TNG Flashback: Remember Me

Some episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation started out well on paper, and then fell down a bit when they tried to execute the script. But occasionally, an episode that doesn't hold great promise on the page turns out special. So it was with "Remember Me."

Beverly Crusher receives a visit from an aging mentor who gets her wistfully thinking about the people in her life loved and lost. But then suddenly she starts living that reality following a chance accident in a warp theory experiment conducted by her son Wesley. One by one, people begin to disappear from the Enterprise, with no trace remaining that they ever existed at all.

In truth, I think this premise sounds quite interesting on paper, but that was apparently not the case for many people involved with the production. This plot had an inauspicious birth as a rejected subplot from "Family," and perhaps because of that didn't have full confidence from everyone involved. Director Cliff Bole, when interviewed later, seemed genuinely surprised that he received so much positive feedback on this episode from among all the ones he directed. Producer Rick Berman said in later interviews that he thought the episode was possibly too "high concept," noting that it was "potentially confusing" and that it was "fooling the audience a little and I don't like to do that." (Way to have faith in your audience there. Thank goodness there are people like Christopher Nolan in the world too.)

The script was written by Lee Sheldon, a new staff writer for the fourth season who apparently knew even as he was writing this that the show wasn't really a good fit for him; he left without contributing any other scripts but this one. The episode was a "bottle show" (crafted to save money by taking place entirely on existing sets), which too often made for an uninspired and uninspiring hour of television. In short, there was a lot going against this episode.

But going for it? It's just a damn cool idea. Of all the characters, Beverly is best paired with this story about losing people close to you, given her history with her husband Jack. The plot also operates on a metaphorical level, in that everyone else's reaction to Beverly's "confused" memories could be seen as representative of dealing with Alzheimer's disease. And the mystery itself is more clever than Star Trek can usually manage. It seems quite natural to think that Wesley's "static warp bubble" is drifting around the ship swallowing people up, because that's exactly the sort of sci-fi conundrum you'd see in the average Star Trek episode. But it's so much cooler that the truth is more metaphysical here, that it's Beverly in the bubble, and her reality has been shaped by her own thoughts.

The bulk of the episode, set inside Beverly's reality, is really quite good. You get mystery, suspense, and even some great notes of comedy. (Picard's clueless "we've never needed a crew before" observation is priceless.) Gates McFadden does a wonderful job carrying the episode, including the always-challenging scenes of believably talking to herself. She even did her own stunts in this episode, hanging off a wall-mounted chair to simulate being pulled into a space-time vortex... and then learning just a day or two later that she was pregnant!

But what doesn't play so well are the parts with The Traveler in the final acts. Apparently, the addition of the character was a very last minute change to the script. The writers were finding the end of this episode problematic, and had already been talking about bringing the first season character back at some point during year. They decided both those roads should converge here in this episode, but the immediacy of Beverly's problem really crowds out The Traveler's return.

Last we saw, The Traveler had apparently phased entirely out of existence, and yet there's no "we didn't even know if you were still alive" moment played here. There's no explanation of where he goes after popping in to solve the problem; the episode ends almost immediately after Beverly is rescued from the bubble. There's also absolutely no attention called to the fact that Wesley briefly displays the Traveler's powers, phasing himself during the rescue. All we get is ten minutes or so of rather cheesy guru-like platitudes that represent Wesley's Jedi training or something. It's frankly all a bit of a letdown from such a compelling set-up.

Other observations:

• When you think about it, it's totally weird that Wesley would be playing around with Kosinski's warp equations like he is at the start of this episode. They were said quite emphatically to be utter nonsense in "Where No One Has Gone Before." So best case, Wesley is totally wasting his time. Worst case, the equations were capable of doing something, and do you seriously not remember what happened last time? You're just going to casually play around with something that might transport you to the edge of the universe?

• Speaking of the universe, Beverly gets a gem of a line: "If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe."

• This episode should have been Ron Jones' turn up in the composers' rotation. Instead, for the second time, Jay Chattaway was called into provide music for an episode. I couldn't find any information anywhere about why Jones was left out this time; possibly this was fallout from the "Brothers" fiasco? (Maybe Jones was using the time he would have composed for this episode to fix and finish the earlier one?) In any case, Chattaway delivers a solid score, as he did for "Tin Man." This was essentially from a time before Chattaway gave up and went along with the restrictive demands by Rick Berman for bland music, so the "Remember Me" score has some notably tense action queues throughout.

• For the third time (following "The Arsenal of Freedom" and "The High Ground"), Beverly finds herself in a desperate situation and is that close to confiding her feelings to Picard... but is denied the chance. Part of me feels like I should resent the writers going back to that well yet again without drinking, but for whatever reason, I do like just continuing the tension between the two characters.

• Personally, I didn't notice this, but online nitpickers pointed out that Beverly Crusher goes into the static warp bubble without her trademark blue lab coat, then emerges at the end of the episode with one she put on while she was inside. Continuity error, or subtle nod to the whole "your thoughts can shape reality" message of the episode? (Who am I kidding; it's a continuity error.)

Although the episode stumbles a bit as it crosses the finish line, I think there's quite a lot to like here before that. I give "Remember Me" a B+.