Relics (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Relics" is the 130th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the fourth episode of the sixth season. It was first broadcast on October 12, 1992.

In this episode, while investigating the 75 year old wreck of a Federation transport vessel, the Starfleet starship USS Enterprise-D crew discovers the former Chief Engineer of the Constitution class USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), alive in a transporter buffer.

This episode marks the fifth time that an Original Series cast member appeared during The Next Generation's series run; the other four being "Encounter at Farpoint" (DeForest Kelley), “Haven” (Majel Barrett), "Sarek" (Mark Lenard) and "Unification I & II" (Mark Lenard and Leonard Nimoy).

Plot
The USS Enterprise-D, responding to a distress call, drops out of warp to discover a nearby Dyson sphere. They trace the distress call to the USS Jenolen, a Federation transport ship that has been reported missing for 75 years, and which has crashed intact on the sphere's outer hull. Riker, La Forge and Worf transport to the Jenolen while the Enterprise investigates the sphere. La Forge discovers that the Jenolen's transporter has been jury rigged to sustain two life signals within its pattern buffer indefinitely, though one has degraded too far to be recovered. La Forge reverses the process and restores the remaining life form, which turns out to be former Starfleet officer Captain Montgomery Scott.

Scott explains during a check up of his health aboard the Enterprise that he was only a passenger aboard the Jenolen during his retirement, but when the ship was caught in the Dyson sphere's gravity field, only he and one other officer survived the crash, and Scott had rigged the transporter to try to keep them "alive" while help came. After being cleared by Dr. Crusher, Scott is eager to see the advances in technology including a tour of the Engineering deck, but quickly finds that his old knowledge has long been surpassed and his efforts to help are instead getting in the way of normal operations. Ordered to leave Engineering by La Forge, Scott heads to Ten Forward, and is upset to learn that alcohol is no longer served on Starfleet ships. Data offers a potent beverage from Guinan's private stock to Scott, which Data can only describe as being "green". With the bottle in hand, Scott uses one of the Enterprise's holodecks to recreate the bridge of his old ship, the Enterprise, to try to relive his past. Captain Picard joins Scott after hearing of his difficulties in becoming adjusted to the 24th century and tries to counsel him, to which Scott declares himself a relic of the past.

The next day, in continuing the survey of the Dyson sphere, Picard suggests to La Forge to enlist Scott's help to recover existing survey data from the older Jenolen systems, technology at which Scott is adept. The two return to the Jenolen and begin to recover its memory core with Scott's help. The Enterprise discovers a port on the side of the Dyson sphere, but when they try to communicate with the systems, the ship is pulled into the Dyson sphere by automated controls which temporarily disables their systems. Though they are able to recover control before the ship impacts with the star inside the sphere, they find the star is unstable and emitting large amounts of radiation which will be lethal to the crew, and surmise that the sphere was long abandoned by its creators due to this. The Enterprise quickly realizes the only exit from the interior of the sphere is the port they used but cannot figure out how to open it from this side. When La Forge tries to make contact with the Enterprise, he discovers it missing, and works with Scott to make the Jenolen flight-worthy. They discover the same port the Enterprise found and surmise the Enterprise is trapped inside. La Forge and Scott manage to open the port without being pulled in and then wedge the Jenolen in the open port, using its shields to keep it open while the Enterprise escapes, rescuing the two engineers from the Jenolen just before destroying it with photon torpedoes.

As the Enterprise returns to its mission, the crew of the ship give Scott his very own shuttlecraft "on extended loan" to either continue to his retirement or to explore the galaxy. Scott thanks the crew and reminds La Forge to make the most of his time as the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise before he departs.

Production
A fan of the original series, script-writer Moore added a number of lines to the script that reference original series episodes.

The original bridge set had been destroyed decades before this episode, so the production staff re-created the bridge by building a single station from the bridge and the turbolift alcove, and combining it with a fan-made center console and captain's chair.

After Commander Riker identifies himself as being from the Enterprise, Scotty says he bet Jim Kirk dug the Enterprise out of mothballs and headed the rescue mission himself. However, in the movie Star Trek Generations, Scotty, along with others, witnesses what he thinks is the death of Captain Kirk on the Enterprise-B. This would have had to occur before Scotty's disappearance. This makes the film and this line of dialogue conflict with each other story-wise. James Doohan was not originally a part of the Generations film cast, he was a last minute replacement for Leonard Nimoy. The official Star Trek web site attributes the conflicting line of dialogue in "Relics" to the character being momentarily disoriented after having been stuck inside the transporter system of the Jenolen for three quarters of a century. The real reason of course being that although "Relics" is set decades after the events in the film, it was actually shot a few years before Generations was produced.

Novelization
In author Michael Jan Friedman's novelization of the episode, he expands upon the holodeck scene, recreating the TOS bridge crew from their youthful heyday. He also adds some backstory to Scotty's trip on the transport ship, including interaction between Scotty and Franklin, the crew member who is also stuck in the transporter, prior to the crash into the Dyson Sphere.