The Best Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5, Episode 9 Quotes

Rasmussen: Who said these moments were any less exciting when you know the outcome, hm?
Lt. Commander Data: I know of no one who said that, Professor.

[last lines]
Captain: Oh, Professor - welcome to the 24th century.

- Since you seem to know so much about captain picard and the ship,
- I assumed you would...
- It would be best if you kept your assumptions to yourself, wouldn't it?
- Yes, sir.
- Sorry, sir.

Rasmussen: Um, your... prosthesis. What do you... what do you call it again?
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: A VISOR.
Rasmussen: VISOR, right, a VISOR! You know, I have a picture of you wearing that in my office. How do you like it?
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: It allows me to see. I like it just fine.
Rasmussen: You know, Homer was blind. And Milton. Bach. Monet. Wonder...

- New Seattle's reporting a cloud depth of 12 kilometers.
- Two rivers, tropical rivers, are beginning to freeze.
- We better get started before there's nothing left to mend.
- Riker: Look who's here.
- Crusher: Mm.
- I hate questionnaires.
- Professor, come and join us.

[Rasmussen has asked the crew to fill out questionnaires for him]
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: If I hand my assignment in on time, can I get a glimpse into next week's poker game?

- To think, the model t of androids.
- If you were referring to the first production model automobile of the 20th century, perhaps the subsequent model a would be a more apt analogy since I am Dr. Noonien soong's revised prototype.
- I stand corrected.

- I brought you the forms
- I need you to complete.
- It shouldn't take anything more than a couple of hours.
- We're kind of busy here.
- Tomorrow would probably be better.
- Data, we've got about 23,000 thermal simulations.
- Do you think you'd check them for anomalies?
- Certainly.

- Is there a problem, professor?
- Mm, I suppose it'll have to do for now.
- I'll get you a list of the things
- I'll be needing, okay?
- Would I be correct, professor, in assuming that you know whether or not I am still alive in the 26th century?

Rasmussen: So, you've made your choice after all. And without my help.
Captain: Oh, on the contrary, Professor. You were quite helpful.
Rasmussen: How's that?
Captain: By refusing to help me, you left me with the same choice I had to begin with, to try or not to try, to take a risk or to play it safe. And your arguments have reminded me how precious the right to choose is. Because I've never been one to play it safe.

Captain: Let's take a look at Mr. Worf's distortion.

Lieutenant: I hate questionnaires.

Captain: A person's life, their future, hinges on each of a thousand choices. Living is *making* choices! Now, you ask me to believe that if I make a choice other than the one that appears in your history books, then your past will be irrevocably altered. Well... you know, Professor, perhaps I don't give a damn about your past, because your past is my future, and as far as I'm concerned, it hasn't been written yet!

- who gave me thoughts about not going home.
- You're not supposed to be influencing the past, remember?
- And I am beginning to feel just a little bit influenced.
- Anyway, I could be your great, great, great, great grandmother.

- Picard: Captain's log, stardate 45350.3.
- We have arrived at penthara iv, and can see for ourselves the atmospheric devastation caused by the asteroid's impact.

[despite his better judgment, Picard has asked Rasmussen about the best course of action to take in his Penthara IV dilemma]
Captain: There are twenty million lives down there. And you know what happened to them - what *will* happen to them.
Rasmussen: So, it seems you have another dilemma; one that questions your convictions.
Captain: Well, I've never been afraid of reevaluating my convictions, Professor; and now... well, I have twenty million reasons to do so.

- Picard: Space, the final frontier.
- These are the voyages of the starship enterprise.
- Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

[Rasmussen is flirting with Dr. Crusher]
Doctor: [daintily] You're not supposed to be influencing the past, remember? And I am beginning to feel just a little bit influenced. Anyway, I could be your great-great-great-great-grandmother.

Rasmussen: That weapon was working yesterday...
[after trying unsuccessfully to use a phaser on Data]

Rasmussen: But you must see that if I were to influence you, everything in this sector, in this quadrant of the galaxy, could change. History - *my* history - would unfold in a way other than it already has. Now, what possible incentive could anyone offer me to allow that to happen?

[Rasmussen has refused to help Picard decide on the right choice to save a people from certain death]
Captain: How can you be comfortable watching people die?
Rasmussen: Erm, let me... put it to you this way: if I were to tell you that none of those people died, you'd easily conclude that you tried your solution and it succeeded. So, you'd confidently try again. No harm in that. But, what if I were to tell you they all died? What then? Obviously, you'd decide not to make the same mistake twice. Now, what if one of those people grew up...
Captain: Yes, Professor, I know. What if one of those lives I save down there is a child who grows up to be the next Adolf Hitler, or Khan Singh? Every first-year philosophy student has been asked that question since the earliest wormholes were discovered.

- Precisely, sir.
- And the bad news?
- If our phaser discharge is off by as little as 0.06 terawatts, it would cause a cascading exothermal inversion.
- Meaning?
- We would completely burn off the planet's atmosphere.

[Worf has hailed a small vessel drifting in space]
Lieutenant: That's odd...
Commander William T. Riker: What's odd?
Lieutenant: We've received a response, but...
Captain: Yes, Mr. Worf?
Lieutenant: They want you to move over, sir.
Captain: Reply that the Enterprise isn't going anywhere, Lieutenant.
Lieutenant: Not the Enterprise, Captain. *You*.

- La forge remained below.
- Picard: Good luck, commander.
- Thank you, captain.
- Data: The deflector dish has been reconfigured, sir.
- Proceed, Mr. Data.
- Data: Stand by for auto-phaser interlock.
- Activating deflector beam.

Lt. Commander Data: I assume your hand print will open this door, whether you are conscious or not.

- The mantle is collapsing where the pressure was released.
- La forge: Captain, Dr. Moseley and I have a couple of ideas, but it's gonna take some time to sort them out.
- Sort them out, geordi.
- Aye, sir.
- We came here to help these people.
- And look what we've done.

- I'm getting in the habit of thanking you, picard.
- Well, I'd love to see more, but it's nearly time for me to go.
- I am tickled pink to have had the opportunity of witnessing this, picard.
- And you did it all without any help.
- Well, I must run.
- I got some packing to do.
- You know, you're taller in person, commander?

- Really?
- Where I come from, every historian knows the bridge of old 1701-d.
- And where exactly do you come from?
- Why, earth.
- Late 26th century earth, to be exact.
- I've traveled back nearly 300 years just to find you.

Lieutenant: [responding to an earlier question of Rasmussen] Phasers.
Rasmussen: Beg your pardon?
Lieutenant: There were no phasers in the 22nd century.
Rasmussen: Ah, you see, Doctor? Our Klingon friend is a perfect example of what I was trying to tell you: he views history through the eyes of a hunter, a warrior. His passion lies in the perfection of the tools of violence. How delightfully primitive!

- Time.
- Ensign, return to synchronous orbit.
- Woman: Aye, sir.
- Very clever, picard. And well done.
- We always knew how you did it, but to experience the moment, to witness the nuances, it's indescribable.

- I think you'll understand if I request that only Mr. Data be allowed to see it.
- Why data?
- Because if I order Mr. Data never to divulge what he sees in there, he won't.
- With the exception of anything that might belong to us.
- Understood, sir.
- Back in a minute.

Rasmussen: Everyone dies, Captain. It's just a question of when.

[Rasmussen has been revealed as an inventor from the 22nd century]
Captain: I'm sure that there are more than a few legitimate historians at Starfleet, who'll be quite eager to meet a human from your era.

Captain: Of course, you know of the Prime Directive - which tells us that we have no right to interfere in the natural evolution of alien worlds. Now, I have sworn to uphold it. But, nevertheless, I have disregarded that directive - on more than one occasion - because I thought it was the right thing to do! Now, if you are holding on to some... temporal equivalent of that directive, then isn't it possible that... you have an occasion here to make an exception, to... to help me to choose, because it's the right thing to do?

[Rasmussen enters Data's quarters, which are exploding with noise]
Rasmussen: [shouting] What in God's name is that?
Lt. Commander Data: Music, Professor.
Rasmussen: Music?
Lt. Commander Data: Yes, sir. Mozart's "Jupiter Symphony in C major", Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3", Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony, 2nd Movement, molto vivace", and "La Donna e Mobile", from Verdi's "Rigoletto".
Rasmussen: Do you think you could thin it out a bit?
Lt. Commander Data: Computer, eliminate program one.
[music thins, but Rasmussen shakes his head]
Lt. Commander Data: Computer, eliminate program two.
[music thins more, but is still too loud]
Lt. Commander Data: Computer, eliminate program three.
[Rasmussen gestures for him to lower the volume]
Lt. Commander Data: Computer, half volume.
Rasmussen: [still shouting] How the...!
[pauses, realizing the volume is low enough]
Rasmussen: [much quieter] How the hell can you listen to four pieces of music at the same time?
Lt. Commander Data: Actually, I am capable of distinguishing over one hundred and fifty simultaneous compositions. But in order to analyze the aesthetics, I try to keep it to ten or less.
Rasmussen: Only four today?
Lt. Commander Data: I am assisting Commander La Forge with a very complex calculation. It demands a great deal of my concentration.

- Target one is emitting
- 2,000-cubic meters per second.
- Target two, 1, 600.
- Surface wind patterns over the target are stable.
- You picking up anything at altitude, data?
- Data: Co2 concentrations remain unchanged at upper elevations.

- Captain, we've got everything we need.
- I'm ready to transport to the surface.
- Picard [over com]: I'll notify
- Dr. Moseley. Good luck, geordi.
- Gentlemen.
- Who said these moments were any less exciting when you know the outcome? Hmm?
- I know of no one who said that, professor.

- We're ready when you are, geordi.
- That's excellent.
- All we need now is an open channel to data.
- Open a channel, Mr. Worf, and prepare to fire at target one.
- Computer has locked in the phaser depth calculations.
- Mr. Data?
- Data [over com]: Ready, sir.
- Fire.

Captain: [after Rasmussen has been exposed as an impostor] Trying to make *my* history unfold in a way other than it already has, eh, Professor?
Rasmussen: [laughing sheepishly] This was all a misunderstanding, Picard. Just... let me back in there. We'll forget the whole thing.
Captain: Now, what possible incentive could anyone offer me to allow that?