After investigating a distress call from a ship that was lost seventy five years previously the Enterprise finds in on the surface of a Dyson Sphere; a huge construction that is as large of the Earth's orbit and contains a star at its centre. When an away team beams down to the crashed ship Geordi discovers that there is somebody in the transporter buffer. When this person is brought out we are greeted by a familiar face; Montgomery Scott! He is keen to see the new Enterprise but it soon becomes apparent that technology has moved on since his time and he soon gets the feeling he is just a relic with no purpose. After having a large drink he retreats to a holographic reconstruction of the bridge of the original Enterprise. Here Picard talks to him before suggesting something he could do to help. Scotty then beams back to his old ship with Geordi in order to access that ship's survey data on the sphere. While they are there the Enterprise activates one of the sphere's systems and is pulled inside. They discover that there is nobody inside and the star has become unstable; there is no obvious way out but ultimately a brave manoeuvre by Scotty saves the day.
Fans of the original series are sure to welcome the return of James Doohan as Scotty although they may be concerned that early scenes featuring him show him getting snapped at by Geordi as he makes comments about the operation of the Enterprise that demonstrate his knowledge is out of date. Thankfully this serves to give us a more thoughtful and rather melancholy story as Scotty tries to come to term with the fact that time has moved on. This leads to some great scenes; most notably when he has a drink with Data and Data utters the line 'It is green' when asked what a certain beverage is, and the later scene where he talks to Picard on the bridge of the old Enterprise. It was great that ultimately it is the 'old relic' who saves the day with his old ship. Away from Scotty's return the idea of the Dyson sphere was interesting although I confess that I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see what life inside the structure may have been like as it had been abandoned. Overall this proved to be a fine episode with a fine performance from a classic character.
Fans of the original series are sure to welcome the return of James Doohan as Scotty although they may be concerned that early scenes featuring him show him getting snapped at by Geordi as he makes comments about the operation of the Enterprise that demonstrate his knowledge is out of date. Thankfully this serves to give us a more thoughtful and rather melancholy story as Scotty tries to come to term with the fact that time has moved on. This leads to some great scenes; most notably when he has a drink with Data and Data utters the line 'It is green' when asked what a certain beverage is, and the later scene where he talks to Picard on the bridge of the old Enterprise. It was great that ultimately it is the 'old relic' who saves the day with his old ship. Away from Scotty's return the idea of the Dyson sphere was interesting although I confess that I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see what life inside the structure may have been like as it had been abandoned. Overall this proved to be a fine episode with a fine performance from a classic character.