History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise

* RippleEffectProofMemory: Guinan only, and [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] at that: she doesn't seem to know '''exactly''' what's wrong with the timeline ("I know it's the same bridge; I also know it's ''wrong''!"), but she has a good idea of how to fix it. It also seems to apply to Guinan just being there in general, as she quickly notices she doesn't really logically belong on the ship now or have a real purpose working on it. All of the civilian Ten-Forward staff are gone except for her, and her job at just seems to be replicating generic ration packs and handing them out -- something everyone could easily do for themselves -- yet she is still on board regardless. Perhaps Picard felt her advice was indispensable, which it definitely proves to be.
* SacrificialLion: One for each space battle shown: Captain Garrett and Commander Riker.

* BackstoryInvader: Lampshaded--all the other crew remember Tasha as having been with them all along, but Guinan, who joined the ship after Tasha died, can't remember her previously existing.

* BadassBoast: "Let's make sure history never forgets... the name... ''Enterprise''."
* CallBack: Worf's spiel about human females being too fragile for [[InsistentTerminology "companionship"]] is a call back to a nearly identical conversation he had back in season one's "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E7Justice Justice]]", there with Commander Riker, but here with Guinan. It would be playfully revisited again later on in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.

* ContinuityNod: In the alternate timeline, there's an intercom call for "Dr. Selar," the tall Vulcan last seen in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E6TheSchizoidMan The Schizoid Man]]."

** The ''K'vort''-class battlecruiser. Basically a classic Bird-of-Prey on steroids, and powerful enough to give two ''Enterprises'' some serious trouble.

* CriticalStaffingShortage: Riker points out that if the ''Enterprise''-C goes back, Lt. Castillo will have "limited support from Ops, no Tactical support, reduced staff in Engineering..." before Castillo cuts him off.
* DefiantToTheEnd: Picard, given the order to surrender to the Klingons, spits out a FacingTheBulletsOneLiner, vaults over the Tactical rail to man Riker's empty station, and continues attempting to fire the phasers as the bridge catches fire around him.

* ForWantOfANail: The whole premise of the episode; the ''Enterprise''-C turns out to be a very important nail indeed. Without a HeroicSacrifice on the part of a Federation ship in defense of a Klingon outpost and instead the apparent cowardice of the ''Enterprise''-C in vanishing after approaching the outpost, negotiations between the two sides break down into a 22-year war.

** With the storyline of Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry coming out a year later, the Klingon Empire should have been crippled at this point and in no way able to fight a sustained conflict against the United Federation of Planets, and certainly not one where the Klingons are winning so much that Starfleet is considering surrendering.
** Given that the premise involves the prior 20 years of history to be drastically different, with the Federation entangled in a decades-long war, it's highly improbable that any of the original crew would have ended up on the ''Enterprise''-D, and especially unlikely that more than one or at most two would have. Instead, with the exception of Worf's swap with Yar (due to the Klingon war), and Troi, everyone else is not only stationed on the same exact ship, but also in their exact same positions.
** It also seems very unlikely the overall design of the Enterprise D's exterior would look the same, with all the very large windows, etc. The D really was like a luxury ship. Contrast with the Defiant and Enterprise E, both designed as battleships.

* RippleEffectProofMemory: Guinan only, and [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] at that: she doesn't seem to know '''exactly''' what's wrong with the timeline ("I know it's the same bridge; I also know it's ''wrong''!"), but she has a good idea of how to fix it. It also seems to apply to Guinan just being there in general, as she quickly notices she doesn't really logically belong on the ship now or have a real purpose working on it (The entire civilian staff is gone except for her, and her job at Ten Forward just seems to be replicating generic ration packs and handing them out something everyone could easily do for themself) yet is still on board regardless.

* ShoutOut: When the Klingons order the Enterprise to surrender & prepare to be boarded:
-->'''Picard:'''[[Film/TheSearchers "That'll be the day"]]
* SubterfugeJudo: A small instance: When she is rescued from the ''Enterprise-C'', Captain Garrett is taken to sickbay to be treated. She notices how advanced it is, even for a starbase. Dr. Crusher tries to calm her down with her bedside manner, but Garrett insists on an explanation, forcing Picard to reveal that the ''Enterprise-C'' crew have traveled 22 years into the future.

--->'''Yar:''' ... USS ''Enterprise''.

--->'''Picard:''' The war is going very badly for the Federation; far worse than is generally known. Starfleet Command believes defeat is inevitable. Within six months we may have no choice but to surrender.

--->'''Captain Picard:''' Attention all hands. {{As you know}}, we could outrun the Klingon vessels. But we must protect the ''Enterprise''-C until she enters the temporal rift. [[LetsGetDangerous And we must succeed.]] Let's make sure history never forgets... the name... ''Enterprise''. Picard out.
** And of course, once the timeline is restored, the final fate of the ''Enterprise''-C, destroyed after taking on four Romulan warbirds in defense of a Klingon colony. Never forget the name ''Enterprise'' indeed.

->'''Guinan:''' Geordi, tell me about... Tasha Yar.

* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: The ''Enterprise''-D is crippled, with no chance of winning the battle. The Klingons order the ''Enterprise'' surrender.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: It's subtle, but alternate timeline Picard has just a few deeper wrinkles that he does normally, showing the stress of being a warship captain in such a long war.

* WhamLine: Picard's summation of the ongoing war:
-->'''Picard:''' The war is going very badly for the Federation; far worse than is generally known. Starfleet Command believes defeat is inevitable. Within six months we may have no choice but to surrender.

[[caption-width-right:350:Tasha! You're ''alive!!!'']]

* DefiantToTheEnd: Picard, given the offer to surrender to the Klingons, spits out a FacingTheBulletsOneLiner, vaults over the Tactical rail to man Riker's empty station, and continues attempting to fire the phasers as the bridge catches fire around him.

* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: The ''Enterprise''-D is crippled, with no chance of winning the battle. The Klingons offer to let the ''Enterprise'' surrender.

* ShoutOut: Picard, when the Klingons order the Enterprise to surrender & prepare to be boarded: [[Film/TheSearchers "That'll be the day"]]

* DramaticIrony: In the alternate timeline, Geordi tells Tasha that they have no way of knowing whether any of them are even alive in the original timeline. The audience knows that Tasha is ''not'' alive in the original timeline. Geordi's words obviously stick with Tasha and spur her to ask Guinan about her fate.

* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Guinan senses that something's wrong when the NegativeSpaceWedgie first appears, and it gets worse when the timeline changes. It also flares up whenever she's near Tasha, since she's supposed to be dead.

* OutOfFocus: Given that there's not much use for a ship's counsellor on the bridge of a war ship, Troi is completely absent from the bulk of the episode, She's only appears in the two short bridge scenes on the "regular" ''Enterprise''--one before and one after the main plot of the episode--and has no dialogue. Worf makes up for his general absence by getting focus in the first and final scenes.

* ShoutOut: According to Ronald D. Moore, Worf's fondness for prune juice was inspired by John M. Ford's ''[[Literature/TheFinalReflection The Final Reflection]]''. Ford's pre-TNG take on the Klingons, among other things, had established that they ''loved'' fruit juices. Moore adored that little world-building detail and decided to incorporate it into the script and formally canonize it.

* ShoutOut: According to Ronald D. Moore, Worf's fondness for prune juice was inspired by John M. Ford's ''[[Literature/TheFinalReflection The Final Reflection]]''. Ford's pre-TNG take on the Klingons, among other things, had established that they ''loved'' fruit juices. Moore loved that little world-building detail and decided to incorporate it into the script.

They bring the survivors on board, including the moderately injured Captain Garrett. She tells Picard and Dr. Crusher that they had been responding to a distress call from a Klingon outpost at Narendra III when they were set upon by four Romulan Warbirds and were moments from destruction when they fell into the rift. Picard laments that a Federation rescue of a Klingon base might tipped Federation-Klingon relations toward peace and averted some 20 years of war.

* RippleEffectProofMemory: Guinan only, and [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] at that: she doesn't seem to know '''exactly''' what's wrong with the timeline ("I know it's the same bridge; I also know it's ''wrong''!"), but she has a good idea of how to fix it.

* ChainsOfCommanding: It's subtle, but alternate timeline Picard has just a few deeper wrinkles that he does normally, showing the stress of being a warship captain in such a long war.

* InSpiteOfANail: Given that the premise involves the prior 20 years of history to be drastically different, with the Federation entangled in a decades-long war, it's highly improbable that any of the original crew would have ended up on the ''Enterprise''-D, and especially unlikely that more than one or at most two would have. Instead, with the exception of Worf's swap with Yar (due to the Klingon war), and Troi, everyone else is not only stationed on the same exact ship, but also in their exact same positions.

Picard commits to sending sending the ''Enterprise''-C back to the past based on Guinan's intuition. Crusher and Geordi are incredulous that Guinan could know what she claims, but Data suspects that her species has a perception that goes beyond linear time. Riker, meanwhile, questions the logic of such the act, arguing that the ''Enterprise''-C has no possible way of saving Narendra III and the only thing it would really accomplish is sending the crew to their deaths, but Data points out that the Klingons have an awful lot of respect for people who die in battle, and dying in the defense of the Klingon outpost would likely be seen as a very honorable act.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: The ''Enterprise''-C is destroyed in defense of a Klingon colony, which at that time isn't even an ally of the Federation and so had no formal obligation to help in the first place, and in doing so proves that valor and integrity are core parts of TheFederation's ideals to the [[ProudWarriorRace Klingons]]. As a result, the Klingon Empire and the Federation move to become TrueCompanions, preventing another war that would have lasted ''22 years'' and saving ''40 billion lives''. Never forget the name ''Enterprise'' indeed.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: The ''Enterprise''-C is destroyed in defense of a Klingon colony, despite TheFederation and the Klingon Empire being at war at the time. In doing so they prove to [[ProudWarriorRace the Klingons]] that valor and integrity are core parts of the Federation's ideals, inspiring the Klingons to sign a peace treaty and pushing the two governments to become TrueCompanions - saving ''40 billion lives'' that would have been lost if the war had continued. Never forget the name ''Enterprise'' indeed.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: The ''Enterprise''-C is destroyed in defense of a Klingon colony, which at that time isn't even an ally of the Federation and so had no formal obligation to help in the first place, and in doing so proves that valor and integrity are core parts of TheFederation's ideals to the [[ProudWarriorRace Klingons]]. As a result, the Klingon Empire and the Federation move to become TrueCompanions, ending their war before it can spiral out of control and saving ''40 billion lives''. Never forget the name ''Enterprise'' indeed.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: The ''Enterprise''-C is destroyed in defense of a Klingon colony, which at that time isn't even an ally of the Federation and so had no formal obligation to help in the first place, and in doing so proves that valor and integrity are core parts of Federation ideals to the [[ProudWarriorRace Klingons]] that they and TheFederation move to become TrueCompanions, preventing a war and saving ''40 billion lives''. Never forget the name ''Enterprise'' indeed.