"A Matter of Time" is the 109th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. The ninth episode of the fifth season.
The crew's attempts to save the inhabitants of Penthara IV from the devastating aftereffects of a massive asteroid strike are interrupted by the arrival of Berlinghoff Rasmussen, a purported historian from the 26th century, who claims to be studying their era. But the rather curious nature of Rasmussen's questions about the 24th century, and his interest in gathering- and stealing- technological "artifacts" from the Enterprise, make Troi and the others increasingly suspicious of his origins.
Plot
On route to Penthara Four to assist its population in combating the effects of reduced temperatures created by dust cloud from recent asteroid impact, the Enterprise encounters a temporal distortion nearby, and find a small pod containing a single human occupant. Aboard the ship, the human introduces himself as Professor Berlingoff Rasmussen, a researcher from the 26th century to witness the Enterprise complete this "historic" mission at Penthara Four. He requests interviews with the crew to obtain the full story, but reveals little about himself as he does not wish to alter history. Rasmussen's interviews are somewhat irritating to the crew but they entertain him. Further, the crew discovers small objects such as tricorders have gone missing.
At Penthara Four, the Enterprise uses its phasers to drill into the planet to release carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect to warm the planet, but this creates a side effect of increasing the seismic activity and causing volcanoes to erupt, threaten to send the planet into an ice age. La Forge and Data offer a solution of ionizing the upper atmosphere but the maneuver must be done precisely or they could risk destroying the entire atmosphere and killing all 20 million on the surface. With the severity of the decision, Picard attempts to gain Rasmussen's help, claiming this is a scenario where the temporal-prime-directive can be overridden, but Rasmussen refuses to offer advice, noting by his era, the fate of all those on Penthara Four has already been decided. Picard decides to allow La Forge and Data go through with the plan, which is successful and returns the planet to its normal climate.
Rasmussen prepares to leave with his research done, but is met by a security team at his pod. Picard informs him of the missing items and requests to see the inside of his pod. Rasmussen reminds him again of the temporal prime directive, but Data offers that he can go in to look for their missing equipment without revealing anything about the future to the crew. Rasmussen agrees. Inside, Data finds the missing items but discovers Rasmussen has him at phaser-point. Rasmussen explains he is really a disgruntled inventor from the 22nd century that stole this pod from a 26th century traveler, and intended to return to his time and profit by selling the Enterprise equipment as his inventions, and now that he has Data, he plans to take him back as well. However, Rasmussen finds his phaser does not work, as once he opened the pod, the ship's sensors were able to disable it. Data forces an anxious Rasmussen outside along with the stolen equipment, and Rasmussen tries to apologize and asks to be let go for him to depart. Picard refuses and shortly thereafter, the pod automatically disappears, returning to its own time period. Rasmussen is taken into custody.
Awards
This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects.
References
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