Relics (10 Oct. 1992)

The Enterprise stumbles upon a Dyson's Sphere, with a ship crashed on the outer surface. An away team finds some systems still powered up and the chief engineer from the old Enterprise, Montgomery Scott, locked in the transporter cycle.

Director:

Alexander Singer

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator), Ronald D. Moore

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
Lanei Chapman	...	Ensign Sariel Rager
Erick Weiss	...	Ensign Kane
James Doohan	...	Scotty
Stacie Foster	...	Bartel
Ernie Mirich	...	Waiter
Majel Barrett	...	Enterprise Computer (voice)

Storyline

When the Enterprise locates the missing freighter USS Genova, it's found to be stuck on a round object large enough to cause gravimetric disturbances, which fits the theory of a Dyson sphere, large enough to contain all a star's powers. Riker's away team investigates the beached-up ship and finds a permanent diagnostic loop in the transporter buffer; Geordi guesses right this was the clever method to survive for 75 years used by two men, one of which has decayed, but the Enterprise's chief engineer from Kirk's days, Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, is alive and confident he still can be useful. After trying Geordi's patience with his ignorant questions and dangerous presumptions, Scotty feels ready to retire. However the gravity has both ships locked to the sphere, the star inside is about to release a flare in hours which the shields can't survive, and Scotty, who literally wrote the impulse reactor's manual, can show Geordi the real tolerance margins...

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Plot Keywords:

dyson's sphere | 24th century

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

10 October 1992 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Scotty's age is revealed to be 147 at the time of this episode (2369 according to the Star Trek Chronology). This means that Scotty was born in the year 2222.

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Goofs

A Dyson's Sphere is a real theory postulated by Freeman Dyson in 1959. But the actual sphere that Dyson theorized was not a solid object as seen in this episode.

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Quotes

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Look, Mr. Scott, I'd love to explain everything to you, but the Captain wants this spectrographic analysis done by 1300 hours.
[La Forge goes back to work; Scotty follows slowly]
Scotty: Do you mind a little advice? Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. But the secret is to give them only what they need, not what they want.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Yeah, well, I told the Captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour.
Scotty: How long will it really take?
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: An hour!
Scotty: Oh, you ...
[...]

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Connections

References Star Trek: The Naked Time (1966)

User Reviews

Scotty and my first car

I appreciate and love the comments that Sotty made about "On the first Enterprise, I could tell How fast we were going by the feel of the deck-plates." My first car was a 64 Ford Fairlane with a broken speedometer, and you guessed it, I could feel the speed I was going by the vibrations of the car. This is something most young guys with their first cars can relate to. I do not know who wrote that line, but this a line that will reverberate in the memory of almost all guys.

When Scotty enters the original Enterprise, I could not help but remember entering my first car. I can remember all of the interior, the cracked seats, the torn carpet, and the only thing that worked right, the radio. I would gladly sit in that car again with a shot of Whiskey and say "Here's to you Lads".