Movies - TV
One Classic Star Trek Episode Had TV Stations’ Phones Ringing Off The Hooks
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Cause and Effect," the U.S.S. Enterprise-D senior staff are enjoying a poker game when the ship encounters a negative space wedgie.
Unexpectedly, a Soyuz-class starship appears out of the wedgie and crashes into the U.S.S. Enterprise, blowing it up. However, a time loop initiates, and everyone is fine again.
The episode was written by Brannon Braga, who recalled in an interview with SyFy that audiences called into the studio because they thought the time loop was a technical error.
"I think people bought it once they got past the confusion and probably thought [...] 'This could be really cool, or it could be an utter and complete failure, right?'" he shared.
Despite Braga’s doubts, the episode "Cause and Effect," for its arch and repeated construction, could be considered one of the best episodes of Rod Serling’s "The Twilight Zone."