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ASK THE CHIEF
11/21/97

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First, some comments from previous columns . . .


The Name Of The Cardassian Empire
Beginning with Brent Morris's comments in the 10/31/97 column

Philip McGachey of Scotland: An interesting piece of trivia for you, especially in light of arguments over the naming of the Cardassian empire/union/social club. The modern-day United Kingdom is made up of four - count them - four countries namely England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Obvious? I would have thought so, yet imagine the cries of horror when you stated that the DS9 guide has a picture of the station in the English version. It may seem like semantics to you proud Americans, but would a you call a Vulcan a human just because they belong to the Federation?

Phil: Sorry, sorry, sorry! Should have called it the "British Edition" or "the edition sold in the United Kingdom."


References to B5, MST3K and X-Files
Beginning with Craig Cicero's comments in the 11/7/97 column

Mike Deeds: I have a nominee for a great line that references The X-Files (indirectly). It is from the second episode of The Visitor (not sure of the episode title). The FBI agents in charge of chasing the Visitor are told that if they mess up the case will be "kicked down to those clowns in the basement".


The Guardian Puzzling Statements
Beginning with Wells P. Martin's comments in the 11/7/97 column

Brian Lombard: Actually, the voice of the Guardian was provided by an actor named Bart LaRue. Fans of "The Brady Bunch" may remember him as the West Dale High Football Coach in the episode where Greg makes the team, brakes a rib, then becomes the team photographer.

Mike Cheyne: The Guardian's voice, according to a fan magazine, "STAR TREK: 30 YEARS" was not provided by James Doohan, but by Bartell LaRue, which could be an alias, I guess.


Nog's Continued Presence On DS9
Beginning with Brian Dominguez's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Alex Otis: It was described at the begining of the 5th Season, (The episode that Jake moved out of his dad's quarters and moved in with Nog) that Nog was undergoing the Academy's 2nd year field training. Sisko made some speach about his 2nd year field training as well. This suggests that It is common practice. Nog was stuck out on DS9 when the war broke out, so, Starfleet probably told him to stay put.


Mentioning The Enterprise on DS9
Beginning with Jeff Flowers's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Jeff Flowers of Southfield, MI: It looks TPTB listen to me a little, tenny-weeny bit (yeah, right). In "You Are Cordially Invited", Dax states that CAPTAIN Shelby owed her a favor. I've always wondered did Shelby get her promotion, and evidently she did. That is exactly the kind of throw away line I would like about the Enterprise crew. I find it hard to believe that a war like this could go on without the Enterprise E being a major player.(Maybe they're watching the Neutral Zone for Romulan activity. Picard must have really ticked off Starfleet command!)Still, one little line would be nice.


Mind-Melding With Nomad
Beginning with Jason Barnes's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Robert Cook: It could be that Nomad is more than a machine now- prior to its appearance on TOS, it merged with an alien probe to gain its new abilities. Perhaps that probe was alive, like the organic ship in the NG episode "Tin Man", and the Vorlon ships on Babylon 5.

Eddie Marshal: Remember that in the episode Nomad had merged with the "Tan Ru" whos to say that the Tan Ru didnt have some sort of bio organic brain or even bio neural circuitry a-la Voyager ?


Alexander Siddig on the Fourth Season DS9 Promotional Poster
Beginning with Tommy Lin's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Ronan: At a convention in Dublin, actor Alexander Siddig stated [if memory serves] that he was airbrushed from the Defiant photo - there's a space on the right hand side where he should be. I can't remember why TPTB did this, however.


The Formula for Raktajino
Beginning with Glenn St-Germain's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Kevin Loughlin: Somebody asked about what Raktajino is, and what it's made of. On DS9, it's generalized as 'Klingon Coffee', but that's not the whole story. You can read the whole sordid works in the Food chapter in the book Klingon For The Galactic Traveler (Marc Okrand, Pocket Books, 1997), but here's a summary from what I recall.

Klingons have a hot liquor-based drink known as Raktaj, which they drink to about the same degree as we do coffee. It's apparently real strong stuff, but we are talking Klingons here. Some humans tried it once, and started to popularize it; this humanization of it led it to being watered down and having cream added, in more of a cappucino style, leading to the mix of the names into 'raktajino'. this drink is way too weak for a real Klingon to appreciate, but humans still call it Klingon coffee.

Chris Cook: No, I have no idea what it's made of. But (of interest to people like me) the Art of Star Trek book has a picture of a bottle of the stuff. It's spelled 'Raktajeno', which means that I along with the rest of the world have been messing it up all this time as Raktajino. Also, it's supposedly 100% Columbian, Grown on the Green Hills of Earth, and Imported by Harcourt Fenton Mudd. These props people enjoy themselves, don't they?


A New Series for Trek?
Beginning with Tom Bondurant's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Gareth Wilson: I totally agree that the next Trek series should occur in the "past", to strip away some of the technobabble. I even think it should be set before the invention of the transporter, so the characters have to think their way out of a problem instead of being beamed out. Look at Babylon 5. It has no transporters, no replicators, and far less magical technology overall. As a result the phoney technical details don't get in the way of the story.


The Meaning of "Rotarran"
Beginning with Craig Cicero's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Eddie Marshal: I couldnt find any cannon references to this but did anyone notice that it is "Narrator" spelt backwards ?


Should Voyager Head for the Wormhole in the Gamma Quadrant?
Beginning with Rodney Hrvatin's comments in the 11/14/97 column

Scott Vogt: Everyone keeps wondering why Janeway doesn't head for the Bajoran Wormhole. Why would she? Sure it's stable now, but who knows what the future will hold? How would you like to travel for 50 years and discover the aliens who made it moved it or shut it down or it was destroyed by the Federation. I'm sure Janeway knows that destroying it is a contingency plan against the Dominion. She's playing it safe, I would too.


On to the questions . . .

Robert Donahou of Dardanelle, AR: Does it bother anybody that in the first four seasons the worm hole opens for no reason?

Phil: Maybe there's a teensy-weensy ship that come through and we can't see it?!

Michael Apple: After watching the conclusion of Voyager's "Year Of Hell" on Wednesday, I got to thinking... If Janeway was willing to reuse the pocketwatch Chakotay had replicated for her, so they could make more stuff out of it, then replicator matter was at a low. It's a gruesome thought, but since people had died from the Krennim attacks, could they have put the bodies in the replicator and used THAT to get more boots and phasers and stuff?

Phil: Seems like it! Matter is matter after all. Of course, even converting the pocket watch to energy and back to matter seems like an expensive proposition but it appears from Janeway's statement that it isn't so bring ont he bodies!

Chris George: A question last week brought up an interesting question in my mind: How DO you get those promotional posters now? I know I, and a lot of other people, used to get them from either Starlog magazine or the individual Star Trek show magazines, but they stopped that practice to my knowlege a while back, instead doing full-page pictures. (In fact, the last full-size poster I have is first-season DS9, which is beginning to look a _tad_ dated.)

I had considered writing Paramount and begging them to send me one, but not only did that seem rather low and petty, but I didn't have an address. :-) Could you, or the readers, give me a clue?

Phil: I have no idea! I agree that it would be fun to have them. Maybe your local television station would have them and might be persuaded to part with them?!

Adam Farlinger: Recently, there was mention in the Guild of Spock and Kirk's faces appearing in the title sequence of DS9. Well, I found something similar last night... Sisko's face on the First Contact video box (the non-holographic one)! Has anyone else in the Guild spotted this yet?

Sisko's image (the left half of his face) is in the swirling dust/gases between Data and the Enterprise-E, right beside the yellow stuff. Oddly enough, Sisko has hair and a goatee (as in "Explorers"). His hair sort of overlaps Data's third rank insignia (the one furthest from the center of his uniform).

Phil: First I've heard of it! Curiouser and curiouser.

Dan Wiese, El Cajon: I was in the book store today and I saw your X-Philes guide, and you had all the episodes listed by names, I may just not be that observent but I never remember seeing episode titles on X-files.

Phil: That's because the creators haven't put the episode titles in the episodes themselves! ;-) The television guides often list them and the official X-files website has them as well!

Shane Cathcart: How many photon torpedoes has Voyager got left? I think Kathy said they only have 30. So how many have they used, and how many have they got left?

Phil: Well we've had several temporal anamolies at this point in the series and, honestly--even though Scott Vogt and Rick Kuzma have been keeping statistics--I'm not sure it's possible to say how many Voyager has. How in the world can we know for sure what timeline Voyager is in! ;-)

Mike Cheyne: Hey, Phil! Do you need an assistant? Bear in mind that I'm a student, but maybe I could help maintain some movie files...I have all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, not to mention, I have easy access to all the James Bond films too.

Phil: I appreciate the offer but since I use the website for advertising of the Nitpickers Guides, I would feel honor bound to pay for services renders and the website makes no money so there's no pay to be had!

Robert Donahou of Dardanelle AR: Do you know were I can get a list of the rules of Acquesition?

Phil: They used to be available free on the web Viacom cracked down on copyright infringement. I believe the Encyclopedia and the Omnipedia for Trek have them.

Brian Lombard: I've got a possible nit, but I need to know some things first. Perhaps you or another nitpicker can answer these questions:

1. What was the name of the DS9 episode where Worf joined the House of Martok?

2. What was the stardate given in that episode?

3. Given that "First Contact" takes place towards the end of DS9's last season, but was released last year, was Worf wearing the crest of the House of Mogh or Martok in the movie?

Phil: Hate to do this but I'm running out of time this morning so I leave it to you fellow nitpickers!

Rob van Hulst: I just saw the last episode of the fifth season of DS9, where, at the end, Gul Dukat is greeted very friendly by Major Kira as he returns to DS9. Correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't she vow to kill him when she would meet him again? I think she said something like that in the episode where Gul Dukat informed DS9 that the Cardassians had taken sides with the Dominion.(In Purgatory's Shadow or By Inferno's Light). Now I haven't seen an episode of season six yet, so maybe she has killed him by now, but still...

Phil: Hasn't killed him yet!

Mike Deeds: I am currently reading your Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes. I have a question concerning the official X-Files books. Would you recommend the last two books that cover the third and fourth seasons? I bought the first book that covered the first two seasons. I am reluctant to buy these books as it seems (to me) to be a rip-off to just cover one season per book!

Phil: And they're $15.00 a book! ;-) The one thing that the official guides have going for them is their detailed plot synopses. If you haven't seen an episode, you can get all the relevant details just by reading the official guide. As for the rest of it (i.e. the Backstory section), I personally haven't found them very compelling but that's just my opinion. (I suppose it would be tacky of me to point out at this juncture that the three official guides will run you something like $45.00 to get all four seasons when you can get all four seasons with your friendly neighborhood Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes for only $12.95! ;-)

J. Timothy Thompson: Having acquired the X-philes Guide, the first thing I noticed about it was that it appeared to be a good 20% wider than the other guides, but with the same height. But on the website both the thumbnail and the full image of the X-philes Guide cover have the same height-to-width ratio as the Star Trek guides, even though its edges don't appear to be cut off or anything like that. I can only assume that the deceptively narrow graphic of the book cover is somehow meant to throw the net-monitoring government conspiracy off the trail. Either that or the guide, like Tooms, can stretch itself to fit the available shelf space. Or is there a more mundane explanation?

Phil: I like the Tooms explanation but alas, alack, the "out there" "truth" must bow to the more mundane. The designer wanted more space to add doo-dads and give the X-phile Guidea cooler look. And . . . I think he did! I like it!

Robert Donahou of Dardanelle, AR: Can you give me an apprximation when in DS9's timeline Voyager begins if possible a specific episode.

Phil: I believe the stardate on "Caretaker"--the first Voyager episode is 48315.6. That would put it sometime between the third season DS9 episodes, "The Seach, Part I" and "Meridian". Unfortunately, none of the six episode that occur between those two episode have stardates!

Jonathan Klein: I just had a thought on the whole line from Caretaker Part Two. Janeway says something to the effect of "We'll be looking for the Caretaker's mate... and new technology, wormholes, etc." Hello! Prime Directive! One episode the encountered people with a transproter that could send individuals dozens of ligtht years. For one reason or another, they didn't use it, though some wanted to. THis is correct, as per the Prime Directive. But what about Seven giving Voyager that fancy astrometrics program? Or other Borg goodies. For that matter,. how can Voyager even contemplate acquiring new technology? This violates the prime directive, and no Starfleet captain would do that. ;-)

Phil: I don't think that the Prime Directive preclude Starfleet from acquiring new technologies from other races. It only disallows interfere in the natural development of other races. So Voyager shouldn't give technology away but it can acquire it! The problem in "Prime Factors"--the episode with the long-distance transporter device--was that the society with the device had its own Prime Directive and couldn't supply Voyager with the device so Tuvok made an under-the-table deal for it.

Murray Leeder: So what did you think of the X-Files openers? Are you still worried about the series becoming nihilistic?

Phil: The creators have gone back to "The Truth Is Out There" which is good. I'm still wondering how many open-end stories the creators can tell before fans starting barking about some resolution! We'll see. It will be an interesting experiment! ;-)

Have a great weekend, everybody!


If you would like to submit a question or comment, send it to: chief@nitcentral.com with "Question" in the Subject line. (Remember the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right to use your name in any future publication by me.)

Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.