Trek Thursdays: Trekking Towards Sixty #2 — “Cause And Effect” And “Year Of Hell”

On September 8th, 1966, an intrepid crew of explorers boldly went where no one had ever gone before on television. At that moment, Star Trek was born. A series that launched a franchise that has kept a firm grip on audiences for decades.

As the 60th anniversary approaches, we here at Comicon are ready to celebrate. While Star Trek has graced the silver screen, most of its life has been on our television screens. So, that’s where our focus shall remain.

Every week through September 8th, we’ll be spotlighting two Star Trek episodes from any and every iteration we feel exemplify its greatness. At this point there are over 950 episodes of Trek, so it goes without saying some favorites won’t make the cut for this list of 60.

 

 

Space and time go hand in hand when it comes to science fiction. Star Trek is no stranger to the wibbly-wobbly nature of time and what it can do for a story. Main characters were pretty much safe in most respects throughout the decades, with a few notable (messy) exceptions. Leaving character deaths or great alterations to the space of time loops, alternate universes, or other measures.

As much as we love the characters and the ships and want to see them thrive, there is something kind of perversely satisfying in seeing them struggle. In that vein, the two episodes chosen this week highlight two prominent episodes where the crews struggled and faced time and the encroaching specter of death.

 

-RED ALERT: SPOILERS FOLLOW-

 

“Cause And Effect”
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 3, Episode 18 (03/23/1992)

The second series in the franchise, TNG was one of the aforementioned situations with a main character death or removal. Tasha Yar, played by Denise Crosby, had a messy demise in the series first season — — both on and off screen. Beyond that, characters had torturous or painful moments, but never died or were harmed beyond the superficial.

Except for episodes like this one, where death came again-and-again and again-and-again.

Synopsis: A distortion in the space-time continuum leads to the destruction of the U.S.S. Enterprise, causing a temporal causality loop. The crew is unknowingly trapped within it and are forced to relieve the events that led to their deaths. Bits and pieces seem to bleed through, though, as the crew valiantly tries again and again to beat their untimely fate.

 

 

It’s the Fraiser meets Star Trek episode! That’s a joking reference to the fact that the special guest star of this episode — for it’s final few moments — is one Kelsey Grammar of Cheers and Fraiser fame (amongst other unsavory things these days). Beyond that spot though, this episode is a fine one and grabs the audience from the moment it begins. That happens when an episode opens with a damaged warp nacelle, an imminent warp core breach, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) yelling for all hands to abandon ship before it explodes.

That’s the cold open, folks, before we even get the opening credits.

A bottle episode of a sort, this one features the entirety of the main cast in some capacity. Gates McFadden, as the wonderful Doctor Beverly Crusher, gets plenty to do in this episode. Sadly, a rarity for most of the shows run, and don’t even get me started on how the films used her in most cases. Having it be the doctor who notices the little repetitions (and changes) throughout the loops is an inspired choice.

 

 

We get plenty of the group in beloved poker sequences while seeing their differing ways to solve problems along the line. I love that we don’t get them knowing about the loop in every single instance. I’m fine with the way that some shows use that loop with one person always knowing, but this really changes things and makes the overall time loop even more dire.

Sure, we know they’ll get out of it eventually, but the mystery and the confusion seeded through the loops makes one question how and when. Data (Brent Spiner) having the split-second realization that he was wrong in order to save them all is also a fun moment.

Oh, I cannot forget: this is one of the few episodes with the wonderful Michelle Forbes as the Bajoran Ensign Ro Laren. We didn’t get to see enough of her, but I respect her reasons for not committing to the show (or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when approached).

 

 

“Year Of Hell”
Star Trek: Voyager – Season 4, Episodes 8 & 9 (11/05/1997 & 11/12/1997)

“But Scott, this is two episodes in one entry, that seems like cheating!”

Hush, this is my project and my entry, and I’ll cry if I want to. Wait, not cry, cover two episodes as one, and that’s that.

Taking up two spots for two episodes that are two halves of the same story would be silly in my book. Especially with so many memorable and powerful two-parters in Star Trek history. Just wait until the entries with “The Best of Both Worlds” or most of the pilot episodes.

Synopsis: Obsessed with restoring his people’s empire, no matter the cost, Krenim military temporal scientist Annorax (Kurtwood Smith) wipes out people and planets to change history. These changes affect the U.S.S. Voyager, placing ship and crew in a precarious — and deadly — situation. Broken but not defeated, the crew makes a play to save themselves and time itself.

 

 

Gosh, I sure wish this had actually gotten to be a whole season of the series. While it would have been quite an undertaking, and a pivot for the show, a serialized year of Voyager struggling for survival would have been remarkable. I loved Voyager a ton, but never liked how, after like the second season, the issues of being so far from home were mostly wiped out. Rations weren’t really a thing and torpedoes and shuttles were replaced like magic, much like fixing the ship’s damage every week.

There are numerous reasons that “Year Of Hell” is a damn fine piece of Star Trek, the aforementioned being part of that. We get to see the crew and their ship stretched to their absolute limits. Characters are put into positions where they must make dire choices and confront each other about those choices. The captain’s obsession, at times, matches Annorax’s in how harmful it can be, but nowhere near as selfish and destructive.

Kate Mulgrew shines as Captain Kathryn Janeway in this episode, really putting her through an emotional wringer. So does Robert Picardo as the Doctor, having one of my favorite scenes. He must make a difficult choice as the deck containing sickbay is about to be destroyed. Later, we see the holographic Doctor wrestle with it and speak to the harsh practicality of why he made the choice to another character.

 

 

Those final moments of Janeway wishing the year to be forgotten as she suicide runs the time ship are powerful. Getting a whole “this year never happened” potentially would have been very groan worthy for a whole season, but it works well in this situation. Personally, I would have been fine with a beat up Voyager having to make different choices to fix itself and survive. A whole Battlestar Galactica thing, which is why I loved that series so much.

Good thing the new Star Trek: Voyager – Across The Unknown game lets you make choices like this.

Come back next week as we dive into two more of Star Trek’s greatest episodes.