Posted in: CBS, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: brannon braga, Jonathan Frakes, kelsey grammer, star trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Frakes & Braga Look Back on Classic TNG Ep "Cause & Effect"

"Cause & Effect" remains one of the most memorable episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation as it just celebrated its 30th anniversary. The plot centered on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D being stuck in a time loop, where the loop results in constant disaster a la Groundhog Day where the crew dies and the ship explodes upon contact with another starship, the U.S.S. Bozeman with Enterprise's Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) at the center of trying to solve the mystery. Actor-director Jonathan Frakes and writer Brannon Braga spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the experience.

Braga's Star Trek Conundrum Pitching Episode

According to Frakes, who directed the episode, and Braga, the script was seen as a gamble as it deviated from the traditional outings since The Original Series. "Originally, I was a staff writer at the time, and I was pitching to [the late TNG showrunner and executive producer] Michael Piller a Rashomon-style idea I wanted to do," Braga said. "Why not just tell the same story over and over? That seemed like something I haven't seen before." Rashomon (1950) was directed by Akira Kurosawa that revolutionized storytelling by repeating the same story told from different points of view.

"We weren't really committed to doing time travel at the time," Braga recalled. "[Trek creator] Gene Roddenberry, who was still alive, wasn't a big fan of time travel, because I think he felt it was a bit of a science fiction cliché. And he'd done it with [the classic Original Series episode] 'City on the Edge of Forever.'" The writer had to argue that "Cause and Effect" wasn't a traditional time travel story going dramatically forward or backward in time, but rather in a loop. "The early reactions to the script were similar to the reactions that the audience had when watching the episode, which was confusion," he said. "Because you're reading that script and you're like, 'Wait a second. There's got to be a mistake here. The acts just keep repeating. Is this a joke?'"

"At first, I didn't really get that what Brannon was trying to do was a different kind of Rashomon story," Frakes, who plays William Riker, said. "It was an evolution almost of the way [the characters] understand what was going on. There are only so many shots you can do. So, stylistically, we tried different things for different scenes — and J.P. Farrell, who cut the episode, deserves a lot of the credit for making those sequences work. We had a plan that we needed to shoot each scene more than one way … we would shoot the master from either side of the room. But I really enjoyed the challenge. Once I realized that [Brannon] wasn't fucking with me, it was fun." For more on the episode including a new shot Frakes TNG never did before, the climactic scene where the characters start to unravel the mystery in their poker scene, the scenario's resolution, and Kelsey Grammer's appearance, you can go to THR.

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