The Nth Degree (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
"The Nth Degree" is the 93rd episode of the American science fiction television series "", and the 19th episode of the . Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. Rob Legato directed and oversaw visual effects for the episode. Legato eventually opted to create a 3-D effect wherein the Cytherian's huge head would appear to pop out of the screen. That, in turn, would allow him to have a literal face-to-face conversation with Picard. Plot. The "Enterprise  is sent to investigate the shutdown of the Argus Array, a deep-space telescope and radio antenna. Geordi La Forge and Lt. Reginald Barclay take a shuttlecraft to examine the array closely, discovering the presence of an alien probe nearby; the probe fires a pulse as they near it, disabling the shuttlecraft and knocking out Barclay. The Enterprise" crew recovers the shuttle and are forced to destroy the probe when it follows the ship, believing the Argus Array was affected by a similar pulse. Barclay recovers, but the crew finds him to be much more intelligent than before, his IQ  steadily rising. The Array starts to undergo a series of catastrophic failures. Barclay, with his newfound intelligence, casually explains how they can use the "Enterprise" computers to prevent the failures, a task that will only take them two days to complete, much to La Forge's disbelief. Though Barclay's solution works temporarily, the rate of failure drastically increases, and Barclay finds the "Enterprise" computer too slow to keep up with it. He goes to the holodeck and creates a device that allows him to interact directly with the "Enterprise" and array computer systems, putting an end to the Array 's failures. The crew finds that Barclay has become too integrated with the computer, and when they try to shut down the computer, Barclay sends the ship into a "subspace inversion," jumping the ship across a great distance faster than warp travel. They arrive at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and are met by a representative of a race of beings called the Cytherians, who are far more advanced than humans and find amusement in their "bipedal locomotion" and "hierarchical collective command structure". Barclay, who was removed from the computer by the Cytherians and has lost his heightened  intelligence, arrives on the bridge to help explain what has transpired. The Cytherians are friendly explorers like the Federation, but instead of traveling themselves to meet other races, they instead have launched probes that instill the necessary knowledge into beings to make them come to the Cytherians. The probe was unable to reprogram the Argus Array or shuttlecraft, as technology isn't always compatible, and thus caused the failures in their systems. The Cytherians were, however, able to reprogram Barclay giving him the powers to accomplish his tasks. The "Enterprise" stays with the Cytherians for ten days, exchanging knowledge that  will take decades to fully recognize. The Cytherians then return the "Enterprise" to the Argus Array. Barclay finds himself back to normal, although he keeps vivid memories of his temporary transformation and is able to play chess well even though he has never played chess. Reception. James Hunt, reviewing for the site Den of Geek!, jovially recaps the plot ("...they meet a giant floating head alien who speaks like he was bussed in from "". Apparently the race in this star system are so lazy that they like to explore by bringing ships to them, so Barclay did exactly what they  want. The "Enterprise" crew stick around to share information, and try not to think about the array they failed to repair."), remarks on trivia and passes judgment on the episode: Perhaps my favourite thing is that it didn't just go full "Flowers For Algernon", which would've been the easy way out of the plot. Nope, the "Enterprise" crew completely loses control of the situation and basically they would've died if the circumstances had been less benevolent. In narrative terms it's probably not particularly satisfying for the lead characters to be passive observers to the story's  climax, but as a sci-fi nerd I enjoyed the exploration of an idea through to its natural conclusion. Keith DeCandido, in his review for Tor.com, gave the episode an 8 out of 10, writing, "it's an excellent episode that works on pretty much every level. It's a good sequel to "Hollow Pursuits," as it gives Barclay what he always wanted — confidence, creativity, intelligence — but yanks it away from him at the end. It provides a wonderfully alien species in the Cytherians, who are in the fine "Star Trek" tradition of aliens who seem menacing but turn out  to be more complicated than that. It makes very good use of "Cyrano de Bergerac", one of the greatest plays in the history of human theatre. ... Ultimately, what sells it is Dwight Schultz, who gives a superb performance..." Jamahl Epsicokhan, also citing Daniel Keyes's classic science fiction novel in a review of 4 out of 4 stars, writes, "The character outline is "Flowers for Algernon", except instead of taking a mentally challenged man and turning him into a genius, it takes a man of average intelligence (for this crew) and turns him into an ultra-confident, cosmic super-genius . In the opening scene, regular-Barclay is playing Cyrano de Bergerac in a performance that, let's face it, is pathetic despite his best efforts. Later, watch how genius-Barclay's acting is so mesmerizing that it practically makes Crusher weep." He goes on, The way the crew reacts to all this is absolutely honest human nature; they fear what they cannot predict or understand... especially when Barclay puts an energy field off the starboard side of the ship and prepares to send the crew 30,000 light-years through it... The suspense of what waits at the other side  is one of the true moments of unpredictable awe in the "Trek" canon. What actually waits there, alas, cannot live up to that awe, but I did still enjoy the episode's sense of whimsical curiosity, in which it turns out that advanced aliens used Barclay as an implement to bring the "Enterprise" here in carrying out their own exploration of the galaxy. Barclay is of course returned to normal... "The Nth Degree" is a splendidly unique amalgam of tones and themes, plot and characterization, imagination and bemusement, and it ends up being one of the most fascinating hours  in TNG's run.In 2020, "ScreenRant" ranked the Cytherians the 8th smartest aliens of the "Star Trek" franchise, highlight their knowledge of subspace distortions. Home video. This episode was released in the United States on September 3, 2002, as part of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" season four DVD box set. CBS announced on September 28, 2011, in celebration of the series' twenty-fifth anniversary, that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would be completely re-mastered in 1080p high definition from the original 35mm film negatives. For the remaster almost 25,000 reels of original film stock were  rescanned and reedited, and all visual effects were digitally recomposed from original large-format negatives and newly created CGI shots. The release was accompanied by 7.1 DTS Master Audio. On July 30, 2013 "The Nth Degree" was released on 1080p high definition as part of the Season 4 Blu-ray box set in the United States. The set was released on July 29, 2013 in the United Kingdom.