The Next Phase (episode)

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"The Next Phase"
TNG, Episode 5x24 Production number: 40275-224 First aired: 18 May 1992
←	123rd of 176 produced in TNG	→
←	123rd of 176 released in TNG	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 176 released in TNG Remastered
←	231st of 727 released in all	→

Written By Ronald D. Moore Directed By David Carson
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Geordi La Forge and Ensign Ro are believed dead after a transporter malfunction. However, they soon discover that their state may not actually be "death".

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

A damaged Romulan science vessel

The USS Enterprise-D is called to render assistance to a crippled Romulan vessel. When they arrive, the vessel is adrift and has taken heavy damage. Commander Riker, Geordi La Forge, Ensign Ro, and Lieutenant Worf beam over. When La Forge surveys the damage, he determines that the graviton generator needs to be replaced, and beams himself and Ro back to the ship along with the damaged part.

However, during transport, something happens to their patterns. The transporter chief cannot get them to rematerialize, so she aborts. However, they do not rematerialize at the original coordinates as the safety protocols indicated. Riker and the engineer conclude they are gone.

[edit] Act One

The Romulans are still looking at a core breach. Data and two more engineers go to the ship in a shuttle. When the pressure in the core jumps up, Riker, Worf, and the Romulans are forced to eject it, and do so just in time.

Ensign Ro wakes up near sickbay, finds that she cannot use the communications system, nor does anyone notice her. She enters sickbay, only to hear in third person from Doctor Crusher and Captain Picard that she and La Forge are dead. She cannot get their attention, and when she blocks his path, Picard walks right through her.

[edit] Act Two

The Enterprise begins to transfer power to the Romulan ship, as Data examines the transporters for anything that could cause the safety systems to fail. He now finds an energy fluctuation and begins investigating it. He also requests that he may arrange the memorial service, and Captain Picard grants his request.

La Forge also soon finds that he has the same problems as Ro. When she finds him, they starts speculating about what happened. La Forge and Ro take two different approaches to their apparent death. Ro tries to accept her death and be at peace with herself. La Forge is determined to figure out what happened, convinced they are still alive.

[edit] Act Three

While the chief engineer begins to follow Data's investigation, Ro wanders around the ship, and finds herself in the captain's ready room when Commander Riker tells him that he wants to say a few words about her. This surprises and upsets her, given that she doesn't think he knows her that well. She also begins to speak her mind to the captain and others who can't hear her, telling Picard that she was glad he trusted her. After that, La Forge enters and talks her into going over to the Romulan vessel, where Data believes the problem originated. They take his shuttle, and overhear Data talking to Worf about the memorial service (to which Ro responds with a groan, "Please, not the death chant.")

Using his ability to look through the casing, he discovers that a central device in the Romulan engine room is a phase inverter, which can transform normal matter so it will pass through other matter and energy. He realizes this explains chroniton fields, and their abilities; they are alive, just "out of phase" with normal matter and energy.

After Data is called away, the two of them then hear a Romulan plot to destroy Enterprise so they don't find out about the technology, and when they return to the ship, a phased Romulan follows them.

[edit] Act Four

When Data and the transporter chief scan for chroniton fields, La Forge realizes that he and Ro leaving chroniton particles behind them. La Forge tries to get Data to recognize the pattern of his movements, and turn up the anyon intensity so he will be brought back, but to no avail. Data gives up.

Unfortunately, when Ro is following the transporter chief, the Romulan confronts her with a "phased" disrupter. He forces Ro to take him to La Forge, but on the other side of a wall, she jumps him, and knocks him down. A chase ensues, and Ro gets shot in the leg with the disruptor. A fist fight ensues, and La Forge enters (following Data to a very large field) and knocks the Romulan through the ship's hull, and out into space; an action that saves Ro's life.

[edit] Act Five

Afterwards, the power transfer beam is disconnected, Picard is thanked, and they are about to engage at warp, when the transporter chief reminds him the decontamination is still going on, and they shouldn't use any major system until it has been completed. La Forge figures that for them to be returned to normal, they will have to be hit with a very large field, and since it will only work for a millisecond, someone will need to be looking right at them. When the memorial service in Ten Forward is announced, they go there.

They start shooting everything with the disruptor. Soon, the chief finds the very large field forming in Ten Forward. However, their attempts to get attention when the field strength is increased fail, and the Enterprise will need to get to Garadius IV soon. So, they make the disruptor overload, and sure enough, a much larger decontamination is attempted. This time, they are seen by Data and the Captain. Only now does he put their appearances together with all of the chroniton phenomena. When the anyon field is put on its highest setting, and all of the particles are purged, the two of them reappear. Right away, La Forge gives the order to take the warp engines off line, and the muon wave is removed before they get underway.

Afterward, with the pair eating after the party has concluded, Ro notes that she gained a new appreciation for her culture's religious beliefs that she once dismissed through the experience. At this confession, La Forge playfully suggests they should develop their own interphase device since if it can teach her humility, then it is surely capable of anything.

[edit] Memorable quotes

"But my uniform - my VISOR - are you saying I'm some blind ghost with clothes!?"
"I don't have all the answers! I've never been dead before!"

- La Forge and Ro

"I never knew what a friend was, until I met Geordi. He spoke to me as though I were Human. He treated me no differently from anyone else. He accepted me for what I am. And that - I have learned - is friendship."

- Data to Worf, about La Forge

"I'll never know what you were gonna say about me!"

- Ro, to Riker who can't hear her before "shooting" him in the head with a "phased" disruptor.

[edit] Background Information

While originally intended to be a cost-cutting bottle show, this episode ended up being one of the most expensive of the season. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)

The stardate of this episode is derived from Ro's death certificate.

The Enterprise-D would also transfer power to a Romulan vessel via a power transfer beam in "Timescape".

The second Jazz piece played during the funeral service is "When the Saints Go Marching In".

[edit] Awards

This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Drama Series.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 62, 15 March 1993
As part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: The Next Generation - 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition, under the "La Forge" section, 29 September 1997
UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 5.8, 23 December 2002
As part of the TNG Season 5 DVD collection

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Co-star

Kenneth Messeroll as McDowell

[edit] Stunt doubles

Irving E. Lewis as stunt double for LeVar Burton
Tom Morga as stunt double for Brian Cousins
Patricia Tallman as stunt double for Michelle Forbes

[edit] References

anyon emitter; arboretum; auto-eject system; Bajoran death chant; Bajoran Liaison Office; Borhyas; central computer; chroniton; cloaking device; computer core; containment chamber; death certificate; dilithium chamber; disruptor; "Down by the Riverside"; emergency bulkhead; energizing coil; engine core; Garadius IV; Garadius system; Garon IV; ghost; graviton field generator (graviton generator); imaging scanner; interphase generator; jazz; kolem; lateral sensor array; level 1 diagnostic; level 3 diagnostic; main power; melakol; memorial service; molecular phase inverter; muon; power transfer beam; prototype; replicator; resonator coil; science officer; Ro Gale; Ro Talia; sensor return signal; subspace resonator; trombone; trumpet; tuba; warp core breach

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Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 5

Next episode:
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