February 24th, 1992, "Power Play"
Fiver by Kira
The Episode
DATA: I will verify it. Just as I thought. It is a Starfleet subspace distress signal, standard to Daedalus-class starships.
RIKER: There hasn't been a Daedalus class in service for what?
DATA: One hundred seventy two years, sir.
I wish the Daedalus class came up more often in canon. And of course the novel Starfleet: Year One focused on them before Enterprise destroyed the previous 22nd-century canon. You can read more about it at Ex Astris Scientia
here. The only ship in TOS that could've been of this class is the Archon from "Return of the Archons."
Sisko had a model of this class on his desk and Keiko borrowed it for a lesson, but we have no idea what the name of this ship was. One wonders why he has it in the first place. Sure, he worked at Utopia Planitia for awhile and no doubt learned more about the history of starship design than the average person, but even so, what is this ship? I don't think the Siskos had a long legacy of starship service like some other families I could name.
PICARD: Are there any records of missing ships in this vicinity?
DATA: The USS Essex under the command of Captain Bryce Shumar disappeared in this sector over two centuries ago.
I wonder why Data wouldn't be precise here. The ship was lost in 2167. That's 201 years.
PICARD: Mute it, Mister Data. With that storm activity down there, it isn't worth the risk to check on a ghost ship. Advise Starfleet that we have solved the mystery of Captain Shumar and the Essex.
TROI: I'm not sure we have. Someone's down there. Alive.
Is there any correlation between energy storm activity and Troi's abillities? Furthermore, what is the practical range of her powers? I'll buy that if she's familiar with a person's mental fingerprint (aka Riker) she can sense stuff from orbit, but through an energy storm? I call bull.
First officer's log, supplemental. The electromagnetic interference on the surface has been judged too dangerous for anyone to transport down, so we have taken a shuttle to investigate.
Why are they using a shuttlepod here? (Of course it's for budgetary reasons, but I mean in-universe). I know that runabouts don't exist yet, but there are beefier shuttles available. Shuttlepods should be restricted to ship-to-ship or ship-to-station use only.
DATA: It is unlikely that we will be able to establish communication with the ship, given the electromagnetic interference.
I'm reminded of "The Enemy". "Good thing we didn't bring Data. We'd be unscrambling his circuits for a week." Why is he down here?
LAFORGE: We can't get a pattern lock on their communicators because of the EM bursts, Captain.
Why weren't these guys wearing transporter armbands? You'd think in situations like this there would be a standard "beefier" communicator that can cut through the interference and allow communications and a transporter lock.
O'BRIEN: Sir, let me beam down with a pattern enhancer.
LAFORGE: Chief, there's no guarantee you won't rematerialise in a million pieces if your signal gets caught up in that electromagnetic whirlwind.
O'BRIEN: I can boost the confinement beam. One person might be able to make it.
Which brings to mind another question. We know that cargo transporters are "cruder" than regular pads to handle larger loads. Would it be possible to beam down the enhancers first to allow for a stronger lock for the people going down after?
And is O'Brien saying that you can only do one super-confinement beam at a time? Of course the confinement beam isn't the problem in the first place, it's getting a proper sensor lock of the destination. I apologize for the excess Treknology this week.
LAFORGE [OC]: His chances of getting down there safely are no better than fifty-fifty, in my opinion.
WORF: Captain, a major storm front is moving in on the away team's coordinates.
PICARD: You're aware of the risks, Mister O'Brien?
O'BRIEN [OC]: Yes sir.
Fifty-fifty? I call that an unacceptable risk.
O'BRIEN: Nice spot for a picnic, sir. We need to distribute these enhancer rods at seven metre lengths. That should do it.
First of all, the sides of the triangle should be as short as possible for these things to have the strongest combined signal. Second, seven meters? That's 23 feet, and way larger than the actual distance of these things. Look at
this screencap, that's not 23 feet, more like twelve or fifteen. Do we chalk this mistake up to the screenwriter or the director?
WORF: Aye, sir. They have been stopped at deck thirteen.
PICARD: Mister Worf.
[Deck 13]
(But when Worf and Patricia Tallman and another security guard get there, the turbolift is empty except for three comm. badges on the floor)
Data is a proven security risk, the crew should've trained the sensors to keep a lock on his actual body and not his commbadge by now. Furthermore, I'm always annoyed by the implication that the only way the ship keeps track of people is their commbadges. If tricorders can keep track of people on a planet's surface, the ship's sensors should be able to keep track of people on board ship.
PICARD: Mister La Forge, shut down all computer access to Ten Forward.
LAFORGE: (at ops) I can't, Captain. They've already set up a remote security lock out. We'd have to shut down all computer function in the saucer section.
So? What's the problem here? It would slow down our crew, but you'd think preventing access by the hijackers would be priority one.
CREWMAN: Bridge, the entire transporter array has been taken off line and placed into diagnostic mode.
Sickbay should have an independent array, and the shuttles have transporters too. Even if you say that the shuttle transporter range is shorter than the ship's, I assume it still covers the entire ship.
TROI: What are you doing now?
DATA: I can reverse the polarity of their forcefields to isolate this room.
TROI: Good.
What? I know that "reverse the polarity" is a running gag in Trek, but this is one case where it makes no sense at all. Just say that you're blasting interference at the forcefields to stop anyone outside from scanning anything inside!
RIKER: What about flooding their air vents with anaesthezine gas?
LAFORGE: That won't affect Data. No rescue plan will work unless we can knock out all three of them.
I have doubts about this. Have the invaders demonstrated an "every man for himself" mentality? They don't seem to squabble like the space pirates of "Gambit" do. Besides, neutralizing one target with security is easier than three.
TROI: Welcome, Captain. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Captain Bryce Shumar, of the Federation Starship Essex.
We'll later learn that these aren't really Essex, survivors, but of course the expanded universe gave them backstories anyway. Shumar participated in war games against other ships including the NX-01. He made official first contact with the planet Sauria.
TROI: This is my First Officer Commander Steven Mullen (Data), and my Security Chief, Lieutenant Morgan Kelly. (Miles)
Mullen was affected by Deltan pheromones during a trip to Delta, but was able to resist since he had a girlfriend (the ship's chef).
Morgan Kelly was a trans man. She was the one who shortened "phase cannon" to "phaser".
TROI: Spirits? Ghosts? But you're a man who would never believe in ghosts, Picard. Isn't that true? You see, Troi knows you. And so I do as well.
This is actually an interesting idea. Given the events of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and Picard's acceptance of the general tenants of religion (I've recommended the novel "Guises of the Mind" before and I do it again), you'd think Picard would be the most accepting of ghosts, or at least the idea that humans have a soul of some kind.
PICARD: Under whose command in this sector?
TROI: Admiral Uttan Narsu, Starbase Twelve. You will find all this in Starfleet records.
Narsu was part of the war games I mentioned earlier. He appeared in several Enterprise novels. Like I've said before, it's depressing when the fans care more about this stuff than the creators.
LAFORGE: Section two B, A, section one.
Section one of the saucer is indeed the slice pointing forward. Yeah, for some reason the sections of the saucer are like pizza slices. You'd think there would at least be separation into inner, middle, and outer sections of each slice.
PICARD: Impressions, Mister Worf?
WORF: Spiritual possessions of this sort have been reported throughout Klingon history. It is called jat'yIn, the taking of the living by the dead.
In the novels Vulcan katras are also known to possess the living. In the novel The Lost Years we learn of Zakal. He was an enemy of Surak and a proto-Romulan, but not just that. He was a mind-lord (one who didn't discipline his telepathy like most Vulcans), and could kill with his mind. Even so, Surak arranged for his katra to be placed in the Hall of Ancient Thought. During the Lost Years (the period between TOS and STTMP) he returned. A friend-turned-enemy of Spock named Sekar took Zakar's katra into his own body hoping to conquer Vulcan, but, well, you'll just have to read the novel. It's a good one!