History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E18CauseAndEffect

-->--'''Picard''', saying something viewers will get used to hearing a few times.

* CoversAlwaysLie: For some bizarre reason, the [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/9/91/TNG_5.6_UK_VHS_cover.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170721105025&path-prefix=en cover of the 2002 UK VHS re-release]] containing this story features the USS ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Reliant]]'' crashing into the ''Enterprise'' instead of the ''Bozeman''. Either there were some serious communication issues between Paramount and the artist, or someone was hoping to draw in people who might mistakenly think that Khan had somehow come BackFromTheDead.

* ClueOfFewWords: During the last time loop, the number 3 keeps popping up conspicuously. The crew figures out it was a clue they sent to themselves from the prior time loop but they need to figure out what it means. [[spoiler: three refers to the number of pips on Riker's rank insignia, meaning his suggestion to avoid the collision should be done.]]

In anticipation, Crusher calls sickbay asking after La Forge, only to be told he just walked in. This time, Crusher is examining La Forge's VISOR under Picard's supervision as they all discuss their recent ''déjà vu'' episodes. Crusher finds that some TechnoBabble is affecting the VISOR, causing his dizziness.

* CoversAlwaysLie: For some bizarre reason, the [[https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/File:TNG_5.6_UK_VHS_cover.jpg cover of the 2002 UK VHS re-release]] containing this story features the USS ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Reliant]]'' crashing into the ''Enterprise'' instead of the ''Bozeman''. Either there were some serious communication issues between Paramount and the artist, or someone was hoping to draw in people who might mistakenly think that Khan had somehow come BackFromTheDead.

* LimitedWardrobe: After going to bed, Crusher apparently got dressed in her full Starfleet uniform to pay a brief, late-night visit to Picard. She does keep her hair ribbon which was part of her pajamas in the previous scene.

As before, the ship is without power and unable to move as another ship emerges from the Wedgie. Riker (standing at Data's side for no apparent reason) suggests decompressing the shuttlebay, but Data counter-suggests using the tractor beam to push the other ship clear. Picard sides with Data, but Data suddenly has a EurekaMoment and goes with Riker's plan instead; the main shuttlebay decompresses, pushing the ''Enterprise'' clear and allowing the other ship to pass safely. The NegativeSpaceWedgie vanishes, power is restored, and the ''Enterprise'' crew greet the crew of the USS ''Bozeman'' (commanded by none other than Captain Series/{{Frasier}} [[Series/{{Cheers}} Crane]]), which was either stuck in the Loop for some 90 years or got teleported by the rift 90 years into the future. Data explains his EurekaMoment: glancing at Riker, Data noted the number of rank pins on his collar (3) and deduced that the various phantom 3s referred to Riker, indicating that Riker's plan would be the successful one. Good thing he didn't think it referred to himself, since he is 3rd in command of the ship behind Riker and Picard.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

We begin this episode InMediasRes, with the ''Enterprise''[='=]s engines on fire and the ship out of control. The bridge crew is frantically trying to steady the ship long enough to launch the lifeboats as Picard orders all hands to abandon ship. And just as the audience is thinking, "LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt," they [[GutPunch really do it]]: the ''Enterprise'' [[WhamShot is blown apart in a huge]] [[ExplosionsInSpace space explosion]], [[KillEmAll lost with all hands]]!

* ShoutOut: The ''Bozeman''[='=]s registry number, NCC-1941, is a reference to the Creator/StevenSpielberg film ''Film/NineteenFortyOne''.

** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan The Measure of a Man]]" establishes that Data can perform 60 trillion operations per second, which explains how he can so quickly recognize the solution and act on it during the final time loop.

** How any of them (who aren't Guinan, and therefore have no sense of time outside their subjective experience)--except, maybe Data (whose internal chronometer might get out of synch with ''Enterprise'''s)--do (or would) feel ''deja vu'' is unexplained.

* DownerBeginning: The ship explodes, right in the teaser, killing everyone. Talk about catching the viewer's attention!

** OlderThanTheyThink: People tend to forget that this episode aired in 1992, the year ''before'' the film ''Film/GroundhogDay'' was released.

** Except, neither Riker nor anybody else aboard could possibly know that.

->''"All hands abandon ship! Repeat, all hands abandon--"'' '''''[[KilledMidSentence [BOOM!] ]]'''''

* ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding: An unusual variation occurs when the ''Enterprise'' vents the atmosphere of the main shuttlebay as an emergency means of maneuvering to avoid a collision. The main shuttlebay was never shown on-screen for budgetary reasons, but it is by all accounts a huge, busy facility; but there was absolutely no mention of the fate of the personnel who happened to be in the shuttlebay at the time—and due to the urgency of the situation, could not be warned or given time to evacuate. Given the lack of bodies seen flying into space, it is safe to assume that Red Alert had the shuttlebay personnel move to different areas of rhe ship to respond

* LimitedWardrobe: After going to bed, Crusher apparently got dressed in her full Starfleet uniform to pay a brief, late-night visit to Picard.

We begin this episode InMediasRes, with the ''Enterprise''[='=]s engines on fire and the ship out of control. The bridge crew is frantically trying to steady the ship long enough to launch the lifeboats as Picard orders all hands to abandon ship. And just as the audience is thinking, "LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt," they [[GutPunch really do it]]: the ''Enterprise'' [[WhamShot is blown apart in a huge]] [[ExplosionsInSpace space explosion]].

** It's heavily implied that Data could be secretly stacking the playing card deck. In the final loop, he does.

** [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGeneration S2E9TheMeasureOfAMan "The Measure of a Man"]] establishes that Data can perform 60 trillion operations per second, which explains how he can so quickly recognize the solution and act on it during the final time loop.

Act III. The ''Enterprise'' enters an unexplored sector. By this time, even the characters are starting to catch on, after a fashion; at their poker game, Worf recognizes their banter, and then he, Riker and Crusher correctly call out the hand Data is dealing even before he deals it.

->'''Data:''' [[{{Understatement}} This is highly improbable.]]

** Dueing the briefing in second to last cycle, the camera lingers on Riker when Data talks about receiving the message subconsciously.

* GroundhogDayLoop: Predating the TropeNamer by over a year.

* InMediasRes: How the episode begins. When the ''Enterprise'' is first destroyed, viewers are led to believe that what happens next is HowWeGotHere, until it's revealed that the ship is trapped in a time-loop. That means that the first time the ''Enterprise'' is shown blowing up isn't necessarily the ''first'' time it was destroyed!
** Each loop takes roughly a day, and they find out at the end they're out of sync by seventeen days. So the episode-opening destruction is roughly the twelfth time it was destroyed.

** [[FridgeBrilliance Then again, it could be playing out (at least partially) in Data's mind]]; after all, to him, [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact 0.68 seconds is "nearly an eternity."]]
** Most of the loops seem to have slightly different timing, with events happening sooner or slightly later in the various runthroughs. Could possibly be excused by the NegativeSpaceWedgie causing slight variations in the causality that sets off particular events.

* RippleEffectProofMemory:
** Downplayed. Crew members don't entirely remember previous loops, but do experience DejaVu moments, which grow in intensity with each new iteration.
** [[Literature/StarTrekDepartmentOfTemporalInvestigations One of the]] ExpandedUniverse novels also mentions that the ''Bozeman'' crew experienced the same effect, but didn't have the knowledge to break themselves free like the ''Enterprise'' did, resulting in [[FateWorseThanDeath 90 years of feeling trapped in a perpetual cycle of death]].
** Played straight in a different novel, where the ''Bozeman'' crew only remembers the final iteration with no knowledge of the loop until after Bateson meets with Picard.
* RuleOfThree: Data and his three spree in the final loop before it's broken.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Lampshaded, defied, averted, played straight, and thoroughly deconstructed.

* StableTimeLoop: When Riker suggests that reversing course could be the cause of the ship's destruction, he is implying, whether he realizes it or not, that this trope is in effect. The irony is that [[AvertedTrope it isn't]], and had the crew not been overthinking the situation in this way, they might have broken free after the first loop.[[note]]Though it's also possible that the space-time rift was drawn to the ''Enterprise's'' position, not a static point in space, in which case it would make no difference.[[/note]]

* TakeAThirdOption: Averted. There doesn't seem to be a reason they couldn't have both decompressed the main shuttle bay and used the tractor beam on the other ship, but nobody thinks to try this, possibly because they have so little time to think anything through.

* ChekhovsSkill: In [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E9AMatterOfTime "A Matter of Time,"]] Data explained that he was capable of listening to and distinguishing over 150 musical works at the same time. Here, he uses the same skill to sort through the jumble of voices from the previous time loops.