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NOTE: I am way behind this morning and I have a ton of stuff to do so this is going to be fast and furious! First, some comments from previous columns . . .
Corey Hines of Hamilton, ON: I read in a magazine that ST:FC was the last appearance of Data because Brent Spiner said he was getting too old to be doing that character. I can only assume that he would also mean he wouldn't be doing Lore any more either.
Phil: Perhaps! Although one wonders if Spiner isn't following the path that Nimoy didn't for a while. (I am not Spock . . . I am Spock.)
Corey Hesselberg: In reference to the question about the ensign wearing red there are plenty of people for him to command. Remember there are people on board the Enterprize that hold the rank of Crewman which is lower than Ensign. This situation is similar to enlisted personel and officers in today's armed forces. Ensigns (or 2nd Lieutenants depending on which branch) can be in command of a large number of people.
Anne Stockwell of Kansas City, MO: Chig means a human that was created by an alien race. The Chigs are pretty desriminated against by most normal humans and are at times used as slaves. The highest ranking Chig was a Col. or a general.
Phil: Now, that's something I hadn't heard before!
Robert Cook of Anacortes, WA: Arturo was killed off because the actor who played him, John Rhys-Davies wanted out of the series. There's been, not surprisingly, a lot of discussion about this on the Usenet group alt.tv.sliders. What it boils down to is that Mr. Rhys-Davies felt that his character should have played a more central role in the series, and he wasn't happy with the show's current 'monster-of-the-week' direction. So he left and was replaced with Kari Wurher (Sp?), who was most definitely *not* hired for her acting ability. (After appearing in only four episodes, she's gained among us alt.tv.sliders folks the semi-official nickname of "Woo-woo.") Sliders is headed downhill, fast.
Phil: Unfortunately, I would have to agree about that last part. Recently, Sliders has had some just plain stinko episodes. Ah well, here's hoping they pull it out! (Thanks as well to John Miller, Kevin Weiler and Morgan Moloney for responding!)
Brad Higgins: Regarding Dan Reed's question about animated episode #12, I have a complete set of the animateds, and was also curious about why they left out #12. However, the Star Trek Compendium by Allen Asherman, as well as the Star Trek Concordance by Bjo Trimble, show that there are only 22 episodes. I can only assume that they misnumbered the tapes when they produced them.
On to the questions . . . .
Paul Steele of Springfield, VA: Commenting about "Favorite Son," Shane Tourtellotte stated that Torres' "red" blood was a nit. Have "we" not established that Klingons do, in fact, have red blood. I understand that the only reason the Klingon blood in "Undiscovered Country" was purple was to avoid an "R" rating for the picture. Certainly DS9 has shown us enough red Klingon blood to support this contention.
Phil: It is true that every instance of Klingon blood in NextGen and DS9 has shown it to be red and . . . I suppose . . . that the tide is turning against Undiscovered Country. But . . . but . . . but . . . it was a plot point in the movie! Michael Dorn's character in the extended version actually sees red blood and says, "This is not Klingon blood"!!
Joseph Andrew Meslovich, Jr.: I was watching ST -IV the other day when something struck me as being odd. The crew was able to transport thru the cloak. The crew of the Defiant in DS9's "Trials and Tribblelations" had to drop the cloak everytime they wanted to transport. This also was the case in a few other episodes, I can't recall the names right now. The Romulans must not have trusted Starfleet when they gave them the cloak for the Defiant. Sad that a broken-down bird of prey at least a hundred years older than the Defiant would have a cloak that could outclass Starfleet state of the art warship.
Phil: I think this is another case of cloaking devices that work as needed for the plot!
Deb Hayes: I've *finally* gotten a chance to see the Voyager episode "Warlord," and came up with a question: The actor who played the guy who Kes/Tieran did the funky mind thing to, making him bleed, seemed awfully familiar to me. Could it be the same one who played the young Klingon (Turrok, I think his name was?) who was put in charge of Worf when Worf went to the Klingon colony in that TNG episode? (I've misplaced my TNG Nitpickers Guide and can't remember the names! *sob*)
Phil: I apologize for doing this but I'll have to check my tapes and I don't have time this morning. I'll let you know next week!!
Marian Perera: In "Things Past", Thrax tells Odo, Sisko and Garak that the explosive used in the assassination attempt was TNC - trinitrogen chloride. From way-back chemistry classes, I figured the structure of this compound was one nitrogen atom covalently bonded to three chlorine atoms, because I don't think you can have one Cl sharing electrons with three Ns. But if you have three Cls and one N, I think that would make it nitrogen trichloride (eg. carbon tetrachloride, not tetracarbon chloride). Is this a nit? I'd really appreciate some feedback on this.
Phil: You're out of my area! Any chemistry people out there?
Matthew Chase Maxwell of San Francisco CA: As you've compiled the X-Files material, have you come across any reference to Star Trek in the series? Fox strikes me as a man who would have been a Trekker all his life.
Phil: Off the top of my head, I can only think of two references to Trek and neither of them by Mulder! In "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" we see the Enterprise-D and a Klingon Bird-of-Prey hanging in a young sci-fi fanatics room. In the "Tempus Fugit," a guy refers to Mr. Spock and phasers.
Harvey H. Kitzman, Jr.: Are Odo and Lwaxana still married? If they got divorced, I missed it somewhere. I thought about this when Odo was sleeping with Arissa.
Phil: Now that you mention it . . . I think they are still married!
Kevin Weiler: In the episode "Tapestry," there is a scene the shows Picard the morning after he and Ensign Bantanides spend the night together. The camara pan at the begining of the scene shows a grey shirt on the floor. That's odd, because I thought Picard wore a white shirt and Bantanides wore the grey one. Did she leave without a shirt?
Phil: Maybe they swapped clothes?!
Kevin Weiler: I have a question about the Maquis rank pips on Voyager. Are they like Starfleet's or what? Are the number of slashes on them the same?
Phil: I believe the slashes correspond to pips but I watch fuzzy TV when it comes to Voyager so it's really hard to tell!
Gotta go! Have a great weekend!
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Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.