View Single Post
  #139  
Old 01-05-2020, 04:02 AM
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

PICARD: Your clarity of thought. Your objectivity, as always. Sit down. Data, it's very possible we are about to go to war. The repercussions of what we do during the next twenty four hours may be felt for years to come. I want you to keep a record of these events, so that history will have the benefit of a dispassionate view.

Wouldn't Data be doing that already? It would hardly be a huge strain on his positronic brain to run the program in the background with periodic output logs to the ship's computer.

RIKER: The location of the Romulan bases along the Neutral Zone?
SETAL: I don't know.
RIKER: In your sector?
SETAL: Irrelevant.
RIKER: The number of troops under your admiral's command?
SETAL: Irrelevant. Irrelevant.

How is this information irrelevant?

COMPUTER: Captain Picard, priority message from security officer, Klingon vessel Bortas.
PICARD: Lieutenant Worf, will you handle this at security station, deck nine.
WORF: Aye, sir.
(Worf leaves)

I get it that this is setting up the big reveal for later, but Worf can do this just as well from the bridge. We don't need to see him do it, just know that Worf us handling it. And this is really nitpicky, but I'd expect the first officer to coordinate something like this, not the security officer. And to get even more pedantic, there shouldn't be such a thing as "ship's security" on a Klingon ship, everyone would police each other within the chain of command and the honor code. The ship would just need a tactical officer.

PICARD: What about the planet surface?
LAFORGE: Reading nothing but barren rock. I don't know. They might be able to hide a base from our probe. Its capabilities are limited. The only way we'll know for sure is if we go and take a look for ourselves.

Geordi had sufficient time to equip a probe specifically to search for cloaking signals in a planetary atmosphere, so why didn't he?

SETAL: You're the android. I know a host of Romulan cyberneticists that would love to be this close to you.
DATA: I do not find that concept particularly appealing.
SETAL: Nor should you.

Wouldn't the cyberneticists rather take Data apart? What could they derive from ten feet away?

SETAL: Synthetic swill. I don't suppose your food terminals would be capable of producing a Romulan ale?
DATA: I am afraid they would require the molecular structure of the beverage in question. And, as you are no doubt aware, our knowledge of your planet is quite limited.

Ugh! Guinan should have a stock of Romulan ale ("It is blue", hehe). If replicators seriously can't create decent fake alcohol, then a stock of such things should be available. The scriptwriters are hammering in this fish out of water thing far too hard for my tastes.

SETAL: It's a bitter thing to be exiled from your home.
DATA: It does appear unlikely you will ever be allowed to return to your planet.

I'll say it again, ugh! He had sufficient time to come to terms with this and decide that it was still worth it. Stop complaining, and maybe pack an isolinear chip with replicator codes!

JAROK: I cannot betray my people.
PICARD: You've already betrayed your people, Admiral. You've made your choices, sir. You're a traitor.

Yeah, this is definitely the sort of thing that you shouldn't bother doing unless you're willing to go all in.

DATA: There is no scarring on the planet surface that would denote heavy construction of any kind.
RIKER: A cloaking device of some sort, to hide the entire base?
DATA: A cloaking device operating on the surface would be given away by visible distortion effects.

It took them this long to figure out that this is a trick? I thought this was supposed to be the best crew on the best ship in the fleet!

TOMALAK [on viewscreen]: I urge you, Captain Picard, surrender. Consider the men and women you would lead into a lost cause.
PICARD: If the cause is just and honourable, they are prepared to give their lives. Are you prepared to die today, Tomalak?

I repeat earlier comments on why families shouldn't be on board for this sort of thing, and how this is exactly the sort of situation they should be separating the saucer for.

RIKER: A letter to his wife and daughter.
DATA: Sir, he must have known it would be impossible for us to deliver this.
PICARD: Today, perhaps. But if there are others with the courage of Admiral Jarok, we may hope to see a day of peace when we can take his letter home.

I get the message, but I question why he couldn't have sent it before he left. For that matter, why can't the Federation get the message through? Don't we have diplomatic channels for this?

The Fiver

Riker: I think he's a plant.
Picard: I think you need a refresher course in botany.

I wonder if Keiko is on board yet...

Setal: Computer -- one Romulan ale.
Computer: Request denied. That beverage is illegal.
Setal: If you give me one anyway I'll slip you ten voljucks.
Computer: Please restate bribe in Federation credit units.

Ha ha. "Voljucks" appears to have been invented by Marc. Of courses gold-pressed latinum hasn't been invented yet, and we never found out what currency the Romulans use, even in the expanded universe.

Riker: What is the current deployment of the Romulan fleet?
Setal: Irrelevant!
Troi: How do they get the caramel into the Caramilk bar?
Setal: Irrelevant! Irrelevant!
Riker: Cut out the Borg routine and answer us!
Setal: This discussion is futile.

Caramilk is a Canadian candy bar. I would've used a "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop" joke here.

I don't even watch Doctor Who, but even I can see that a Dalek joke would've worked somewhere in this fiver. Extrapolate!

Setal/Jarok: I am actually an Admiral pretending to be a common soldier.
Data: How did you think up such a preposterous scheme?

You can't appreciate Shakespeare unless it's in the original Romulan, hehe...

Picard: Yes, he's told me everything he knows.
Troi: Ooooh...even about the caramel thingy?

Nice callback.

Tomalak: Surrender or my two Warbirds will destroy you!
Picard: If they do that, my three Klingon escorts will destroy you!
Tomalak: Well, if they do that, my...er...corbomite device will destroy them!
Picard: Tomalak, you moron, that's one of our bluffs.
Tomalak: Oops.

Ha ha.

Memory Alpha

* First appearance of the Romulan scout ship and second D'deridex-class model.
* The birds of prey were really big here compared to other appearances. Ex Astris Scientia guesses that they could just be really close to the camera compared to other appearances. Fan speculation yields as many as seven different sizes for birds of prey. One person even tried different configurations of the scene in this episode, experimenting with different sizes and positions. I'd rather limit this to two sizes, a smaller B'rel class and a larger K'vort class.
* First appearance of Data combining techniques from many masters to learn how to do something.

Nitpicker's Guide

* In this episode the light of the probe's engines reflect off the ship during the launch,but in "Where Silence Has Lease" it doesn't. You'd think this would be a piece of stock footage that would be reused.
* Phil also raises the units and Universal Translator question.
* How can Worf track a cloaked Romulan ship?
__________________
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