“Future Imperfect”
Riker gets unconscious in a cave on Alpha Onias III, and he wakes up on the Enterprise sixteen years later. Apparently a virus has wiped out his whole memory of the time in between. Riker tries to fit into his new role as the ship’s captain and father of young Jean-Luc, but he remains suspicious because of the many malfunctions of the ship’s computer. When he discovers that he was allegedly married to Minuet, he knows this must be a ruse, because Minuet was only a hologram. Riker ends the simulation and he finds himself in a Romulan holodeck where he was supposed to reveal the location of Outpost 23. He meets Jean-Luc again, who now calls himself Ethan, and together they try to escape from their Romulan prison. Ethan, however, accidentally mentions that Tomalak was an ambassador in the Romulan simulation which he should not know. Riker urges him to end this simulation too, and the two find themselves in the cave again. The boy is actually an alien who was left behind by his parents. A hologenerator being his only company, he was seeking a friend. summary by Ex-Astris-Scientia
Woohoo! Another absolute favorite! Reality within a reality within a reality! Much better than all the mirror universes although I like these, too.
Only thing I wonder about is what happened to that alien child. They took him aboard and… but it’s not the first time such things happen (or rather don’t happen…) in Star Trek. Too bad. Would be nice to see him serve on some starship.
October 20th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
I can’t believe it - another episode we wholeheartedly agree on, including the good parts, and the not-tied-up ending.
I think we may actually have a few more episodes coming up we can agree on, but I wonder if you will spot the (very short) scene in Data’s Day I have a “small” problem with.