“Power Play”
Written by Paul Ruben and Maurice Hurley and Rene Balcer and Herbert Wright & Brannon Braga
Directed by David Livingston
Season 5, Episode 15
Production episode 40275-214
Original air date: February 24, 1992
Stardate: 45571.2
Captain’s Log: The Enterprise is investigating a very faint distress call from an uninhabited Class-M moon of Mab-Bu VI. There is magnetic interference from storms and such on the planet, which makes it impossible to localize the distress call, nor be sure if the lack of life-sign readings is accurate.
Data recognizes the distress signal as belonging to the U.S.S. Essex, a Daedalus-class starship under the command of Captain Bryce Shumar, which went missing in the area some two centuries earlier. Given the elapsed time, Picard assumes it to be an automated signal for a crew that must be long dead.
[Lunchtime, Miles! Let’s do it!]