Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Contagion (1989) User Reviews

They've got gremlins!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 13 November 2014]

When the episode begins, the Enterprise's sister ship, the Yamato, is stuck in the Neutral Zone. Its ship systems are running amok and it's almost as if the ship has gremlins! Whatever it is, just as the Enterprise is approaching, the Yamato explodes! But, before this occurs, the captain of that ship informs Picard he might have discovered the supposedly mythical planet, Iconia, and that a variety of sophisticated weapons might be awaiting them there...weapons that COULD fall into the hands of the Romulans if they don't act quickly. So, following the explosion, Picard decides to take the ship further into the Neutral Zone towards this planet--although out there somewhere is some Romulan ship that is cloaked. Soon, however, both the Enterprise and the Romulan ship begin experiencing gremlin-like problems of their own.

This is a very good episode--with an interesting plot and resolution. Plus, you get to see a crew member die...and come back to life!

Fantastic Episode Until the Last 5 Minutes

[jakobgschwarz · 8/10 · 20 March 2009]

The destruction of the Yamato, the Enterprise's sister ship, is certainly quite a site. Indeed, this episode has everything a good Star Trek episode should: drama, suspense, mystery, intrigue. The interesting question as to whether the problems of the advanced star ships are design flaws raise interesting questions concerning the flaws of technology. The whole story about this ancient, lost race is really interesting and well developed. The technological difficulties are equally well done. The repeated encounters with the Romulans are especially good, showing a battle unlike any we have seen before. The dialogue in this episode is some of the sharpest I've seen in Star Trek. In fact, the script to this episode is probably one of the best of TNG. That is, until they went about writing the ending. Okay, I love Star Trek but the ending to this episode certainly must go down as one of the worst and most disappointing. The first 40 minutes really grab you, make you want to know and understand what is going on. But, well, let me put it this way. The 'solution' to the problem is something a 15 year old could have come up with. Any person with half a brain would have tried it first, not almost let the ship be destroyed before it occurred to them. And it didn't even occur to Geordi, he just witnessed Data's system doing it. Seriously, if Geordi is that incompetent he has no place being in the engine room. But of course, as we know, he's not. This is just a badly developed ending that deflates the episode. Simply put this episode could have, and should have been a 10/10, unfortunately, it's not.

Welcome to the bridge Mr La Forge

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 2 June 2021]

Enterprise responds to a distress call from the USS Yamoto inside the neural zone.

This is a solid episode with some strong character moments, but the much lauded suspense and excitement doesn't fully work for me.

The plot is quite detailed and interesting with great world-building and sci-fi concepts. However the suspense driven sequences are lost on me as I never felt for a minute that Enterprise would be in danger or likewise any of the main characters. The resolution is simple, but in today's IT dominated world it works in a humorous way. Who hasn't been given a solution like that by an IT helpline?

I enjoyed the character moments of the episode, as pretty much everyone makes a contribution. Picard leading the away mission is a refreshing change, Dr Pulaski talking about splints was fun, Geordie has some far stronger moments than usual and Data has one quite cinematic scene towards the end.

I was slightly disappointed with the Romulans who were portrayed as one-note baddies, but their impending threat is implied well.

The visuals are decent, with good effects and nice set design. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Geordie runs from engineering to the bridge to deliver an important message.

All acting is good, particularly the regular cast members. This is my favourite LeVar Burton performance so far.

For me it's a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

Contagion

[Scarecrow-88 · 9/10 · 12 May 2012]

"Fate. Protects fools, little children and ships named Enterprise."

Interesting how one of the best episodes (for my money, maybe not yours…) comes from one of the lesser seasons of the series. "Contagion" has always been one of my all time favorite episodes, and has remained on my mind since I first watched it as a young teenager in the early 90s. A "system failure" possibly caused by a probe from an ancient alien race called the Iconians (studied by all at Starfleet Academy as a possible civilization, considered as a myth by most) destroys a galaxy class starship, The Yamato, in the dreaded Neutral Zone (a Romulan cruiser has been following the Yamato for their own desire to seek out the technological advancements of the ancient Iconian race) and the USS Enterprise must uncover details that will rescue them from a similar fate. Downloaded records from the Yamato have "infected" the system of the USS Enterprise and Picard's options at finding a way of correcting this before the ship is destroyed by system failures is deteriorating. The planet where the Iconian civilization is located (in essence, Iconia), is found to have been "bombarded by orbital debris", and could be the answer to the method of rescue for the Enterprise so Picard will have Data and Worf accompany him (against Riker's judgment that the Captain lead the team) to the surface hoping to get information sorely needed if another catastrophe is to be avoided. All that seems to remain is a control center which features programs including one that opens a gateway to travel to planets and ships (including, appropriately enough, the Enterprise and Romulan vessels). When Data is "probed" (a joke I couldn't pass up), and infected with the same "system rewrite" that destroyed the Yamato and is disabling the Enterprise, it could, surprising enough, give Geordi the method for "cleansing" the ship of the program created by the Iconian people. What an awesome episode this is, just a ton of fun and further illustrates how well Picard and crew can solve complex problems through the misfortune that comes from boldly exploring an unknown universe. The Romulan conflict and how it ties in with the Neutral Zone treaty is also a major part of this episode. Seeing the Enterprise lose its capabilities, shields and weapons systems fluctuating in on and off patterns, the "hiccups" of malfunctions becoming hazardous and aggravating to the crew (the turbolift and Warp Engine controls both harm poor Geordi who sure serves as a punching bag in this episode), this episode comments on the dependency on technology and how this can be detrimental to those on board ships in space. The opening destruction of the Yamato just left chills all over once again as if I was watching "Contagion" for the first time. The scene where Picard is accessing the personal logs of his old pal, the Captain of the Yamato, it is, to me, just as eerie and chilling as the ship's demise, because this is kind of the final voice of a now-dead crew who can no longer speak. Funny moments are here as Dr. Pulaski tells one of her staff how to splint an injured leg and the replicating machine doesn't give Picard his tea as asked for, instead producing a plant!

Warp Core Explosion

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 4 July 2012]

This episode has a stunning graphical interpretation of a Warp Core explosion and the vaporization of the primary hull of a Galaxy Class Starship.

The Explosion is completely circular, as it would be in Space. This effect was lost in later TNG and Deep Space Nine "Warp Core Explosions" including the one where the Jem Had'ar ship runs into a Galaxy-Class main deflector dish and bounces off a warp nacelle, in the DS9 Episode "The Jem Had'ar."

But the image that was burned into my mind was the image of the Yamato's Saucer Section, first the outer hull vaporizes revealing the Space Frame, and then that too turns into so many particles. And all Wesley can say is, "Captain..."

The Enterprise is showing the same type of, at first little, but then major, "Systems Failures" - Which start happening for no reason.

The Enterprise was on its way into The Romulan Neutral Zone because The Yamato's Captain had thought he had found the planet "Iconia"-The Iconians were "Masters of Air and Water" and could appear anywhere. So he sends Picard The Yamato's Logs, the malfunctions start right away and get worse.

But there is a Cloaked Romulan Warbird following them, and a cat and mouse game ensues: The Warbird de-cloaks and locks weapons on the Enterprise, but The Enterprise cannot raise Shields. But when the shields come up, the Warbird powers down. This goes back and forth until Riker suggests to the Warbird Commander that they "table the war and deal with their problems first"

Geordi stumbles upon a log regarding an "Iconian Probe Scan" which planted an Iconian Virus in the Yamato's Main Computer. The Enterprise got infected by opening The Yamato's "Email."-But if they are hit by the Iconian Probe Scanner, there would be no chance of saving the ship.

Geordi learns this while in Engineering, as he tries to get to the Bridge, the Turbo-lift goes Whack, and there is a great scene where Geordi is being plastered on all sides of the Lift, this was a very effective image of an Out-Of-Control Turbo-lift. As the Lift "pukes" Geordi out onto the Bridge he's able to get Worf to destroy the Probe.

Using the Yamato's Logs, the Enterprise locates Iconia. Picard, Worf and Data transport down and Data hits a wrong button and HE is scanned. Worf uses the Iconian Portal to bring Data back on the ship, but Picard, after learning from Data how to destroy the Iconian Transporter Portal, stays on the surface to blow it up-Escaping at the last minute to the bridge of the Warbird-Which is LOCKED into a self-destruct cycle!

Data fixes himself by "Rebooting" and Deleting the Virus, in this case the infected "Memories"-Which is the same process we would use to do the same thing on a PC.

O'Brien finds Picard-On the Warbird, and beams him back. Riker sends the Warbird instructions how to delete the Iconian Virus, but nevertheless, they haul arse out of there-Cos we've never seen a Romulan Forced-Quantum Singularity explosion (Probably would be an IMPlosion though)-It would have sucked in, not only The Enterprise, but the Planet Iconia as well!

Because the Warbird had become infected, and the only way for that to happen was for them to read the infected Yamato Starfleet "Email"- We must surmise that they are at least as good 24th Century Hackers as The Cardassians are.

Does even sophisticated technology have design flaws?

[russem31 · 14 April 2006]

ST:TNG:37 - "Contagion" (Stardate: 42609.1) - this is the 11th episode to air in the second season of The Next Generation. This episode revolves around system-wide failures that start plaguing the Enterprise and the reason to uncover the purpose as to why. The Galaxy-class starship Yamato makes a very short comeback, after seeing it (well, an "image" of it) in the "Where Silence Has Lease" episode. Also making a comeback are the Romulans again - this is the second encounter with Romulans after their reappearance in "The Neutral Zone". You see the contempt that Worf has for Romulans too. And, you see Picard ordering "tea, earl grey hot" his favorite drink.

Killed by stupidity.

[wwcanoer-tech · 6/10 · 6 January 2022]

A sci-fi viewers we readily accept a lot of things that don't make sense or are inconsistent, as well as necessary mistakes to move the plot but this episode requires everyone to be incredibly stupid.

Even in 1989 we knew that if something isn't working (electrical or mechanical), you try turning it off and on again. At that time our computers would boot from disk, so the idea of reboot from a fresh disk would be commonplace. Most viewers probably wonder why this is not mentioned.... they can't because it's the climatic solution!

The other obvious tactic is to isolate systems. The first being the saucer section if the virus is only in one half. We should hear them talk about whether they can disconnect any shields or weapons or life support to operated them manually. (Of course, that they integrate logs from an obviously infected ship into their main computer core is the first necessary stupid mistake. And that the Romulans can intercept their communications so easily.)

The idea that the tricorder must be destroyed is ridiculous. Star Fleet can't keep any secrets from the Romulans?! Just don't upload the data until you're at a secure location and don't transmit it.

It also makes no sense that the Romulans did not beam down to the surface as well. They would not want Star Fleet to learn more than them. We should see them trying but failing because of the systems problems.

My pet peeve is how slow the procedures are. Geordi runs as fast has he can to the bridge to say "destroy the probe" then we have to wait for Picard to tell Warf to target it, Warf to confirm targeted, and Picard to say "fire." Picard should be able to simply tell Warf "Destroy the probe now!"

Iconia

[gritfrombray-1 · 10/10 · 7 May 2007]

The writers strike plagued second season of this show produced some bad episodes like 'Shades Of Gray', and a few of them were drafts taken from the abandoned Star Trek II series in the '70s. But this little gem of an episode sees the sister ship of the USS Enterprise, the USS Yamato, destroyed by a systems failure within the first five minutes of the episode. When the Enterprise starts malfunctioning the crew believes it to be a design flaw. An assumption quickly forgotten when they realize that the download from the Yamato contains a computer virus. They are also plagued by a Romulan Warbird which is monitoring them. Funnily, the Romulans had tapped into the Yamato's download and are now having similar problems aboard ship! Picard, Data and Worf beam down to what they believe is Iconia, the planet the Yamato had been investigating and Data is infected! Worf gets Data back to the Enterprise through the Iconian portal, discovered on the planet. Geordi looks over Data and is unable to prevent his death. After a few minutes of dormancy Data sits up and looks around with a puzzled look on his face! His body had just repaired itself. Geordi realizes that it was a simple case of rebooting and uses the same technique on the ship. The Romulans are told how to restore their systems and the two ships depart. Brilliant stuff.

Have you tried blowing on it like a nes cartridge?

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 9 March 2021]

The hook of the episode about learning why/how the Iconians disappeared 200K years ago work for me. In the Alpha quadrant all the space varying species seem to be at relatively the same level of technology and culture ---- I have always wonder why we rarely (if ever) see a truly advanced species in TNG. I suppose we had our share in TOS? Yeah, that's probably it. Steering away from TOS style episodes after a bumpy season 1.

This episode is basically a big tease. Picard/Data touch upon differing views on the what brought about the destruction of the Iconians and question if they may have escaped through this gateway technology.

It is interesting that Picard chooses to destroy all information relating to this technology rather then take it back to Starfleet for analysis. Is taking technology off destroyed worlds part of the prime directive? I just can't see the Federation resisting temptations like this. Well, Picard is an evolved human so I'll accept it from him.

This episode does a good job of creating a mystery but it leaves us hanging in the wind without much payoff in this episode or subsequent episodes.

Good Confrontational Sci Fi

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 7 August 2014]

Picard enters the Neutral Zone to meet up with an old friend Varley, the Captain of the Yomato, a ship nearly identical to the Enterprise. This is dangerous because the dreaded Romulans are in the vicinity and don't like others imposing on the Neutral Zone. As Picard dialogues with his friend, it is revealed the the Yomato has been functioning strangely. There are ripples and vibrations. Something is missing in Captain Varley's explanation of things. He does hint at a kind of quest for a culture that existed eons ago. Before he can say much more, there is a breach of some kind and the Yomato is destroyed. All aboard are killed. Soon a Romulan War Bird uncloaks and the confrontation begins. The commander of this ship insists she had nothing to do with the explosion, and had she done this, she would not have stopped at one starship. What ensues is an effort to figure out precisely what has happened. Picard insists on going down to the mysterious planet, putting himself in danger. The Enterprise begins to be compromised by whatever forces there are. To their benefit, the same thing is happening to the Romulans. Data and Worf,go down with Picard and what ensues is quite fascinating. He does some translating of ancient languages and is able to start up the computer. He discovers a portal which includes a quick trip back to the bridge of the Enterprise. Unfortunately, he receives a major jolt from the ancient machine and is disabled. PIcard feels he must destroy this device but has to find a way out. Excellent episode.

Ancient travelers

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 20 March 2019]

The Enterprise is heading for the neutral zone where the NSC Yamato under Captain Thalmus Rasulala is in some deep trouble with system wide failure going on all over the ship. This is after they've made contact with what they believe was the planet where a long dead civilization the Iconians operated from and traveled the galaxy. Before their eyes the Enterprise crew witnesses the Yamato explode mid space.

We also learn that Jean-Luc Picard's hobby since Academy days is archeology. So the enthusiasm that Patrick Stewart had for this mission is now tempered somewhat.

The Romulans also arrive to see what they can learn from this dead world. All I can say it's not something either one should have to hold over the other.

A nice performance also from Carolyn Seymour as the Romulan captain.

A Very EXCELLENT Episode Featuring The Romulans

[jseph1234-262-617488 · 9/10 · 17 July 2022]

Now the title is a bit deceptive because this episode primarily focuses on the Ancient Iconanians but The Romulans do there very excellent roles Federation "Bad Guys"

This was another episode where at the end I was clapping because it was Pure Joy to watch like any REALLY Good Star Trek Episode is!

Teasing is only fun with a payoff ... at least for me.

[amusinghandle · 6/10 · 10 January 2024]

You are big tease TNG.

We get one of those episodes that has excellent build up by successfully establishing a mystery and even throws in the Romulans for some added tension but ultimately the pay off is pretty tame.

Why don't you go all out TNG? Have an image of the iconians shooting a primitive human/alien with a dart and studying/tagging them? No. We get an allusion to ancient myths instead.

If you reach out far enough you can grasp onto a message about not messing around with technology you do not understand. We lost the enterprises twin! 1000+ people! Ouch!

I do not mind the mystery box approach to episodes and movies but it needs to go somewhere for me. I also thought the Romulan presence could have been greater ---- a combined effort to resolve the issue? How about a cantankerous female Romulan engineer who just can't resist our charismatic huggable LaForge? Instead they are a looming potential threat.

To some up my feelings on this episode, "Oh, it's that episode that has the gateway like that mediocre TOS episode..."

The Crew Learns How to Do a System Reboot

[Samuel-Shovel · 5/10 · 1 August 2019]

In "Contagion" the Enterprise rushes to the aid of its sister ship in the Neutral Zone, the Yamamoto, only to watch helplessly as it malfunctions and explodes, killing everyone aboard. The Enterprise learns that the Yamamoto had crossed the border because it thought it had discovered the location of an ancient, high-tech race known as the Iconians whose ruins may help the Federation leap forward in their current technologies.

But the crew realizes too late that the Yamamoto was destroyed by an Iconian probe that started to rewrite the software aboard and made its systems go haywire. But downloading the destroyed ship's logs, the Enterprise has opened itself up to the same fate. To make matters worse, the ship is being stalked by a Romulan vessel who is also encountering technical problems.

An away team consisting of Picard, Data, and Worf beams down to the planet where they believe the Iconian ruins are and find some systems still up and running. Before Data can troubleshoot the answer, he's zapped by a probe and his programming starts to get recoded. Worf takes his back to the ship to see of he can get Geordi to fix him. Data seems dead but reboots after a few seconds, basically as a backup before all this code got injected into him. Geordi realizes they can do the same thing with the ship's system to fix everything. Picard destroys the remaining tech on the planet as it's too advanced for the Federation or the Romulans to safely use it. They beam Picard aboard and head back for Federation ship, telling the Romulans how to save themselves on their way out.

My biggest take away from this episode is how incompetent Geordi can be sometimes. He didn't think to reboot the system with a backup? That seems like one of the first things they should have tried when the ship got funky, if not the very first thing. Him or Data should have come up with that idea but it never crossed either of their minds.

So the ending is a bit of a disappointment. I would have liked to have seen a more complicated or clever solution. I would have liked Data to explain that the Iconian probe had infected all the backlogs as well, making a reboot impossible but apparently it was a valid option the whole time. It's a dumb finale.

I do like the Romulans inclusion, we haven't got any good time with them in a while. It was even cool to see Picard on their bridge, even if it didn't amount to much. Pulaski is really shoehorned into this ep for no apparent reason.

This was very close to a good episode but the last 10 minutes or so really drag it down for me. A more elegant solution really could have made this one of the highlights of Season 2.

Did you turn it off and turn it on again?

[pagesculptor-16090 · 9/10 · 31 December 2023]

A straightforward case of a computer virus, but the real meat and potatoes is watching the system deteriorate and its affect on the Enterprise and Romulan crews.

The on surface action had enough twists, again with humor, and it was nice to see Picard in action. And while they explained the solution to making the ship functional in fancy Star Trek speak, I was just waiting for Jen, Maurice, and Roy from the IT crowd to wander in and laugh and how long it took for them to diagnose a system reboot.

Though Counselor Deanna Troi laments,"In another time and place, this could be funny", this episode has a great mix of humor and suspense that is written well for a group centric episode.

"We're sitting on a bomb that could go off any second..."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 3 November 2023]

This one could have meant curtains for the Enterprise and its entire crew if not for some fancy maneuvering by Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Data (Brent Spiner) in figuring out how a once thought mythical planet might have planted the seeds of its destruction. Or should I say, the programming for its destruction. Following a distress call from the USS Yamato and its imminent demise, the Enterprise encounters a Romulan vessel in the Neutral Zone, as both ships suddenly begin experiencing odd anomalies in their computer systems. Romulan Sub-Commander Taris (Carolyn Seymour) voices her threat to destroy the Enterprise unless they leave the Neutral Zone, but Picard is determined to find out what's causing his ship's problems. In the Enterprise's case, a virus from the Yamato's logs downloaded to its computer was now reprogramming the ship's systems, with a similar problem overtaking the Romulan ship. Beaming down to the Iconian planet from which attacking strobes were launched, Picard relays information to Lieutenant LaForge aboard the Enterprise in order to reboot the Enterprise systems back to normal to avert disaster. A brief moment of tension arises when Data receives an overload shock from the Iconian transmitter and appears to have died, a whoa!! Moment reminiscent of the time Captain Kirk 'died' in 'Amok Time' from the original series. Not only is the Enterprise saved, but Picard uses his newfound knowledge to save the Romulan vessel from disaster as well. All in all, a well scripted episode with fine efforts from Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner, with LeVar Burton really earning his paycheck getting manhandled by the Iconian virus every which way from Sunday.

Battlefield Iconia

[anarchistica · 5/10 · 24 March 2020]

In the Scientology film Battlefield Earth the humans discover Harrier jets that are fuelled and functional after many decades. This was widely mocked. In this episode, the systems of the Iconians are still perfectly clean and working after 200.000 years. We don't even have words to describe how utterly ludicrous that is. Even worse is how Data can translate their language based on related (?) languages. For some reason Star Trek is always at its dumbest when language is involved. Oh, and in all that time no one has apparently discovered the planet either.

During the episode the Enterprise has serious computer errors. And no one thinks to do a cold reboot. Literally anyone who has ever used a computer would consider that first. Also there are no safeguards to prevent this? They just download the information from a ship that's experiencing major malfunctions?

However, despite being utterly and completely divorced from reality Contagion isn't bad. Shame no one from this universe was involved in writing this.

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

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 2 January 2022]

The Second Season of Star Trek the Next Generation has often been downplayed due to multiple production and writing staff problems, and several major cast changes. Although of mixed quality, it does contain some outstanding and brilliant episodes. Senior Trekker is extremely grateful to all those people who worked so hard under difficult circumstances to keep it on our screens.

Demons of Air and Darkness. This episode is not one of the most popular with many considering it over-wordy and rather too rapidly resolved. Personally, it has always been a great favourite.

This may be partly due to my memories of a small, family run convention which took place in a London suburb and gave us one of our first opportunities in the UK to see the new look. Second season Enterprise. Excited chatter about such subjects as "the New Doctor", "Riker's beard" and "O'Brien's promotion" fuelled the overall level of enthusiasm and this episode's script stood out for it's quality. Even if there was, as yet, little to compare it to.

"Now that should not have happened"............"I hope that's not a stutter".............."but not, I think, today"............... Most of the best lines were given to Patrick Stewart but Dr Pulaski's "Try a splint.............a time honoured way to practice medicine: with your head, and your heart, and your hands. So jump to it." was one of the best lines given to any doctor in the whole of Star Trek.

The concept of an enigmatic, vanished race such as the Iconians, from a long distant past was nearly sabotaged by the way in which their control room was able to preserve plastic consoles and cheap laminate wall coverings totally unscathed for over 200,000 years. Digital remastering has not been as kind to some aspects of 1980's television as to others but the distant destinations, seen through the mysterious gateway, were based upon a well-chosen set of photographs of real places and cleverly engender a sense of wonder. The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbeck? Now that's real class.

(The clever folks at memory Alpha have identified most of the rest of the pictures by now, should anyone wish to check.)

This was the first Star Trek appearance by busy actress, Carolyn Seymour, who continued to provide her talents to the canon in many different roles to come. She still works prolifically in Science Fiction to this day so perhaps we will yet see her make another return.

(Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5)