The “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “Cause and Effect” (March 23, 1992) begins with the Enterprise-D experiencing a disaster. The episode ends, and the ship is already seriously damaged. There are reports of casualties! Everything is failing! We’re taking out the drive plasma! All hands for emergency rescue pods! We’re losing antimatter control! Major breach imminent! As Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) gives the order to abandon ship, the ship explodes, killing everyone on board. Then the opening credits roll. This is perhaps the most attention-grabbing opening of any episode of “Star Trek.”
However, as the episode progresses, the audience soon gets to know the gist of the episode. The first act sees the Enterprise restored, sailing smoothly through space as if nothing had happened. At the end of the first act, the ship collides with another starship that appears to appear out of nowhere. Disaster occurs a second time, and the audience watches the ship blow up in exactly the same manner. It seems that the Enterprise is stuck in a time loop. The day always starts with a poker game and ends with the Enterprise exploding.
The episode confused the cast and crew, as the opening scene of each act was the same, and it was a twist on the standard rules of the “Star Trek” formula. When first reading the script, written by Brannon Braga, some people assumed it was a prank. In an interview with The Hollywood ReporterBraga recalled the confusion as “cause and effect”. “Because you’re reading that script, and you say, ‘Wait a second. There’s been a mistake here. The acts are just repeated. Is this a joke?'” Luckily director Jonathan Frakes told the story well. Got it quickly.
The epilogue sees the Enterprise escaping the time loop (natch) and confronting the starship that keeps colliding with them. The ship was named USS Bozeman and its captain was Morgan Bateson, played by celebrity guest Kelsey Grammer.
a shot of captain morgan
As can be seen from the uniforms in the photos above, Captain Bateson is from a different place in “Star Trek” history than the “Next Generation” characters. At the end of “Cause and Effect” it is revealed that Bozeman was also trapped in a time loop, but that time continued at its normal pace in the rest of the galaxy. Since everyone’s memories are refreshed with each recapture, Bozeman’s crew had no idea that they had been trapped for nearly 90 years. Meanwhile, the Enterprise-D remained stuck in the loop for only 17 days.
Stories of how Grammar got involved in the “Star Trek” conflict. According to a 1993 oral history book “Captains’ Logs: Unauthorized Full Trek Voyages,” Edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Grammer was cast as Captain Bateson before Frakes was hired to direct the episode. Paramount clearly wanted to secure the services of a big TV star. Grammer was already known for his appearance on “Cheers” at the time, although his hit spinoff sitcom “Frasier” had not yet started when “Cause and Effect” was made.
according to A new interview with CinemablendHowever, Grammer claims that Frakes called him personally and asked him to participate. Grammer said:
,[T]The thing that excited me was a friend, Jonathan Frakes. They called one day, I was on ‘Cheers’ and they said, ‘Will you come and do a show for us?’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, what’s the deal?’ He says, ‘Well, he’s a contemporary of Captain Kirk.’ This was what kept me engaged. So I got to wear the same uniform that they wore in the original ‘Star Trek,’ and that made me really happy.”
Frakes, it seems, was willing to support Grammer’s story.
takes fracs
In The above Hollywood Reporter retrospectivePublished in 2022, Frakes also claimed that it was he who convinced Grammer to come on board as captain. Frakes doesn’t actually remember the details of the shoot, but he does remember that it was enjoyable. Frakes said:
“This was before ‘Frasier.’ Before that spinoff, he was just a member of the group and they shot that show very close to us, because we were in the same location, and Kelsey, he was a huge ‘Star Trek’ fan and he made it a point to be on the show. Like a lot of actors like Whoopi Goldberg were, I thought it was just a day’s shooting and I had no idea that shooting was fun.”
For those who don’t know, Whoopi Goldberg played the recurring role of long-lived bartender Guinan on “The Next Generation.” It seems she got involved with the show when she contacted her friend LeVar Burton to discuss a possible job. Producers could not believe that an actress of Goldberg’s reputation (she had recently won an Academy Award) wanted to join “Star Trek”, so they initially ignored the call as a prank. Goldberg, fortunately, was determined. It seems Goldberg wanted to be on “Star Trek” because he had fond memories of watching Nichelle Nichols in the original “Star Trek” as a child.
Sometimes being a trekkie can get you a job.
