Cheap Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 39: Time Squared (Video) (Larry Shaw, David Carson, Gabrielle Beaumont, Timothy Bond, Kim Manners, LeVar Burton, Richard Compton, Jonathan West, Marvin V. Rush, Michael Vejar) Price

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Customer Reviews of Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 39: Time Squared

Crew remains loyal even after the Enterprise is destroyed
Stories involving alterations in time are a staple in science fiction overall and the Star Trek section in particular. There is a wide variation in quality, some leave a lot to be desired and some are excellent. This one is pretty good, and involves the destruction of the Enterprise.
The Enterprise is on a routine mission when it encounters an out of control shuttlecraft that could not have reached that point under its own power. They capture it and are stunned to find another Captain Picard unconscious in the pilot's seat. It also turns out that the craft is registered to the Enterprise. After some trials where the power is incompatible with that of the Enterprise, Geordi and Data manage to download some of the log entries. They indicate that the shuttle is from a few hours in the future and clearly demonstrate that Captain Picard willingly piloted the craft from the Enterprise and watched it being destroyed.
Since the copy is from the future, his body is not properly synchronized with the time line it is in, so he cannot inform them of the reasons why he left the ship. As the time where the copy was sent back in time approaches, the copy becomes more aware of his surroundings, but remains unable to communicate with or even recognize the Enterprise crew around him. For the first time, we see Picard being indecisive, as he tries to determine what command decision led to the destruction of the Enterprise.
At the end, the true Picard gets his will to command back, which forces him to kill his double and avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the first time. As the Enterprise crew faces what seems to be certain death, we see why they are the best in Star Fleet. They know that Picard made a command decision that led to their destruction and his survival. And yet they remain loyal to him, expressing surprise at his leaving the Enterprise at such a critical time. The remaining command crew expresses no doubts about Picard, nor do they assign any blame. Their focus is on solving the problem in the few hours they have left.
At times, the best thing about Star Trek is the loyalty that the main characters show to each other. This is one of those episodes, where we see the best that the human race can deliver.

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Future Picard
Meeting Yourself

Picard meets his future self six hours into the future. Originally planned as a Q episode, the Enterprise is engulfed by a vortex that takes the crew into an unknown dimension. Another version of Picard comes aboard the Enterprise to warn the Picard from the present. Of what purpose, it's never revealed. We don't find out much about the one from the future. The best scene is when Riker discovers future Picard in the shuttle. You don't know weather or not the second Picard will avert the coming disaster or cause it. Picard has a line that best describes the story. "If you travel far enough you will meet yourself." This one was what was called a "bottle show." All of the scenes take place aboard the Enterprise and no other location shooting was required.

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Time Travel- you know you love it
Star Trek: TNG has, more than any other film or TV show, except perhaps the "Back to the Future" series, capitalized on terrific ideas involving time travel. In this, one of the series' best time conundrums, (I would rank it after "Cause and Effect" and "Timescape") the crew discovers a wandering shuttle that not only appears to belong to the Enterprise, but contains an exact double of Captain Picard. It is deduced that the new Picard has come from seven hours into the future, and that in his time, the enterprise was destroyed and he was the only survivor. Thus begins a gloriously suspenseful race against time (as usual) to discover what this Picard did that must be avoided. "Time Squared" is easily one of my favorite episodes, though I must admit to being thoroughly partial to the time travel ones. But even with my biases aside, this one has a terrific story and an involving mystery- the essence of any great episode.