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Old 04-11-2018, 11:35 AM
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April 11th, 1988, "The Arsenal of Freedom"

No Fiver
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

A few big nits before we get started:
* Far too much blatant padding with people on the bridge and people on the planet expositing to each other.
* The blatant fakeness of the Rice illusion is pathetic. If a bit of the padding had been chucked room could've been made for more Rice/Riker interaction. Come to think of it, couldn't a different illusion have been created for each away team member a la "The Man Trap", allowing for some characterization for Yar and Data?

And let's get some compliments out there up front: even though the plot is stupid there was some nice characterization. And at least this episode is the fun kind of stupid, where technobabble is kept to a minimum to make room for some humor.

RIKER: Paul Rice is confident to the point of arrogance, he but carries it well because he's usually right. He's a risk taker.
PICARD: Really?
RIKER: I'll give you an example. One of the final tests in advance navigation at the Academy provides the student with three options. Rice was given this test, rejected their options and offered one of his own.
PICARD: That's taking a risk.
RIKER: And it paid off. He received the top grade and now that same test has four options.

It's a shame they couldn't have namedropped Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru here.

WORF: Commander, weren't you offered the Drake?
RIKER: Yes.
TASHA: You gave up your own command to take this assignment?
RIKER: At the time I thought it would be more advantageous for me to do a tour on the Enterprise.

Okay, let's say that at this point the whole "the Enterprise will be leaving the known Federation for twenty years, and that's why children are on board" thing had been abandoned. Even so, Riker will be offered a few more commands in the next few years. Shouldn't "tour" still imply that he's not going anywhere for a few years? I thought Riker thought he just needed a little polishing before taking his own command, not years of training.

DATA: Captain, we are being hailed.
RIKER: How can that be from a planet with no people?
PICARD: Your sensors indicated no intelligent life forms?
DATA: Correct, sir.

First, nobody's ever heard of autodialers? "The Thaw" comes to mind immediately. Second, shouldn't Data say that he can't find any known forms of intelligent life?

SALESMAN [on viewscreen]: If you need a little something special, be it for one target or multiple targets, we got it. You'll see it here on Minos, where we live by the motto 'peace through superior firepower'.

So...many...political...jokes...must...resist...ch eap...shot...And also stop talking like Captain Kirk.

SALESMAN [on viewscreen]: To be totally armed is to be totally secure. Remember, the early bird that hesitates gets wormed.

We're definitely led to believe that Minos had no prior Federation contact, so did the computer scan the "language banks", find an appropriate Earth metaphor, and then edit the video and audio feeds to insert it? And all for a rather mild joke?

TASHA: Commander, I recommend a minimum complement.
RIKER: Oh? I would have thought otherwise.
TASHA: We'll keep the first landing party small and mobile, until I'm confident that whatever killed the inhabitants of this planet isn't still down there.
RIKER: Okay.

The problem here is that they're specifically pointing out that the away team is small, implying that elsewhere they'd be much larger (including a few disposable security officers, of course). Too bad in general the away team is always "small and mobile", so what's the point in reminding us of plot holes?

RICE: Tell me about your ship, Riker. It's the Enterprise, isn't it?
RIKER: No. The name of my ship is the Lollipop.
RICE: I have no knowledge of that ship.
RIKER: It's just been commissioned. It's a good ship.
RICE: Refresh me, would you, Riker? What's its size, it's complement?
RIKER: Who is here with you?
RICE: What's the armament on the Lollipop?

This is some clever thinking on the part of Riker.

DATA [OC]: He appears to be in some kind of stasis.
PICARD: Theorise, Mister Data. What would be the purpose of such an encasement?
[Jungle]
DATA: Typically, the purpose of such an enclosure is for storage.
PICARD [OC]: Which would suggest what?
TASHA: That sooner or later someone or something will be along to collect him.

"Sir, it would suggest that this script was far too short and these irrelevant digressions had to be inserted to fill time." It would also suggest that the screenwriter was inept, because it would've been nice to have a scene or two where the deaths of Rice and the Drake crew was actually mourned.

PICARD: Yes. Doctor Crusher, this is the Captain. Meet me in Transporter room three. Mister La Forge, you have command of the Bridge.
LAFORGE: Aye, sir.
PICARD: And whatever happens down there, your prime responsibility is to the ship.
LAFORGE: Understood, sir.
TROI: Captain, I take great exception to your decision to beam down.
PICARD: Noted.


One, in the first season La Forge is still a junior officer, there are many more people on board who could and should take command before him, Logan among them. Second, situations like this are exactly why the captain shouldn't go on away missions. And it's not like danger is merely a possibility right now, events on the planet are dangerous right now. Picard should've been raked over the coals for this idiocy, possibly by Norah Satie.

Ship's log, supplemental. Lieutenant La Forge in command. I am unable to beam up the away team due to an unseen assailant attacking the ship. To make matters worse, Chief Engineer Logan is on his way to the Bridge, and he's not paying a courtesy call.

That last sentence is not log material, that's sitcom narration.

LAFORGE: I'm in charge until relieved by Commander Riker or Captain Picard.
LOGAN: You're ignoring my greater rank and experience.


So pull rank, Logan! This script really needed a better editor...

LAFORGE: I have a responsibility to them as well. Mister Logan, you are going to take command of the Saucer Section. Backup crew, report to the main Bridge.
LOGAN: You're going to separate?
LAFORGE: Yes, and I want you to take the saucer section and proceed immediately to Starbase one zero three.

"You mean ask Starfleet to send another ship to tow the saucer. You do know that at impulse it'll take us years to get anywhere, right?"

PICARD: Your grandmother was a doctor?
CRUSHER: No.
PICARD: Oh. She was a botanist, then?
CRUSHER: No. She helped to colonise Arveda Three.
PICARD: Arveda Three? That's such a tragedy. Did she survive?
CRUSHER: Yes. Once the medical supplies had run out, she had to use what was at hand. So she learned all about roots and herbs, and then taught it to me.
PICARD: You were part of that colony. I didn't know that. But then there must be a lot of things about you that I don't know.
CRUSHER: Quite a few.

Memory Alpha specifies that despite the contradictions this grandmother is in fact Felisa Howard from "Sub Rosa". I am confused about this business of Picard not knowing that Beverly was on Arveda Three. Shouldn't he know the major biographical details of all of his senior officers, even before you factor in his infatuation with her in particular?

TASHA: We could split up.
RIKER: What good would that do?
TASHA: Confuse it, delay it. Something.
RIKER: It would still get us. It would just take a little longer.
TASHA: It might give one of us long enough to get out of range.
RIKER: Out of range?
TASHA: Forget I said it. These devices wiped out an entire planet. I don't think it has a range.

I'm reminded of "Devil in the Dark" when Spock argues that it's pointless for him and Kirk to separate when being chased by a Horta. Also, are they implying that the devices that are chasing them are the same model as the devices that are attacking the Enterprise? I don't think these two models have the same range.

Memory Alpha

* Just like in "Angel One", shooting had to be stopped for a few days because the script wasn't ready. I'd argue that it still wasn't quite fully baked yet.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Riker was in stasis when Picard beamed down. Wouldn't he be angry that the captain is down here?
* La Forge drops the shields to beam the away team back while the Enterprise is still in the upper atmosphere? Um, wouldn't this damage the ship?

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Last edited by Nate the Great; 04-11-2018 at 11:37 AM.
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