“Time Squared” is written by: Maurice Hurley, from a
story by: Kurt Michael Bensmiller, and is directed by: Joseph L. Scanlan. It was produced under production code 139,
was the 13th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season
2, the 39th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 3, 1989.
Maurice Hurley as showrunner of Season 2 of Star
Trek: The Next Generation may have been partially responsible for the
behind the scenes trouble in the show at the end of the first season and
throughout the second. He was
responsible for the firing of Gates McFadden after she spoke up about issues
with her character of Dr. Crusher. He
was often in conflict with the rest of the writing team in terms of script and
overall arc direction and in conflict with the cast in terms of character
development. He had a handful of scripts
in the first season: “Hide and Q” cowritten with Gene Roddenberry was a bad
start but then again so is a lot with Roddenberry, a story credit for
“Datalore” which was a standout of the first season (and “The Arsenal of
Freedom” which was not, and “Heart of Glory” and “11001001” were great and
good, respectively. His record is
decidedly mixed. He opened the second
season with “The Child”, one of the worst episodes of the show thus far and one
that was incredibly sexist. Hurley would
have writing credit on three other episodes in the second season before leaving
the show all together, being replaced as showrunner first by Michael Wagner for
four episodes and then Michael Piller.
“Time Squared” gives story credit to Kurt Michael Bensmiller who had
pitched multiple episodes to the team, but once again Hurley seems to have
taken control of scripting and essentially making it an original script as he
had done with “The Child” as the season opener.
Unfortunately, “Time Squared” is a stronger script
from Hurley, understanding how to plot and execute a science fiction concept
with an internal character conflict at the center of its narrative. The episode is a slow burn from a shuttlecraft
appearing that came from the Enterprise drifting through space, to the reveal
that inside the shuttlecraft is a grievously injured Captain Picard. This is just the pre-credits sequence, but it’s
quite the tense sequence that is effective at teasing what is coming in the
episode. The actual premise is that the
shuttlecraft is from six hours in the future, it’s come back in time as part of
a time loop and Picard is the only survivor of the Enterprise. Future Picard doesn’t actually get to have
much to do, he spends much of the episode in a coma with Dr. Pulaski’s attempts
to revive him having limited success. When
he does revive, Patrick Stewart gives a powerhouse performance as a Picard who
knows what exactly is going to happen and fully believes he cannot change
things. That is until the episode ends
with Picard in the present, shooting his future self to break the time loop on principle,
altering the course of future events enough to move the Enterprise
forward. The episode is let down slightly
by this resolution, Hurley’s script doesn’t actually imply any lasting consequences
from the act. Stewart plays it
incredibly well as does the onlooking Diana Muldaur and Colm Meaney as Pulaski
and O’Brien (the transporter chief who seems to be slowly becoming his own
character).
Joseph L. Scanlan directs “Time Squared” and what’s
particularly effective are actually the effects sequences: there is a vortex
that is responsible for the time loop that the Enterprise deliberately
flies through to essentially write the double of Picard and the shuttlecraft out
of existence. Apparently, Hurley wished
to link this episode with the next episode he wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation,
“Q Who”, and while I have not seen that episode, “Time Squared” does end far
too abruptly. Hurley’s script also lacks
a B-plot, but watching the episode you don’t ever actually feel like the B-plot
is absent. Scanlan keeps shots tight and
the actors right on their marks. So much
of the episode relies on Picard’s own insecurities: he fully believes he abandoned
the Enterprise which is something that he would never do, so what exactly
could have drawn him to this point? What
really happened to the Enterprise?
It’s an episode that is carried by Stewart’s talent, probably the first
episode to properly allow Stewart to explore what makes the character tick
since “The Battle”.
Overall, “Time Squared” would be the perfect episode if
there was a stronger resolution, because despite setting up a great end to the
conflict of Picard taking the future into his own hands by killing his future
self, the fallout from that isn’t at all examined. Still Patrick Stewart sells the episode and
the rest of the script is tight enough to actually work. 8/10.
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