This is, without question, the very best bit of Star Trek that I have watched so far in this project.
I’m always a bit of a sucker for a good alternate timeline story, enough so that I’m usually willing to put up with the usual conceit that the changes to the timeline have somehow resulted in no changes to the cast. This episode shows what you can do when you go beyond that, bringing Tasha Yar back for an appearance that is easily better then the sum of everything she’d done in Season One.
Everything hangs together well – in particular, Picard is great. Some people might call his willingness to believe Guinan so readily a plot hole, but I think that the episode establishes well enough that it is, in its own way, a move of desperation because of the dire position the Federation is in.
There’s also a lot of clever, subtle work in revamping the Enterprise and the costumes to appear more war-like.
The one plot hole that bothered me: if there are no families on board, then how on Earth has Wesley gotten to be an ensign in this universe?
170 down, 567 to go.