Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: June 10, 1997
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304458770
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,191 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Red alert! The Enterprise is trapped in time and doomed to eternal destruction.

When the starship enters the Typhon Expanse, a previously unexplored region of space, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) encounters a feeling of dj vu while playing cards. Then in Sickbay, she examines a dizzy Geordi (LeVar Burton) and experiences the same sensation again. Later, there is a problem on the bridge and the main propulsion systems collapse. Suddenly, an older Starship appears out of the Expanse on a collision course. Evasive maneuvers fail and the two ships collide and explode!

Instantly, the officers are playing poker again. Soon the entire crew realizes they are stuck in a casuality loop, endlessly repeating the same fragment of time. Now they must figure out a way to escape the loop or be doomed to eternal destruction.

Guest starring Kelsey Grammer as Captain Bateson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Cause and Effect"-Exploring the flow of time and time loops, January 2, 2000

By 

Abby - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 118: Cause and Effect [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This was an incredibly intelligent episode. I haven't had any formal training in chaos or time theory (just that of science fiction! :-), so this episode presented the idea of time flow and time loops to an amateur like myself in a very clear and understandable way. The episode really made me think and caused me to ask alot of new questions about fate and time. This episode is similar to an earlier take on time flow done by the Twilight Zone and was simulated later by the X-files in the episode "Monday." Great script, great acting, and a fun cameo done by Kelsey Grammer of "Frasier."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "All hands abandon ship..." BOOM!!!, January 25, 2004

By 

Reginald D. Garrard "the G-man" (Camilla, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 118: Cause and Effect [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The above line, and subsequent collision, still chills after repeated viewings as it did when the episode aired over fifteen years ago. Although the destruction of the Enterprise is fiction, the line resonates almost as much as did the real-life "Go with throttle up" spoken to the crew of the ill-fated Challenger.

"Cause and Effect" is one of those time loop episodes that find a welcome home in most science fiction. And it's a remarkably well-paced one, with each "revisitation" as enigmatic as the first one.

This is is first-rate in all aspects!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly entertaining episode..., January 22, 2003

By 

L. Varnau "nerff20" (Indy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 118: Cause and Effect [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Directing "Cause and Effect" couldn't have been an easy task, but Jonathan Frakes does incredibly well. The Enterprise seems to be trapped in a time loop that starts with the crew playing poker, and ends in the ship colliding with another ship and exploding. How does this happen? How can they prevent it? Watching the episode, you'd think some of the repeated scenes would get old. They don't. In fact, it gets more interesting as the crew begins to realize something's wrong. The ending is terrifically smart and this episode is a TNG classic.