Worst of Star Trek TNG---A Matter of Time

"A Matter of Time" was the 9th episode of the 5th season. It featured Matt Frewer has a man who suddenly appears aboard the bridge and states he's a traveler from the 26th century.

From the get-go, this visitor is extremely annoying and offers little information about himself all the while getting excited about insignificant things such as the arrangement of Captain Picard's statuettes on a table in his ready room.

One thing ridiculous about this episode, besides the obnoxious visitor, is that the captain seems to accept at face value that he is who he claims to be and allows him to roam the ship and give out questionnaires to senior staff about their thoughts on their modern technology. He can also be seen stealing ship's equipment such as tricorders and the doctor's diagnostic tools. He also has the annoying and nervous habit of constantly looking at his futuristic watch, insisting he only has so much time.

Meanwhile, Geordi in engineering is busy trying to come up with a way to stop the planet, that's orbit they are in, from freezing over from dense volcanic ash in its atmosphere. Picard tries to enlist the advice from the time traveler in how to proceed with the experiment and whether or not it will work. The traveler, who calls himself Rasmussen, refuses to help and uses the excuse that he could jeopardize future events.

The experiment to restore the planet's atmosphere and save its millions of inhabitants is successful and Rasmussen makes his exit to the shuttlebay and finds the crew waiting for him. He allows Data to enter the craft he arrived in with the understanding he can have a look around. There he attempts to abduct Data and take him with him back to the 22nd century where he's actually from. He reveals he's an inventor and has plans to use the stolen technology to make a profit. What he doesn't realize that the crew is on to his game and has deactivated the devices, rendering them useless.

Data comes out of the craft with Rasmussen. The craft, being on a time schedule that Rasmussen was following, suddenly disappears to the future while Rasmussen is now stranded in the 24th century and escorted by security to await justice.

This episode was irritating. Most guest aliens and humanoids on the show are pleasant additions to the storyline, or at the very least tolerable. This one was a downright nuisance.