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Old 02-04-2022, 07:00 PM
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February 3rd, 1992, "Violations"

Fiver by Derek

The episode

Captain's log, stardate 45429.3. While on a mapping survey, we are conveying a delegation of Ullians to Kaldra Four. These telepathic historians conduct their research by retrieving long-forgotten memories.

I get the usefulness of this particular brand of telepathy, but not for historians. This seems more like cultural research.

LAFORGE: How about you, Commander? Got any memories you feel like digging up?
RIKER: None that I'd care to share with an audience.

This is an interesting thing to think about. No doubt some people would want to remember rather intimate memories, stuff not suitable for a public setting. Do these guys have the equivalent of doctor-patient confidentiality?

DATA: It is perplexing to me that the Ullians' ability to retrieve memory is so highly prized. If an event were important enough to be recovered, why would it have been forgotten?
...
LAFORGE: Sometimes there are memories we just can't access at the spur of the moment. For instance, I have no recollection of how I spent my last birthday. Birthdays are important occasions, and you would think that I'd remember how I spent the day, but right now I can't even remember where I was.

Boy, do I sympathize. My memory recall is absolutely atrocious, but the memories are still there. While I can't access them in the usual way, I can be reminded of them by trigger sensations. Seeing a souvenir, hearing a song, a taste, a smell, things like that. This is why I enjoy Jeopardy and Antiques Roadshow.

TARMIN: You, Mister Worf? I would love to explore Klingon memories.
WORF: Klingons do not allow themselves to be probed.

As SF Debris would say, Klingons structure their memories into stories to convey certain messages and feelings. I have no doubt that their minds have a different sort of filing system for memories.

TARMIN: Once Jev spent two days with a contingent of elderly Gentons. He couldn't get anything from them. I spent only one hour with them and retrieved a fragment from the Gentonian trade wars.

Only mention of Gentons. Memory Beta doesn't even have an entry for them. One wonders why they didn't use another race. Perhaps the Ferengi can be read by these guys, or use one of the familiar yet obscure races like Tellarites or Rigellians.

TROI: Imzadi, we can't. Not when we're serving on the same ship.
"RIKER": Have you stopped thinking about us? Just answer that. I can't stop thinking about you.
TROI: Will, don't.

An interesting idea considering later events. Between the events of Insurrection and their posting on the Titan, I never thought that there was a blanket ban on relationships between senior officers. An unwise idea, but not banned.

Furthermore, I'm reminded of the events of the novel Immortal Coil. During the period when Worf was on DS9 Data has a relationship with the new security chief of the Enterprise-E (a long story by itself, but moving on...). Geordi doesn't think it's a good idea, but Data brings up Troi/Riker and Picard/Crusher.

An interesting idea to consider is that (at least in the early years) Riker put his desire for command above a possible relationship with Troi. There's a whole screed to be had here, but I will desist. To sum up, at this point Riker and Troi have a romantic ceasefire in place, and even an illusionary Riker would be unacceptable to Troi.

RIKER: Deanna, I don't know if you can hear me. I've heard doctors say that even when someone's in a coma, they may be able to hear when people talk to them. That it might help stimulate the brain, speed the healing. In fact, I think you did that for me once, when I was in pretty bad shape.

They're actually bringing up "Shades of Grey"? Wow.

COMPUTER: Antimatter injection breach. Evacuate immediately.

How is the ship still here if there's been an antimatter breach?

CRUSHER: I found the same pattern. If I didn't know better, I'd say they both had Iresine syndrome. That's the only medical condition that would produce that pattern.
WORF: What is Iresine syndrome?
CRUSHER: A very rare neurological disorder first diagnosed in the twenty third century. It's characterised by an identical electropathic residue.

Only mention of Iresine Syndrome. I want to say that there would be a TOS episode that could be referenced here instead, but I can't think of an appropriate one.

PICARD: In the meantime, we must consider restricting them to their quarters, as a precautionary measure.
LAFORGE: If one of them is behind this, will keeping telepaths in their quarters prevent it from happening again?
PICARD: What else can we do?

It's already been established that they haven't invented telepathy-proof shielding yet. This would be a great place to establish that this species requires close proximity to use their telepathy; it would make sense given their abilities.

TROI: How long have I been here?
MARTIN: Three days.

And yet she's not hooked up to tubes and wires. Can the sensor cluster arc do that sort of thing? Can food and water be injected via hypospray? Is waste automatically beamed out?

JEV: Inad and I have contacted our home planet. If you want to prosecute my father, the authorities there will support you.
PICARD: I'm not sure we have any legal basis for such a prosecution. Memory invasion is simply not a crime we've ever had to contend with.

Really? There aren't any rogue Vulcans or Medusans out there? You'd think such crimes would be put on the books as soon as telepathy was discovered.

The Fiver

Inad: We are compiling a list of races' memories to put in our Great Library in Ullandria.
Picard: How very interesting! What a noble and laudable goal you have established.
Tarmin: Would you like your sociological and anthropological distinctiveness added to our own?
Picard: Get off my ship.

Yep, that's a sore subject.

Tarmin: Mr. Worf, would you like Jev to probe your mind?
Worf: Klingons do not have their minds probed.
Tarmin: Hm, Jev can't get to the core of a resistant person's memories. I'd better do it myself as an errand of mercy.
Jev: Grrr.

An interesting idea: does the mind sifter only work on non-Klingons?

Riker: Close the blast doors!
Nameless Ensign 1: But Nameless Ensign 2 is trapped back there!
Riker: Of all the necks on this ship, Ensign, the one you should be worried about is your own.
Jev: Have I mentioned how much I dislike you?

Odd place for a Princess Bride reference.

Riker: Would you like to play poker? And of course by "play poker" --
Troi: Answer's still no.
Shinzon: Aw, come -- Wait...
Reman Viceroy: No...
Tarmin: There we go. Now -- Aw, come on.

The Reman Viceroy's name is Vkruk, incidentally. This doesn't seem like a Romulan name to me. Maybe it's the ears, but I'm reminded of the Skrulls when I see a name like "Vkruk."

Picard: And now a speech. We're human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands, but we can stop it. We can....

A reference to the Kirk Speech in "A Taste of Armageddon." I'm not sure that I see the parallel.

Memory Alpha

* First episode made after Gene's death.
* Only episode where we see Keiko, but not O'Brien.
* Fans were angered that the Riker/Troi romance wasn't revisited after this episode. Jeri Taylor didn't intend this to be an indication that things would heat up again.

Nitpicker's Guide

* If the brain has been charted (remember when Crusher thought that headaches didn't exist anymore?), how come the question of whether people in comas can hear people talk to them hasn't been answered yet?
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