View Single Post
  #67  
Old 11-21-2018, 12:22 PM
Nate the Great's Avatar
Nate the Great Nate the Great is offline
You just activated his Trek card
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 4,859
Default

November 21st, 1988, "The Child"


No fiver
Transcript

Memory Alpha


Background Information



* The Phase II stuff is at the end, we'll do the TNG episode first.

* I understand why Geordi was promoted, but it still doesn't make sense within the chain of command. Having him change departments for a season before the promotion would've opened up many storytelling possibilities, but of course this is TNG Season Two. A shame...
* Pulaski was introduced in the worst way possible. A senior officer not reporting to the captain before assuming her duties is worthy of disciplinary action unless there's a BIG medical disaster. And Troi doesn't count, a lesser doctor (Selar?) could've handled that for a day just as well.
* Pulaski's interactions with Data could've waited until a later time, this episode was overloaded as it was.



The Episode

* Georgi has to replicate something five hundred times. Industrial replicators haven't been invented yet, but in this case I think an alternative could've been found; like automated fabrication units or using the replicators on the Repulse as well.

* As SF Debris says, it's laughable how little the pregnancy or birth affects Troi. I'll forgive nonsense like this in Avengers #200 with Carol Marcus, as comic books have a younger audience. But this isn't a comic book. Here you could at least drop some technobabble about how somehow the baby is flooding her body with endorphins or how in this case the connection between mother and child is much more efficient to put less strain on her body.
* It's nice that Data wants to serve as birthing coach, but Pulaski's statement that usually the father is present seems overly obtuse. She knows that there's no father, she knows that now is not the time to make people any more uncomfortable, she chooses a miraculous birth as the time to make fun of Data (very unprofessional), etc...
* Introducing Guinan and Pulaski in the same episode was a bad idea, especially when you had the Wesley and Troi plots to worry about already. To be frank this episode should've been put off a week or two (if it had to happen at all, of course), and move up The Outrageous Okona (plenty of room to spare in that plot!) to introduce the new status quo.
* They can't even blow the specimens into space, because they'll still be a danger. So no secondary backup exists? Fit the cargo bay with special radiation emitters to flood the thing with death rays if needed!


Memory Alpha

* First episode where Wesley wears a communicator. Really?
* First time the three light bars were used to activate the transporter. These are of course a homage to the three slider switches used by Scotty and Kyle in TOS.



Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil also finds the idea that the specimen modules can't be jettisoned ridiculous. Dump it into a star!
* Where did Ian's Y chromosome come from?

* Ian can sense people's emotions even though Betazoids don't develop their empathic abilities until puberty (except for Tam Elbrun, of course). He could've dropped a line of exposition saying that he turned on this ability early to learn more.


Star Trek Phase II Version

(Information from my copy of Star Trek Phase II The Lost Series)


* The entity explores Uhura and Chekov before Ilia. One presumes that Uhura wasn't chosen because Ilia's mental powers would be more useful.
* Ilia points out that she hasn't broken her vow of celibacy. A valid point, but that should be a bit farther down the list of questions if you ask me. Unless you're going to tell me that Deltans can sense their children from the point of conception.
* Ilia's child Irska is a girl, getting around the missing Y chromosome bit.
* Somehow Irska is human, despite Ilia being Deltan. One wonders what the point of this is.
* The external threat is an alien ship, not samples. More dramatic, but less personal, it's a tossup which is better.
* Irska plays a more direct role in helping the ship than Ian.
__________________
mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate.
Zeke: It comes nateurally to him.

mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea.

Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity.

Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further.
Reply With Quote