STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
Season 3, Episode 15

Yesterday's Enterprise

Series: The Next Generation - (1987-1994)
Season: 3
Episode #: 3.15
Production #: 40273-163
Original Airdate: 02/19/1990

Writer(s): Trent Christopher Ganino, Eric A. Stillwell, Ira Steven Behr, Richard Manning, Hans Beimler, and Ronald D. Moore
Director(s): David Carson

Guest Stars
Denise Crosby as Lt. Natasha Yar
Christopher McDonald as Ltjg. Richard Castillo
Tricia O'Neil as Captain Rachel Garrett
Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan

Uncredited Guest Stars
Arratia as Alfonse Pacelli
Rachen Assapiomonwait as Crewman Nelson
Majel Barrett as the Voice of the USS Enterprise-D Computer
Joe Bauman as Security Officer Garvey
Karen Baxter as an Operations Division Ensign
James G. Becker as Ensign Youngblood
Michael Braveheart as Ltjg. Martinez
Carl David Burks as Lt. Russell
Carrie Crain as a Ten Forward Waitress
B.J. Davis as an Operations Division Officer
Michele Gerren as a Sciences Division Officer
Eben Ham as an Operations Division Ensign
Mark Lentry as a Sciences Division Officer
Debbie Marsh as a Command Division Officer
James McElroy as a Command Division Officer
Lorine Mendell as Lt. Diana Giddings
Keith Rayve as a Command Division Officer
John Rice as a Sciences Division Officer
Richard Sarstedt as a Command Division Officer
Guy Vardaman as Lt. Darien Wallace

Stardate: 43625.2

Synopsis

While on a routine mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers a bizarre rift in space, which reveals an unidentified vessel. Both ships are now on an alternate time line where the Federation is in the midst of a bloody war with the Klingons.

The crew identifies the mysterious vessel as their ships' immediate predecessor, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C, believed to have been destroyed in battle over 20 years ago. Their own crew now includes Tasha Yar, the ex-security chief who was killed in the line of duty. Meeting with the captain of that vessel, Picard learns that it was responding to a distress signal on a Klingon outpost when it was attacked by four Romulan Warbirds. But in the middle of the assault, the ship broke through the space rift, thus saving it from the destruction recorded in the history books. Although Picard and his crew are baffled by the strange appearance of the U.S.S. Enterprise-C, Guinan's alien instincts lead her to believe that the Federation's current war with the Klingons is the result of the U.S.S. Enterprise-C's presence in their future. Certain that the ship is now existing in the wrong time line, she pleads with Picard to send the U.S.S. Enterprise-C back through the rift in order to change the course of events, which has resulted in the loss of 40 billion lives during the Klingon conflict.

[ Complete Screencap Index ]

Picard confers with Data, who asserts that if the U.S.S. Enterprise-C was destroyed while aiding the Klingon outpost, it would have been viewed as an honorable act, which means the current war with the Klingons may have been avoided. Faced with this knowledge, Picard decides to send the U.S.S. Enterprise-C back through the time rift, to face its tragic destiny.

Meanwhile, Tasha learns from Guinan that, in the correct time line, she died a meaningless death. In response, Tasha requests that she be allowed to serve on the doomed U.S.S. Enterprise-C crew so that she may die in the heroic battle with the Romulans. Picard reluctantly agrees.

As the U.S.S. Enterprise-C makes its way back through the time rift, three Klingon warships launch an attack on it. To assure that the U.S.S. Enterprise-C returns to its rightful place in time, Picard positions the U.S.S. Enterprise-D between the vessel and the Klingons, sustaining heavy losses in the process. Just as the U.S.S. Enterprise-D's engine core seems on the verge of exploding, Data announces that the rift has closed, and, unaware of the preceding events, the U.S.S. Enterprise returns to its original time line, heading for a cultural exchange program with a Klingon delegation.

 | A Matter of Perspective (S3:E14) | ~ | Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode List | ~ | The Offspring (S3:E16) |