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Old 05-23-2019, 12:49 AM
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Nate the Great Nate the Great is offline
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WORF: She is very like a Klingon woman.

I thought human women were too fragile for him! Still a Worf/Yar shipper, by the way...

Captain's log, supplemental. A review of stellar charts has revealed a Class M planet only half a light year from the Bringloid system.

The ship's sensors can't find a Class M planet at that distance? What point does this sentence achieve? Just say that you're going to the nearest Class M planet!

WORF: You can obtain spirituous liquours from the food dispensers.

As opposed to...cola liquors?

WORF: No, if you wish, it can be real alcohol.
DANILO: Good.
WORF: With all of the deleterious effects intact.

It's odd how Worf seems against real alcohol here when we'll see him drink other Klingons under the table in Deep Space Nine.

BRENNA: Why did you have to tell them that this magic wall can give them more than meat and potatoes? Now we'll never get a lick of work out of them.
WORF: Madam, have you considered a career in security?
BRENNA: If it's anything like babysitting, I'm an authority.

Great joke.

GRANGER: Two women and three men represented an insufficient gene pool from which to build a society.
PULASKI: How did you suppress the natural sexual drive? Drugs? Punitive laws?
GRANGER: In the beginning, a little bit of each. Now, after three hundred years, the entire concept of sexual reproduction is a little repugnant to us.

I'm confused as to why "insufficient gene pool"="no children whatsoever are allowed". What's wrong with maintaining the "natural sexual drive" even if you have to keep track of who everyone sleeps with?

GRANGER: We need an infusion of fresh DNA. I was hoping that you would be willing to share some tissue samples.
RIKER: You want to clone us?
GRANGER: Yes.

I'm confused as to why "we need clones from more people"="we must clone the first people we find whether they like it or not, instead of asking the billions in the Federation for volunteers."

RIKER: It's not a question of harm. One William Riker is unique, perhaps even special. But a hundred of him, a thousand of him diminishes me in ways I can't even imagine.

Insert Thomas Riker joke here. Even two William Rikers around seems to have diminished him! Insert Imzadi novel joke here as well. (You've all read Imzadi, haven't you?)

LAFORGE: Commander, with this I can see better than your average person. Now when someone lies there are certain physical manifestations. Variations in blush response, pupil dilation, pulse, breath rate. Doesn't always work with aliens, but humans? Got'em nailed.

Geordi's ability as a living lie detector sure would've come in handy in any number of other episodes, wouldn't it?

GRANGER: We asked for your help and you refused us. We're desperate. Desperate!
RIKER: And that gave you the right to assault us, to rob us.
GRANGER: We have the right to survive!

Not assault, rape. Life was created without permission, I call that rape. It's stuff like this that makes me think that there are two unrelated episodes here without room to adequately develop either one of them.

TROI: I know the Mariposan culture seems alien, even frightening, but really, we do have much in common. They're human beings fighting for survival. Would we do any less?

I jolly well hope so!

PULASKI: That's just postponing the inevitable. If they get an infusion of fresh DNA, in fifteen generations they'll just go back to the same problems.

I'd like to know how many new clones Pulaski is talking about here. Every human on board being cloned and nobody else? Isn't the human population of the Federation in the trillions? Couldn't everyone be cloned once and then they return to sexual reproduction?

GRANGER: Look at him. How could we ever integrate that into our society?
DANILO: You're no prize yourself.

Imagine the sitcom based on these two as roommates! It'd make Perfect Strangers look positive normal!

PICARD: Now, Commander Riker has asked that your laboratories be inspected for stolen tissue samples, and I understand his concern. We may have to transport all your equipment here, to the Enterprise.
GRANGER: I see. When reason fails, you'll resort to blackmail.

Um, the equipment needs to be beamed up and cleansed of stolen DNA samples regardless of what happens after that. Property has been stolen and must be recovered.

PULASKI: Now if this is going to work, you're going to have to alter your society, too. Monogamous marriage will not be possible for several generations.
DANILO: I don't quite understand.
PULASKI: Thirty couples are enough to create a viable genetic base. But the broader the base the healthier and the safer the society. So it will be best if each woman, Bringloidi and Mariposan, had at least three children by three different men.

There are only thirty Bringloidi? It seemed like there was more than that, even if you discount the older ones who wouldn't be contributing to the new gene pool. And I gotta ask, even if the Bringloidi are integrated, why can't other Federation citizens move here and help out with the gene pool?

BRENNA: Oh, damn. What does he do again?
PICARD: Prime Minister.
BRENNA: Sounds important.
PICARD: Oh, it is.
BRENNA: Sounds like he might have more than two coins to rub together. Three husbands?

We didn't see much of the Mariposan society, but they sure seemed to be post-currency. Also, the notion that more money=more desirable seems rather repugnant to me, however realistic it may be.

Nipicker's Guide

* In this episode Worf can just push a few buttons to make the replicator make real alcohol, and yet in "Relics" Data seems to imply that the only real alcohol on board is behind Guinan's bar, i.e. you have to transport the stuff manually.
* Pulaski uses a hand scanner on the clones and knows that they're clones without even consulting her tricorder. How'd she do that?

YouTube

Brenna rails against Worf, a career in Security
Will thought he's seen a woman before
A Klingon tea ceremony
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