I guess you could call this the "Casablanca" episode of 'Next Generation'. The references are abundant, notwithstanding the title of the story, stated by Bogart in that fateful, goodbye moment right before Ingrid Bergman boarded a getaway plane with her husband, Paul Henreid. A telling moment in this story occurred when Jenice Manheim (Michelle Phillips) mentioned that it was raining in Paris when Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) left her hanging at the Cafe de Artistes, although it was the other way around when Ilsa Lund boarded a train and left a disconsolate Rick Blaine to nurse his loss at the station.
I thought this was a pretty good episode, offering a glimpse of the Captain's past while having the Enterprise crew deal with a time and gravity distortion resulting from Dr. Paul Manheim's (Rod Loomis) experimentation in the field. It caused a particularly inventive scene in which Picard, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) observed themselves in a moment captured as they were about to walk onto the bridge. Taking it a step further, it was theorized that the distortion effect produced a before, now, and after effect simulation that would have threatened the Enterprise and all reality itself if a way wasn't found to shut down the anomaly.
Leaving it to Data to make the save, he precisely placed an anti-matter tube into the core of Manheim's device to stop the time disruption, which also brought Dr. Manheim out of his near fatal condition. That left just enough time for Picard to offer a final, proper goodbye to the lost love he left behind for a Starfleet career. Meanwhile, the writers couldn't help themselves with a final Casablanca reference, with the officers mentioning how they would convene at the Blue Parrot on their next shore leave. I wonder if Sydney Greenstreet would have been waiting for them.
I thought this was a pretty good episode, offering a glimpse of the Captain's past while having the Enterprise crew deal with a time and gravity distortion resulting from Dr. Paul Manheim's (Rod Loomis) experimentation in the field. It caused a particularly inventive scene in which Picard, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) observed themselves in a moment captured as they were about to walk onto the bridge. Taking it a step further, it was theorized that the distortion effect produced a before, now, and after effect simulation that would have threatened the Enterprise and all reality itself if a way wasn't found to shut down the anomaly.
Leaving it to Data to make the save, he precisely placed an anti-matter tube into the core of Manheim's device to stop the time disruption, which also brought Dr. Manheim out of his near fatal condition. That left just enough time for Picard to offer a final, proper goodbye to the lost love he left behind for a Starfleet career. Meanwhile, the writers couldn't help themselves with a final Casablanca reference, with the officers mentioning how they would convene at the Blue Parrot on their next shore leave. I wonder if Sydney Greenstreet would have been waiting for them.