As season four begins, it is realized that Locutus now has Picard's knowledge and the Borg are better prepared for battle with the Enterprise. It is Guinan who advises the newly promoted Captain Riker that he must no longer think like Picard and think for himself if they are going to survive.
While I have many favorites from TNG, I would classify this as one of the best episodes of all Star Trek incarnations. Not only does it have great drama and conflict, it has one of the best repeating minor characters from the series – Guinan as played by Whoopi Goldberg.
It is reported that Goldberg asked to be included in the show because the Uhura character from the original series had influenced her to get into acting. At first the producers wondered why an actress of her caliber would want to do a minor role in a show sold through first-run syndication, but they eventually created her a role as a bartender who has connections with the captain. This again is what made this series so great, the depth and complexity of the characters.
"Yesterday's Enterprise" was the 63rd episode and appeared in season three, airing on February 19,1990. It brought back a fan favorite, Denise Crosby, to reprise her role as Tasha Yar.
In this episode the Enterprise D encounters a rift in space-time in which the Enterprise C emerges from very heavily damaged. As this happens, the entire atmosphere of the Enterprise D changes – it becomes the battle cruiser Enterprise. Worf is gone, and Tasha is back.
In fact, the Federation is now battling the Klingons who are fast approaching the rift. The crew of the Enterprise C finds that they have traveled 22 years into the future where the Federation is losing a long war with the Klingon Empire. Again, Guinan is able to discern that things are not right and exerts her influence with Captain Picard.
While not necessarily one of my favorite episodes, it does present a thoughtful presentation of a time-space problem intelligently and at the least scores a seven or eight on a ten-point scale. I particularly like the scene where, in the only time that Tasha and Guinan meet in the series, Guinan tells Yar that she is not suppose to be alive, and in fact, that she died a meaningless death. Great stuff!
"The Measure of a Man" is a second season episode and is listed as episode 35. It aired on February 13, 1989. While the Enterprise is docked at a new starbase for maintenance, scientist Bruce Maddox, who was on the panel that OK'ed Data to enter Starfleet, now comes aboard and has permission to disassemble Data for study. Maddox, who cast the only dissenting vote that Data was not a sentient being, has now persuaded some in Starfleet that Data is in fact the property of Starfleet.
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