Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Force of Nature (1993) User Reviews

Imposing a speed limit in space

[Tweekums · 6/10 · 9 September 2015]

The enterprise has been dispatched to the Hekaras Corridor; a narrow corridor through an otherwise impassable area of space, to investigate the disappearance of a medical transport ship. Suspicion falls on a Ferengi vessel that had been seen in the area. The Enterprise finds the Ferengis but they appear to be dead in space. After a brief confrontation it emerges that they had activated a mine which had been disguised as a navigation buoy. The Enterprise investigates further and triggers such a mine soon after is boarded by two aliens. They are a brother and sister who claim that ship's warp engines are causing dangerous effects near their home world that will ultimately cause a spatial rift that could destroy the planet. Picard promises to forward their research to the Federation but that isn't enough for the sister… she decides to prove her theory in a suicide mission that deliberately causes a warp core breach in her ship. The resulting explosion does indeed cause a rift and the medical ship is caught inside it; the crew of the Enterprise will have to find a way to rescue them which doesn't involve using the warp engines within the rift. In an early side story Geordi has difficulty while looking after Data's cat; Data tries to train it but his efforts have little effect; we also have another side plot involving Geordi trying to increase the engine efficiency as part of a rivalry with an engineer on another ship.

This was a fairly disappointing episode; it starts with a rather unnecessary plot involving Data's cat that, while amusing at times, didn't really go anywhere. Likewise the subplot about Geordi's rivalry with a fellow engineer didn't add anything to the story. These aren't the main problems with the episode though; that is the overly preachy nature of the main plot. We are clearly meant to see a parallel with the problems caused by warp travel and pollution. We also have the unlike way that the female alien causes a rift to prove her point… in a way that will probably affect her planet far more than the passing warp-powered ship. The resolution where a speed limit of Warp Five is imposed on the Federation seems to be something that could limit future stories… although I don't recall this limit being applied in 'Voyager' and 'Deep Space Nine'. Overall a rather disappointing episode where the subplots go nowhere and the main story is overly preachy.

The fragile fabric of space

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 30 November 2017]

On a rescue mission to find and help a Federation science vessel lost in a part of space that is somewhat unstable, the Enterprise finds a brother and sister pair of scientists from Hecares who are disabling vessels in the area. They did this to the Federation ship the Fleming and to a Ferengi ship that the Enterprise also encounters.

From the planet Hecares the Enterprise encounters siblings Michael Corbett and Margaret Reed who have been trying to convince the Federation and other warp capable aliens not to use warp engines in their neighborhood. Reed and Corbett are truly dedicated to their beliefs, as much as any earth scientist in our history ridiculed for their new theories like Isaac Newton or Louis Pasteur.

In fact Reed's not willing to have the Federation scientists come out to study the problem after her ideas have to go through Federation bureaucracy. She makes her point quite dramatically.

In this most serious episodes apparently it was decided that a little comic relief was necessary. This is provided by Brent Spiner discussing with LeVar Burton the methods of training a cat. I could have told them that cats are lovable, but not trainable. Data's cat Spot is one smart feline.

Being a cat daddy, I had to like this episode.

Fine Message, Fine Episode

[CulvertonSmith · 7/10 · 6 April 2023]

The message is fine, admirable even, very characteristic of Star Trek. It is perhaps lacking in subtlety, which is not always necessary, but could have helped to make this story feel more natural. However, the episode itself just isn't all that compelling. There's some fun stuff with Data's cat which is pretty entertaining, but most of the story just feels all too familiar.

It's a well-made episode of television, but ultimately pretty disposable. It's just not the kind of thing that stays in your mind, unfortunately. Although I enjoyed the 45 minutes, I can't say I'm going to remember much beyond Data training Spot. A worthy effort, but one that won't stick with me.

Environmental episode.

[russem31 · 2 May 2006]

ST:TNG:161 - "Force Of Nature" (Stardate: 47310.2) - this is the 9th episode of the 7th and last season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Enterprise arrives in a area which poses a hazard to warp-driven vessels, searching for the U.S.S. Fleming, a medical transport that disappeared in this region of space. Soon, they discover who the culprit was - two aliens who have been disabling ships in this area to get the Federation to listen to their concerns - that the use of warp drives may be decimating their planet and destroying the fabric of space! A very intriguing "environmental" episode.

Trivia note: Data's cat Spot is seen again, but in this episode and the upcoming "Genesis", he is now a she! Data also tries to train the cat throughout this episode, with varying success.

Nice message but poor execution

[chaknuage · 7/10 · 16 January 2019]

I really don't need to elaborate anymore. The title says it all. I did enjoy reading through the IMDb's one star ratings and noticed those same viewers leave scathing reviews over any show that has message about the environment.

Conservative Republicans, Star Trek may NOT be the show for you. Might wanna stick with Ayn Rand and stay in your wheelhouse.

We are killing space itself.

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 13 May 2021]

An interesting episode about ramifications of warp drive upon a planet of aliens. In the review section the gloves are off between the red face environmentalist and those who did not appreciate being brow beaten with the environmental message.

I go into trek with the expectation of getting a bit of a sermon but I do appreciate when it is elegantly done. This episode messaging reminds me of that S1 episode when Wesley crusher ask Tasha Yar why people would do drugs.

Does anyone (who is a trek fan) not believe it is in our best interest to practice environmental conservatism? Makes sense to me.

This episode is quite interesting in how it resolves the problem ----- Starfleet decides to mitigate the issue by putting up a speed limit. I suppose you could call that a depressing dose of realism.

It's a pretty okay episode. They should have ditched the plot element of Data training his cat and inserted a love arc between Geordi and one of the scientists ---- We could get some delicious tense moments and her sacrifice would have had additional weight. That's my 20/20 hindsight kicking in ----

An inconvenient truth

[Mr-Fusion · 6/10 · 15 September 2017]

I've remembered this episode over the years (it's been a good twenty or so) for the eco-minded bombshell it unloads fairly early on. Turns out warp travel is ripping holes in the fabric of space, and Starfleet needs to take its foot off the gas. And that adds dramatic heft so instances where time is of the essence. Remember when Picard ignored his superiors in "First Contact" and ordered maximum warp to the Borg skirmish? He wasn't playing around.

But now, the episode comes off preachy. It's all about the message and belaboring the point. And I still think it's an interesting point to be made, but maybe not with a sledehammer.

6/10

That Darned Warp Drive!

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 10 October 2014]

This preachy episode involves efforts by a female alien to get starships to stop using a corridor in space. She claims the use of warp drive is damaging the fabric of space. To prove her point she destroys herself. The investigation into this is what this episode is about. The dramatic use of subterfuge to prove their point could made the brother and sister true terrorists. Of course, what they want is for the powers that be to listen to them before it is too late. This episode is really heavy handed. It would seem that their ultimate findings were quietly ignored. There are just too many unanswered questions in this presentation.

Well, it's only "preachy" until you die because of it...

[yincognyto-91718 · 9/10 · 28 July 2019]

Seeing the ignorance and the political nature of most of the reviews on this episode, one can only come to the conclusion that humanity would deserve its fate when the environmental damage we all do on Earth will become critical. Too bad those responsible for the mess created won't be alive then to suffer the consequences, but their descendants will.

I didn't expect this kind of opinions on this episode, especially since TNG primarily speaks to intelligent and open-minded viewers, who would supposedly understand that if you leave your trash in front of your home, it will eventully stink and produce all kinds of bugs and other... "inconveniences". It's the same with pollution on Earth and the same with the effect of the warp drive on normal space in the fictional TNG universe. By definition, a warp drive is warping space to move an object instead of increasing the kinetic energy of the object, by generating warp fields to form a subspace bubble that envelops the starship, distorting the local spacetime continuum and moving the starship at velocities that could greatly exceed the speed of light. It's similar to folding a thin piece of metal, to get one side next to the other. Now, even children know what happens when you quickly and repeatedly do this to that thin piece of metal: it eventually breaks - just like paper is easier to tear in a straight line after folding it and the same as space does after being repeatedly "warped" (i.e. folded) in the same location(s) by starships. Bottom line, there's nothing "preachy" about the scenario in this episode, just like it's nothing "preachy" about the fact that pollution or deforestation are endangering life on Earth - it's simply the truth.

So, what can you do faced with these close-minded, bureaucracy oriented and irresponsible people, who would either not believe or not take or delay any measure to alleviate or correct the damage? You'd do what the alien's sister did in this episode, sacrificing safety for understanding and appropriate reaction. Maybe the reviewers who considered this fine episode "preachy" need to experience the same - there's nothing more convincing than having to fight for survival. It's up to the viewers to connect the dots and realize the similarities between what happens in this episode in a fictional world and what already happens or could happen in our very real one. Unless they're blinded by petty concerns like profit or politics, that is...

REVIEW 2022

[iamirwar · 6/10 · 7 October 2022]

Spot's trapped under the bed, she's been misbehaving... does she need training? When the majority of trivia and goofs are only about Spot there has to be something wrong.

And that was the pre-title intro. Is this going to be a show about Spot?

Now we have a disappearance of the medical transport Fleming which has gone missing somewhere in the Hekaras Corridor. This is a region of space where there is an unusually intense tetryon field which poses a severe navigational hazard. The Hekaras Corridor is the only safe passage through this field.

Geordi feels that he is in competition with Chief Engineer of the Intrepid: Commander Donald Kaplan.

We are still being distracted with talk of Data's cat. Where are we going with all this?

The Ferengi are up to no good as usual. Ferengi say buoy (boo-ee). In England we say buoy (boy), but this has nothing to do with this story.

So, we have the main story that continues as a search for the missing Fleming and the run-in with the Ferengi.

The secondary story revolves around Spot the Cat and ongoing attempts at training him/her. Oh, and we are still in competition with the Intrepid Chief Engineer who we will never actually meet.

Thankfully, the two nice aliens, Serova and Rabal have beamed aboard are provide a much needed distraction from the ongoing cat coaching question.

Is it me, or are the writers and the cast just going through the motions? We know we are in our last season and we know that budgets have been stripped down and given to DS9. I can understand why they would try to cobble together a story using old TNG stock images. That's bound to save a few dollars. This show's turned into a rescue mission which we know will finally be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, except Serova's. Now she lives only amongst the stars. I believe my time would have been better spent in the company of Deanna Troi down in the swimming pool.

This Episodes Clue: A particular place or point

(Answer's to all episode clues will appear in the reviews of season seven, episode 25: All Good Things, Part One.)

So where did this newfound sensibility go?

[jsgqmcs · 3/10 · 30 August 2021]

It is interesting to note that following this episode the warp 5 limit is never heard from again. Not in TNG or any other Trek series.

Same acting school or what?

[winopaul · 7/10 · 7 May 2010]

Michael Corbett as the Dr. Rabal character sure seems to be a dead ringer for Christian Bale. Is it possible he has a twin brother? Either that or he assumes this persona for TV work. Watch it and see what I mean. OK, I just found the episode on a popular video sharing site. That's Christian Bale with some clay glommed on his forehead. I am certain. Check out the voice and the mannerisms. It could be right out of American Psycho. Has anybody seen both these actors in the same place? If somebody can show me that I will alter my opinion. I can't say this strongly enough. Really, if they were ever in the same movie I would not be able to tell them apart.

Preachy and not all that interesting as well.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 2 December 2014]

This episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is obviously inspired by various social concerns during the last several decades. The plot is clearly a variation on a plot about pollution, global cooling and global cooling. Whether you believe or disbelieve the climate change theories, the episode just comes off as preachy and could have used a great infusion of energy and humor. It's just terribly preachy.

When the Enterprise goes through a portion of space, it finds that it and other ships that recently went through this area were disabled--and soon it becomes certain why. A local race believes that the use of warp engines is damaging space--and they intend to put a stop to it any way they can. Well, the Captain is able to get one of these scientists to agree that the Federation should send scientists to investigate whereas his sister is insistent that the time to make huge changes is now and no one should investigate because she proved warp engines the bad. See the parallels to today?

The show also has an underdeveloped plot involving Spot the cat. It really seemed tacked on--like a time filler. And, oddly, it was dropped from the show and never really addressed after about a third of the way into the show. The bottom line is that the script seemed a bit of a mess and lacked one important element--FUN.

Where are "Q" when you need him (it/them) ?

[jdberner · 7/10 · 10 April 2017]

It finally happens: there is a con junction between the Star Trek 'multiverse' and environmental issues. What results? the serious commission of a study.

Please, harken to the adjective 'serious'...it is what differentiates Star Trek from current political advisory panels. In today's world, we would watch as political entities vie to decide whether a multitude of opposing commercial and therefore political forces struggle to be foremost in their assessment (or abnegation) of envirornmental concerns.

In this episode of Star Trek, we see both the best and the worst, of a rational response: Now, here's the key: one must TRUST, and have an overriding reason to trust, the review procedure...there ain't no real alternative: one must believe in the impartionality of the process...which means the process details MUST be transparent!!!

"Geordi, I cannot stun my cat."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 17 April 2024]

Side stories of Commander Data (Brent Spiner) trying to train his cat Spot and one of Commander LaForge (LeVar Burton) straining to increase the Enterprise's engine efficiency in rivalry with an engineer on another vessel eventually give way to the main story in which a brother and sister pair try to convince the officer crew that warp drive is contributing to their planet's demise. No doubt this was a forward-looking episode on the part of writers responding to the impact of climate change.

As expected, this one is filled with a load of sci-fi technobabble citing tetryon emissions, verteron signals and subspace instability to make it all seem pretty dire. The sister scientist Dr. Serova (Margaret Reed) was so convinced of her theory on warp drive technology destroying the fabric of space near Hekaras IV that she departed the Enterprise unannounced in a shuttle craft to prove her point that it can cause a spatial rift. That turned out to be a self-fulfilling sacrifice mission that tended to prove her initial theory. Knowing that, the crew of the Enterprise still managed to save the crew of a medical transport ship stalled in the Hekaras Corridor using only impulse power to make their way to the stranded vessel.

As for Data's cat, I guess it proved to remain unmanageable, even if the story never got back to complete that thread. Neither did Geordi's rivalry with his engineering buddy on another vessel. Those power conversion levels were probably cinched up as far as they could go, and what's a tenth of a point difference anyway?

Dr. Serova is even dumber than they intended to portray her.

[Alex-594-514783 · 3/10 · 24 July 2019]

The premise of this episode is one that hinges on the stupidity of a character. Dr. Serova is already portrayed as irresponsible but we're also meant to take away that she's a genius who can see something nobody else can. She forces a warp core breach and sacrifices her life in the explosion to prove that massive amounts of warp energy will disrupt subspace and cause a rift that would prevent warp. She does this because the effect is supposedly cumulative and traditional warp engine energy is only a tiny fraction of the amount required to cause a rift. If that's the case then eventually it would become pretty obvious she was right as ship traffic continues over the years to come. She'd have been proven right eventually and likely with plenty of time to do something about it; all without her having to kill herself like a dummy. There was no reason to do what she did at all.

A terrible attempt at an anti-pollution episode

[Mandeth · 1/10 · 9 March 2014]

This was a terrible episode. And it would foreshadow the mediocre direction of Brannon Braga produced Star Trek. This episode was meant to make people think about pollution. But it used the fictitious warp drive as the method and created a story line that says warp speed was damaging space. All that was achieved was the very clear idea that Braga looked at his viewers as if they were children. This episode felt very much like some light made for kids show with superheroes giving us sermons of how we should live our lives.

This show may have been a swing for the fences by Braga in terms of landing some sort of award like the Peabody. Whatever his goal, it failed miserably.

Near the end the cast all take turns delivering political points on protecting the environment of space from further damage and the scene plays like a cheesy public service message.

It is incredible that they did not have the actors go ahead and officially break the 4th wall and deliver a message to the viewers from Braga. And they may as well have done that since the scene was so obviously written to make Trek and the actors look politically correct and the lines seemed to come from the actors not the characters.

This was very close to being The Next Generation's worst episode and unfortunately all of Braga's Enterprise and 75% of Voyager was far worse.

Brannon Braga is to Star Trek as Joel Schumacher to Batman. Braga killed Trek just as Schumacher killed the 90's Bat-films. Both are two men with no talent or instinct for entertainment and should be kept away from it FOREVER!!

It's not preachy, it just has a pretty random narrative

[snoozejonc · 5/10 · 27 January 2022]

The Enterprise crew discovers that warp-travel causes rifts in the fabric of space.

This is a strange episode that takes a very important topic and presents it in a way that feels slightly ill conceived.

The initial concept of environmental sustainability is a perfect topic to address in a progressive show like Star Trek, but it feels to have been tackled with little effort in what feels like a tick box exercise by the showrunners.

It begins quite whimsical before veering in the direction of the main plot, which is presented by guest characters who are relatively bland. There is an attempt at making it exciting with the 'surfing' scenes, but this simply consists of the bridge shaking a few times as the characters exchange technobabble. Then it is nicely wrapped up by the speed limit solution and aside from the odd reference to the limit, it is never properly addressed again in the show.

There are some scenes I enjoyed. Randomly, the Spot scenes with Data and Geordie are quite amusing. Also the presentation in the final scene and discussion works well.

The main cast do a good job with the material they have, but for such a big topic this for me is largely forgettable.

Um mistake obvious to only me or did someone else see it also?????

[faithless4734 · 4/10 · 22 March 2020]

I see no one else pointing out that while they are in the rift attempting to ride this wave that is tearing the ship apart they start the impulse engines to build speed so the wave thingy will work???? If they can use the impulse engines why on earth were they not? Instead they come up with a plan involving coasting through the rift???

30 Years Ago Chicken Little Episodes Existed

[magnum-ajt · 1/10 · 13 February 2021]

Yes the sky has been falling for a long time, but this time they mean it! Take the preachy self righteousness of this episode and multiply it out and you get ST: Discovery

We're all going to die!

[jlc2185 · 5/10 · 12 January 2022]

I half expected Al Gore to show up and start showing pictures of melting glaciers and hurricanes and some scary graphs!

This is a show where it's the future and all of the trivial matters like global warming have been solved. One would expected they'd be sustainable-minded and think about their impact on the environment BEFORE traveling through space.

It seems humanity was not that illuminated after all in the 24th century.

Didnt like this episode

[mjp-85981 · 2/10 · 14 October 2018]

I agree with Geordie, his warp drive wasnt even bad. Why didnt all the other species detect these things ? I skip this one.watch it once and thats it.

Following the mainstream

[spiderbat-863-656723 · 2/10 · 23 June 2023]

In many cases ST exploits the freedom given by its futuristic environment to explore controversial issues in an interesting, open-minded way. Such episodes make you think further without trying to impose on you a dogma.

This episode, on the contrary, seems to translate in a very direct, brutal way the concerns about Pollution with a capital "P" that surfaced abruptly in the real world after the end of the cold war. Please note that I'm not saying that these concerns were/are preposterous (even if the actions that originated by them, at least in my country, were aimed much more to force the purchase of new cars than to an actual defense of the environment), I just do not appreciate this kind of cheap translation. A proof, IMHO, of cheapness lies in the fact that the "speed limits" imposed with the episode disappear almost immediately thereafter, without explanation (it would have been very easy to invent some "warp catalytic device" ...).

The only part of the episode I like is the appearance of Data's marvelous ginger cat.

A Senior Trekker writes......................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 8 March 2022]

The final season of Star Trek, the Next Generation gave us some splendid episodes and also a fair share of stinkers. Everyone knew by this stage that they would not be renewed and attempts were made to wrap up various story lines before they said their final goodbyes. There is still a great deal to be enjoyed.

Bloody hell! It's the first time in a long time I've dozed off in front of an episode of Star Trek. And to add insult to injury, I had my cat snoozing on my lap at the time. Even he couldn't be roused to show interest in a pre-credit sequence where all that happens is that Data tries to get Spot to come out from under the bed.

There is quite a lot of technobabble which seems to be implying that the outer space super-highways are so overcrowded that the fabric of reality is being torn apart by their over-use. Not a lot of actual mathematics in play here, then. It was obviously intended to be a "message" episode about environmental damage to the world we live in but unfortunately, HOWEVER LAUDABLE the intentions might have been, the execution just wasn't very good.

Apart from some nonsense about Geordi being in competition with the engineer of another ship and some more tips on cat training (equally uninspiring to my own feline companion) we were introduced to a pair of aliens in swish, navy blue bouclé outfits. I'm afraid that all I remember about them is how their foreheads matched their costumes and that when one died, the other seemed remarkably nonplussed despite the fact that she had been introduced earlier as his sister.

I challenge anyone to get more out of this episode. If they can stay awake, that is.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.