- Captain Picard and crew follow Data back to the late 1800s to get him back, only to find the suspected alien visitors killing people of that time.
- In order to catch the malicious time-shifting aliens, Picard and some crew-members use their knowledge of their time-travel technique to follow Data and the still inexperienced Guinan on Earth in the 19th century, where author Samuel Clemens' persistent inquisitive suspicion is on to them. When the aliens' time-shift back is tested, Samuel Clemens is transported back aboard with the crew and starts pondering the advances made in five centuries of human and intergalactic progress, while Data is only retrieved after decapitation. In the past, the aliens try to put up a defense.—KGF Vissers
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart); Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), First officer; Lt. (j.g.) Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Chief Engineer; Lt. (j.g.) Worf (Michael Dorn), a Klingon Security Chief; Counselor (Lt. Cmdr.) Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Psychic; Lt. Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner), Android Helmsman; Dr. (Cmdr.) Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Medical officer; Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney), Transport Chief;
In order to catch the malicious time-shifting aliens, Picard and some crew-members use their knowledge of their time-travel technique to follow Data and the still inexperienced Guinan on Earth in the 19th century, where author Samuel Clemens' ( Jerry Hardin) persistent inquisitive suspicion is on to them. Clemens is convinced that time travelers from the future can only cause trouble in his present time and is determined to expose them. He watches Data and Guinan closely.
Meanwhile Beverly is not convinced that so many people are dying of cholera in the 19th century, as it is not very virulent. She finds no Electro-chemical activity in the brains of the supposed cholera victims. She postulates that the aliens are draining the humans from the past of their neural energy and feeding it to the silver alien beings in the future via the machine. The aliens shape Shifters are shown to be moving around amongst the humans. Picard and Beverly figure out that most deaths are happening in a particular hospital. Geordi creates a Triolic wave detector, which will act as their alien alarm. Beverly finds the aliens in the hospital looking for their next victim, but before they are caught, they time shift back to their present time, but not before Geordi gets hold of the cane (that is shaped like an Ophidian). They try to activate the Ophidian, but can't focus its time portal for more than a few Milli-seconds.
Data had also created a time shift locator device and reaches the hospital where he links up with the away team. Data introduces Picard to Guinan, who has found a way for Data to access the mine-shaft, where his head was found in the future. At the cavern, Geordi determines that it is the same size and shape as the one they found on Devidia II. Geordi speculates that the 2 caverns act as focal points for the time shifts. Clemens (as usual) was keeping an eye on these activities and follows them into the cavern. Before Geordi can test the Ophelia, the aliens time shift into the cavern and try to seize the Ophelia from him. Data hurts one of the aliens, and seizes the Ophelia back, but the ensuing explosion severs his neck (just as it was retrieved in the 24th century)
Picard stays behind as everyone else, including Clemens follows the alien back to the 24th century to the cavern on Devidia II. Data's decapitated body is recovered in the 24th century cavern as it passed through the time portal. On the ship, Geordi tries to attach Data's recovered head (the 500 years old head from Earth) to his recovered body. Picard saves Guinan back in the 19th century. The hurt alien is alive, and Picard tells her that his crew will destroy the time portal on Devidia II. But the alien tells Picard that the time portal will only amplify the destructive force and hence destroy Earth in the 19th century. Picard uses an iron filing to encode a binary message into Data's memory circuits.
As Geordi attaches Data's head, Data tells Riker to stop the Photon torpedo attack on the Devidia II. The plan now is to re-phase the Photon torpedoes so that they limit themselves to the current space time, and not be extended to the space time phase on the other side of the portal. While Geordi works on that, Riker decides to go back to get Picard. But the phaser energy (to be used instead of Triolics energy) will keep the portal steady enough for just one person to pass through. So, Clemens volunteers to travel back to the 19th century to send back Picard. The scheme works as planned, as Picard gets the phaser & Ophidian from Clemens, and uses it to get back to the cavern on Devidia II. Data picks up the activity from Enterprise and beams him up, just before the photon torpedoes (modified by Geordi) slam into the planet, destroying the cavern.
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