“Remember Me” is episode five of season four of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Enterprise is arriving at Starbase 133 and Dr Crusher is in the transporter room waiting for her mentor and friend, Dr Dalen Quaice, to beam aboard, as the ship is dropping him off home. When Dr Quaice arrives, she chats to him and asks if Patricia’s death was why he gave up his post. Yes; her absence was too distracting in familiar places. The doctor understands. Quaice says that the worst part of growing old is so many people from your life are gone.
In engineering, Wesley is working on something but Geordi needs his warp engine back. Wesley is almost done; he’s testing a new warp field. Wesley’s mother arrives and is watching when Wesley finishes his experiment and there’s a flash. That shouldn’t have happened and Geordi runs a diagnostic. Nothing seems to be wrong and Commander Riker contacts them to let them know they’re leaving the starbase. Wesley’s mother has gone.
The next morning, Dr Crusher heads to Quaice’s quarters. They’re empty and the computer states he isn’t on the Enterprise. She calls Worf and explains. Worf wasn’t aware of any passenger. The doctor thought it was standard procedure for him to be informed after the captain approved it. It is. Worf also queries the computer and organises a search. And asks why Quaice’s belongings would be missing.
Worf, Data and Dr Crusher brief the captain in his ready room. There’s no trace of Quaice onboard, alive at least, and it is possible he could have returned to the starbase. Captain Picard orders the transporter log to be checked and Starbase Command contacted. Before Dr Crusher leaves, he has a word with her about the procedure for informing him about passengers. She did. He never received the request, yet someone responded and approved it. On the bridge, neither the starbase nor Starfleet have any records on Dr Quaice. Riker and the doctor head to the transporter room and speak to O’Brien, who beamed Quaice onboard. He doesn’t remember this, but remembers Dr Crusher coming, alone, and leaving, alone.
In the turbolift, the doctor suggests to Riker that the records have been tampered with. And perhaps O’Brien has been as well. She decides to examine him in sickbay, where she tries to contact two other doctors. Neither of whom are on the Enterprise, according to the computer.
Dr Crusher tells the captain that they, and four other members of her staff, have disappeared. Her duty nurses, their own families, don’t remember them. There’s nothing wrong with O’Brien either. Then Wesley contacts the captain; there’s something they need to see in engineering.
There, Wesley explains he was experimenting with Kosinski’s warp field equations, as seen in “Where No One Has Gone Before” and that there was a flash of light. The doctor remembers that. Something caught in the warp bubble they created could have vanished and gone. Somewhere. But Quaice wasn’t in engineering, there are now others and memories have been erased and computer records lost.
Dr Crusher returns to sickbay, then heads to the bridge. She no longer has any staff. Commander Riker asks why that surprises her. The doctor says she can’t be the sole medical officer on a ship with over 1,000 people. And Data states the ship’s crew is only 230.
The captain speaks to the doctor privately. She understands how it sounds. Picard has no choice but to believe her, when the safety of his crew is at risk. But she needs to be sure about herself too. Dr Crusher has been examined; by herself, as she had no other staff, and found nothing wrong. She will take to Troi, but asks the captain to return to starbase for a full diagnostic. She realises it’s only on her word. Her word is always good enough.
In sickbay, some sort of vortex opens and nearly drags Dr Crusher in. No-one can find anything and more and more people are missing, and disappearing from everyone’s memories. Only the doctor herself is unaffected as more and people vanish with no trace they ever existed, apart from her own memories. This is one of the most genuinely creepy episodes of the series, though the summaries now usually reveal the twist before the episode itself does, making it have less impact.