SECOND CHANCES (STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION)

(Redirected from Second Chances (TNG episode))

"'Second Chances'" was the 150th episode of the science fiction television series '' and the 23rd episode of the show's sixth season. It was first broadcast on May 24, 1993.
In this episode, Commander William Riker, the First officer of the Federation Starfleet starship USS ''Enterprise-D'', comes face to face with an eerie duplicate of himself.

Contents

Plot

Cultural impact

References

External links

Plot

The ''Enterprise'' is assigned the mission of visiting planet to retrieve some important scientific data which had to be abandoned by a Federation research team years earlier when they were unexpectedly forced to evacuate their scientific outpost. Unfortunately the planet happens to be shielded by a nearly impenetrable distortion field which makes use of the transporter impossible most of the time and problematic at best.
When the scientists had been evacuated, Commander Riker, at the time Lieutenant Riker, had a posting on the USS ''Potemkin'', the ship which rescued the researchers; in fact Riker had been the last person to leave the science station.
Beaming down, Riker and the rest of the away team are dumbfounded at the appearance of a strange and uncanny near doppelganger who they find in the abandoned facility - an exact double in every way of Riker himself. The duplicate has all of Riker’s mannerisms and memories – at least up to a point several years earlier when Riker was beamed up to the Potemkin – and has been stranded alone on the base since.
The away team returns to the ''Enterprise'' with their strange find, and Chief Medical officer Dr. Beverly Crusher examines him, verifying the obvious – the man is an exact double of Riker down to the cellular level, even genetically they are an exact match.
After examining the ''Potemkin''’s transport logs, Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge comes up with an explanation – years earlier as the transporter officer of the ''Potemkin'' struggled to beam Riker up through the distortion field, the novel approach of splitting the transport beam had been tried. Regrettably part of the transport beam was reflected by the distortion field back to the planet, materializing an exact living replica of Riker. Unaware of what had happened, and thinking they had successfully recovered Riker, the crew of the ''Potemkin'' went on to their next assignment leaving the duplicate trapped behind.
‘Lieutenant' Riker volunteers to accompany a second away mission attempting to recover the important research data. The attempt fails and the two Rikers clash as their philosophical styles differ greatly. Finally Commander Riker orders Lt. Riker to cooperate; having a double who is a superior officer makes Lt. Riker very resentful and angry.
Returning to the ship, Commander Riker struggles to rationalize his instinctive resentment of the Lieutenant, finally realizing that each man is unsettled and feels somewhat violated that the other has intruded upon his ‘uniqueness’ as a person, the Commander also sees that his some of his dislike comes from dealing with another earlier version of his personality which he see as less mature and settled, he doesn’t like being reminded that he was once much like Lt. Riker, a facet of himself which he had put aside years earlier.
Both men propose plans to ''Enterprise'' Captain Jean-Luc Picard for a third attempt at the retrieval of the missing data, Picard causes further discord between them when he chooses to pursue Commander Riker’s plan.
Meanwhile, Lt. Riker has set about the business of moving on with his life and catching up on the last several years. Unlike Commander Riker, he didn't choose to sacrifice his relationship with Counselor Deanna Troi to concentrate on his career in Starfleet, and he attempts to pick up their love affair right where it left off when he was stranded on Nervala. Troi realizes that she is still regretful that things didn’t work out with Commander Riker in the past, and with Crusher’s encouragement promotes Lt. Riker’s advances, seeing this as a second chance at a relationship that failed once before. However, as Lt. Riker continues to chafe at the frustration of having to deal with a senior officer who is a double of himself, he proposes taking Troi away with him to a new posting on the starship ''Ghandi''. Deanna is ambivalent at the prospect of leaving her life aboard the ''Enterprise'', and tells him she will have to think about it.
Since attempts to access the desired information through the post’s computer terminals have failed, the two Rikers beam directly into a cavern below the base in an attempt to access the computer core directly. They are successful, but a walkway gives way under Lt. Riker, threatening to plunge him into an abyss. Commander Riker grabs him and precariously supports him over the chasm below, but both men are on the verge of falling to their deaths. Ignoring Lt. Riker’s exhortation to let him go, Commander Riker grimly holds on until his double is able to clamber back to safety.
Safely back aboard ship, both Rikers finally appear to come to a degree of accommodation and acceptance as Lt. Riker prepares to depart for his new posting. Commander Riker gives his double the trombone on which he first learned to play; a keepsake obviously sentimentally prized by both men. Lt. Riker decides to adopt the moniker Thomas, his middle name, to help differentiate himself from his duplicate. Though Commander Riker never cared for the name, Lt. Riker confesses that he actually likes it, further cementing the difference between them.
Though the two men finally made peace, Thomas’ parting is on a doleful note as he gets the news that Deanna has decided to make a break with the past; she tells him that after much thought she has decided not transfer with him to the ''Gandhi''.

Cultural impact

Mae Jemison, an African-American NASA astronaut, briefly appears in this episode. In making this appearance Jemison followed in the footsteps of one of her inspirations, Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura in the original , and inspired Dr. Jemison to become an astronaut.

References

★ Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 6, disk 5, selection 4.

External links

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