Stardate 45349.1: The Enterprise is on a mission to mitigate the effects of atmospheric pollution on Penthara IV when Worf registers a temporal distortion. A time-traveling historian from 26th century Earth, Berlinghoff Rasmussen, beams aboard the ship. He insists to be shown "artifacts" and has questionnaires for the crew to be filled out. Troi is convinced he may not be trusted, but most crew members go along with him being a constant nuisance. After an attempt to heat up the atmosphere using geothermal energy has caused volcanic eruptions and thereby even more pollution, La Forge develops a dangerous procedure which might tear off the atmosphere instead of preserving it. Picard asks Rasmussen whether he should proceed as suggested, but Rasmussen refuses to reveal anything about the future. Picard decides to go for it regardless and succeeds. It turns out that Rasmussen is actually from the 22nd century. He tries in vain to escape with stolen gadgets and with Data, and his time pod leaves without him.

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