Stardate: 42609.1
Original Air Date: March 20, 1989
Writers: Steve Gerber & Beth Woods
Director: Joseph L. Scanlan
“We’re sitting on a bomb that could go off any second… or maybe never.”
In response to a desperate plea from Picard’s old friend Captain Donald Varley of the USS Yamato (a galaxy class ship), Picard has made the risky decision to take the Enterprise-D into the Neutral Zone. Varley’s request was the result of dangerous malfunctions which have been plaguing his ship. They lost an engineering team (killing 18 people) when a computer down a forcefield in an open shuttle bay. Picard hopes to assist the Yamato without being detected by the Romulans.
When the Enterprise arrives and makes contact with the Yamato, Captain Varley explains why he found himself out in the Neutral Zone –he had heard rumors about a couple of archaeological digs that made the Iconians sound a lot less like legends. He then found their homeworld, a virtually dead planet. But as Captain Varley is explaining the situation, there is a sudden build-up in the engineering sector on the Yamato and the magnetic seals in the antimatter chamber start decaying. Out of the blue, the Yamato detonates and combusts leaving no survivors. Then a Romulan Warbird decloaks nearby though it is unresponsive. Did the Romulans attack the Yamato? What happened to the Yamato?
Then the Romulan commander appears onscreen and demands that the Enterprise leave the Neutral Zone. However, Picard says he will only leave once he has determined the cause of the destruction of the Yamato.
Picard convenes a meeting of his senior staff in which Geordi speculates that there may indeed be a design flaw in the galaxy class starships (as was suggested by Captain Varley). When there is a breach of seal integrity, an emergency release system which dumps antimatter which could lead to an explosion. Perhaps this was all the result of a design flaw.
Later, Picard accesses Captain Varley’s personal log for the search parameters of “Romulan” and “Iconian” in which Picard reviews several entries wherein Captain Varley confesses to discovering extraordinary new technology previously on Denius III and also that the Yamato faced an unusual probe from an unknown planet (located at coordinated 227 mark 359). Picard decides to follow the Yamato’s path, especially since the technology they discovered could potentially cause the downfall of the Federation, at least according to Captain Varley’s logs. Picard tells Wesley that there are three worlds in the Iconian system with similar cultures (they were likely once conquered) and they were once rumored to be able to travel through space without starships, simply by appearing out of thin air.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise begins experiencing random system failures and errors from the ship’s computer with increasing intensity and frequency. When no life-form readings are found on the planet, orbital bombardment approximately 200,000 years ago though there is a small energy source in the mountains. It turns out to be the large, blue planetary-shaped probe that scanned the Yamato. Geordi narrowly arrives on the bridge (amidst various ship malfunctions) and he warns Picard to destroy the probe because it is actually a transmitter sending an alien computer program. Yet still the Enterprise seems to have been affected by the download of the Yamato log, and hence an alien computer is battling the existing Enterprise computer system as a result of exposure to the Yamato’s programs.
An away team consisting of Picard, Data, and Worf decide to beam down to the barren surface of Iconia in the hopes of finding the automated system that dispatched the probe. They discover a control center but quickly lose contact with the Enterprise. Meanwhile, the Romulans suddenly reappear in orbit. Sub-commander Taris of the Haakona confronts the Enterprise but she appears to be struggling with the same random technical issues as the Enterprise.
In the control center on Iconia, Data triggers the opening of a gateway that cycles through several locations and it sends a surge of power into the center. The away team deduces that this gateway was likely how the Iconians mysteriously transported to specific locations. Data is suddenly infiltrated by the Iconian technology and he begins malfunctioning. But since the gateway continues to show a passage to the Enterprise every four minutes, Picard instructs Data and Worf to run through the gateway and back aboard the Enterprise while Picard remains behind to activate a destruction sequence for the remaining probes inside the control center.
Once back aboard the Enterprise, Data is taken to engineering where he shuts down and then is rebooted when his self-correct system is enacted. This gives Geordi the idea for a complete system reboot aboard the Enterprise while it wipes itself clean of the Yamato’s log. At the same time, Picard steps through the gateway, but it leads to the Romulan vessel Haakona rather than the Enterprise. Once the Enterprise crew regain control of the ship, they find Picard and beam him back aboard from the Romulan vessel (which has had its self-destruct sequence activated and it cannot be undone). Riker has Geordi quickly dispatch engineering instructions to root out the Iconian technology. In the end, all is returned to normal as the Enterprise warps away from the Neutral Zone as fast as possible.
My Thoughts on “Contagion”
I found “Contagion” to be a terrific, high-octane episode. It features some imaginative world-building a la the ancient civilizations that were often woven into TOS episodes, and this is a great Romulan episode for TNG. The dual threats of superior automated technology plaguing starships from within, and also the presence of hostile cloaked Romulan Warbirds, leave a lingering tension and anxiety over how the Enterprise can possibly manage to escape. However, this whole episode can essentially be boiled down to a case of the Enterprise simply needing a system reboot to eliminate the foreign viral alien software that has run amok in the ship’s computer. So… just turn hit the restart button? Wouldn’t the Enterprise have some sort of firewall/anti-viral software? And the central premise for this episode is a bit befuddling –Why would Captain Varley decide to embark on a highly risky investigation of Iconia without discussing it with any of his superiors in Starfleet?
Regardless of these minor quibbles, “Contagion” is one of my favorite TNG episodes thus far and it comes highly recommended from me!
Star Trek Trivia:
- The USS Yamato is a galaxy class ship. It is described as the Enterprise’s sister ship.
- This is the first episode in which Picard orders tea “Earl Grey, Hot” through the replicator.
- In this episode, we are reminded that the Romulans cannot fire while their ships are cloaked.
- Captain Varley references rare archaeological exhibits found on Denius III.
- The Iconians were once thought to be a mythical race (Picard likens the existence of their planet as akin to China being regarded as a myth by Europe until Marco Polo arrived).
- Data and Picard deduce that the language on Iconia is reminiscent of Dinasian and Dewan and Iccobar.
- Picard says that archaeology has been a hobby of his since his days in the Academy.
- When the Enterprise systems start going down, Dr. Pulaski using an old-fashioned splint to heal a broken bone which confuses her staff.
- Data apparently has a self-correcting system to ward off invasive incompatible programs.
- At one point, Geordi notes that approximately 90% of the Enterprise’s functions happen independently.
- An Iconian gateway reappears in a Season 4 episode of DS9 entitled “To the Death.”
- Captain Donald Varley is played by Thalmus Rasulala (1935-1991).
- The Romulan Commander Taris is played by Carolyn Seymour.
- The opening quotation in Larry Nemecek’s The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion is a quote from Riker in this episode: “Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise.”
- The initial concept art for the Iconian weaponry was sketched by Rick Sternbach.
- The creation of computer imagery on the Enterprise-D, such as the schematic of the U.S.S. Yamato in “Contagion,” was completed by Michael Okuda and his scenic designers first assembling black and white graphic art based on existing Enterprise illustrations, modified with text to fit the script, the art was then shot onto negative line film, then colored transparent plastic (or “gel”) was attached to the back of the negative was then installed in a “display screen” on the set and then backlit to give the impression of a computer display. In other scenes, such as when computer screens had to be seen changing, the final negative could be shot separately then composited into the live-action scene with actors initially filmed watching an empty screen.