# Old Memory: ST:TNG episode, novel, or movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 23, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982 "2013-12-23T00:04:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/1 "2013-12-23T00:04:29Z")
When I was younger, I watched Star Trek, Next Gen with my family as it went on through the years, and we also watched some of the movies. I have a very faint and very short memory of Riker (and maybe Picard) being taken out of (or being put back into) dark, small, coffin-like cages with floor-level, half-size doors/grates. The memory has them in a long hallway of similar cages/cells, and he/they were put/kept there by enemies who my mind insists were Romulan, but could easily be Cardassian or ??. The faint memory feels like he (or they) were there a long time, and were tortured while there, but that’s not part of the actual memory, just the sense I have of it. My husband and I are currently half-way through Season 5, and it hasn’t come up yet, if it’s even part of the series and not from a movie or a very visual memory of a novel. I’ve been puzzling over it for a while now, and can’t manage to remember any other context or anything else that would help me nail it down. Does this ring a bell for anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/2 "2013-12-23T00:07:09Z")
Maybe “[Chain of Command](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command,_Part_II_%28episode%29)”? It’s halfway through season 6. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/3 "2013-12-23T00:15:21Z")
Any chance you’re thinking of the DS9 episode “[Paradise](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Paradise_(episode))”? Sisko gets locked up in a “punishment box” similar to what you’re describing. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/4 "2013-12-23T00:26:42Z")
No, it’s not either of those. Chain of Command is Picard alone, getting mind-fucked by the Cardassians. Unless I’ve forgotten it, he mostly is shown inside that one room where the dude does the four-lights-are-five-lights routine. Paradise isn’t it because there were more than one confinement cell, and they were all inside - in a long hallway. Thanks tho - at least I know what ones they aren’t… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/5 "2013-12-23T00:32:44Z")
Well, there was a story arc in DS9 that featured Ezri and Worf as prisoners of the Jem-Haddar. Nothing comparable from TNG (at least the TV series) comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/6 "2013-12-23T00:35:12Z")
What’s the name of the first episode of that series arc? It’s entirely possible that I have the characters and ST series wrong - like I said, it’s a short-ass memory. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/7 "2013-12-23T00:44:29Z")
“[Penumbra](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Penumbra_(episode))”, seventh season. Ezri and Worf are captured by Breen and its gets pretty rough for a few episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/8 "2013-12-23T00:52:45Z")
Damn. From the synopsis, that doesn’t appear to be it either. Thanks for the help tho! Maybe I imagined it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/9 "2013-12-23T02:12:58Z")
Perhaps the episode where various members of the cast were abducted by aliens from another dimension and experimented on? The survivors got together on the holodeck, and had the computer mock up the alien operating room from their various memories? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/10 "2013-12-23T07:23:11Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Perhaps the episode where various members of the cast were abducted by aliens from another dimension and experimented on? The survivors got together on the holodeck, and had the computer mock up the alien operating room from their various memories? “Schisms,” episode 6x05, if you’re having trouble finding it. The aliens were said to be from “subspace” rather than from another dimension, so I thought that might give you trouble. ---
**Author:** ![teddybound](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@teddybound](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teddybound)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/11 "2013-12-23T12:13:17Z")
Could it be frame of mind? Where riker was captured? ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/12 "2013-12-23T13:22:21Z")
Since you opened the door on your memory possibly being based on a novel, the book “Imzadi II” has an alternate universe version of Riker being held captive and by the Romulans for many years. I don’t recall anything about half sized doors but I have not read the book in years. If you want something for the series I have one thought. What was the episode where Riker was tricked by an alien child into thinking that it was 16 years into his future and he had lost his memory of the intervening years. There were simulated Romulans there and I know that at one point Riker and the disguised alien had to escape through a small, low grate set into a wall. Could be that’s what you’re thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/13 "2013-12-23T13:39:38Z")
[Future Imperfect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Imperfect) is the episode in question. If you’re into season 5 then you’re already past this so it’s probably not the correct one. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/14 "2013-12-23T15:50:04Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > [Future Imperfect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Imperfect) is the episode in question. If you’re into season 5 then you’re already past this so it’s probably not the correct one. No, and it was frustrating as hell when it wasn’t that episode. I was so hopeful, and then it didn’t match up. I’ll check the other two options and see whether they seem familiar, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/15 "2013-12-23T15:57:42Z")
Hmph. Not Schisms or Frame of Mind either. I’ll look into the Imzadi II book - I often have really visual memories of stuff I read, so that may very well be it. Thanks everyone for the help so far! ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/16 "2013-12-23T22:43:02Z")
Is that the one where Riker keeps bleeding from his temple? He started off acting in a play or something only to find himself in some sort of mental institution? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/17 "2013-12-23T22:56:55Z")
[Allegiance?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegiance_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29) ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/18 "2013-12-23T22:58:53Z")
Sorry, not it either. Good episode tho. Picard gets to be all deductive and clever about who the agent is in the room. And **Shakes** , the Riker bleeding from the temple is _Frame of Mind_, yes. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/19 "2013-12-23T23:10:01Z")
I recall an episode where there was a “boy” using images from Riker’s mind to make illusions of him being kidnapped by Romulans. It turned out that he was doing it to Riker because he was lonely and wanted company or something. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982/20 "2013-12-24T00:17:42Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I recall an episode where there was a “boy” using images from Riker’s mind That was “Future Imperfect” mentioned above. Good episode, but not the one wanted. I was so mad when the episode ended without someone shoving Riker into a cubicle in the wall, I can’t even tell you! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-memory-st-tng-episode-novel-or-movie/676982.md?page=2)