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(More customer reviews)In "Second Chances," the consequences of a long-ago accident resurface to give Commander Riker a glimpse of the road not taken, in his life. In the process, we get a more thoughtful look at one of Star Trek's most basic premises.
A few key science fiction concepts have always been Star Trek staples: phaser weapons, warp drive, transporters. However, surprisingly few Trek stories have dealt directly with the issue of how such technologies might "warp" basic facts of human life. "Second Chances" really does so, imagining the unsettling results of a transporter malfunction. As anyone who's ever watched the show knows, "transporters" enable matter to be instantaneously "de-materialized" at one location & "re-materialized" at another--literally recording the (molecular?) "pattern" of an object & faithfully reproducing it at second site. As difficult & dangerous as this sounds, the Trek universe presupposes that ordinary people routinely (& safely!) travel this way, 300-400 years from now.
Earlier stories have dealt with some obvious risks of this technology: for example, travellers killed as their "patterns" were lost or scrambled in transit. They have also dealt with improbable outcomes: a man split into "good" & "evil" twins, for example. Here, something more intriguing happens:
Years before the episode, a malfunctioning transporter had re-materialized Will Riker *both* at his intended destination & at his point of departure, in effect creating 2 absolutely identical men out of 1 original. One is left stranded & alone in an abandoned base on a remote planet. The other has a brilliant career, leading to his assignment to the Enterprise. Originally the same man, they have lived lives as different as Robinson Crusoe & Horatio Hornblower. Despite these different experiences, neither can be said to be the "true," "original," or "real" Will Riker. So that when the castaway Will Riker is rescued, both men must come to grips with the their different lives--as well as their feelings for the same woman: Riker's longtime love & best friend, Deanna Troi.
The story of the "castaway" Riker later resumes in the pivotal DS9 episode, "The Defiant," in which TNG & DS9 storylines involving the Maquis, the Cardassians, & the Dominion also come to an important crossroads.
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