30th Anniversary TNG Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

October 5th, 1992, "Man of the People"

No fiver

The Episode

MAYLOR: You think he's attracted to you, but he isn't. You offer him nothing.
...
MAYLOR: Don't pursue him. I won't have it. I'll stop you.

Just like I'm not a fan of times when a main character is thought to be crazy, I hate it when characters are so enigmatic when pursuing their objective that they deliberately sabotage their own efforts. Just say "if you pursue this guy he'll suck your life away!"

TROI: I would imagine that your self-discipline helps you in your work.
ALKAR: I don't know about that. I think maybe my biggest asset is patience. I let everybody else talk until they're exhausted, and when I start, they're too tired to argue.

This sounds good in theory, but absolutely awful in practice.

TROI: Curiosity. What I sense from you is very unusual. Calmness, serenity, tranquillity.

Those three qualities seem a bit redundant, but maybe she's talking in Betazoid and there are secondary meanings we're not getting.

ALKAR: Mother, I told you that I'd be gone for over an hour.
MAYLOR: You're late because of her. Have you mated with him yet?
TROI: What?

If Maylor wants to stop Alkar's violations, why is she perpetuating this "mother" deception? I'd be miffed at the use of "mate" instead of "sex", but I'll chalk this one up to Universal Translator weirdness.

RIKER: Hi. It's that time again. The dreaded crew evaluation reports.
TROI: Does it have to be today?
RIKER: It's not going to be any easier tomorrow.

First, either of them should be able to delay these things when an important mission is in progress. Second of all, it's stuff like this that makes the early season weirdness more prominent. You're not allowed to grieve, but you can complain about work? You're not allowed to have money, but you can gamble? You're not allowed to be racist against humans, but you're allowed to be racist against aliens?

TROI: I've just had a disturbing encounter with Alkar's mother. She frightens me, Will. The feelings I sense from her are malevolent. They're out of proportion. They're evil.

Evil? Where did that come from? And in any case, shouldn't Troi be able to detect when something is messing with someone's thoughts?

TROI: Computer today's appointment calendar.
COMPUTER: Oh nine hundred hours, counselling session with Ensign Janeway.

The year is 2369. None of Captain Janeway's relatives are the right age to be this Ensign. It might be a cousin, I suppose. Amazingly the expanded universe never connected them.

CRUSHER: We'll have to sedate her. Twenty cc's of melorazine.

Melorazine makes many appearances in the Expanded Universe. Even an Okudagram in Discovery. In Star Trek Online it will cleanse someone of mental debuffs.

OGAWA: Doctor Crusher? I think you should see these readings, Doctor. Her neurotransmitter levels are three hundred percent above normal.

Wouldn't it be easier to say "Her neurotransmitter levels are at four hundred percent?"

ALKAR: Hear me out, Captain. It's important you understand. You see, I discovered long ago I had the ability to channel my darker thoughts, my unwanted emotions, to others, leaving me unencumbered.

Even given the wonders of the Trek universe, this seems a little silly. Furthermore, I'm reminded of Santa's bottle of evil in 1986's Babes in Toyland.

ALKAR: Captain. do you know how many people have died on this planet in the last forty eight hours? Thousands. Deanna Troi is just one individual.
PICARD: That does not justify brutalising her, nor any of the others you have used.

As Picard has said elsewhere, "I refuse to let arithmetic decide questions like that." At the end of the day Alkar isn't responsible for casualties in this war as long as he's doing his best to bring peace.

ALKAR: Ask the Seronian and Rekag children who go to bed each night in fear of their lives. Captain, I get no payment, I have no power base, no agenda. I am willing to risk my life simply to help others.

No agenda? The quest for fame is an agenda. This guy has no right to put himself up there with Riva and Sarek.

RIKER: Wait a minute. You're talking about killing Deanna!
CRUSHER: I'll be able to resuscitate her, Will, as long as it's not more than thirty minutes.

How did Crusher arrive at that number? I'm really interested.

PICARD: I intend to make certain that you answer for what you have done.
ALKAR: Your own Federation Council has granted me safe and timely passage back to my planet. I expect you to honour that, Captain.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Federation Council will retract that promise when they hear what's going on. For that matter, diplomatic immunity may extend to laws broken while on alien planets on a mission, I don't think it extends to Starfleet vessels.

Memory Alpha

* The creators were definitely homaging "The Picture of Dorian Gray", but I don't think they knew what they were doing. Dorian was using a painting, an act that he thought had no repercussions. Alkar is using up the life of another person.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil wonders why Crusher can only "kill" Deanna for thirty minutes when people who have been in stasis for hundreds of years can be revived. This is one place where he really drops the ball. Deanna can't be put in full stasis as long as her brain is connected to Alkar. Thus Beverly has to keep Deanna's vital functions suppressed while still keeping her cells alive. A much more difficult task.

[Nate the Great]

October 12th, 1992, "Relics"

I'd like to recommend the novelization on this one. Some Trek novelizations are quite literal, others add subplots that really add to the story. The book adds a lot more for the crew to do while stuck in the Dyson Sphere as well as an expanded subplot for Ensign Kane, the guy who escorted Scotty to his quarters. It was actually Kane's idea to give the shuttle to Scotty.

Fiver by IJD GAF

The Episode

DATA: Captain, I have identified the signal. It is from the USS Jenolen, a Federation transport ship reported missing in this sector seventy five years ago.

The Jenolan was Sydney-class in-universe, but of course it was a STVI-era shuttle with other starship parts kitbashed on it. And the Amazing Thing That I Learned Today is that the circular crystal thing at the rear of TOS film-era ship saucer sections is the "impulse deflection crystal." Of course it's also at the top of the warp core, which was impossibly tall on the Constitution class refit (still call it the Enterprise class, FYI). Forum thread that discusses it, including the revelation that the dome is only blue in the post-STTMP movies, it was red in STTMP. The STTMP novelization reveals that the crystal converted warp plasma into something suitable for the impulse engine. If you want to accept the STTMP novelization as canon, that is.

And that was your Meaningless Nate Rant for the day.

(the ship shakes)
PICARD: Report.
WORF: We have entered a massive gravitational field, Captain.
DATA: There are no stars or other stellar bodies listed on our navigational charts. However, sensors indicate the presence of an extremely strong gravitational source in this vicinity.

Okay, even if you postulate a scan-proof alloy for the Dyson Sphere hull (a dubious claim given the neutronium in the Planet Killers), the gravity source should still be detected. The diameter of the Dyson Sphere is a little smaller than the Earth's, we can presume it's at the optimal M-class radius for this particular star. Furthermore, astronomers TODAY have to keep track of how the gravitational effects of everything affects the path of everything else. Even if there aren't any planets in this system there would be asteroids and gravel orbiting around to indicate the existence of a star.

PICARD: Mister Data, could this be a Dyson Sphere?
DATA: The object does fit the general parameters of Dyson's theory.

Dyson proposed this in 1960, but Olaf Stapelton thought up a similar idea in a novel in 1937. Dyson never really proposed a solid shell, he was thinking of a swarm of energy-collecting satellites and space stations.

Of course the most well-known variant in fiction is David Niven's Ringworld. Have I mentioned yet that my father was a fan of hard scifi fiction, but I am not? I actually tried to read Ringworld once, but gave up quickly. Much like Asimov, Niven seems to like pontificating about how realistic the science in his fictional worlds are more than actually making us care about characters.

PICARD: It's a very old theory, Number One. I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of it.

And why has Picard heard of it? He's into archeology, and I don't think twentieth-century speculative science counts as that.

RIKER: Are you saying you think there are people living in there?
DATA: Possibly a great number of people, Commander. The interior surface area of a sphere this size is the equivalent of more than two hundred and fifty million class M planets.

Class M planets should have a wide range of possible surface areas, based on the geologic materials, distance to the sun, and luminous output of the sun, etc. Assuming the surface area of the Earth, 250,000,000 Earths is 5(10^16) mi^2, or a sphere with a radius of 63 million miles. So are they assuming a star much more radiant and massive than Sol?

(after a short while)
DATA: I have located the Jenolen, sir. It is impacted on the surface of the sphere.

And yet it rumpled the surface of the Sphere. As SF Debris would say, this is like a spork making a dent in concrete.

RIKER: This air's pretty stale.
LAFORGE: Life support is barely operating.

Once again, treating "life support" as "breathable air." Grrr. Furthermore, why is the air stale if nobody's been breathing it?

LAFORGE: That's not all. The phase inducers are connected to the emitter array. The override is completely gone and the pattern buffer's been locked into a continuous diagnostic cycle.

Okay, even if you tell the computer to keep scanning and maintaining the matter stream, I can't believe that a proverbial fuse wouldn't blow at some point. Scotty's still brilliant, of course.

LAFORGE: There's a pattern in the buffer still.
RIKER: It's completely intact. There's less than point zero zero three percent signal degradation.

Some say that this degradation accounts for Scotty missing a few memories. For example, knowing that Kirk died on the E-B. Or that the E-A was destroyed over Chal just before the E-B was commissioned (Shatnerverse).

SCOTT: You've changed the resonator array.

This is weird, because the E-D transporter room (and Sickbay, and Engineering...) were used for the latter TOS films. And as Geordi will say later, transporter tech hasn't changed that much.

Only mention of resonator arrays.

SCOTT: What have you done with the duotronic enhancers?
LAFORGE: Those were replaced with isolinear chips about forty years ago.

Duotronics is of course a reference to "The Ultimate Computer." It's mentioned here and there in the expanded universe. It's amazing that the expanded universe never elaborated on the introduction of isolinear technology.

LAFORGE: You were saying its big as life. You mean the Dyson Sphere?
SCOTT: Aye, an actual Dyson Sphere. Can you imagine the engineering skills needed to even design such a structure?

I'm an engineer, and I can't. At all. Forget designing the thing, how would you even build it? Did they start with a Dyson Swarm and then start connecting them with "tiles" that would form the skin of the Sphere?

LAFORGE: I think you're going to enjoy the twenty fourth century, Mister Scott. We've made some pretty incredible advances these last eighty years.

Really? Yeah, everything is more efficient, but like they'll explain later they just built on earlier principles. The biggest technological leaps of the Galaxy-class seem to be based on the holodeck and overall operational range. Not exactly a huge leap.

CRUSHER: Other than a couple of bumps and bruises, I'd say you feel fine for a man of a hundred and forty seven.
SCOTT: I don't feel a day over a hundred and twenty.

Scotty was born in 2222, the only other event in this year is the activation of Pralor Automated Unit 3947 ("Prototype").

PICARD: I must say, I was little surprised when Commander Riker told me that you were aboard the Jenolen. Our records didn't show you listed as a member of the crew.

There wasn't a record of passengers? Are you telling me that the computer has better records of civilian ships that left Earth post-WWIII than Federation ships seventy-five years ago?

SCOTT: Bigger? In my day, even an Admiral wouldn't have had such quarters on a starship.

Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise lists floorplans for several sizes of quarters, sorted by rank. Ensigns barely get hotel rooms and Admirals get whole suites with separate offices and bedrooms. Scotty must mean the TOS days.

KANE: The holodecks, Ten Forward, and the gymnasium are all at your disposal. The computer can tell you how to find them. Until we issue you a combadge, just use one of these panels if you need anything.

And does Scotty know what "Ten Forward" is, Ensign? And wouldn't the Enterprise have several gyms?

SCOTT: You know, these quarters remind me of a hotel room on Argelius. Oh, now there is a planet. Everything a man wants right at his fingertips. Of course, on the first visit, I got into a wee bit of trouble.

"Wolf in the Fold" reference, of course. The planet has made several Okudagram references in recent series.

LAFORGE: I want you to shut down the warp engines and recalibrate the aft sensors while I work on the lateral array.

The lateral arrays are along the equator of the saucer section. They look like random circuitry.

SCOTT: I was a Starfleet engineer for fifty two years, Mister La Forge.

Assuming one continual block (a dubious claim), this is 2241-2293. This episode also establishes that he was born in 2222. To start at 19 indicates that he started out as an enlisted crewmember like O'Brien, then joined Starfleet later. He was in Starfleet for twenty years before TOS, and we know very little about any of it.

DATA: Sensor readings indicate the presence of a G-type star at the centre of the sphere.

Otherwise known as yellow dwarfs, Sol is another G-type.

PICARD: Mister Data, send out a series of class-four probes to survey the far side of the sphere.

Class 4 probes have many functions in Trek, almost as if the writers don't care to keep up to date. The TNG Tech Manual states that the Class 4 is basically an upgrade of the Class 3, faster and with a longer range and six ejectable subprobes.

[Nate the Great]

SCOTT: I remember a time when the old Enterprise was spiralling in toward Psi two thousand.
LAFORGE: Thank you.
SCOTT: The Captain wanted to try a cold start of the warp engines. I told him that without a proper phase lock it would take at least thirty minutes You canna change the laws of physics, I told him, but he wouldn't believe me, so I had to come up with a new engine start-up routine.

"The Naked Time", of course. There are a few novels that reference this thirty-minute requirement and Scotty's upgrade of the process.

LAFORGE: We recomposite the crystals while they're still inside the articulation frame.

Didn't Scotty do this in The Voyage Home? Many novels point to that as the start of the recrystallization tech used on the E-D.

SCOTT: How long will it really take?
LAFORGE: An hour.
SCOTT: You didn't tell him how long it would really take, did you?
LAFORGE: Of course I did.

The Search For Spock establishes that the average Scotty multiplication factor is four.

DATA: I believe I may be of some assistance. Captain Scott is unaware of the existence of synthehol.
SCOTT: Synthehol?
DATA: Yes, sir. It is an alcohol substitute now being served aboard starships. It simulates the appearance, taste and smell of alcohol, but the intoxicating affects can be easily dismissed.

Gene dictated that the Ferengi invented synthehol, yet it appears in Discovery before offical first contact was made with them.

DATA: No, sir. I am an android. Lieutenant Commander Data.
SCOTT: Synthetic Scotch, synthetic commanders.

Scotty isn't surprised, he ran into many androids in TOS. Memory Alpha lists four episodes in particular ("What Are Little Girls Made Of", "Requiem For Methuselah", "I, Mudd", "Return to Tomorrow.")

SCOTT: What is it?
DATA: It is (looks at bottle) It is (sniffs contents) It is green.

"By Any Other Name" reference aside, you'd think Data would be programmed to at least identify the major categories of booze (wine, ale, sake, beer, etc). Even if Guinan has every bottle memorized, wouldn't she still want these things properly labeled so waiters like Ben can ID them as needed?

Guinan appears in the novel and is much more supportive of Scotty. I hope he met Dax at one point, as well.

COMPUTER: Please enter programme.
SCOTT: The android at the bar said you could show me my old ship. Let me see it.

Oh, boy. Scotty and holodecks. The rec room in TAS immediately comes to mind. In any case I think Data should've accompanied Scotty to show him how to work it.

SCOTT: The Enterprise. Show me the Bridge of the Enterprise, you chattering piece of
COMPUTER: There have been five Federation ships with that name. Please specify by registry number.
SCOTT: NCC One Seven Oh One. No bloody A, B, C, or D.
COMPUTER: Programme complete. Enter when ready.

Like I've said elsewhere, the computer shouldn't have assumed "Federation ship." In any case Scotty should've provided a specific date, the TOS bridge had at least "The Cage", TOS, TAS, and film versions.

PICARD: Constitution class.
SCOTT: Aye. You're familiar with them?
PICARD: There's one in the Fleet museum, but then of course, this is your Enterprise.

The novel "Crossover" will establish the one in the fleet museum as the USS Yorktown, only with the TOS Bridge module that was removed in the refit. Scotty steals it and hooks his shuttle into it, creating an even more advanced version of the automation system that he invented in Search for Spock.

PICARD: The first ship I ever served aboard as Captain was called the Stargazer. It was an overworked, underpowered vessel, always on the verge of flying apart at the seams. In every measurable sense, my Enterprise is far superior. But there are times when I would give almost anything to command the Stargazer again.

I find it disappointing that Picard would resent the Stargazer not having tech from twenty years in the future. He's supposed to be an archeologist, and that seems like anti-scientist thinking.

SCOTT: When I was here, I could tell you the speed that we were traveling by the feel of the deckplates.

I hope he means at impulse speeds. Inertial dampeners should be able to stop such things at warp speed.

PICARD: Seventy five years is a long time. If you would care to study some technical schematics or
SCOTT: I'm not eighteen. I can't start out like a raw cadet.

The novels establish that he does in fact get up to date to work with the Corps of Engineers.

DATA: Commander, I believe I have found something on the sphere which could be a communications device. There's an antenna array approximately four hundred thousand kilometres south of our present position. It is emitting low intensity subspace signals.
RIKER: Can you open a channel?
DATA: No, sir, not from our present orbit. The array is currently directed away from us.

Does neutronium block subspace signals? That seems farfetched.

LAFORGE: If this ship were operational I bet she'd run circles around the Enterprise at impulse speeds.

I find this claim dubious.

PICARD: Very well. Mister Data, begin a scan of the interior surface for life forms. I want to know who brought us in here and why.
DATA: Aye, sir.

In the novel they meet the natives, sort of. It's a long story.

LAFORGE: The tank can't withstand that kind of pressure.
SCOTT: Where'd you get that idea?
LAFORGE: What do you mean, where did I get that idea? It's in the impulse engine specifications.
SCOTT: Regulation forty two slash fifteen, pressure variances on IRC tank storage?
LAFORGE: Yeah.
SCOTT: Forget it. I wrote it. A good engineer is always a wee bit conservative, at least on paper. Just bypass the secondary cut-off valve and boost the flow. It'll work.

Geordi has this kind of stuff memorized? And we're supposed to believe that genetic modification isn't being used? And seriously, where is the 47 cameo?

DATA: The interior surface area is over ten to the sixteenth square kilometres.

More like 13 times 10 to the sixteenth square kilometers. Do the math!

(outside the main sphere hatch, and looking at short range scan 0407.7)

Not just a 47 reference, but a MASH reference.

LAFORGE: You can't be serious. That hatch is huge. It'll crush this ship like an egg.
SCOTT: Geordi, the shields will hold. Don't worry about that. I can get a few extra gigawatts out of these babies.
LAFORGE: Scotty, it's crazy.
SCOTT: Geordi. I have spent my whole life trying to figure out crazy ways of doing things. I'm telling you, as one engineer to another, I can do this.

You have to admit, by TOS standards this engineering feat is rather pedestrian.

LAFORGE: I've lost helm control. La Forge to Enterprise. Captain, we're not going to be able to move this ship out of the way when you get here. You're going to have to destroy it in order to escape.

Given the size of the doors, I find that claim dubious. Now is not the time to stick to the rules of the road!

LAFORGE: So, this alien space baby, which was about the size of a four story building, really thought the Enterprise was its mother.
SCOTT: You're pulling an old man's leg.
LAFORGE: No, really. It was suckling power directly from the ship's fusion reactors, so Doctor Brahms and I changed the power frequency from twenty one centimetres to point oh two centimetres.
SCOTT: You soured the milk.
LAFORGE: That's right.

I'm trying to think of another TNG event that has TOS-worthy levels of engineering ludicrousness. "Booby Trap" is the first example I can think of.

SCOTT: You're giving me one of your shuttles?
PICARD: Well, call it an extended loan.

This is the Goddard (last seen in "The Next Phase"), although the novelization calls it the Christopher in honor of the guy from "Tomorrow is Yesterday." The novel Crossover reveals that he renamed it the Romaine after his love from "The Lights of Zetar". She eventually married Scotty's friend Morgan Bateson, ouch.

[Nate the Great]

The Fiver

Scotty: I've got a friend in there!
Riker: Was he a TOS regular?
Scotty: More like a redshirt.
Riker: Then he's history. Want some pie?

Hehe.

Scotty: You know Ensign, these quarters remind me of "Wolf in the Fold" and "Elaan of Troyius".
Kane: Sorry sir, I only follow Trek from TNG forward. I'll leave you alone to contemplate your utter uselessness in this century.
Scotty: In my day you would've been killed before being able to recite that many lines....

He's probably right. The way Kane acted he seems like a prime candidate for a Ceti eel or mugato attack.

Scotty: Computer, show me the Enterprise.
Computer: There have been countless capitalistic endeavors in history; please specify.
Scotty: THE U.S.S. ENTERPRISE, NCC-1701. NO BLOODY--

As I've said before, there have been a LOT of ships with bridges in history.

Data: Now that we're orbiting the star, it's solar flaring.
Picard: If this isn't the sun, Sol, wouldn't it just be a Stellar Flare?
Data: Yes, but I find no flare to that particular Incubus song.

Actually there are a number of songs with that title, along with a My Little Pony character.

Picard: Are we screwed yet to the point that only Scotty can rescue us?
Data: Aye.
Picard: Excellent. Break out the Parcheesi.

Parcheesi?

Memory Alpha

* Dyson himself enjoyed the episode, even if he thought the science was ridiculous.
* It's weird for Troi to kiss Scotty goodbye since they never interacted, but there was a deleted scene where they did. Geordi sends her to counsel Scotty, but he doesn't like the idea of being treated like he's crazy.
* Actually, in "The Naked Time" it was Spock who came up with the new startup routine, but maybe Scotty helped offscreen.
* Only time Scotty is addressed as a Captain, even though he's been one since Search for Spock.

Nitpicker's Guide

* How does the transporter work through the Jenolan's shields? I would argue that it's the same principle as "Trials and Tribbleations"-the older tech has holes that the E-D can exploit.
* Does Guinan really let just anyone access her private stash?
* Wouldn't the Jenolan have taken an established warp route to Norphin IV? How come nobody found this thing before now?
* Aren't there any historians besides Picard on board that would want to talk to Scotty?

[Nate the Great]

October 19th, 1992, "Schisms"

Fiver by Kira

The Episode

LAFORGE: We've been testing a way of channelling warp energy directly to the main deflector grid. It should enhance the long range sensors.

What do the long-range sensors have to do with the deflector grid?

DATA: The modification would increase our sensor efficiency and imaging resolution by twenty five percent or more.

I'll accept the first part, but the second part is just nonsense. If you want to overclock the sensors I would just pump more power into the sensor arrays and slave more computer power to coordinating the sensors of probes sent into the Armagosa Diaspora.

LAFORGE: We'd channel it through the EPS mains on deck four, near Cargo bay four.

I know that this is setting up later events, but I still don't get why you would route power up to Deck 4 only to send it down to Decks 10 and 11 where the lateral sensors are.

DATA: That poem was written in anapaestic tetrameter.

Anapestic tetrameter means four anapestic metrical feet per lines. One foot has two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. Two notable examples are "The Night Before Christmas" and a lot of Dr. Seuss.

da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

On the FIFteenth of MAY, in the JUNgle of NOOL,
In the HEAT of the DAY, in the COOL of the POOL.

DATA: Throughout the ages, from Keats to Jorkemo, poets have composed odes to individuals who have had a profound effect on their lives. In keeping with that tradition, I have written my next poem in honour of my cat. I call it Ode to Spot.

Original version, Doubleclicks version. Of course it also made a cameo in "A Fistful of Datas."

Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature.
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature.

Your meaningless bits of cat nomenclature trivia for the day:
Male-tom/tomcat if intact, gib if neutered
Female-queen if intact, molly if spayed
A group of cats is a clowder or glaring.

CRUSHER: Drink this before going to bed.
RIKER: What is it?
CRUSHER: A recipe for a warm milk toddy.

One recipe is like a vanilla milk with whiskey, another is milk with nutmeg, honey, and brandy. There's actually a blog post about what Aunt Adele's recipe would be.

If you want nonalcoholic warm milk, most recipes focus on vanilla, honey, and nutmeg as the additives of choice.

Don't ask for my personal preference. I'm with Neelix and Chakotay, warm milk sounds disgusting. If I want a warm beverage to make me sleepy I'll stick with apple cider, thank you.

LAFORGE: If you want to touch people, don't concentrate so much on rhyme and metre. Think more about what you want to say instead of how you're saying it.

I can't say that I agree with Geordi on this one. Poetry has to have structure, or else it's not poetry. By all means, bend the mold to avoid monotony, but throw out the baby with the bathwater.

RIKER: Could we pick this up in the morning, Geordi? Get a fresh start? Would you do me a favour? Stop by my quarters, oh seven hundred hours. I'm having trouble waking up.
LAFORGE: Sure, Commander.

Surely there are other alarm options from the computer available. Or at least replicate a mechanical alarm clock!

LAFORGE: Just before the grid alarm sounded, we were running warp power through this junction.

I presume that there aren't any warp plasma conduits in the saucer, so how is "warp power" different from the power from the impulse engines?

DATA: You are correct. Ninety two minutes, seventeen seconds have passed since you left the room.
LAFORGE: What have you been doing all this time?
DATA: I have no memory of events during that period. When we are finished here, I will perform a self-diagnostic.

Unless there's some time dilation nonsense going on in here a la the Mannheim Effect, I don't see how Data's perception of time can be affected in this case.

TROI: Well, you all remember a table, so let's start with that. Computer show me a table.
COMPUTER: There are five thousand forty seven classifications of tables on file. Specify design parameters.
TROI: Can you be more specific about the table? You mentioned it was smooth and cold. Can you remember what shape it was?
KAMINER: Long. It was long.
LAFORGE: Yeah, and it had a rectangular shape.
TROI: Computer, show me a rectangular conference table.

SF Debris was more forgiving of the culling process than I am. I get it, we can only allow so much screentime to this scene, but that doesn't make it any less of a plothole.

PICARD: Raise shields. And I want a level four security alert. I need to know if anyone comes on or off this ship.

Shouldn't that be the default?

CRUSHER: It looks as though your arm has been severed and then reattached.
RIKER: What?
CRUSHER: The skeletal structure in your radius and ulna is offset by point zero two microns. Your arm has been amputated then surgically reattached.

Like Chuck said, this is like knowing you're on the wrong planet because a grain of sand is missing. 0.02 microns is a tenth the length of a bacterium.

The Fiver

Data: And now for my forty-seventh poem. There was a Lieutenant named Yar, who was killed by a big ball of tar; she once lost her head, and took Data to bed -- which was more than a little bizarre.
Crew: Groooaaan.

It could be argued that Yar wanting to feel love was one of the least bizarre things in "The Naked Now."

Mott: What will it be today, Lieutenant? Shampoo? Shave? Highlights?
Worf: That would bring out my cheekbones....
Mott: You know what you need? A manicure.
Worf: Now you've gone too far.

One "t" in "Mot."

La Forge: Time flies when you're having fun.
Data: It does seem that the passage of time is accelerated when boring coworkers are absent.

I don't think Data would think of Geordi as boring.

Worf: Say, this table looks familiar.
La Forge: Oh my God! We were abducted by aliens!
Riker: I thought that only happened in cornfields.

I hope this wasn't a "Broken Bow" reference.

Nitpicker's Guide

* The exact location of Cargo Bay 4 varies depending on if you believe the dialogue or the Okudagrams.
* The "CONN panel" looks a lot more like the "OPS panel." Phil speculates that the stations have been reconfigured like the Tech Manual says that they can.

[Nate the Great]

October 26th, 1992, "True Q"

No fiver (who has this one reserved?)

The Episode

Captain's log, stardate 46192.3. We have arrived at Starbase one one two and are loading relief supplies destined for Tagra Four, an ecologically devastated planet in the Argolis Cluster.

I thought that the Argolis Cluster showed up more often than it did, but it turns out it was only in two TNG episodes and two DS9 episodes. Rene Echevarria wrote three of these. It makes a few appearances in the expanded universe.

AMANDA: Yes, sir. I still can't believe they chose me. There were lots of other people with better records.
CRUSHER: Your transcript is very impressive. She's done honours work in neurobiology, plasma dynamics, and eco-regeneration. I'd say that's pretty well rounded.

Makes you wonder how these fields are related or what "eco-regeneration" is.

RIKER: It'll take a few days before you know where everything is. If you need any help, you just use one of these comm. panels.
AMANDA: We're on deck seven, section four.

I have to wonder how anyone other than Data knows where everything is on a ship this big. Whatever happened to the wall arrows from "Encounter at Farpoint", anyway?

CRUSHER: See all these readouts? That's your heart rate, your blood pressure all your vital signs. You're in good shape. You might just live to be my age.

She's majored in neurobiology, I think she knows how to use a medical tricorder! Just skip to the next line!

AMANDA: So I should scan myself with each one to make sure all the readouts are working?
CRUSHER: Any unit that doesn't, put it aside and we'll do a diagnostic on it later.

They can't do this automatically? You can really tell that this is pre-USB, can't you?

AMANDA: It's amazing to think that they go to such lengths to clean the air instead of regulating the emissions that cause the problem.
LAFORGE: You're right. Actually, the only thing the filters can do is keep things from getting worse.

Did Trek really do an anti-pollution episode before the Malon showed up?

AMANDA: It's hard to imagine how much energy is being harnessed in there.
DATA: Imagination is not necessary. The scale is readily quantifiable. We are presently generating twelve point seven five billion gigawatts per-

And what does "12.75 billion gigawatts per whatever" mean in terms that a person can imagine? Today we can compare energy output to old-style lightbulbs, a dam, or a whole city. Furthermore, why not use 5 petawatt instead of 5 billion gigawatt? In any case, modern aircraft carriers are about a gigawatt. The TNG Tech Manual implies 5(10^18) W for the warp core at maximum output. So 12.75(10^12) W is a relatively low value for idling power.

Furthermore, you don't add a "per time unit" for power output. Power is already energy/time.

DATA: Temperature in the reaction chamber has increased by forty seven percent.

Sheesh, they're not even trying to hide the 47s at this point, are they? What the temperature inside the warp core would be is an interesting question that I could pontificate on for some time, but I won't.

(the chamber explodes, but Amanda holds out her hands and pushes the reaction back inside and seals it again)

Amanda doesn't have full access to Q knowledge yet, so I have to wonder how she knows about the construction specs of the warp core enough to rebuild the thing. And don't forget that she has to rebuild the core AND the dilithium chamber AND the confinement beam emitters AND force the matter and antimatter back into the injection systems. And probably deenergize the warp plasma all the way to the nacelles at the same time.

Q: Well, not exactly. They had assumed human form in order to visit Earth, I suppose for amusement. But in vulgar human fashion they proceeded to conceive a child. And then like mawkish humans, they became attached to it. What is it about those squirming little infants that you find so appealing?

In the Q Continuum books when Beverly finds out about Q Junior she asks about how he's different from Amanda Rogers. The implication is that Amanda's parents were fully locked in "human mode" when she was conceived, thus she was born locked into "human mode". Her powers slowly emerged, but she needed Q to unlock her into full Q mode here. Q and Lady Q didn't do that, their bodies were still in avatar mode when their energies united to create Q Junior. He was born as a real Q, looking as the Q really do. Q was nudging him into looking like a baby for Janeway's benefit.

Then again, one of the Strange New Worlds stories reveals how Dr. Selar had to act as a midwife to Lady Q, but that's a story for when I get to "The Q and the Grey."

TROI: What happened to Amanda's parents?
Q: They died in an accident.

It's not often that Q outright lies. One wonders why he didn't just say "it's a long story" and quickly moved on to the next topic.

Q: None of us knew whether she had inherited the capacities of the Q, but recently they've began to emerge, and as an expert in humanity, I was sent to investigate.
RIKER: You, an expert in humanity?
Q: Not a very challenging field of study, I grant you.

How is Q not an expert in humanity, at least by Q standards? "Death Wish" revealed that he was one of the only Q who still bothered to travel the universe among the locals.

Actually, this is another plot point that was explored in the Q Continuum novels. Q's antics were indirectly responsible for the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs, so the Q Continuum made him look after the lifeforms that would evolve on Earth. It's a long story.

PICARD: I want to know about her biological parents, about their death. I find it odd that any Q could die in an accident.
DATA: It is not consistent with what we know of them, sir.

No duh. It takes another Q-level species to kill a Q. There's the Calamarain, the M Continuum, 0, The One, (*), the Travelers, the Organians...

I do recommend the novel I, Q where we meet the M Continuum. Q's counterpart M is even more annoying than he is.

PICARD: Amanda, allow me to introduce, er, Q. He's er, he's an acquaintance of ours. We've er, we've known him for years.

An acquaintance? Gotta love Picard for refusing to lie even under these circumstances.

Q: Don't worry. With time you'll overcome the disadvantages you suffered as a child. No one will hold it against you for having been human. Let's go.
(Amanda sends Q flying across the room)
AMANDA: Leave me alone! I'm not going anywhere with you!

Q doesn't get his butt kicked nearly often enough. It's a shame that Guinan isn't in this episode, she would've loved this and been a useful mentor for Amanda. Then again, that would've stolen screentime away from Crusher.

AMANDA: He's so horrible.
CRUSHER: He is the only one who can help you to understand who you are.

I suddenly wonder if Quinn would've been an improvement in this scenario. Too bad he's still trapped in a comet.

[Nate the Great]

Q: Well. to put it simply, we're omnipotent. There's nothing, nothing we can't do.
AMANDA: And what do you do with this power?
Q: Anything we want.
AMANDA: Do you use it to help others?
Q: I think you've missed the point, my dear.

I don't think she has. What the Q actually does is one of the most conflicted issues in all of Trek. Sometimes they're totally indifferent to mortal species, sometimes they act like self-appointed judges and mentors to mortals, sometimes they like to play games with the mortals like Mr. Mxyzptlk, sometimes they're just another alien race that happens to be of a higher power level, etc.

Furthermore, it's infuriating how much they don't seem to care about any race other than humanity.

AMANDA: No, think about it. Really think. If suddenly you could make anything happen, what would it be?
CRUSHER: Well, I would probably want to heal people. People who are hopelessly ill.
AMANDA: Would you bring your husband back?
CRUSHER: Amanda, I don't know.

I prefer to think that there's a limited time window during which a Q can resurrect people. If Q can bring back anyone who died at any time at any location, that introduces philosophical and ethical questions that couldn't possibly be adequately explored in a single episode.

DATA: I have some information regarding Amanda Rogers' parents. Records indicate that they died in Topeka, Kansas. Their home was destroyed during a tornado.
PICARD: A tornado? Why wasn't it dissipated by the weather modification net?

if someone ever makes a fiver, I hope they insert a Wizard of Oz joke here. In any case, it staggers the mind to think of how much control you'd have to have over the atmosphere to prevent tornadoes and hurricans from happening. It's almost like the genetic enhancement debate, but for weather.

DATA: The bodies were found in the rubble after the storm had passed.

So did Amanda's parents voluntarily lock off their powers to the point that their bodies became fully human, or did the Q Continuum create simulated corpses to avoid further suspicion?

Q: You're attracted to him.
AMANDA: I am not.
Q: I think you are. How repulsive. How do you stand that hair all over his face?

This seems needlessly petty. I'm pretty sure that there are some Q Continuum members with facial hair. Furthermore, why is Q so biased against Riker? Is he still bitter about "Hide and Q"?

AMANDA: Do you love me?
RIKER: More than anything.
AMANDA: You're right. None of this is real. I thought it would be romantic, but it's empty.

It's nice how Amanda figured this out faster than Riker did in "Hide and Q".

PICARD: You would be so despicable?
Q: Don't be naive. You have no idea what it means to be Q. With unlimited power comes responsibility. Do you think it is reasonable for us to allow omnipotent beings to roam free through the universe?

You have to wonder why he can't lock Amanda into human form like her parents so she can't use her powers or be a threat. Later he'll say that she can choose to not use the power, but that didn't work very well with Riker.

PICARD: Yes. I recall how you used your superior morality when we first encountered you. You put us on trial for the crimes of humanity.
Q: The jury is still out on that, Picard, make no mistake.

I presume that they knew how the series had to end even this early.

PICARD: I would put human morality against the Q's any day. And perhaps that's the reason that we fascinate you so. Because our puny behaviour shows you a glimmer of the one thing that evades your omnipotence, a moral centre. And if so, I can think of no crueller irony than that you should destroy this young woman, whose only crime is that she's too human.
Q: Jean-Luc, sometimes I think the only reason I come here is to listen to these wonderful speeches of yours.

Time to link to the Picard Speech compilation again.

AMANDA: I hope I can come back and see you.
CRUSHER: You're a Q. You can do anything you want.

Oh, the speech I could make on this point.

Memory Alpha

* Last appearance of Q in TNG where anyone other than Picard sees him.
* Amanda's precise status among the Q is explored and she is killed in the VOY novel "The Eternal Tide."

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil also wonders about the medical tricorder thing.
* He also thinks that the Q didn't care about humanity before "Encounter at Farpoint" and that this is in conflict with Amanda's parents settling on Earth. I see no conflict. Q made it clear that the Farpoint mission marks a point where humanity had spread too far into space without being ready. There's a difference between monitoring and interfering. They obviously knew about humanity, like they know about all other races.
* If there's an emergency on Tagra IV, how come it doesn't seem like the Enterprise is at warp at any point during the episode?
* How come Amanda never wears a commbadge? This is a valid point, since we've seen people with a far less official status have commbadges.