Cause and Effect (TNG episode)
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"Cause and Effect" is considered by many fans to be one of the best episodes of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It features guest star Kelsey Grammer and was directed by Jonathan Frakes from a script by Brannon Braga. It originally aired as Episode 118 on 23 March 1992 (Stardate 45652.1).
The show has a famous opening sequence: The Enterprise has suffered heavy damage and attempts to control the disaster are failing. Captain Picard issues the frantic order, "All hands abandon ship. Repeat, all hands abandon..." as the ship explodes.
After a commercial break, the episode resumes as if nothing happened. Riker, Crusher, Worf, and Data are playing cards, but a sense of déjà vu allows Dr. Crusher to call Riker's bluff. Crusher then goes to sickbay to treat Geordi La Forge for dizziness, and again thinks she's done the same before. After she goes to bed, she is haunted by strange voices.
Soon after, the Enterprise loses power as a temporal anomaly erupts nearby, and a second ship emerges from it, locked on a collision course. Riker suggests decompressing the main shuttle bay, but Picard takes Data's advice to use a tractor beam. This fails and the ship is again destroyed like it was in the opening sequence.
The same scenes are repeated again after a commercial break, but the crew continues to think they have done this all before. They determine that they are caught in a time loop, and spend the rest of the episode working out a way to escape it. In the end, they embed a message into the time loop using déjà vu, and escape after Data notices that the number they keep seeing (three) matches the pips on Riker's collar. He blows out the shuttlebay and evades the incoming ship, which turns out to be the USS Bozeman, missing 70 years ago. The Enterprise crew later ascertain that they themselves have been stuck in the time loop for 17.4 days.
The production team had hoped to get Kirstie Alley in a cameo role behind Kelsey Grammar in the USS Bozeman shots, but her asking price was too high for such a small role.