225. Cause and EffectFORMULA: Clues + Yesterday's Enterprise + We'll Always Have Paris (x5)
WHY WE LIKE IT: A very clever temporal paradox.
WHY WE DON'T: I know at least one person who thought the tv station had screwed up and restarted the episode a couple times before giving up on it entirely. Hehehe.
REVIEW: An episode that starts off with the Enterprise blowing up? They had me at hello.
The poker game has been layered into the last couple episodes, but here it's an actual - and brilliant - plot point, used to figure out what the heck is going on. Though events repeat 4 or 5 times, Jonathan Frakes keeps things interesting from segment to segment by varying shots, perspectives and moods (lots of anxious steady cam before the explosion, for example). And the script has surprises in store for us too, with Data's 3s layered in not unlike the 47 the creators have creep into the show almost every episode.
What surprised me most was that this was a very good Beverly episode. When you're remembering it, you think of Cause and Effect as an ensemble show, but it's really a detective story for Crusher, told through her eyes. Like in Remember Me, she excels at this, so I can see why they would cast her in other mysteries as the show progresses (not always with success).
The Bozeman as captained by Kelsey Grammer is pretty cool. Hey, a Reliant (I know, Soyuz, but they're very close designs) and the movie-era red uniforms! Neat! Here's a guy I would have like to see acclimatize to the 24th century a little, but alas no return appearance (except in the novels). My one beef is that Ro doesn't get to do anything here. She always betters her episodes in some way, but here seems wasted.
LESSON: If at first you don't succeed...
REWATCHABILITY - High: The episode that rewatches itself! Very clever with some fun interplay between the characters.
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