History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E13TimeSquared

As the ship get back on its way, Picard retreats to his ready room to ponder what it all means, confiding in Riker, "They say if you travel far enough you will eventually meet yourself… having experienced that, Number One, it’s not something I would care to repeat."

* {{Retgone}}: Once they decide to escape the vortex, the duplicate shuttle and duplicate Picard vanish without a trace. Played with in that the crew ''remembers the existence'' of the duplicate, but the duplicate itself no longer exists [[PuffOfLogic because the time loop that created it was broken]].
* ReverseThePolarity: Data and Geordi can't get the duplicate shuttle to power up using conventional methods. Data suggests setting their phase inverter to negative, which by all rights should blow out every circuit. It brings the shuttle back on line.

* LethalChef: Riker proves to be one, [[AlienLunch though he blames the weird eggs he picked up at Starbase.]] [[BizarreTasteInFood Only Worf likes the dish.]]

* NarrowAnnihilationEscape: Done by Picard's doppelganger, but unintentionally. When Duplicate!Picard leaves the ship in a shuttlecraft, thinking that the energy vortex wants him and not the Enterprise or its crew, an energy blast destroys the ship, and he is thrown back in time 6 hours.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Picard spends the whole episode racking his brain trying to find a way to save the ship.

A Federation shuttlecraft is found floating in space, far from any other Federation starship. The ship scoops it up to discover that it's from the ''Enterprise'' itself and, even more astounding, its sole occupant is another Captain Picard. This second Picard is unconscious, and Doctor Pulaski is puzzled by him – his vitals are OK, but all of his readings are "out of phase." She carries him off to Sickbay.

Picard orders Data to check the shuttlecraft's logs, but it’s drained of power, and the power from the ''Enterprise'' seems to be incompatible with its systems for some reason. Data and Geordi cook up some fancy engineering to get it started and discover that the shuttlecraft's onboard clock reads six hours into the future. They retrieve the final visual log from the shuttlecraft, which shows it taking off shortly before the ''Enterprise'' is destroyed by some sort of NegativeSpaceWedgie. Geordi suggests stopping or changing course to avoid encountering whatever it is, but the others say there's no way to know what course of action will prompt the events they've witnessed.

His first instinct is to leave the ship to draw the vortex’s attention away and give everyone else a chance to escape, but then he realizes that’s exactly what Picard Two tried to do. So instead, he heads to Sickbay and orders Pulaski to let Picard Two out. Picard Two has become vaguely aware of his surroundings, but can only focus on trying to leave the ''Enterprise''. Picard One follows his double to the Shuttle Bay, trying to get him to think of another option. All Picard Two says is that the other way "would never work" because "going forward would destroy the ''Enterprise''." Picard One understands what he means, and breaks the time loop by killing his double with a phaser before he can leave the ship again. He then returns to the bridge and orders the ''Enterprise'' to head directly into the vortex. This does the trick, and the vortex disappears, along with the duplicate shuttlecraft and Picard.

* ApocalypticLog: The future Picard recorded one, stating the ''Enterprise'' was destroyed and that he is the only survivor.

** Data restores power to the shuttle by a ReverseThePolarity that not only shouldn't have worked, but should have blown out all the shuttle's circuits. The method of escaping the energy vortex is similar--diving into the vortex at full speed not only shouldn't have worked, it should have torn the ship apart when it reached the center... but it actually gets the crew out safely.

* LethalChef: Riker proves to be one, though he blames the weird eggs he picked up at Starbase. Only Worf likes the dish.

A Federation shuttlecraft is found floating in space, far from any other Federation starship. The mystery is cleared up soon enough as the ''Enterprise'' picks it up and identifies it, but this only raises a much bigger mystery: the shuttlecraft is from the ''Enterprise'' itself and, even more astounding, its sole occupant is another Captain Picard. This second Picard is unconscious, and Doctor Pulaski is puzzled by him – his vitals are OK, but all of his readings are “out of phase”, whatever that means. She carries him off to Sickbay while Counselor Troi, true to form, says she can’t sense anything in particular from him.

Picard orders Data to check the shuttlecraft’s logs, but it’s drained of power and the power from the ''Enterprise'' seems to be incompatible with its systems for some reason. Data and Geordi cook up some fancy engineering to get it started, and discover that the shuttlecraft’s onboard clock reads six hours into the future. They retrieve the final visual log from the shuttlecraft, which shows it taking off shortly before the ''Enterprise'' is destroyed by some sort of NegativeSpaceWedgie. Geordi suggests stopping or changing course to avoid encountering whatever it is, but the others say it’s no good trying to fight fate and decide to soldier on until whatever is meant to happen happens (although that doesn’t really make sense; they’ve just committed to the one course of action that couldn’t possibly solve the problem).

Meanwhile Pulaski has successfully revived Picard Two, but he’s completely out of it and can’t communicate. Pulaski theorizes that as time catches up to the moment he was sent back, he’ll become more aware, until the final moment when he’ll be fully himself again. The fact that he can’t answer any questions frustrates Picard One to the point of obsession, but no matter which way he looks at the problem he can’t figure any of it out on his own. Before long, it’s too late, and the energy vortex appears without warning. It starts pulling the ''Enterprise'' in, and some sort of consciousness inside of it begins scanning them. As Picard tries to figure a way out, the vortex starts singling him and his double out and hitting them with energy beams.

His first instinct is to leave the ship to draw the vortex’s attention away and give everyone else a chance to escape, but then he realizes that’s exactly what Picard Two tried to do. So instead he heads to Sickbay and orders Pulaski to let Picard Two out. Picard Two has become vaguely aware of his surroundings, but can only focus on trying to leave the ''Enterprise''. Picard One follows his double to the Shuttle Bay, trying to get him to think of another option. All Picard Two says is that the other way “would never work” because “going forward would destroy the ''Enterprise''.” Picard One understands what he means, and breaks the time loop by killing his double with a phaser before he can leave the ship again. He then returns to the bridge and orders the ''Enterprise'' to head directly into the vortex. This does the trick, and the vortex disappears, along with the duplicate shuttlecraft and Picard. As the ship get back on its way, Picard retreats to his ready room to ponder what it all means, confiding in Riker, “They say if you travel far enough you will eventually meet yourself… having experienced that, Number One, it’s not something I would care to repeat.”

* ContinuityNod: In addition to the [[CallBack Call-Backs]] listed above, Picard also mentions using the gravitational pull of a star to accelerate fast enough to slingshot back in time, which was used numerous times by [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries an earlier]] ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]]'' [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries crew]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Riker mentioning his father is a precursor to the next episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E14TheIcarusFactor The Icarus Factor]]".

* {{Retgone}}: Once they decide to escape the vortex, the duplicate shuttle and duplicate Picard vanish without a trace.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Crew members wonder if trying to avoid the disaster will actually lead to it happening.

* TakeAThirdOption: "What was the other choice? We can't fight, we cant escape, ''we can't go forward...''"