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An episode with a title and a plot that pays homage to a classic film? Star Trek: The Next Generation, are you buttering me up for some reason?. Is it money? Do you need money? You're barking up the wrong tree - when this episode premieres, I'm just finishing second grade. Why are you hitting up seven-going-on-eight-year-old cineastes for money, you creepy goof? This is a review of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "We'll Always Have Paris." If you have not seen this episode, and you don't want to know why Captain Picard ran
out on his girlfriend twenty-something years ago, be warned: spoilers beyond this point! Ah yes, Paris in the spring, recreated by a computer, on a spaceship - what could be more romantic? Let's see how we get there. The Enterprise is on its way to a planet where the crew can take some shore leave, but of course we know that ain't gonna happen. Picard is doing a bit of fencing with this enhancement talent, when suddenly they repeat themselves - the job guy congratulates Picard on his winning move, and they salute, and then they rewind and the job guy congratulates Picard on his winning move, and they salute. That was weird. Picard calls the bridge,
and apparently they all experienced the same thing - a moment in time repeated itself. Picard, still in his fencing gear, heads to the bridge. While they're trying to figure out what's going on, Worf intercepts an automated distress call from someone called Dr. Paul Manheim. The name is immediately familiar to Picard - Troi gives him kind of a look like "Oh, that's interesting." Picard orders Geordi to set course for the origin point of the distress signal. Riker says, "I never heard of Paul Manheim." Picard's like, "He invented an inexplicably
popular steamroller some years ago. Also, fifteen years ago he disappeared with a team of scientists to continue his research into, you know, time stuff. This is probably all his fault." Picard gets up to leave so he can go change out of his gym clothes, but Troi stops him like "So, hey, you've got some issues related to this Manheim guy, huh? If you have unresolved emotions - which I know are difficult for you to confront - maybe take the time between now and when we arrive at our destination to go wallow in regret on the holodeck."
Picard's like, "Thanks, I will!" And he changes into his uniform and he goes to the holodeck. And he says, "Computer, show me Paris, the Cafe des Artistes, as it appeared on April the ninth twenty-two years ago at three o'clock in the afternoon." The computer's like, "Can you be more specific? Just kidding - your program is ready." The holodeck doors open and - yep, that's Paris all right. You can tell because the Eiffel Tower is there. And you can tell it's the future because the Eiffel Tower has a big tube
running underneath it now. I'm sure that was easy to get past the historical society. The waiter approaches like "Monsieur, welcome to the Cafe des Artistes, may I show you to a table?" Picard's like, "Why do you talk like that? You're supposed to be from France!" Picard takes a moment to admire the view, then sits down at a table across from two young women who are having an argument. The first woman is like "We've waited long enough, he's not coming! You can stay here all day if you want, but I'm outta here!" and she gets up and leaves.
The remaining young woman at the table notices Picard staring at her and says "Do we know each other?" Picard's like, "No." She says, "Do I remind you of someone?" Picard says "No - okay, yes, a little." "Carrie Fisher? I get that a lot." The woman asks why the man she was supposed to meet didn't show up. Picard's like, "This is a little on-the-nose, but okay - maybe it wasn't anything to do with you, maybe he was just afraid. Maybe this man who is completely separate and unique from me didn't know exactly what he wanted, and was fearful of becoming rooted to any one place
before he - you know what? This is getting a little masturbatory, and not in the usual way of the holodeck - I'm outta here. Sorry about your shitty romantic life, imaginary woman." Reports of time distortions similar to the one experienced aboard the Enterprise are coming in from all over. This effect, whatever it is, is apparently widespread. When they arrive at the origin point of the distress call, they find nothing. Then, Worf receives another signal with new coordinates. Picard's like, "Okay, fine, take us to those coordinates then!"
Riker asks "Why is he making it this difficult to find him?" Picard's like, "He's padding out the episode." Finally, they arrive at a planet called Vandour Four, which orbits a binary star system consisting of a gas giant and a pulsar. Picard hails the planet, and a woman's voice answers. The woman says, "Please help us, we're the only two left here. My husband is having convulsions!" There's a force-field blocking the transporter signal, so Picard's like "Can you shut down the force-field?" She's like, "Yeah, gimma a second." The force-field goes down, and Picard's like "Yeah! Fuck yeah! I'm gonna save the day! Beam her - and, okay, yeah, her husband, too, I guess - directly to sickbay!"
Picard, Riker and Data head to sickbay, where Beverly is treating the just-beamed-up Dr. Paul Manheim, who is unconscious and doesn't seem to be in the best condition. Also here is the woman who answered Picard's hail, Manheim's wife - Jenice. She sees Picard and says "I thought the voice sounded familiar. I should have known you would come charging to my rescue." Beverly's in the background like "Who the fuck is this?" They go into Beverly's office, and Jenice explains what's been going on to Picard, Riker and Data. Paul and she came here with a team of scientists to carry out his experiments.
He believed that if you could somehow change the constancy of time, you could open doors to other dimensions. This planet was the perfect location because of the intense gravity of the pulsar in the binary system, which was essential for Paul's experiments. The work was going well, she thought, and they were close to proving Paul's theories. Then, there was an accident that destroyed one of their labs, killing all of the other scientists. After that, Paul became more obsessive than ever, until today something happened that put him in his current state, and caused these time distortions to start happening far beyond his lab.
Beverly enters like "Am I interrupting anything?" She tells Jenice that Paul is resting for the moment, but now it's time to run some tests on Jenice, as well. Jenice gives Picard a kiss on the cheek and exits. Picard turns to Beverly like "Oh, hello, have we met?" Things are gonna be touch-and-go with Paul Manheim, but hopefully Beverly can figure out how to help him before he, ya know, dies. In the meantime, Picard, Riker and Data head back to the bridge. On the way, they experience another time distortion where they encounter themselves from a few seconds in the past. Freaky!
There's nothing more they can learn about what's causing the time loop effects from the ship, so Riker tries to beam down to Manheim's remaining lab with Data and Worf. But, there's some kind of defense system in place and it blocks them from materializing on the surface. Fortunately, Paul is awake in sickbay. He's anxious and disoriented, muttering about how he has touched another dimension, and part of him is still there, and he's having trouble remaining focused on the here-and-now. Picard walks in like "Okay, doofus, what did you do to break time and how do we fix it?" Paul says, "We opened a crack into another dimension. But now we have to stop it before the effect
continues to spread. You need to go down to my lab and do a controlled shutdown of the experiment. I'll give you all the access codes and stuff so you can get in." Later, Jenice shows up at the end of a meeting in the observation lounge and everybody but Picard gets the fuck outta there in a hurry. Jenice says "Why didn't you meet me in that cafe twenty-two years ago?" Picard says "I was afraid." Jenice says "No, no, don't tell me the truth. Feed me some comforting bullshit." Picard's like, "Okay - I got the days confused. I went to the wrong cafe. I thought you were gonna tell me you were pregnant and I wasn't
tryin' to have kids - ol' Jonny Luck didn't want no ankle-biters draggin' him down, no way, baby." But then, Picard tells her the truth. He stood her up that day because he was due to ship out, return to Starfleet, and he was afraid if he saw her he would lose his resolve, and want to stay. So, he left without saying good-bye. But every time he's come back to Earth since then, he's thought of nothing but her. Jenice has thought a lot about him, too. She wonders, though, if the real reason he left her was that he was afraid a life with her would make him too ordinary. Picard's like "Yeah, probably. That or the pregnancy thing."
Troi drops by sickbay to talk to Beverly like "So, how are you doing with Captain Picard's great lost love being aboard?" "So, what do you do, just bug people about shit they don't want to talk about?" "I am a therapist." Beverly says "I can't compete with a ghost from his past!" Deanna's like, "She's not a ghost. She's real, and she's here. And you saw her - she is lookin' gooooood." Paul is feeling a bit more lucid now, and he wants to talk to Picard. First, he warns him that in his
confused state he might not have remembered all of the access codes to the security systems in his lab, so anyone who goes down there should be careful. Second, he says, "If anything goes wrong, if anything should happen to me, I want you to take care of Jenice." Picard's like "Take care of her? Does she have Alzheimer's or something? She seems fine to me. But, sure, whatever." Paul laments how badly Jenice has had it as his wife. He admits that he's neglected her for his work, and says, "If we hadn't been so isolated, she probably would have left me
years ago. I don't deserve a woman like her." Picard's like "Uh-huh, I really have to go." Picard decides to send Data down to Paul Manheim's lab alone, because Data is the least rattled by the time distortions, and he has the best understanding of Manheim's theories. With the info Manheim provided, Data is able to successfully enter the lab. He does have to go into action mode for a second to take out some security lasers Paul forgot to mention, but after that he enters the inner chamber of the lab and finds the time experiment still running.
"Okay," Data says, relaying everything he's doing to Picard on the bridge, "according to Dr. Manheim all I have to do is wait for the right moment, and when the next time distortion hits, I drop in a can of antimatter and that should fix it." He grabs a can of antimatter from the antimatter fridge using the convenient antimatter claw tool provided, and is walking the antimatter across the floor to the center of the time distortion when all of a sudden the time loop effect occurs and there are three versions of Data, all at slightly different points in their timeline.
The Three Datas are like "Shit, which one of us is at the right point in the timeline to drop the antimatter?" The Data in the middle says "Me! It's always the one in the middle, right?" And this time it turns out, yeah, it is the one in the middle! The other two Datas follow the Middle Data's lead, and they drop the antimatter into the time distortion, and there ya go! We're back to one Data, and the time distortion is closed. Okay, then. A bit later, Paul Manheim is feeling much better - closing the time distortion seems to have fixed
him right up. He excitedly tells Jenice about what he saw when he touched that other dimension, but he struggles because the words just can't describe what he actually experienced. He's eager to get back to work and continue his experiments, but this time he'll accept help from the Federation and won't be so isolated. And, from now on, he won't take his beautiful wife for granted. Picard's standing there like, "Great, I'm so glad it all worked out." Before the Enterprise leaves, Picard and Jenice have their long delayed rendezvous at the Cafe in
Paris, on the holodeck. Frenchy Martin here delivers some champagne, and Picard raises his glass and says "I wanted to say good-bye properly this time." They toast. Jenice says, "I'll expect you to always come charging to my rescue. Thank you for Paris." She leaves. Picard turns to Frenchy like, "Okay, now I'mma need something a lot harder than champagne." Picard returns to the bridge to find Riker and Troi just sitting there looking at him. He's like, "You got something to say?" Riker's like, "Nope." Picard says "Good, then let's get
outta here and go to that shore leave planet we were headed to before we got sidetracked by time loops and my long-lost romance." Riker mentions a certain club on the planet they're headed to, and Deanna's like "Oh yeah, I know that place, it's right across the street from this male stripper joint I like." Picard says "It's called the Blue Parrot Cafe," and Deanna's buying. The end! This is a first season TNG episode, so you go in expecting it to suck, but then you remember that it's late first season, when things had started to trend upward, creatively speaking, and you watch it and you're pleasantly surprised by
how not bad it is! That's my experience with "We'll Always Have Paris," anyway. It's not one of the best episodes of the whole series, but it is one of the best episodes of the first season. Given how rotten most of the first season is, that might come across as damning with faint praise. That isn't how I mean it. This is, genuinely, a pretty good episode. The heart of the story is the relationship between Picard and Jenice. It used to be a romance, but now it's not quite that. She's married to someone else, and though there are clearly still
feelings there on both sides, they never quite become anything more than old flames who have been brought back together by circumstances. If the Picard and Jenice stuff doesn't work, there's really no reason to give a shit about any of the rest of this. Fortunately, it works! And boy, does Picard's character need something like this at this point in the series. Season one Picard is a bit of a stiff. True, he retains a detached formality for the rest of the series - it's a part of who he is - but eventually, he does loosen up a bit, and we get to see other sides of his personality that reveal his wit,
his compassion, his sense of adventure. In this first season, he's mostly just a grumpy buzzkill. He frequently acts as though he's got somewhere better to be. He's just not a very pleasant or compelling presence - why so serious, Jean-Luc? Take the baguette outta your ass, man! In this episode, however, we do see another side of him. As soon as someone says the name "Paul Manheim," a new mood comes over Picard, a tension. When he hears Jenice's voice, that tension gives way to eagerness, as he finds himself rushing toward a reunion he may have thought would never happen. Patrick Stewart plays all of this wonderfully,
and Michelle Phillips, as Jenice, matches him note for note. They play off each other well, and have believable chemistry in their scenes together. There's a sense of regret that hangs in the air between them, a mutual awareness that things might have been different, but weren't, and now it is what it is. There's an honesty between them in their scene alone in the observation lounge, and a level of comfort and effortlessness in their interactions that we've never really seen on this show up until now, especially from Picard,
who lets his guard down completely with her. The performances are strong, and for once the writing isn't pushing too hard to make its point, but trusting the actors to do the work. There's also a maturity evident in the characters that I appreciate, and that I realized as I was watching the episode today that we don't see very often. Picard and Jenice aren't written like horny teenagers or impulsive twenty-somethings, but like middle-aged adults who still feel very strongly for one another, but who also recognize
that, for good or bad, life has gone on since the last time they met, and their window to be together has closed. All of which only serves to amplify the wistful, melancholy quality of their scenes together - it's just - it's good, is what I'm saying. I like it, it's good. The rest of the episode is not as good, but then again it doesn't have to be, since the Picard and Jenice story is the main reason we're here. The sci-fi elements, the time loops and Paul Manheim's experiment, are interesting enough. The episode doesn't hit us with too many of the time distortion effects, but the few that we do get are creative enough,
and sufficiently different from one another, to get the point across without seeming repetitive. Data's mission to seal the time distortion is a little too straightforward, but hey, two episode reviews in a row where I can compliment that blessed lack of technobabble! How does Data seal the crack between dimensions or whatever it is? He drops a canister of antimatter into the thing at the right time. That's all the explanation we get, and all the explanation we need - no jargon, no made-up technical terms to describe non-existent technology, just a robot man dropping
a can of stuff from a mechanical claw at the end of an arbitrarily long countdown, as god intended! There's not a lot of suspense in the scene, the only obstacle Data encounters once he reaches the room with the time distortion is the appearance of his duplicates, but that problem gets solved pretty much right away when the middle Data just says "Hey, it's me, I'm the right one," and that turns out to be right. It falls a little flat, though not as flat as it probably would have if it had been larded up with technobabble. But, hey, it's not a big deal because the time distortions weren't really the point anyway - they were just the plot device to get Picard and Jenice back together.
The business the episode finds for the supporting cast isn't nearly as interesting and plays mostly like a way to keep certain members of the ensemble busy or give them some token screentime. But, at least Troi and Beverly's scenes fit their characters, such as they are at this point. Troi comes across as a little nosy, the way she just walks up to Picard and then Beverly and says "Time to talk about your feelings." But, I do really like the moment she gets after Picard hears the name Paul Manheim for the first time. He reacts, and then she reacts,
and it's not a big, obvious, "Holy shit, what was that, this is important" reaction - it's subtle, something she registers, and we see her register it. It's not anything more than it needs to be. Beverly's part is more forced in its execution, but, again, it fits with where her character is at this point in the series. They're doing the "will they/won't they" thing with Captain Picard and Beverly, so Beverly's prickly "I can't compete with a ghost from his past!" declaration to Troi doesn't seem out of character. But, it doesn't really go anywhere from there,
either. I guess the idea is to just acknowledge that yes, there's kind of a thing going on between Picard and Beverly, and now Picard's old flame is on the ship, and Beverly feels a certain kind of a way about it, which is all well and good. It just plays as slightly awkward to me the way it's brought up and then completely dropped midway through the episode. Oh, also - they really downplay the death of the other scientists at Paul Manheim's lab, don't they? Granted, they're never onscreen, they're only mentioned, there's no reason we in
the audience should give a shit about any of them, but it should be a bigger deal to the characters, especially to Paul and Jenice, that a whole team of scientists are dead, shouldn't it? Paul invokes their memory to justify returning to his work at the end of the episode, but other than that they're barely mentioned. Speaking of Paul, he's played here by Rod Loomis, a character actor with a nearly forty year career in film and television. He only gets to show us the real Paul, free from the grip of his anxiety and confusion, right at the end of the episode,
but in those few moments he is able to create enough of a character that I kind of buy why Jenice would want to stay with him even after all of this. He has a genuine excitement about his work and the prospect of carrying it on and making further discoveries. He seems sincere about his desire for things to be different between him and Jenice from now on. And, as with Patrick Stewart, Michelle Phillips has chemistry with Loomis, and that makes Paul and Jenice believable as a couple - even if I think she'd be better off with Picard. I mean, come on.
Michelle Phillips isn't really given anything more to do here than play Picard's one that got away. Her character is defined exclusively relative to the men in her life. But, that's a shortcoming of the writing, not the acting. Phillips turns in a good performance. She's charismatic and charming, and it requires no imagination whatsoever to understand why Picard has continued to think of her after all these years. One last thing - the episode is a good model for how to draw inspiration from a previous work without blatantly cribbing from it. There are references to Casablanca throughout the episode - the title is taken from one of the most famous lines from that film,
and the name of the club Picard mentions at the end, the Blue Parrot Cafe, is also a lift from Casablanca - but the story itself doesn't follow the same beats as Casablanca. Instead, it takes opportunities here and there to evoke Casablanca, to remind us of it on an indirect, emotional level. Picard and Jenice's lost love is not exactly the same as Rick and Ilsa's, but it is reminiscent. Paris has a similar significance to both couples, but the exact circumstances of their parting differ - in Casablanca, Ilsa leaves Rick without saying good-bye because she learns her
husband, who she thought was dead, is still alive; in this episode, Picard leaves Jenice without explanation because he fears he would choose being with her over his career in Starfleet. The Star Trek episode is not a remake or a riff, but a kind of spiritual offspring of Casablanca. "We'll Always Have Paris" was written by Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer, and directed by Robert Becker. Davis wrote for several classic TV series in the 1980s, including The Incredible Hulk, The Fall Guy, Knight Rider, and Magnum P.I., all favorites of mine, but this is her only Star
Trek credit. Shearer wrote other episodes during the early years of TNG, including "Skin of Evil" and season three's "The Price." Robert Becker directed only one other TNG episode - season two's "The Outrageous Okona." Hey,.500 is a pretty damn good average, even if it is from only two at-bats. Not a great episode, but a good episode, and an important one for marking the growth of the series. One of the things that makes TNG's first season so bad is how awkward and unnatural it feels most of the time. "We'll Always Have Paris" doesn't really have that problem. Its
characters - particularly Picard and Jenice - come across as people, with feelings, and pasts, and regrets that inform their choices and make them who they are. It's an episode where you can tell that the creators of the show are finally starting to figure a few things out, most significantly the concept that the journeys these characters take to discover what's out there will only matter if we get to know what they have in here. Those are my thoughts on "We'll Always Have Paris." What do you think of this episode? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments. If you'd like to support this channel - and I sure wish you would,
if you can afford it - you can do so by becoming a patron at patreon.com/steveshives, becoming a channel member by clicking the join button, or by making a one-time gift by clicking the thanks button, or via PayPal or Venmo - links are in the description! Please join me next time as this batch of reviews of episodes featuring Time Loops and Paradoxes continues with a look at another episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation. This one is from season three, and it's titled "Captain's Holiday." See you next time for that. Thanks for watching, and take care everybody!
