Time's Arrow: Part 1 (13 Jun. 1992)

Capt. Picard and his archaeological curiosity are called upon by scientists from Earth when they find evidence to support beliefs that aliens had visited Earth in the late 1800's.

Director:

Les Landau

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator), Joe Menosky (teleplay),

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
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
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Guinan
Jerry Hardin	...	Samuel Clemens
Michael Aron	...	Jack London
Barry Kivel	...	Doorman
Ken Thorley	...	Seaman
Sheldon Peters Wolfchild	...	Joe Falling Hawk
Jack Murdock	...	Beggar
Marc Alaimo	...	Frederick LaRouque

Storyline

Picard and the Enterprise are urgently called back to Earth to see the results of an archaeological dig that reveals aliens may have visited the planet in the 19th century. Among the many relics they've found is one that is totally out of place - Commander Data's head. Data confirms that it is his own head and not that of his brother Lor. He seems completely at ease with the find, which is not the case with the rest of the crew. On the planet, Data encounters a temporal vortex and he suddenly finds himself transported to 19th century San Francisco where he meets none other than Guinan.

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Plot Keywords:

24th century | historic san francisco | cliffhanger

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

13 June 1992 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Pico House - 410 N. Main Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The staff toyed with several different time periods before settling on the turn of the century, including the 1930s, the 60s and the 80s. The last was rejected because it had already been done in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

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Goofs

When first arriving on Earth, Data & Picard are examining artifacts in the cave. Picard picks up a Colt revolver which Data incorrectly identifies as a Colt "double action" revolver when it is in fact a Colt "single action" revolver.

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Quotes

Samuel Clemens: Eavesdropping is by no means a proper activity for a gentleman. Nonetheless, the deed is done.

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Connections

Referenced in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Timescape (1993)

User Reviews

I guess I will see you again in about 500 years. And I will see you in a few minutes.

This episode was the fifth season ending "cliffhanger" episode and was a better one for the series finale, in my opinion. It deals with the discovery of Lt. Commander Data's severed head inside an underground cavern area in San Francisco during an excavation in 24th Century Earth. This discovery introduces the aspect of death to the android and that he doesn't have an infinite life span after all. The underground cavern emits very rare wave transmissions that could only originate from outside of Earth, so the crew becomes involved in a mystery in trying to connect the discovery of Data's head to the wave's source. They discover that aliens are using a device that allows them to go back to Earth's past and that allows them to hunt for their required energy source (which happens to be human neural energy). The Enterprise crew enters the time distortion portal in order to stop the aliens from continuing to extract the neural energy from the San Francisco populace of the 1880s. The theme of time travel has been covered in many science fiction movies and often times, there are gaping logic flaws or illogical plot twists. In this episode, there is a good plot flow and no gaping logic flaws. The only thing that does appear to be a bit flawed is when Data first appears in the 1880s San Francisco streets after entering the time distortion field. As he walks around, none of the people out in the streets take notice of him even though he looks totally different then they do (apparel and skin texture). Other than this part of the episode, this was definitely one of the better one in the series and with the "Inner Light" episode that immediately preceded it, this series reached its peak at the end of Season 5.