(Also available from Starland mirror site)
First, some comments from previous columns . . .
Mark Allen , Sydney, Australia: About three weeks ago there was a Star Trek con with one of the guests was Armen? Shimmernman, who explained that the reason that the Ferrengi characters have those head pieces is because of an error between the costume departmnnt and the prosthetics guys in the very first Ferrengi story in the first year.
Just before they were about to start filming they noiced that there was a gap from where his collar ended, and his "head" started. It was only spotted when it was too late for a new head to be made, so the wardrobe guys stuck some left over material on his "head" with a stapler.
When Armen started on DS9, he demanded that they reshape his head, as well as reshaping the area around his ears to make the Ferrengi head easier to wear.
This is why Quark has no headpiece, it dosen't mean anything really , except to make one of the actors happy.
Ronan Mitchell: Actually, maybe they only launch them at set intervals because they would need time for 1000 officers to become available, although with all the worlds in the Federation this should not be a problem. On the other hand, maybe Capt. Harriman (Enterprise-B) has a relative looking for a ship and they don't want to hand him over the keys to a nice big Galaxy class ship.. :)
Phil: Not to be a nitpicker but the Enterprise didn't have 1000 officers! That number included the families of the personnel assigned to the ship. However, yes, I agree, a Galaxy-class ship does require a significant crew!
Jim Elek of Sterling Heights, MI: I'm sure that there's an episode (probably TNG) where they state that it applys to pre-warp or pre-space flight cultures. If "no interference" applied all cultures all the time, then there wouldn't be a Federation! Heck, DS9 would be a violation, because it's a Bajoran station!
Actually, I was reading your comment on the PD in the 5/9 column and I realized that the TOS crew "went native" to hide their identity much more often than the TNG and Voyager crews. That's just an observation.
My point is that the list presented by Ronan Mitchell needs to be modified a bit. Taking Kes and Neelix aboard is not a voilation of the PD. Although, I do think that Janeway has broken it making her comment in the Sulu episode that the 23rd Century Starfleet was loose with the PD rather ironic. I also agree with your initial comment that we really don't know what the PD is or what it means.
Scott Vogt, Cedar Rapids, IA: The Prime Directive, I thought, encommpasses many headings and subheadings. For example, with pre-warp civilizations, they're not allowed to say anything about other worlds, etc. ("Bread And Circuses" from TOS gives a great pre-warp definition). With post-warp civilizations, it pretty much boils down to non-interference in a society's internal affairs. But at the same time, standing SF orders are to render aid to anyone in a ship who needs help. Somewhat of a paradox. If Janeway had practiced non-interference, "Warlord" would never have happened. Tieran's ship would have exploded, and we would have missed an opportunity to see Jennifer Lien in that "cat-suit" acting all nasty. That could have literally changed the course of that planet's history.
Yet in these situations, and possibly others, captains are able to use their own discretion. In "Symbiosis", Picard exercised his right to NOT help those aliens repair their ships, because he knew it would be beneficial in the long run. Picard had the leeway to do what he felt was best. Perhaps SF is a little more lenient with the PD than they let on. I'm sure they evaluate each case separately. Altough considering what happens when SF stops to help, perhaps total non-interference is the way to go (I know. I know, then we wouldn't get all these great stories to nitpick).
Nathan Kibelbek: Actually, Odo did _not_ get his powers back in "Things Past", the story about some of the crew going back in time to the Cardassian-run station. The changeling cells in Odo's brain were just the technobabble explanation for the whole thing. The episode in which Odo regained his powers was "The Begotten", about a baby changeling that Odo and Dr. Mora were trying to revive and teach to shift. At the end of the episode, the baby changeling dies, but it is absorbed into Odo's hands and Odo is once again a shapeshifter. So it wasn't an accident, and the Founders weren't behind it (at least as far as we know).
Also, Ron Moore said that Odo getting his powers back so soon was something of a miscalculation. When the creators made "Broken Link", they looked ahead and figured that they would be out of story ideas for humanoid Odo by the middle of the season. That's when they set the episode that would turn him back. But as it turned out, the opposite was true.
Brian Dominguez of Oswego, NY: I just wanted to add something to what Charles Sylvia said about the names of planets. First, some background.
I tuned in to watch the daily-syndicated DS9. The day was before “Life Support.” So as I grabbed my Nitpickers Guide for DS9 to read the nits for the day’s episode, it was suppose to be “Heart of Stone,” but it wasn’t. I knew it was from the third season (Sisko with hair and goatee makes it close to the end of the third season), but couldn’t figure out which one. As I listened for clues, they were on their way to some alien home world. This alien group’s name sounds like it starts with a “Z” or an “X.” I looked in the index, but it wasn’t there. I thought it was not placed in there. Then I heard at the end when they called Sisko "Captain." Knowing that he became captain on the last episode of the third season, I looked up to find that the episode is called “The Adversary,” and the alien race is spelled Tzenkethi.
My nit is this: Why does it begin with a “T?” I highly doubt that the Tzenkethi language developed similar or the same as English. So when the Tzenkethi were discovered and introduced themselves, it had to sound like a “Z” or an “X.” So why isn’t it spelled Zenkethi, Zehnkethi, Zankethi, Zenkythi, Xenkethi, Xehnkethi, Xynkythi...you get the picture. I mean that last thing I would think about using to spell their name would be with a “T” in front of it. After all, how would people reference it if they couldn’t spell it. When they discovered Cardassia and Klingons, I think their hardest choice would have been to spell it with a “C” or a “K.” I don’t think they that about putting a silent “F,” “P,” or “T” in the front. It’s just something the creators should think of before they try to make alien names too unique. I mean, can you imagine Pvulcan.
Phil: I understand! But . . . I do think we have to give the creators a bit of artistic license! That's part of the fun of being a writer!
Clay: I seem to remember something in ST about the fact that if u didn't calculate the break away factor for the slingshot effect of time travel you would crash into the sun. I believe that is why they don't try it much.
Phil: True but you would think that somebody would have downloaded the sensor logs for both the Enterprise and the Bird-of-Prey and designed a program to do the calculations by now!
Jason Liu: Concerning what Captain Picard did between his commands of the Stargazer and the Enterprise. I also do not know of any canonical source referring to that period of time. However, there is a non-canonical source that states that our good captain served as a attache to an admiral at Starfleet Command, i.e. a staff position/desk job.
This was in a book called the ST:TNG Officer's Manual, which was published by FASA Corporation for its Star Trek: The Role Playing Game about 9 years ago (my goodness, has it been that long?). Unfortunately, FASA lost its license from Paramount not long after that because a lot of the information the game designers wrote was not approved by the powers that be at Star Trek. Rather than change everything that had been published, both FASA and Paramount decided it would be best to part ways. Actually, the game materials are very well-written and fill in a lot of blanks in the show. They also make attempts to explain the many major nits of Star Trek.
Ronan Mitchell: Picards seven years: He sat in front of a replicator saying "Tea, Earl Grey, hot", "No ! Alright, computer, more sugar..." this went on 'till the Enterprise-D came along...
Ronan Mitchell: I remember clearly seeing the Voyager in the trailer for "First Contact" (on the video "Primal Fear") firing on the Borg ship twice. I freeze-framed and the bit of the registration that I could see read "NCC 746...." - seems pretty conclusive! They probably edited it out of the film just to get back at us, the nitpickers...
Phil: I've had several nitpickers say that they spotted Voyager in the trailer for First Contact. It could very well be that it's not actually in the film itself!
Zachary M. Vogt, St. Louis, MO: Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON, posted a question on your Starland page asking where he could find shots of Voyager in First Contact. My comment is that I hope to God he can't. That WOULD be a mistake, considering that Voyager disappeared on on Stardate 483xx, and that the First Contact movie didn't take place 'til 503xx.
Phil: Unfortunately, I believe that the creators--in their need to get a trailer together for First Contact--did in fact use the Voyager model for one of the scenes!
On to the questions . . . .
Stefan Eisenhut, Dorval, Quebec: In "Where No One Has Gone Before", the Enterprise is sent speeding thousands of times faster than normal. Were the Inertial Dampeners designed to withstand this massive increase of velocity? Because if they were not, the crew of the Enterprise crew would be pizza on the wall, but obviously they were not because they survived. Why did the designers of the Enterprise assume they would ever go that fast?
Phil: Hmmm. Good point! After all, the Traveler's modifications dealt solely with the warp drive. Maybe he phased space or something and changed the effect of inertia?!
Jason Barnes: Columbia has started releasing DS9 on home video now. Do they plan to do this with Voyager any time soon? It's no use asking Columbia these things. They are just too clueless about what their own company does.
Phil: Well, I certainly have no idea on the inner workings of the release schedules for these things but my guess would be that Columbia will start releasing the videos after Voyager goes into strip syndication which should be after the next season. If I recall correctly, Voyager is already on video in the United Kingdom!
Jeff Muscato: Did it occur to anyone that instead of risking the EMH on the mobile emitter *or* the ship, they could keep a copy in both? I understand that it might confuse the doc on re-integration if both programs were running and gaining experience, but if you kept one on standby and only the other one you ran before you re-integrated them, it should be okay. (Reminds me of the Windows 95 "briefcase" function, which allows you to keep a copy of a file on your desktop and notebook, and update either and then put the most recent version on both hard drives when you connect a cable and give the "update" command.)
Phil: This would be the sensible approach! For some vague reason, however, it appears that Holodoc cannot reside in both sickbay and the mobile emitter. And, it's never made any sense to me either! ;-)
Jason Barnes: I've noticed you don't do any Brash Reflections on DS9 episodes. I know you only do Voyager because time is limited for you. Are you planning on adding DS9 to your nitpicking lists when the new Guide is done?
Phil: The problem is that once I start with a series doing Brash Reflections, I feel honor bound to continue. That means that in the Fall I would have to do *two* series (Voyager and DS9) and that's just too much work!
Anon: Why DOES the computer allow people to disengage the safeties? As far as I recall, this has ONLY resulted in BAD things happening. I just can't seem to think of a scenario where it would be useful/good/beneficial in any way to disengage the safeties. What do you think?
Phil: I think you have to allow people to make dumb mistakes. Otherwise the computer becomes an overgrown nanny in space. I personally would not vote for that!
Ian: Take a look at the video cover to Star Trek II: T W of Khan. Why does it show the Enterprise firing phasers on the science station when it never happened? Also, the cover for Star Trek 6: T U country shows the chancellors ship firing a torpedo through the Enterprises saucer section. However, in the film, it is the klingon bird of prey that fires THAT shot. Why does Paramount or CIC depict such story incontinuities?
Phil: Well . . . I think we can log this under artistic interpretation! After all, the artwork on the video jackets isn't exactly canonical! But, you're right, the covers are in error.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
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Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.