A vast region in space (a "globular cluster") is to be charted by the Enterprise. To speed up charting this region, Geordi has come up with a way using warp energy to enhance censors to reach longer distances more quickly. What happens is that a strange "existence" from deep subspace (emitting tetryon particles, particles that shouldn't exist in normal space) is starting to form in Cargo Bay 4, a rift begins to open and threatens to cause a hull breach if not closed. Meanwhile—and this is where it really gets disturbing—members of the crew (Riker, Worf, Geordi, and a few other selected members) are "losing time", and it could have something to do with the rupture in Cargo Bay 4. The scene I consider particularly unsettling is when the crew members converge in the Holodeck with Counselor Troi to construct the table and the feeling of entrapment (and the sounds that exist around it) that haunt them. Riker's loss of sleep is the catalyst that slowly leads to the mystery's unraveling, with Geordi's visors "cutting out" and an infection setting up around his neural inputs, Worf's unnerving reaction to a barber's scissors, and Data's inability to count for 90 minutes (a signature that detects his presence on the ship was missing during that time) all confirming that whatever is happening to them it started when Cargo Bay 4 began to feature the subspace rupture. The existence of "curious alien lifeforms" unable to exist in the universe of the Enterprise crew recalls the accounts of humans being experimented on by aliens (Fire in the Sky), and the photography inside the "testing facility" (and the robed aliens with their clicking "voices" communicating to each other during experimentation, study, and research) purposely evokes a sense of dread and terror. Schisms is totally an absorbing, fascinating experience because of how the plot unfolds like a mystery giving the viewer more and more details until we get the whole puzzle solved. The episode ends with the idea that these curious aliens sent off a probe to further study the universe they are unable to currently occupy
with a member of the crew dead, another having an arm severed and re-attached, it's creepy to think that sooner or later they might find a way to exist in the universe of the Enterprise.
Review of Schisms
