Conundrum (15 Feb. 1992)

When an approaching alien ship wipes their memory, the crew struggles to put back together what happened.

Director:

Les Landau

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator), Barry M. Schkolnick (teleplay),

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Patrick Stewart	...	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Commander William T. Riker
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	...	Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden	...	Doctor Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data
Erich Anderson	...	Commander MacDuff
Michelle Forbes	...	Ensign Ro Laren
Liz Vassey	...	Kristin
Erick Weiss	...	Crewman
Majel Barrett	...	Enterprise Computer (voice)

Storyline

The Enterprise is heading for the Epsilon solar system. A suddenly approaching alien ship uses scanners so strong that all crew members including Data lose most of their personal memories, even names and ranks, yet retain their operational and language skills. The external communications are down and computer data banks have been selectively wiped. Some, including the ship's manifest, are altered, so as to make a Commander MacDuff Executive Officer (rather then Riker) and the Enterprise is on a crucial mission in a war the Federation would be conducting for years against the Lysian race. The alien ship has been destroyed, they assume by the Enterprise, although there's no battle damage. While crew members behave differently, failing their normal reference patterns, MacDuff volunteers for a memory therapy Dr. Crusher suggests, so he can pretend for it to fail and press on the attack on the Lysian headquarters, but the war logic doesn't quite add up...

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Plot Keywords:

24th century | unlikely lovers | memory loss | sex with coworker

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

15 February 1992 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The tune Riker plays on the trombone is "The Nearness Of You" by Hoagy Carmichael.

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Goofs

At 24 Minutes 10 seconds, a boom mic is visible on the bridge between Picard and Ensign Ro.

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Quotes

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Your next priority will be to retrieve any information you can about this ship's mission. Contact the Operations Officer to assist you.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Aye, sir.
Ensign Ro Laren: He's in Ten Forward, waiting tables.

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Connections

References Lost in Space (1965)

User Reviews

Despite the Plot Holes, a good, fun Ep

I agree with the previous reviewer in that this sp had numerous plot holes and I even agree with that reviewers list of "conundrums" in "conundrum": but regardless of these, this episode moves fast and has some interesting interactions in it... Particularly between Ro and Riker.

When I first saw this ep during the 5th season of the original run of ST:TNG, I was drawn into it. Now, the Enterprise has superior tech to the Lysians and the Sutters, but it is not too far of a stretch, particularly in the opening scene where the Sutterian (?) ship wipes the memory of not only all of the races on the USS Enterprise, but Data as well. Let me explain why this could be "Incorrectly regarded as Goofs". Someone else conjectured, why could not the Sutterian do this to Lysian ships? Or to the Lysian High Command? Maybe those two races are similar, and the method used to selectively wipe the Enterprise "Aliens" would not work with the Lysians. I do not think the plot: of a single agent, implanting himself into a command structure that had already existed, to influence them to attack a culture of significantly less technology, is too far of a stretch at all. Because it happened with the US in Vietnam. Except the US learned the hard way, it does not take Technology alone to win wars, as the Vietnamese were experts in using lower tech to kill us and even would take our weapons and use our weapons against us. So, this Sutterian could have implanted himself onto a Federation Vessel just as easily.

As much as I hated Macduff's guts when I first saw him, I had to admire his gall. Even Worf has a healthy respect for "Unmitigated Gall". Now, the other matter: That Macduff had to 1) Scan the Enterprise 2) Selectively Erase long term memory while leaving learned skills 3) Manufacture an Identity for Himself and Implant himself at a higher rank than Riker 4) actually perform the selective erasure and then beam himself, fully disguised and clothed and RANKED onto the Enterprise Bridge and PLANT the false information into the computer- All in one instant - This is another thing, Incorrectly regarded as a Goof. How do we know, that this all occurred in the time that beam of Green light spread across the Enterprise? I think a better explanation would be that it took an amount of time for the Sutteran to accomplish all these things, and that the Enterprise Crew were held in a state of non-awareness, and when ready, the chronometers were started again.

Now, the Sutteran could have stolen a shuttle, or even made himself Captain, although I think that the Crew would not have accepted him in that role. We see that Macduff was wholly ALONE - He did not interact with the other crewmembers as Riker did. It would have been discovered, the crew would have resisted, a scenario like that even happened on STTNG where Picard was replaced, and the crew figured it out and relieved him of command.

Now the topmost events in the ep, are Riker's interactions with Ro, cos those characters had an already existing chemistry. I'm glad this was explored in this ep.

This was one of my Favourite Eps of the whole series. There was practically no "dead air" - It was all action throughout - And if not action, discovery. And the main plothole of the ep, the Sutterans lower tech, despite the power to alter memory, was touched on by Riker in the denouement of the ep.