; clancium oxide; class N; deuterium; electrolytic fractioning; electrolytic recycling; emergency disconnect explosive bolts; emergency thruster device; engineering; firefighting; fuel; fusion reactor; hoffmeisterite compound 239; hutzelite 27; hydrogen; impulse propulsion system; laser detonator; long-range impact probe; magnesium; magnetic confinement pod; microfusion device; microwave pulse ignition device; microwave pulse detonator; mining; mooride polyronite 4; moyerite; neussite 293; nuclear explosive; organic waste; oxygen; plutonium; radioisotope; remote spectroscopy vaporization device; sarium krellide; standard year; Starfleet Regulations; solid rocket motor device; takemurium lite; terraforming; toddtracium; toxicity; tri-nickolas powder; type VI reactor; ullage thruster device; ultritium; ultritium 283; ultritium 342; warp propulsion system

[edit] Dedication plaque references

2345; 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards (40 Eridani A); Advanced Technologies Division; Brownfield, Dick; Cardilia; Chamberlin, Mandy; Chess, Joe; Exploratory Division; Fleet Administration; Fleet Operations; Fleet Yards Operations; James, Richard; Landau, Les; Legato, Robert; Mission Operations; Nesterowitz, John; Orbital Operations; Peets, Bill; Rush, Marvin; Simmons, Adele; Sordal, Bob; Starfleet Academy; Stellar Imaging Division; Tactical Command; Yacobian, Brad; Yoyodyne Division

Previous episode: "Galaxy's Child"

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4

Next episode: "Identity Crisis"