In the twenty-sixth and final episode of The Next Generation, the team discovers that a group of aliens might be using time travel to prey on humanity. Intrigued? Then it’s time to watch Star Trek.
It’s kind of hard to reckon with “Time’s Arrow, Part I” if you squint at it from a distance. It’s a time travel episode. It’s also a period piece drama. It’s also a backstory for Guinan. It’s also a horror flick about CREEPY ASS ALIENS sucking the final moments of life into their foreheads. (Yes, it’s just as gross as it sounds.) All of this is in ONE episode of this show, and I’m hoping that it comes together better in the second half.
That’s not much of a complaint, I should say, because I feel like the end of the episode gives me a pretty decent grasp on what’s happening here. But until that point, this is a deliberately bewildering experience. I mean, the cold open is a scene where people find DATA’S SEVERED HEAD in a cave, and it’s been there for FIVE HUNDRED YEARS. And look, this show drops mysterious shit on its cast with constant regularity. The crew is barely surprised anymore, which is why it’s so significant that many of them are so disturbed by this discovery. It’s an unnerving thing, you know? At some point, Data dies, and they now all have evidence of this. What’s interesting to me is that the opening scenes of this episode give us different perspectives on this discovery. Most of the crew is disturbed by the knowledge, especially since Data apparently dies five centuries in the past. To them, he’s a constant: he’s always there! And the very idea that he could just be gone is upsetting.
But for Data? It’s his first step towards being human. His severed head proves that he’s mortal.
This sort of thoughtful introspection gives way to one of the CREEPIEST FUCKING SCENES in this entire goddamn show. When the Enterprise follows evidence to Devidia, Deanna senses the worst thing. It’s the worst, y’all. The idea of shape-shifting aliens preying on Earth is bad enough, but the threat of the unknown is so much worse. I think one of the more brilliant aspects of “Time’s Arrow” comes in the decision to have that first alien scene unfold as it did. We can’t see a thing that Data is experiencing. Instead, all we can rely on are his words, and they’re AWFUL. Because Deanna sensed humans, that’s what I expected Data to find. I DID NOT EXPECT TO HEAR DATA DESCRIBE GIANT GREY ALIENS WHO DON’T HAVE MOUTHS AND HAVE GIANT CAVITIES IN THEIR HEAD THAT THEY USE TO SUCK UP BALLS OF LIGHT INTO THEIR BODIES.
Why must you do this to me?
It’s at this point that the episode splits in two. While the Enterprise tries to find a way to phase out of time by .004 seconds (I think?) in order to see the same aliens as Data, Data is… cosplaying? IT’S TOTALLY ROLE PLAYING. I admit that as cute and charming as all the 19th century stuff is with Data, it feels repetitive. We’ve seen this before, both in The Original Series and The Next Generation. Truthfully, it’s not until the show drops the biggest plot twist possible that I started caring about that plot.
BECAUSE HOW THE FUCK IS GUINAN IN 19TH CENTURY SAN FRANCISCO??? How is she there, how is she friends with Samuel Clemens (that’s who Jerry Hardin is playing, right???), how is ANY OF THIS POSSIBLE??? Look, Guinan’s cryptic warning to Picard that he needed to be on Devidia was pretty bad, but HOW THE HELL IS SHE ON EARTH IN THE 19TH CENTURY??? THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH QUESTION MARKS IN THE WORLD THAT I CAN USE HERE????????
So these are the pieces set up by this first part of “Time’s Arrow.” Guinan is over five hundred years old and definitely didn’t travel through time to end up in 1893; Samuel Clemens now knows that she’s probably not human and that Data is an android; and the Enterprise crew made it to the phased reality, only to confirm that these horrifying aliens are stealing lives from Earth. I’m guessing that the light they walked into is precisely what got Data shot back to 1893, since that seems to be the gateway between the two time periods.
This was fun, y’all. This season was a little rocky in the middle, but the start and the ending were both fantastic. I’m excited to start season six and creep ever closer to starting Deep Space Nine!
The video for “Time’s Arrow, Part I” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Mark Links Stuff
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