By Owen Quinn; author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Copyright Paramount
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Yesterday’s Enterprise is a genuine classic in any genre. It sees history changed as the Enterprise C travels forward in time causing all of history to change. The Federation is fighting a losing war with the Klingons. There is no Worf, no families aboard the Enterprise and Picard and Riker are not close at all. Troi is not part of the crew but Tasha Yar returns from the dead as she was never killed by Armus in Skin of Evil.
Only Guinan knows this new timeline is wrong and the only way to restore it is to send the Enterprise C back in time and let the crew die defending a Klingon colony from a sneak Romulan attack. She faces off against Picard in a scene that is simply electric. Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg are on fire as the friends clash over sending the crew to their deaths. Never have Picard and Guinan been so angry at each other and you can feel Guinan’s desperation for her friend to believe her. The dilemma between them roars off the screen at the audience. The stakes are high. History literally depends on Picard sending an entire crew to their deaths. As we know, Tasha Yar gets the send off she needed after the lacklustre Skin of Evil when she joins the Enterprise C crew and goes back in time to die . And because of that, Picard creates a brand new foe who will come back to haunt him. Superb television.

Always interesting when a Trek character or ensemble of characters manage to work out that the reality they’re experiencing is somehow wrong. It does indeed make good Star Trek drama. So it makes revisiting these episodes nostalgically appreciable. Thank you for your review.
LikeLiked by 2 people