October 4th, 1993, "Interface"
(Geordi has normal eyes and no visor)
RIKER [OC]: Geordi, have you found it yet?
LAFORGE: Not yet. I'm starting to get some fumes. Ammonia, chlorine, potassium chloride.
(Geordi climbs up into the fumes to the next level)
LAFORGE: I can feel the heat from here.
(he crawls along an access tunnel)
LAFORGE: There it is.
RIKER [OC]: How far?
LAFORGE: About ten metres up the ODN line. Boy, it's hot. I'd say over two thousand degrees. I'm going in.
(Geordi reaches through the flames to pull levers)
LAFORGE: We're okay. I've activated the emergency suppression system.
Okay, let's talk about this interface system. Slaving the probe's sensors into his VISOR inputs, fine. My problems come down to the following:
1. Is Geordi consciously switching the spectrum that he's seeing from temperature, to chemical analysis, to straight vision, etc. or is the probe's sensors displaying information on a virtual HUD for Geordi? If the former, it would take a lot of time to train Geordi to interpret the various spectra, if the latter there isn't much point in putting Geordi in this situation, is it?
2. So Geordi is wearing an interface suit that translates his gestures to probe movements. This is blatantly ridiculous, nothing about his movements can be translated to the motions of a cylindrical probe. I mean, surely it would be easier to have a few joysticks in a holodeck where you are surrounded by everything the probe sees, where different consoles have different kinds of information.
3. We're not even given a handwave that the exocomp's replicator omnitool has been copied over to this probe. Even IF you could slave the probe's movement to physical feedback, you can't slave all possible onboard tools to this suit in a way that would be more effective to the joysticks I mentioned earlier.
(Geordi is the contraption used in Offspring and Best of Both Worlds, wearing a virtual reality suit)
I'm amazed that they kept this set for that many years.
CRUSHER: The probe is designed to respond to any movement Geordi intends to make. When his brain sends a message to move his leg, the interface should move the probe instead.
DATA: Apparently the tactile sensors are too low. I will increase the input.
So is the problem the signal being sent from the probe to Geordi, or vice versa? Because this seems like both, which would have two different sets of hardware responsible for them.
PICARD: Any life signs?
LAFORGE: Our biosensors are useless. There's too much interference in the atmosphere.
RIKER: The crew might still be alive. There's no way we can tell from up here.
PICARD: Will the probe be able to transmit through that interference?
DATA: The probe sends information via a focused particle beam. It should be able to cut through the interference.
I don't like this handwave. It makes no sense. By all means plant a breadcrumb trail/relay network of probes going down there, but don't say that experimental tech is better at a basic task than proven technology.
PICARD: How's life on DS Three?
HOLT [on monitor]: We're hosting this year's palio. The Ferengi have already been accused of trying to bribe the Breen pilot into throwing the race.
A palio is a sort of tournament held in Italy ever since the Middle Ages. Usually some sort of riding race or archery contest. Don't ask me why such an obscure word is being used when the focus of the episode isn't on it.
HOLT [on monitor]: Nothing at all. I wish I could say I was just calling to catch up on things. Nine days ago, the Hera left here on a routine courier mission. We were in contact with them for five of those days. Then the ship disappeared without a trace.
PICARD: The Hera?
HOLT [on monitor]: I'm afraid so. The Excelsior and the Noble have been retracing its course for the last seventy two hours. Nothing. I'm going to keep them at it for another seventy two. But to be honest, I don't think another week would make any difference.
PICARD: I'll inform Commander La Forge.
The Hera is Intrepid class, with a majority Vulcan crew. It won't be recovered for another ten years in a novel.
We haven't a clue what class the Excelsior was, it's only other appearance was in an Okudagram back in "The Measure of a Man."
The Nobel (Chakoteya made a typo) would later fight in the Dominion War. It was of the Olympic class (the one that with the spherical primary hull).
RIKER: Geordi, the probe has entered the planet's atmosphere and I'm ready to take it onto the ship. If you would like to take a couple of days off, I'll run the interface.
LAFORGE: The interface is calibrated specifically to my visor's inputs. It would take you at least ten hours to convert it, and those crewmen down there can't wait.
RIKER: The interface doesn't have to be fully compatible. I could run it right now. I wouldn't have the same control that you have, but it would still work.
Let's put aside the question of how fast Riker could have VISOR inputs temporarily connected to his brain, he hasn't been trained to interpret the visual signal. The obvious backup would be Data, it surely can't be that hard to run the signal through one of those hookup cables from "A Fistful of Datas."
I get that Riker wants to give Geordi a break, but they've served together long enough for him to know that Geordi knows his duty and would want to help people in trouble. Geordi can focus on the mission for a few hours and return to grieving afterwards.
LAFORGE: About twelve metres up the main corridor. He's trapped under some conduit from the bulkhead. I can't move it. I'm going to need more power to the tractor beam.
CRUSHER [OC]: Go to eighty percent of tolerance, Data. No higher.
What does the power in the tractor beam have to do with the power being channeled through Geordi's brain? Did they really program this probe to require more concentration from Geordi to increase power to something.
[La Forge's quarters]
(his Dad's on the monitor - played by Ben Vareen)
I watched
Zoobilee Zoo as a kid, but of course I had no clue who Ben Vareen was until I watched Roots.
LAFORGE: Dad. Don't you think everybody's jumping the gun here? Last I heard there were still two starships out there looking for them. They've found no debris, no residual warp distortion.
Geordi may be clutching at straws, but you have to admit that he has a point. If I was in the Corps of Engineers I know I'd want to design warp cores so that if they explode people would be able to track it.
This is a big problem with this episode. Geordi's journey may be about letting go of his mother, but they never bothered to actually reveal what happened to the Hera!
DATA: No. I have completed the adjustments on the interface. I am now waiting for Commander Riker to finish moving the probe. Do you need to be comforted?
That last line irks me for some reason. It seems more like a Season 2 or 3 line, not Season 7. Data should be more astute than this.
DATA: I am using the time to catch up on my study of poetry.
LAFORGE: Data, there's nothing on the screen.
DATA: That is not entirely correct. While it is true the display is currently blank, this emptiness has a poetic meaning. Therefore it cannot be considered nothing as such.
The word "poetry" doesn't really apply here. Poetry by definition includes words. By all means if Data wants to search for
artistic meaning in blackness it's his right, but he shouldn't call it poetry.
LAFORGE: Says who?
DATA: The ancient Doosodarians. Much of their poetry contained such lacunae or empty spaces. Often these pauses measured several days in length, during which poet and audience were encouraged to fully acknowledge the emptiness of the experience.
Of course this is the only mention of Doosodarians. I would argue that meaning derived from silence is different from meaning derived from blackness.
LAFORGE: Am I crazy to think that she's still alive?
DATA: Your sanity is not in question. However, your evaluation of the available information is biased.
Thank goodness someone was willing to say it.
LAFORGE: It's just that, if she really is dead, I don't know what I'm going to do.
Are you telling me that Jeremy Aster accepted death better than this guy?