Television Review: Remember Me (Star Trek: The Next Generation, S4X05, 1990)

Remember Me (S04E05)

Airdate: October 22nd 1990

Written by: Lee Sheldon
Directed by: Cliff Bole

Running Time: 45 minutes

The fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation began with formidable momentum, concluding the celebrated Best of Both Worlds two-parter. However, the immediate follow-up was a trio of character-focused episodes delving into themes of family—Family, Brothers, and Suddenly Human—which, while not without merit, felt somewhat underwhelming in their pacing and execution following such a narrative crescendo. It is with the season’s fifth episode, Remember Me, that the series decisively returns to its pure science-fiction roots. Built on a deceptively simple, almost Twilight Zone-esque concept, the episode demonstrates how a well-crafted script and taut direction can transform a familiar premise into a compelling and eerie hour of television.

The episode opens with the USS Enterprise docked at Starbase 133, where Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) eagerly anticipates reuniting with her old friend and mentor, Dr. Dalen Quaice (Bill Erwin). He is retiring from Starfleet, and the Enterprise is to transport him to his new home on Kenda II. After Quaice beams aboard, Crusher visits Engineering to check on her son Wesley’s experiment with a static warp bubble. Moments after she leaves, Wesley turns to find his mother gone, assuming she simply walked away. This innocuous moment is the first ripple of the anomaly to come. Crusher, returning to Quaice’s quarters, finds them empty and, to her growing dismay, discovers no record of him ever being aboard. Her attempts to alert the crew are met with polite scepticism, which curdles into profound unease as other members of the medical staff begin to vanish, their existence seemingly erased from the memory of everyone but her. Gradually, the ship's population dwindles. Colleagues and friends, including her own son, disappear without a trace, until only she and Captain Picard remain—and even Picard sees nothing anomalous about their solitude. Isolated and desperate, with the ship’s computer coldly informing her the universe is shrinking, Crusher must race against time to solve the puzzle, narrowly escaping a mysterious, consuming vortex in the process.

Concurrently, in the ‘real’ universe, Wesley grows alarmed by his mother’s disappearance and correctly deduces a connection to his warp bubble experiment. He theorises he has accidentally created a bubble that has entrapped her in a parallel, contracting reality. Seeking help, he summons the mysterious Traveler, who advises returning the Enterprise to its original coordinates to stabilise the bubble. In a last-second gamble, Dr. Crusher leaps into the vortex and is safely returned to her own universe and her relieved crew.

The core concept, from writer Lee Sheldon’s script, feels borrowed from classic anthology shows like The Twilight Zone, but it is justified by sufficient para-scientific technobabble and, more importantly, executed with remarkable skill. The episode masterfully blends mystery, psychological drama, and suspense. It is largely a ‘bottle episode’, confined to the Enterprise sets, and for long stretches, Gates McFadden is the only character on screen. This could have been a limitation, but it becomes a strength under the excellent direction of Cliff Bole, who maintains a gripping pace and crafts genuinely intriguing visuals, particularly the vortex effects which owe a clear debt to films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Poltergeist. McFadden’s performance is superb; she expertly charts Crusher’s journey from professional concern to rational disbelief, then to frustration, and finally to determined, lonely desperation. Notably, as a trained dancer and choreographer, McFadden performed all her own stunts in the episode, a fact made more poignant by the later discovery that she was pregnant during production.

The narrative structure is particularly effective. It begins with a classic misdirect: the introduction of Dr. Quaice, a guest character set up to play a significant role, who simply vanishes, serving his purpose as the initial catalyst. The mystery then unfolds with excruciating slowness, allowing the audience to share Crusher’s disorientation. Crucially, the crew’s reaction is not to dismiss her as delusional but to engage with her concerns logically, which makes the surreal situation feel more grounded. Picard, in a particularly memorable deadpan delivery, even attempts to rationalise the absurdity when confronted with the idea of a starship operating with just two people. The horror escalates gradually, culminating in the poignant, futile scene where Crusher tries to convince the last version of Picard of the missing crew by naming and describing them one by one—a moment that is emotionally powerful, if arguably a contrived opportunity to remind casual viewers of the show’s ensemble.

However, the episode is not without its flaws. The resolution, while providing an interesting twist that the vortices are Wesley’s attempts to rescue his mother, relies heavily on the sudden reappearance of the Traveler as a quasi-mystical deus ex machina. This element was reportedly added to the script as a concession to fervent fans; Eric Menyuk, the actor playing the character of the Traveler, introduced in the first season episode Where No One Has Gone Before, had become a popular figure at conventions, and his inclusion here feels more like fan service than organic plotting. Furthermore, some viewers find the final act disappointing, wishing Crusher could have solved the crisis through her own scientific ingenuity rather than being rescued by her prodigal son and an external, psychic entity.

The episode also indulges in a moment of unabashed fan service. In her last moments alone with the fading, duplicate Picard, Crusher hesitates, as if to confess something important, a clear nod to the ‘Picard/Crusher’ shippers within the fanbase. While this character beat is touching, it can feel like a narrative detour.

Remember Me stands is a highlight of The Next Generation’s fourth season and a standout episode for Gates McFadden. It takes a high-concept science-fiction premise and filters it through a compelling character study, generating genuine suspense and showcasing the series' ability to tell intimate, cerebral stories within its vast universe. Despite a resolution that leans too heavily on convenient mysticism and some narrative contrivances, its strengths—the disciplined direction, the masterful build of tension, and McFadden’s committed, nuanced performance—far outweigh its weaknesses. It remains a fan favourite precisely because it so effectively explores the terror of isolation and the resilience of reason, culminating in Crusher’s iconic line of defiant logic: “If there's nothing wrong with me... maybe there's something wrong with the universe!”

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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