Overview of Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Redemption (Part II)
While Picard is well aware of the fact that he is unable to intervene in the Klingon Civil War, he knows that the Romulans are likely to interfere so as to gain an advantage over the Federation. As a result, he is given command of a fleet of vessels to create a blockade between the Romulan and Klingon border. Much of the Enterprise’s senior crew are given temporary command of undermanned ships in the fleet until permanent replacements can be found. Initially, Data is not given command of a ship, but when he questions Picard about the omission, he is given the USS Sutherland. Picard arranges the fleet so that they can form a sensor net that should catch any cloaked ships that attempt to pass through. Commander Sela orders her scientists to find a way to bypass the array, but also contacts the Enterprise. She reveals that she is the daughter of the alternate Tasha Yar who travelled to the past with the crew of the Enterprise-C. She demands that the blockade be lifted within 14 hours, or there will be attacks.
Worf is captured by the Duras sisters, who attempt to seduce him to bring him to their side. Worf declines their advances, saying that his honour would be subverted and that it would hand the Klingon Empire to the Romulans. Sela then orders that Worf be handed over to the Romulan guard.
Picard recommends to Gowron that he attack the Duras forces, which are beginning to run low on supplies, as this will lead the Romulans to enter the detection network, and be discovered. Gowron agrees, knowing that Duras being seen as a Romulan puppet will greatly harm his public support. The Duras sisters demand that the Romulans bring supplies following an attack. Sela’s scientists discover a way to bypass the sensor array that the Federation has put in place by sending out an energy burst. Sela decides to use the plan, selecting the Sutherland as the target. When the array fails, Picard calls for the fleet to retreat and reform the net. The convoy passes through the array, and though the array is soon restored, the Duras forces are given enough supplies to continue the war for potentially months. Worf is able to escape from the Duras sisters before he is transferred to the Romulans, and is found by Gowron’s forces.
Blockades
Although the blockade continues, the Romulans are able to get convoys through using their energy beam tactics. Attempts to locate the source of the attacks have been failures, as the attack is too fact, and the location changes each time. Morale on the ships in the blockade begins to fall. To combat this, the captains decide to work on a way to limit what can pass through the sensor net.
Leadership Qualities
Although the refinement of the sensor net is successful in stopping some of the convoys, there are still some that pass. On the USS Sutherland, the crew, especially the first officer, are beginning to become more hostile towards Data’s leadership. Data struggles to understand their animosity while also developing a method to stop the convoys completely. As the Duras forces begin to lose ground, Worf realises that his skills would be of more use with the Enterprise, and requests reinstatement in Starfleet.
Ensign Ro
Data’s plan works, and the crew of the Enterprise is reunited as reinforcements arrive to take over. The Enterprise is sent to Bajor to pick up a new crew member, Ensign Ro, who is to help investigate a recent attack on a Federation outpost committed by Bajoran terrorists.
Unification
Amidst the ongoing Klingon Civil War, Ambassador Spock is reported to have gone missing, and there are rumours that he may have defected to the Romulans. Picard and Data are given a stolen Romulan ship with cloaking ability to investigate. When there, they discover that Spock is assisting an underground movement that promotes reconciliation between Romulus and Vulcan. However, it becomes clear that the Romulan intelligence agency, the Tal Shiar, are aware and attempting to catch Spock red handed.
Guest Star: Leonard Nimoy as Ambassador Spock
Disaster
While performing a patrol along the Neutral Zone, the Enterprise suffers a loss of power, separating the crew. Riker, Data, Worf and a heavily pregnant Keiko O’Brien are in Ten Forward; Dr. Henderson, LaForge and Crusher are in a cargo bay which is becoming irradiated; Troi, Miles O’Brien, Ensigns Ro and Kelly are on the bridge; and Picard is trapped in a turbolift with three children and had suffered a broken ankle from the sudden stop. The separated crew each does what they can to save themselves and the rest of the ship, while Keiko begins to give birth.
Redeemed
Gowron’s forces begin a final push against the encircled Duras forces. To celebrate victory, he invited Worf to witness what will likely be the final battle. Picard allows him to travel in an official capacity as a Federation observer. When the Duras sisters’ ship is disabled, Worf is part of the team that boards to capture Toral and the sisters. Although the sisters are able to escape, Worf captures Toral. Gowron offers Worf the chance to kill Toral by the Rite of Vengeance, as well as a high position in the KDF which would see him in command of his own ship. Worf however declines, returning to the Enterprise now that the war is over.
Darmok
The Enterprise is tasked with establishing contact with the Tamarian race which as been showing interest in the Federation, but who have a language that the universal translator cannot properly decipher. The Tamarians transport Picard and their captain, Dathon, to a local planet when the differences in language prove too difficult for the bridge crews. As tensions above the planet rise, Picard and Dathon work together to survive in the hostile environment.
Guest Star: Paul Winfield as Dathon
My Inky Cloak
Admiral Rossiter, the Admiral in charge of the Third Fleet, dies unexpectedly and Picard is invited along with some other captains to Earth, as they are the candidates for his replacement. Picard soon realises that the other candidates are not above some dirty tactics to get the powerful position, and considers the nature of Starfleet as a result.
A Matter of Time
A historian from the 26th century visits the Enterprise while they attempt to stop a nuclear winter on a planet. As the situation on the planet worsens, Picard urges the traveller, Professor Rasmussen, for aid, but Rasmussen insists that he is unable to intervene due to a temporal prime directive. It soon appears, however, that there may be more to Rasmussen than he is letting on.
Guest Star: Matt Frewer as Professor Rasmussen
The Masterpiece Society
The Enterprise has to help a human colony far out from Federation space which practices a eugenic policy. The colony’s leaders insist that the Enterprise’s crew cannot go down to the planet, as it would upset the delicate balance of the colony. As members of the colony visit the ship, they find that their “paradise” is stagnating due to its complacency, and that the Enterprise’s mere presence may be harmful to the colony.
New Ground
Worf’s foster mother, Helena, visits the Enterprise with his son, Alexander. Although Worf’s parents agreed to raise Alexander, they are finding that he is having problems adjusting to life on Earth, and recommend that Worf raise Alexander on Enterprise. Worf finds raising Alexander hard and frustrating, as he helps with the Enterprise’s tests of an experimental transportation technology.
Conundrum
The Enterprise is scanned by an unknown spaceship, which causes the crew to lose consciousness. When they awake, the find that they have retained their skills and abilities, but have forgotten their identities completely. The crew search the computer for their orders, and find that they are apparently to destroy the command headquarters of an alien race known as the Lysians while maintaining radio silence. But it soon becomes clear that there may be other forces using them as pawns in a greater game.
Silicon Avatar
When the Crystalline Entity attacks a colony that the Enterprise is visiting, the crew decide to pursue it and see if it is possible to communicate with the entity and stop it from attacking colonies. However, it becomes clear that the scientist that is helping them has severe prejudices against the entity due to losing her son to one of the attacks.
Hero Worship
The Enterprise rescues a boy from a heavily damaged ship on the edge of a cluster that they are investigating. The boy finds himself becoming attached to Data, and begins emulating him, as he believes that moving beyond emotion will help him to deal with his nightmares. The boy proves to be somewhat evasive about what caused the destruction of his ship, which causes friction with the crew.
The Outcast
The Enterprise is contacted by a race known as the J’naii who have no gender for help in locating a missing shuttle. The shuttle is thought to be in a patch of ‘null space’ which drains energy. Riker volunteers to fly the shuttle to rescue the crew, and a J’naii named Soren insists on helping. As they work together, Soren confessed that he feels an attraction towards Riker and that he feels an inclination towards the male gender. When the affair between Riker and Soren is discovered, Riker attempts to intervene but risks violating the Prime Directive.
Ethics
When in a storage bay, Worf is hit by a barrel that falls from above, giving him paraplegia. Dr Henderson contacts a specialist who comes up with a procedure that could repair Worf’s spine, but is high risk. Dr Henderson refuses to carry out the procedure, suggesting that she perform a more orthodox procedure that would restore most of Worf’s abilities. Worf however, refuses to be an “injured warrior”, and requests that Riker help him to perform a Klingon rite that would end his life.
Cause and Effect
The Enterprise is shown to be in a time loop, beginning with the crew playing poker, discovering a spatial anomaly from which an unidentified ship emerges. Picard takes Data’s advice over Riker’s for avoiding a collision, but the ship clips the Enterprise’s warp nacelles, resulting in its destruction and the resetting of the loop. As the loop continues, the crew begins to experience deja vu, suspecting that they are stuck in a loop.
Guest Stars: Kelsey Grammer as Captain Morgan Bateson, Kirstie Alley as Lt. Cmdr. Saavik
Power Play
The Enterprise investigates a distress call standard for a Federation ship class that has long since gone out of service. The planet the call is coming from has strong electromagnetic interference, so transporters cannot be used. A shuttle is sent to investigate the wreckage of a Federation ship discovered on the surface, which crash lands. When the crew is transported back, Data, Troi and O’Brien begin to act strangely, and take over the ship.
The Perfect Mate
The Enterprise takes Kriosian ambassador Briam aboard, along with some special cargo. Two Ferengi are rescued from a failing ship en-route to the rendezvous, and they soon cause trouble, including releasing Briam’s cargo, revealed to be a woman named Kamala, a young Kriosian. Kamala’s abilities, which include empathic metamorphosis and the release of pheromones, soon cause trouble with the Ferengi, and Picard finds himself developing feelings for her, despite knowing that she is destined for an arranged marriage to end a war.
Guest Star: Famke Janssen as Kamala
I, Borg
The Enterprise discovers a wrecked Borg ship with a single survivor, a young drone. Dr Henderson insists on treating the drone despite Picard’s objections. LaForge and Data help with the drone’s recovery and devise a method to use the drone as a weapon against the Borg. Henderson is against the idea, though the senior staff debate the possibility of gaining an upper hand on the Borg. The crew begins to split over who believes that the Borg, now known as Hugh, should be saved or used as a weapon, as Picard and Guinan’s prior experiences with the Borg begin to haunt them once more.
Somewhen
The Enterprise is tasked with investigating a series of energy spikes on the edge of Federation space. As the ship nears, the crew find that with each spike, they are being shifted into parallel universes, and that the spikes are coming from a research station investigating temporal anomalies. LaForge, Kelly and Crusher attempt to stop the station from releasing any more spikes, and sending the Enterprise back to their original universe. However, when Leslie realises that her father is still alive in one of the universes that they have seen, she plans to stay there. Eventually, she is talked down by Kelly, who explains that it would not really be her father, and that too many people in her universe would miss her if she was to disappear.
The Next Phase
The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a Romulan ship that has suffered an on-board explosion. Upon beaming back to the Enteprise, Ensign Ro and LaForge are seemingly lost, but the two are still able to see the crew, only able to interact with each other. They follow various crewmembers, deducing that they are out of phase, as is the Romulan crew. Travelling to the Romulan ship in a shuttle piloted by Data, they uncover a plot to destroy the Enterprise when it next goes into warp, unaware that one of the Romulans is following them.
The Inner Light
Picard is struck by an energy beam from an unknown alien probe, and finds himself living a life as Kamin, experiencing 40 years of life in minutes. Picard’s life as Kamin revolves around his family, and researching droughts on his planet, eventually finding that a nova is about to destroy his planet, but that nothing can be done. The probe is found to be a last ditch effort to preserve the species through memory and that it contains a flute that Picard learned to play in his life as Kamin.
Time’s Arrow (Part I)
The Enterprise is recalled to earth to investigate the possibility of alien contact occurring on Earth 500 years prior. The crew are taken to an archaeological dig where 19th century relics have been found along with the severed head of Data. The crew finds evidence of life from Devidia II travelling to Earth, and travel to Devidia to investigate. Data finds that the aliens on the planet are slightly out of phase with time, but he can see them due to a phase discriminator in his body. When Data observes the aliens constructing a time portal, he finds himself transported to 19th century earth, and has to make his money by beating card sharks at their own game, befriending future author Jack London, and meeting Samuel Clemens and a Guinan from the past.