Stardate: 47622.1. While investigating the mysterious suicide of a crew member, Troi and Worf begin to show romantic feeling towards one another.

Stardate: 47653.2. Upon returning from an away mission, Picard and Data find the ship drifting in space, and the crew de-evolving into their animal ancestors.

Stardate: 47829.1. Picard tries to save his newly-discovered son from the retaliation of a vengeful Ferengi whose only son was killed by Picard buring the Battle of Maxia many years before.

Stardate: 47869.2. The Enterprise's computer systems starts having repeated malfunctions, leading the crew to believe that it may be evolving into a new life form.

Stardate: 47941.7. Fresh from Starfleet's Advanced Tactical Training course, Ro Laren is assigned to infiltrate the Maquis. However, over time she begins to sympathize with them, which forces her to choose between her loyalty to the Federation, and her new friends in the Maquis.

Stardate: 47988.0. Shortly after Picard is diagnosed with a long-term, potentially debilitating brain disorder, he starts experiencing bizarre shifts into three main time periods: 25 years into the future, a few days before the Enterprise-D is sent on its mission to Farpoint station, and the present. Picard realizes that Q is behind these shifts through time.

Stardate: 47988.1. After his encounter with Q, Picard assembles the senior staff, and wonders if Q is actually giving him a chance to save humanity by showing him that the spatial anomaly also exists in the past. As they talk, the ship reaches the Neutral Zone, then Picard returns to the future, where Beverly's ship is also on the edge of the Neutral Zone. He convinces a reluctant Worf to accompany the group into Klingon territory, and then travels to the past, where he orders the crew into the Devron system.