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Old 10-31-2021, 07:24 PM
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October 28th, 1991, "The Game"

Okay, let's get this out of the way. Some call this episode a poorly-made allegory of video game addition, and it's not. The "game" featured is poorly constructed and nothing you couldn't do on the holodeck with a modified cortical monitor as an interface. The threat is mind control, not gaming addiction.

Second of all, I like Robin Lefler. I'm not fond of what they did to her in New Frontier, but here she's okay (even if she was obviously too old for Wesley Crusher). I never did get that far into the series, but I didn't like what I saw. As much as I love Peter David's work, New Frontier was obviously fanfic from a completely different universe with a Trek coat of paint put on.

The Episode

RIKER: Etana? I know you're back there. Don't make me come after you.

I'm not fond of the idea that Riker keeps having casual affairs every time he's off ship. Furthermore, defaulting to Risa every time is boring. They couldn't have him go to Wrigley's Pleasure Planet even once? They don't have hot women on Earth that he could visit?

ETANA: Concentrate. Make the disc go into the cone.

Seriously boring, and why do we need a Virtual Boy to play it?

(the first one misses, the second is a success, and he gasps with pleasure)

So this thing directly stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain. Putting aside the fact that you'd have to put a rather sophisticated medical scanner in there to find the pleasure centers of each species, wouldn't this be the sort of thing that would already exist without requiring the facade of a game? Just put the thing on your head and you can orgasm all you want, right?

PICARD: On top of everything, there's been a change. We've been given only two weeks to complete the exploration.
RIKER: Two weeks? That's not enough time to explore a region that size. I thought we had five weeks.

Forget five weeks, two weeks is enough time that I'd think you'd assign a proper science vessel to! Doesn't the Enterprise have VIPs that they need to shuttle around in the next couple weeks?

Furthermore, why does Riker care? He'll only be reading reports from the science teams.

PICARD: Will, I'm leaving it up to you to make sure that all science departments have an equal chance of completing their research.

Isn't that Data's job?

LAFORGE: Fifteen science teams, only two weeks, and one long-range array don't make for a great combination.

Geordi is implying that the long distance sensor arrays can only scan one thing at a time, and that's ridiculous.

ROBIN: We're increasing the available bandwidth so more science teams can use the sensors at once. We figured out a way to do it by multiplexing the array.
RIKER: Can we have that done before we arrive?
ROBIN: Yes, sir. You can count on it.

Multiplexing means combining several signals into a single signal. Usually it just refers to communications signals. I fail to see how this will help in this case. Presumably the different science teams have different ideas of what needs to be scanned and how. I think multiplexing would only work if you're only scanning one thing. In which case you just do a full-spectrum sensor sweep, not this multiplexing stuff.

What should be happening here is sending out shuttles and probes to do the actual scanning, and multiplex their signals back to the Enterprise.

(she offers him a spoon)
RIKER: No, thanks. I don't like fudge.

Stupid and pointless. Deanna should know which forms of chocolate Will likes by now.

PICARD: Quomodo tua Latinitas est?
WESLEY: Praestat quam prius.
PICARD: Oppido bonum. Your Latin has improved.

"How is your Latin?" "It's better than before." "Very good."

There's a discussion over at Stack Exchange about why Starfleet officers are learning Latin.

If children are learning Calculus, I suppose they've figured out how to improve memory recall, perhaps through genetic modification (if the anti-Khan laws permit that, of course).

Then again, I can see Picard learning it for fun and Wesley wanting to do do so as well to impress him.

DATA: Have you found the Academy challenging, Wesley?
WESLEY: Yeah. I thought after being on the Enterprise, it would be a breeze, but there's a lot more to learn than just starship operations.

It takes more than memorizing technical journals to succeed in Starfleet. I kinda thought that was the point of Riker tutoring him, especially when he put Wesley in charge of that mineral survey...

WESLEY: My first week that I was there, this guy named Adam Martoni reprogrammed the sonic shower to cover me with mud.

How? The sonic shower doesn't emit anything except sound waves! A good practical joke would be to beam a blob of mud over Wesley's head just after he finishes his shower, making him shower again.

DATA: Geordi, a conflict has started between the planetary evolution team and the stellar physicists. Each wishes to be the first to use the thermal imaging array.
LAFORGE: Well, tell them to flip a coin. We've got to work together on this mission, otherwise we're never going to get it done.
DATA: A coin. Very good. I will replicate one immediately.

Sometimes Data's literalism and obtuseness really grates on my nerves. I think it really depends on how much the writer knows about subtlety...

CRUSHER: Yes, Data. I need to ask you to do something for me. I'm working on a new experiment with bioactive silicon.

What in the world is bioactive silicon? Even if you posit biological organisms that are silicon-based instead of carbon-based, the silicon itself can never be "bioactive". If this is Crusher's way of referring to the silicon equivalent of carbon compounds, it still doesn't make sense as it wouldn't be "bioactive."
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