Night Terrors is a fourth season episode of The Next Generation.

Plot summary

The Enterprise is searching a binary star system in search the U.S.S. Brittain, a Federation science vessel which went missing a month ago. The crew locates the ship, but the Brittain is derelict, and all the crew are dead.. save one: the ship's counsellor, Andrus Hagan, who is discovered hiding in a room just off the bridge. Hagan has somehow survived, but he has been shaken by the experience and is in a sort of coma.

Troi tries to use her telepathy to contact Hagan. Meanwhile, Geordi and Data set to work repairing the Brittain - but are amazed to discover everything is in working order, but they cannot get the ship to move.

Conducting her own research, Dr. Crusher determines that all of the Brittain crew died at each other's hands.

That night, Counsellor Troi has difficulty sleeping. She is having a recurring nightmare, where she is aloft amongst some clouds. In the mist she hears a voice repeating "Eyes in the dark, one moon circles."

Four days later, with the investigation stalled, Picard decides the time has come to move on. But, the Enterprise seems to now be suffering the same problem as the Brittain, the engines are apparently in good working order, but propulsion is not working. In addition, the crew is becoming increasingly irritable.

After considerable study, and in the face of an increasingly exasperated crew, Data determines that the Enterprise and the Brittain are caught in a spatial phenomenon known as a "Tychon rift." Only a tremendous explosion would provide enough force to get the ship free from the rift's influence. Data suggests an enregy burst from the ship's deflector might do the trick.

At this point the crew begins to suffer from a series of nightmarish hallucinantions. Picard hallucinates that the trubolift is collapsing on him. Riker imagines there are snakes on his leg. After Bev has a hallucination of her own, she realizes what's wrong. Ever since they got near the rift none of the crew have been able to dream. And without this natural function, they will all gradually go insane. The exception of course is Troi, with her "one moon circles" dream.

As the crew begins to come unglued, and a fight breaks out in Ten Forward, and Worf, ashamed of his growing fear, attempts suicide, but is talked out of it by Troi.

Commander Data powers up the deflector array, and fires the burst. No effect - the ship is not freed. With much of the command staff now incapacitated, Data becomes the Acting Captain.

Finally, in a blink of inspiration, Troi realizes that her nightmares is actually a message from an alien intelligence. She deduces that there is another ship caught on the other side of the rift, and someone on that vessel is attempting to communicate telepathically. This telepathic message is also interfering with the dreams of the other crewmembers. Deciphering the aliens' cryptic message, Troi and Data realize that the other ship needs hydrogen in order to create an explosion to throw them clear.

Data sends hydrogen from the Enterprise into the rift, and Troi sends a telepathic message to the aliens. An explosion results, and both ships are released.

External links

• Night Terrors at StarTrek.com
• Night Terrors at Memory-Alpha.org

Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes