Realm of Fear (episode)

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

"Realm of Fear"
TNG, Episode 6x02 Production number: 40276-228 First aired: 28 September 1992
←	127th of 176 produced in TNG	→
←	127th of 176 released in TNG	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 176 released in TNG Remastered
←	235th of 726 released in all	→
Written By Brannon Braga Directed By Cliff Bole
46041.1 (2369)
	Arc: {{{wsArc0Desc}}} ({{{nArc0PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc0PartCount}}})
	Arc: {{{wsArc1Desc}}} ({{{nArc1PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc1PartCount}}})
	Arc: {{{wsArc2Desc}}} ({{{nArc2PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc2PartCount}}})
	Arc: {{{wsArc3Desc}}} ({{{nArc3PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc3PartCount}}})
	Arc: {{{wsArc4Desc}}} ({{{nArc4PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc4PartCount}}})

Lieutenant Barclay faces his fear of transporting, but now he thinks that he's being attacked by a creature inside the transporter beam.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Background 2.1 Video and DVD releases 3 Links and references 3.1 Guest Stars 3.2 Co-Stars 3.3 Uncredited Co-Stars 3.4 References

[edit] Summary

The Enterprise responds to the stricken vessel USS Yosemite. The crew of the Yosemite seems to have disappeared. As the landing party prepares to beam over, Transporter Chief O'Brien informs them that due to disturbances in the plasma field, they may be experiencing problems during transportation. When Lieutenant Barclay hears this, he becomes very nervous and refuses to transport over, rushing out of the transporter room.

Barclay, who is experiencing some form of transporter phobia, speaks to Counselor Troi about his troubles and she introduced him to a relaxing technique known as plexing. However, completely unconvinced and still tapping himself on the neck as he walks out the door he returns to the transporter room, preparing himself for the ride. He's comforted a little by O'Brien, who tells him about his fear of spiders, which he conquered by crawling past twenty Talarian hook spiders.

After collecting fragments, Commanders La Forge, Data and Lieutenant Barclay beam back to the Enterprise. During the transport, Barclay has an awful vision of a worm-like creature swimming in the matter stream and biting his arm. He steps out a changed man, fearful – life will never be the same again. Plagued by what he saw, he is constantly analyzing himself by drinking lots of water and even going so far as to diagnose himself with transporter psychosis. Eventually he seeks out Dr. Crusher. Smiling, Dr. Crusher tells Barclay to stay away from Starfleet Medical Database, assuring him that he does not have transporter psychosis.

Barclay is suffering from pain, with affected areas of his body lighting up in blue flashes as if they were in the transporter. Barclay ascribes this to his transporter psychosis and keeps quiet about it. Meanwhile, in engineering, La Forge and Data run tests on the plasma, discovering that it contains quasi-energy microbes. They attempt to recreate conditions on the Yosemite. They first take the precaution of setting up a force field around the container. Once the plasma field is beamed aboard the Enterprise it explodes, though the explosion is contained within the force field. Barclay collapses, and is taken to sickbay. Dr Crusher discovers that some of the quasi-energy microbes from the Yosemite have gotten into Barclay's bloodstream during transport back to the Enterprise and this is what has been causing him pain, and all the other symptoms.

La Forge and O'Brien decide that the transporter could be used, once proper adjustments were made, to remove the microbes from Barclay's body. Once Barclay is inside the beam, he sees the creepy creatures again. In a mad rush of courageousness, the lieutenant appears to catch one of the creatures in his arms and doesn't let go. When he rematerializes, we see that he has another person in his grasp, one of the Yosemite crew members. Barclay tells the others that there are three more crew members caught in the matter stream. He sends a security team led by Worf in to save the rest of the Yosemite crew from the transporter. Barclay explains to La Forge and the chief that while the crew of the USS Yosemite was trying to cleanse itself of the quasi-energy microbes, Human patterns got trapped in the transporter and which didn't allow them to escape. Worf and the away team return with the other three members of the Yosemite crew.

O'Brien meets Barclay at Ten Forward, and shows him his pet Lycosan tarantula, whom he adopted after getting over his arachnophobia. He gets up to grab some drinks, while the tarantula crawls up Barclay's arm, who is nervously waiting for O'Brien to return...

[edit] Background

• Brannon Braga enjoyed writing this episode as it related to his own fear of air travel. (ST: TNG Companion)
• The red giant and white dwarf in the Igo sector seen in this episode were originally from "Evolution" and later re-used as a similar stellar phenomenon in the Topin system in "Preemptive Strike".
• O'Brien's collar insignia changed from lieutenant (two pips) to chief (one black pip) in this episode. According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, this was done to reinforce the plot point that lieutenant J.G. Barclay outranks O'Brien. See also: Miles O'Brien - Rank Inconsistencies.
• There is a continuity error in this episode. When Data, Barclay and La Forge are talking in engineering, the damaged sample container from the Yosemite has been reconstructed. Later, after La Forge tells Barclay to take some time off, the sample container is destroyed again.
• When Barclay asks La Forge if anything happened to him in the transporters he denies it. However, La Forge and Ro Laren were the victims of a transporter accident in TNG: "The Next Phase".
• The multi-level Jefferies tube set, directly attached to main engineering appears for the first time in this episode.
• This is the first and only time O'Brien's pet tarantula, Christina, is ever seen or mentioned.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 64, 26 April 1993.
• As part of the TNG Season 6 DVD collection.

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Guest Stars

• Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien
• Patti Yasutake as Alyssa Ogawa
• Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay

[edit] Co-Stars

• Renata Scott as Admiral
• Thomas Belgrey as a Yosemite crewmember
• Majel Barrett as the USS Enterprise-D computer voice

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

• David Keith Anderson as Ensign Armstrong
• Lena Banks as an operations division ensign
• Michael Braveheart as Ensign Martinez
• Cameron as Ensign Kellogg
• Cullen Chambers as a civilian
• Tracee Lee Cocco as Lieutenant j.g. Jae
• Holiday Freeman as a command division officer
• Christie Haydon as a command division ensign
• Kerry Hoyt as a security ensign
• Keith Rayve as a command division officer
• Richard Sarstedt as a command division ensign
• Unknown performers as
  • Ensign Dern
  • Joshua Kelly
  • Three Yosemite crewmembers
  • Command division lieutenant
  • Security ensign

[edit] References

2209; away team; biofilter; Cardassian; cardiostimulator; Christina; Delinia II; distortion field; Ferengi; Heisenberg compensator; Igo sector; imaging scanner; ionic interference; Jefferies tube; Kelly, Joshua; kiloquad; Lycosa tarantula; medical tricorder; Olafson; pattern buffer; plasma streamer; plexing; quasi-energy microbe; resonance frequency scan; sample container; Starfleet Medical Database; stellar cartography; systems engineer; Talarian hook spider; Titus IV; transporter; transporter psychosis; Transporter Theory; VISOR; Yosemite, USS; Zayra IV

Previous episode: "Time's Arrow, Part II"

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6

Next episode: "Man of the People"