- An emergency beam out renders four crewmen down to childhood shortly before renegade Ferengi take over the Enterprise and offload the adults.
- An emergency beam out renders four crewmen (Ro (Michelle Forbes), Guinan, Keiko (Rosalind Chao) and Picard) down to childhood. They were returning to ship via shuttle-craft from a planet excursion when they receive a distress call from a Starfleet science team on Ligos VII. Picard rushes to get to the ship, but the shuttle gets caught in an energy field of some sort. Miles beams them back in an emergency, but they land on the transporter as kids.
It is a novel experience for the crew to take orders from a teenage Picard. Picard orders that the ship continues to Ligos VII to respond to the distress call. Picard also launches probes into the energy field to learn more about its composition. Picard steps onto the bridge and everybody is super confused.
Beverly speaks to Picard and makes him realize that the condition might be a first stage of something that eventually impacts the brain and decision making. Picard understands and relinquishes command to Riker. Guinan and Ro spend time together as kids. Ro is not happy to be a child as her childhood was spent at a refugee camp and it was a particularly traumatic period of her life. Guinan helps Ro get in touch with her inner child
Mile has trouble looking at Keiko as his wife. It is difficult for Miles to ignore the fact that Keiko is now a 12-year-old girl. Even their daughter refuses to recognize Keiko as her mother. Picard is worried that he would have to wait for 10-15 years to grow up, before he is given command of a star ship again. Deanna suggests that Picard can take a sabbatical from Starfleet and pursue other interests like archaeology. Picard has a chance of a second childhood.
Geordi analyses the remains of the shuttle and figures that the energy field reversed the molecular structure of the metals in the craft and perhaps did the same to humans inside it. Beverly figures that the DNA of the 4 crew is missing crucial RVN sequences which are key to aging and puberty. She figures that by using their old patterns on file, and by running the 4 via the transporter, but materializing in their old patterns, would fix the issue. But if something goes wrong and they lose more RVN sequences, then they would get even younger.
But before all this happens, the ship reaches Ligos VII and is attacked by 2 Klingon vessels. The Enterprise loses her shields, warp engines and parts of life support. The ship will take time to recover from these blows and is boarded by the Ferengi. Riker locks out the ship's computer in time. Daimon Lurin (Mike Gomez) says that they are not part of the Ferengi Federation. They bought 2 Klingon surplus ships, invested in some repairs and weapons and now they have control of a Federation star ship. They attacked the science team on the planet as the planet was rich in Vendarite. The science team is now digging in the mines on the planet and the Enterprise adult crew will join them. He intends to sell the Enterprise to the Romulans. But Riker has locked out all command functions.
Picard is locked with the other kids in a playroom. Guinan advises Picard that they should act like kids. Picard makes a scene in front of the Ferengi to be taken to his "dad" Riker. He asks Riker to release the command control in the computer inside the kid's playroom. Riker does so. Picard uses that to erect a force field around the transporter and then transports all Ferengi inside the force-field. The Enterprise is back in control. Beverly carries out the transporter procedure to bring the 4 crew back to their original state.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content