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THE NITPICKERS GUILD NEWSLETTER

July 1998

Volume 5, Issue 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Notes from the Chief

The Editorially Liberated

Reflections on the X-File Movie

Reaction to DS9's Season Finale

The Unfortunate News

This newletter is published quarterly (April, July, October, December)

1997 SUBSCRIPTION RATES (for postal delivery only)

United States - $10.00

Canada - US$12.50

All Other Countries - US$15.00

This newsletter is also available free of charge to Guild members via email

by sending a request to: chief@nitcentral.com.

Or, by visiting the Nitpicker Central Internet Extention Office (NCIEO)

located at:

http://www.nitcentral.com

COPYRIGHT 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.

Books by Phil Farrand:

The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, Volume I

(ISBN 0-440-50571-2)

The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers

(ISBN 0-440-50683-2)

The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, Volume II

(ISBN 0-440-50716-2)

The Nitpicker's Guide for Deep Space Trekkers

(ISBN 0-440-50762-6)

The Nitpicker's Guide for X-philes

(ISBN 0-440-50808-8)

NOTES FROM THE CHIEF

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June 30, 1998

Greetings Fellow Nitpickers and Proud Members of the Nitpickers Guild!

As you can see by the date above, I’m running a bit later than usual on this issue of the newsletter. I’ve had some "interesting" developments in my life over the past few weeks and the schedule has been even crazier than normal!

I'm a bit behind on logging my postal mail so I don't have an exact count but the Nitpickers Guild continues to grow! As of today, the Guild has 7077 members. Nitpicker Central has received mail from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Republic of China, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Venezuela. Over 9200 postal letters have arrived here at Nitpicker Central along with over 10,000 email messages. Thanks again for your interest!

The Nitpicker Central Internet Extension Office (NCIEO) continues to grow. It is located at: www.nitcentral.com. If you have the ability, drop by! We’ve just finished the fourth season Brash Reflections for Star Trek: Voyager. Those files are now frozen but if you’d like to send along any extra input I’m always happy to file it away for possible future use. We have also just started a Brash Reflection on The X-Files Movie. And, there’s a weekly Ask the Chief column where we discuss various and sundry topics.

For those of you who are interested, my first novel, The Son, The Wind and The Reign is currently being reviewed by Cornerstone Press Chicago. It’s been almost a month and a half since I sent it to them so it’s about time to give them a call and shake the tree a bit! Unfortunately, Kathleen Jayes passed on my second novel That Fated Shore--a black comedy about time travel. But, in retrospect, I think she’s right. The plot is in good shape and the dialogue is funny but I need six good months worth of polishing to have it ready for publication. As to when I’ll have the time to do that? I couldn’t say!

You may have noted that space considerations didn’t permit the normal Continuing Communications section of the newsletter. I apologize for that. It’s always one of my favorite parts of the newsletter (and I did received a lot of comments on the "communications" in the April newsletter that I wanted to print in this newsletter). I thought I could do is offer just a few items that were supposed to go in that section. Hope you enjoy them!

Tony H Forbes: Jeopardy screwed up today. Twice. First they reported Billy the Kid’s last words as "Who’s there?" when he really said "Qen Es?" (which is Spanish for "Who’s there", but who’s counting.) Then they said that "The Sound Of Silence" was a hit in 1966. It was released first in 1962, then reached hit status in 1964 after a re-recording.

Matthias Roth: "You know I am a big TV fan," Kirk ordering a crewmember to repair the viewscreen in the small control room on the Constellation.

Oh yes, it’s one of the innumerable "gems" of the funny and childish German translation. The original line was "Sie wissen doch, ich bin Fernseh-Fan." which means "You know I am a television fan." (I’m not sure about the word big/groB).

Jason L Barnes: Ever seen the movie Volcano? I have a MAJOR nit about it. At the end of the movie, in order to save Los Angeles, the people must divert a large lava flow and their plan is to use explosives to dig a trench that the lava will flow into and from there, into the ocean. Okay. No problem right? Wrong. According to a documentary I saw on PBS about volcanos, when lava comes in contact with sea water (such as the water on the shores of Los Angeles), it releases deadly toxic amounts of hydrochloric acid into the air! In other words, in saving the city from the deadly lava, they created another problem of suffocating the populace for miles around!! But this doesn’t seem to have hit the creator’s minds as the people waddle around and celebrate and then pick up the pieces of the volcano. Oops.

Tom Elmore: Here is an interesting observation from the DS9 episode where Quark becomes the "dude looks like a lady" Sluggo Cola is green. So too was Coca-Cola when it first came out almost a century ago. I don’t know if the producers knew this fact or if it is just coincidence (it is admittedly a fact only a trivia hound like myself could enjoy), but I found it to be most interesting that the slimiest cola in the galaxy started out the same way the real thing did.

Daynah Burnett: Okay I hope this nit counts...its from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, and I have chosen this one only because it was the first nit I ever really noticed so I suppose it holds some sentimental value. When the tank goes off the edge of the cliff just after the whole scuffle in the desert. (Don’t even get me started about that leather strap around the barrel of that tank gun that Indiana gets "stuck" on!) Anyway, the tank goes over the cliff and we see it crash and fall and the little turret on top comes flying off upon impact with the ground. Just moments later when Indy’s dad and Brody look over the edge to find our hero, the turret has magically reattatched itself to the tank! Imagine that.

Imagine that, indeed! Happy nitpicking, everyone! Phil Farrand

THE EDITORIALLY LIBERATED

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This episode introduces us to Sela, a Romulan commander who claims to be Tasha Yar’s daughter—the Tasha Yar whom the "war timeline" Picard sent back to assist the Enterprise-C in their defense of the Klingon outpost on Narenda III. (See "Yesterday’s Enterprise.") In a conversation with Picard, Sela says that when she was four, Tasha attempted to escape Romulas and was killed. On page 280 of the NextGen Guide, I found it incredible that the Romulans would kill a resource like Tasha Yar—a Starfleet officer whom they knew came from the future. John Potts of London, England wrote to offer that the Romulans may have already extracted all the information they desired at the time of Tasha’s escape attempt. After all, she had been on Romulas for at least four years.

Ray Coshow of San Francisco, CA voted this the "all-time, hands-down, no argument" best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation—borrowing the line I used to describe "The Best of Both Worlds." Ray then suggested that we both should excise the modifier "no argument" from our descriptions!

The knife that Tamarian Captain Dathon gives Picard is amazing. At one point, the energy beast knocks it from Picard’s hand. It glows as bolts of energy arc over its surface. Yet, moments later, Picard picks the knife up to continues the fight. Shouldn’t the weapon still be hot? (It probably has some sort of metalicized ceramic blade.

Just before the Tamarians fire on the Enterprise, Riker orders Worf to send full power to the shields. However, when the Tamarian weapon, the Enterprise doesn’t show the normal bubble.

At one point, Marr asks Data to speak with her in her son’s voice and read from his journal. Data compiles and adds little open-mouthed snorts that sound like one-unit laughs to punctuate the sentences. One question: did Marr’s son actually notate these expressions in his journal or is Data adding them for effect? (Come to think of it. I guess the idea of notating body language is coming into vogue in electronic mail . <g>—that means "grin" is case you are familiar with the symbol) (Update from Phil: Before you write, remember that I wrote this several years ago!)

Sara Dickinson of Wellshire, England wrote to advise me that the young female crewmember who serves as Officer of the Deck at the beginning of the episode only has one pip on her collar but is addressed as Lieutenant by Troi. This is an easy one to miss because everything is so dark the only pip that shows up clearly is the solid one. However, if you freeze frame just as the Conn station explodes, you will see that the light illuminates the woman’s second hollow pip. (Score one for the creators. In fact, if we counted the number of times the creators get the pips right, they would far outweigh the number of times they get them wrong!)

Several nitpickers were confused by Ro’s entrance to the bridge. She shoves the turbolift doors open and steps down onto the floor from some kind of platform. Since the bridge holds the topmost position on the ship, many wondered exactly where she came from. I believe the creators meant for us to assume that Ro was in a turbolift on her way to the bridge when the filaments hit. She exited through the top of the car, pried the doors open and hopped down to the floor.

On page 293 of the NextGen Guide, I give the answer to the first trivia question for this episode—"What are the last names of the children Picard takes on the tour? (list from oldest to youngest.)"—as "Flores, Graas and Supra." Michelle Sokolowski of Ozone Park, NY alerted me to the fact that Larry Nemecek’s Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion lists Patterson’s last name as "Supera," not "Supra." In fact, we are both correct! The last names of the characters were supposed to correspond to the last names of the actors who played the children. The last name of the actor who played Patterson is "Supera." However, if you look at the plaque given to Picard at the end of the episode, you will see that the prop people spelled the name "Supra." So, if you’re a Trek devotee, Patterson’s last name is "Supera." If you’re a nitpicker, Patterson’s name is "Supra" because that’s what’s show on the screen!

You really have to commend Data for his understanding of human psychology. After receiving the business end of a 500,000 amp energy jolt, he quickly calculated the easiest way to convince Riker that he’s okay. Shortly after the first officer turns him over, Data begins blinking—an activity that he consciously undertake—to tell Commander Riker know everything is fine.

During the course of the episode, Troi pledges to wait until the last possible moment before separating the saucer section and depriving Main Engineering of all power. Yet, at the end of the episode, Data—in Engineering with Riker attempting to correct the degradation of the containment field—counts the field strength almost all the way down to an explosion and Troi still doesn’t separate the saucer. Nothing indicates that she actually knew Riker and Data were down there but she still waited. (Pretty gutsy move!)

Do the phaser arrays always have energy floating around in them? At one point, Ro dumps the energy from the forward phaser array into the Engineering workstation at the back of the bridge. Don’t they have to arm these arrays before firing?

Obviously the antimatter and warp core ejection systems must be off line because no one even mentions the possibility of using them to avert the crisis with the potential containment breech.

Every time that O’Brien and Ro consider the status of the warp drive system, they appear to be looking at the Environmental station at the back of the bridge, not the Engineering station.

This quantum filament stuff is awe-inspiring. Not only does it have the capability to rock the ship but all the stars in the sector as well! The scene in Ten-Forward features a starfield in perfect sync with the shudders of the Enterprise.

The actor who plays Lieutenant Monroe in this episode—the female crewmember who dies on the bridge—also played Ensign Pavlik in "Galaxy’s Child."

On page 295 of the NextGen Guide I noted that with in the time frame when everyone seems to be taking up the game voluntarily, Picard becomes addicted as well. I questioned why our intrepid captain would try the game in the first place. John E. Sherman of Glendale, CA submitted that Picard may not have played the game voluntarily the first time or may have been forced to do so by Riker and Worf.

Just after Wesley warns Picard about the game and leaves the ready room, Picard reaches over, picks up his copy of the game and begins playing. Although impossible to determine for sure, it appears Wesley should have been able to see the game from his vantage point.

I mentioned this same, exact problem in the NextGen Guide under my review of "Face of the Enemy"—when Troi spends an entire episode on a Romulan ship—but it bears mention here. Are we to assume that Picard and Data both speak fluent Romulan. Surely the Universal Translator isn’t at work when the pair or on the surface. (Then again, Data would be able to learn Romulan quite fast but Picard? Or, did he already know Romulan?)

Granted, the information that passes between Sarek and Picard during their meeting should be suspect given Sarek’s condition but the aged Vulcan claims that his son met Pardak at the Khitomer conference where Pardak represented the Romulan Empire. Is this the same conference shown in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country? I don’t recall seeing Pardak there.

The main computer on board the Enterprise continues its amazing performance. Shortly after receiving information from Sarek that Spock may have gone to Romulus to meet with Pardek, Data locates a visual clip of the Romulan. Picard pulls up the long range scanner picture of Spock and asks the computer to enhance the figure on the far left of the picture and compare it to the Romulan in the visual clip. Even before Picard completes saying the word "figure," the computer begins working! It makes a guess as to what Picard want and it is correct. Ya gotta hand it to those Starfleet user interface designers. In addition, in the same command, Picard asks the computer to compare the two figures but all it does is place them side-by-side. Evidently the computer realizes that it is so evident that the two are the same individual that it assumes Picard will come to that conclusion without any further input.

After arriving at Qualor II, Troi charms Dokachin, the quartermaster of the yard, into helping the Enterprise locate the remains of the Vulcan ship T’Pau. The camera angle shot from one of the work stations along the back of the bridge shows Troi and Dokachin with Worf’s Tactical Station and the main viewscreen in the background. The stars don’t move at all on the viewscreen. This is understandable since the Enterprise proceeds at such a slow rate of speed. However, just before arriving at the proscribed location for the T’Pau, the viewscreen shows the stars moving slightly—making the motionless stars moments before a nit! This same thing happens a few moments later. The shot of Troi and Dokachin shows the stars stationary. Then, a shot of the viewscreen shows them in motion.

The creators pull a fast one when recapping events from the previous episode. Certainly there is a need to greatly compress the events from "Unification I" so that viewers who haven’t seen that episode won’t be completely lost when viewing this one. However, in this case the creators actually change an event from the last episode. (Gasp!) In "Unification I," when Riker fired on the arms dealer’s ship, the phaser burst causes collateral damage in the vessel’s cargo hold. Some seconds later the ship explodes after we watch energy bolts arc across its surface. In the recap featured at the beginning of "Unification II," Riker gives the order to fire and immediately the ship explodes. That’s okay because the creators must compress the timeline of the episode to make it fit in the recap. However, the creators did more that just compress the timeline, they added a phaser burst just prior to the explosion establishing that the Enterprise fired and the trader ship exploded immediately. (Shocked, I tell you! I am shocked and appalled at the blatant and cavalier revisionistic attitude that the creators have displayed towards the history of Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

Evidently, Riker really liked the outfit that one of the fat Ferengi’s pleasure women wore to the bar on Qualor II. He purchased one just like it to give to Troi. Unfortunately, she didn’t put it on until she became a psychic waste receptacle in "Man of the People." (Then again, I suppose Worf might have given it to her.)

We discover at the end of this episode that Rasmussen is a frustrated inventor who has come to the 24th century to steal technology, take it back to the 22nd century and "invent" it. On pages 303 and 304 of the NextGen Guide, I discussed why Rasmussen’s plan would not work. In essence, the manufacturing skills needed to mass produce the objects that Rasmussen wishes to "invent" probably do not exist in the 22nd century. And, if you can’t mass produce, you can’t make any money. Phillip Martin of Anniston, AL wrote to suggest that this wasn’t a plot oversight on the part of the writers, it was simply a matter of Rasmussen’s ego.

Several nitpickers wrote to chastise me for my attitudes—expressed on page 307 of the NextGen Guide—towards this new and improved method of warp travel tested in this episode. Just to recap, the soliton wave is generated by field coils on a planet’s surface and pushes a ship into warp. It shoves the ship in a straight line until another array on another planet can generate a scattering field to dissipate the wave and drop the ship out of warp. In addition to the handicap of needing both starting and ending field coil arrays, the wave generate a tremendous amount of interference. Sharla Smith of Minneapolis, MN felt that we should give the engineers time to turn the soliton wave into a great improvement, that new inventions rarely produce fabulous results in the development stage. Michael S. Sharp was glad that I wasn’t around with the Wright brothers flew their first plane. (In my defence, I would say only that the Wright brothers were not trying to catapult a human through the air and land him in a swimming pool five miles away and then purporting that this method would usher in a new era of transportation!) Oh, one last thing about this soliton wave. I do think Michael Hollick of Brampton, Ontario is quite right when he wonder if the Federation has considered the weapons potential of this invention.

I raised this question in the NextGen Guide under my review of "Qpid" but this episode contains the same oddity. How does the computer locate Alexander without a communicator in the light of shows like "Remember Me." In that episode, Crusher worries that the computer can’t find Dr. Quaice because his communicator might be damaged.

REFLECTIONS ON THE X-FILES MOVIES

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As most of you know, The X-Files became a movie this summer. I thought those who don't drop by the website on a regular basis, might enjoy seeing a small portion of the nits and reflections that have come in. I’ll start with my own and branch out from there. (By the way, there was far too much material to smash it all onto two pages. I apologize if your nits got cut. It's just the way it goes sometimes.)

Personally, I enjoyed the movie! It was nice to see the X-Files in its "bigger than life" format. Certainly worth the US$3.25 I paid for the ticket! [grin] As usual, the script was well-written in that inimitable "open-ended" X-Files style. There were revelations and aliens but not much resolution.

And the kiss? Ah yes, the kiss/bee-sting. Well . . . I thought that the kiss was pushing it but it certainly did get a rise out of the audience. I can heartily recommend the movie to anyone who’s even moderately interested in The X-Files Phenomenon. Even if you’ve never seen the series, it will give you a great introduction to the whole "look-and-feel/scratch-and-sniff" style of the series.

As for nits, the opening scene sparked a great comment from my wife. We were watching the two cave guys trudge through the snow when "North Texas" came up on the screen followed by "35,000 BC." My wife leaned over and snickered, "I didn’t realize Texas was that old." (Think about it.)

Of course, there was the standard stuff. Mulder calling Scully on her cell phone with sensitive information. And what about the scientist who gets attacked by the alien who leaves its human host? You might recall that the conspirators are getting ready to transport the hapless human who host the alien and everyone conveniently leaves the human alone so the alien can escape and no one will see it happen. Now, I ask you, friends, does this seem like an intelligent thing to do? You have this alien gestating in this human and you know it’s a new strain of alien and you know it’s getting ready to hatch and you don’t leave anyone in the room to keep an eye on it?!

Mulder gets all the coolest toys. Here he is in the Antarctic. He’s up on an outcropping, looking over some domed buildings. He pulls his binoculars up to his face and gets a decent medium-wide shot of the buildings. Then he diddles with them, puts them back to his eyes and gets this amazing view that’s not only a whole lot closer but has somehow change to a ground-level perspective! (Must be some of those "right-angle" binoculars.)

There's plenty more so I'll hand it off to my fellow nitpickers!

Murray Leeder: Despite promising the truth, neither this movie nor the "Truth at 1013" on the soundtrack explain one key part of the plan. We know that the colonists gave the Consortium the recipe to produce alien human hybrids, but why? What function do the hybrids serve? It seems to me that they’re more trouble than they’re worth, since the Samanthas and the Kurts both went renegade to some extent.

So the baddies just made those kids "promise" not to tell anyone? I guess the Consortium couldn’t risk killing them, but don’t they have some sort of mind-alerting thingamajigs?

Incidentally, that’s got to be the world’s quietest bee.

It’s a shame Mulder doesn’t carry a camera any longer. He could have taken some great pictures in this film!

So Mulder can get from DC to Antarctic in two days, rent a Landrover, and attract zero attention? Impressive.

A telegram? Whoever sent it must have been a romantic. A phone call, a fax, or an email... all of those things are easier to arrange and have far better security.

And isn’t it nice that the Consortium would go out of their way to place a digital readout on a bomb just where nobody is supposed to see it? How courteous of them.

Robert J. Woolley: Pretty cool show. I think the creators set us up for some degree of disappointment by making the series so consistently movie-like that it’s hard to make an actual film feel qualitatively different. This is a compliment to the series, not an insult to the movie.

There were plenty of implausibilities and coincidences—in fact, the entire plot is driven by them. I’m mostly willing to let these go by without comment; I accept that this is a movie and suspend disbelief. But one of them really bugged me (no pun intended). The last third or so of the movie is driven by the conspiracy arranging for Scully to be kidnapped in an ambulance and whisked off to Antarctica. But this is precipitated by her being stung by a bee that had been—what?—sleeping (?) since the previous night. The elements were all in place waiting for her to get stung, intercept Mulder’s call to 911, etc. This means that they had Mulder’s apartment phone tapped. Which means that they expected her to get stung in Mulder’s apartment building. How in the world could they know that she had a bee hitchhiking under her collar, let alone that it would sting her right then???

And now for the nits.

Scully’s infection control procedure still need a lot of work. After cutting into a body infected with a virus—whose mode of transmission she admits she doesn’t understand—she uses the gloved hand to answer her cell phone, hold it to her ear, etc. Not to mention the exposure to possible air-borne contamination.

During the conversation in Mulder’s hall, there’s a reverse shot of Mulder (over his shoulder) where his mouth keeps moving for a couple of seconds after he stops talking (by the dialogue track).

Mulder finds Scully frozen and infected and tied into some sort of alien-virus life-support system. He breaks into her cell, gives her the vaccine, pulls her out, and gives her his parka to warm her up. She appears at least topless, if not fully nude, in the cell. But in shots after he puts his parka on her, she is also wearing pants and shoes. The official movie magazine has a still that shows her wearing these items as she is pulled out, so maybe I missed that. But either way we have a puzzlement. If Mulder dressed her lower half, when and how? If he didn’t, why was she made topless for freezing but not bottomless? (This is not to say that I wanted her to be either one, just to point out that I can’t see any logical reason for being half-naked; if she were either fully clothed or fully naked, it would sort of make sense.)

Brian: In short. A very entertaining movie. The government isn’t very conspicuous is it? A grassy park in the middle of Texas wilderness? Corn field in the middle of Texas wilderness and Tatoounie, somewhere or another.

Amazes me how Mulder can jump out of bed and go running around after being SHOT IN THE HEAD!! Granted it was little more than a flesh wound, but come on.

OK the big one. Antarctica is a pretty cold place. Mulder seems fairly well covered, although his face and ears aren’t protected when he arrives. But later on he takes off his coat and gives it to Scully, who is wearing that and her flimsy suit. With her recovering illness (she’s getting a lot of these mysterious government diseases isn’t she?) she wouldn’t last very long in the cold. I could be wrong, but with temperatures as cold as they are in Antarctica a person would only last a few minutes, half-hour at the most. And being wet only compounds the problem, as water will transmit heat, or lack there of, into the body much more efficiently than air.

Shane Tourtellotte: North Texas, 35,000 BC. Had humans crossed the Siberian land bridge by that time?

Why wouldn’t the FBI evacuate both federal buildings, if there was a bomb threat in one. Even forgetting they’re similar places, likely to be interchangeable to a mad bomber, isn’t there a serious risk of collateral damage? When they do find the bomb, Scully orders an evacuation of a one-mile perimeter. They should have done something like that a lot earlier.

When the train carrying the unmarked tankers passes Mulder, there are three tankers in a row. As the train recedes into the distance, there are two.

When Mulder runs out of gas, his GPS device shows him at exactly the coordinates the Well-Barbecued—er, Manicured Man gave him. However, the secret base is a couple miles from there. That’s a few minutes of longitude or latitude, so WB—er, MM’s coordinates were wrong.

Boy, Scully certainly was active and able to clamber around a minute after being brought back from clinical death.

And did you note the location given for the new secret base. "Foum Tataouine"—the very place name George Lucas read from a sign while scouting locations for "Star Wars", after which he named Luke Skywalker’s home planet: Tatooine. Just more candy for us Science Fiction types—and a small gift after the hope of a Star Wars prequel trailer was dashed.

One more thing. The Charcoal Briquette Formerly Known As The Well-Manicured Man speaks of expecting humanity to be enslaved by the alien creatures, and is horrified that they might instead become disposable incubators. My question is: what’s in it for these guys? It sounds from him like they’re all willing to go into perpetual servitude to the aliens. Why? No power, no riches, no harems for them, just cede control to the UFO-flying oil slicks. What could conceivably be their motivation? What worse terrestrial fate could they be averting this way? They can’t be using the Black Menace to counter the Red Menace: they said the fight against communism was a front. What, then? I don’t understand.

John Latchem: I’m interested in how the events in the movie will be incorporated into next season. Will they proceed assuming everyone has seen the movie? But not everyone will have seen the movie. I’d imagine some exposition that refers to it, but that’s going to have to be some heavy exposition.

Melanie F. Koleini: How did Mulder and Scully get out of Antarctica? Mulder wasn’t wearing a coat. All Scully was wearing was a coat. They were both wet and Scully was bare foot! Even if the vehicle Mulder came in wasn’t taken by the bad guys or swallowed in the crater it was out of gas! And Mulder had dropped his global locater device inside the spaceship. Maybe Cancer Man sent someone back to pick them up. Or maybe the people that owned the vehicle Mulder road in on managed to find him and Scully before they died of hypothermia. Oh well, what ever happen, our heroes managed to get back to D.C. for the final two scenes of the movie. How they got back isn’t really all that important but some small explanation would have been nice. I suppose the truth is out there somewhere.

Jason Allan Haase: I really enjoyed this movie! Lots of humor, action, and mystery. I think the subtitle for this one should be "When Aliens Attack!"

I’m not sure I see how the season (especially the season finale) really led up to this movie. There was nothing about Cancer Man maybe being Mulder’s father. Or how about that young agent on the series who Cancer Man said was his son. Where was he? What about Mimi Rogers’ character? I thought that since they were such a big part of the "cliffhanger" that leads up to the movie, that they would at least make a Lone Gunmen-type cameo.

David Tayman: Outside the bar, right before he meets the guy played by Landau, he sees an ID4: Independence Day poster. Contradiction city here! In ID4, when the cable went out, there’s a quick scene of a cable operator talking to someone on the phone. He says something like, "Yeah, I like the X-Files too, I hope you get to see it." Perhaps Carter was giving homage to the movie because they first gave homage to him?

Tim Thompson: When Well-Manicured Man shows up to kill Kurtzweil, his car is driven up into the alley facing them. But when Mulder comes out of the bar, he sees them shutting the trunk (presumably with Kurtzweil’s body in it), which is now facing his direction. So either before or after disposing of Kurtzweil, the driver backs the car all the way out of the alley, turns around, and backs all the way into the alley. I’d have just dragged his body to the back of the car instead.

Kevin Loughlin: If the pop machine was unplugged, why were the fluorescent tubes still glowing?

Brian T. Henley: I’d just like to say that it was a great flick! Lotsa fun! the continuity was great!

SES (Suspense Essential Stupidity) comes highly into play here. I knew that moon- suit guy was a goner as soon as he descended into the well alone. I mentally yelled at the screen ... "No! Don’t go down alone!!!!" "The being’s out of the abdominal cavity! Run for it! The ladder! The ladder!" "Don’t stand there LOOKING at this thing! Climb! Climb! Climb!" "No! No! No, whiz-kid! Don’t come back down! Up! Up! That-a way!" "Arrg! Told ya so." Some folk are just too dumb to make it through a flick. At least the above ground guys had some sense. Moon-suit guy cries for help and they don’t even budge! ( And neither would I!)

Joanthan Carter: A minor problem when you begin to wonder why they blew up the building at all. Martin Landau said they blew it up to hide the bodies infected by the virus. But the explosion actually brought attention to the bodies, and from what I could tell, the explosion did not damage the bodies in any way. Why not just burn them someplace secluded? Why not just bury them like they apparently did with the body the hatched the alien in the cave?

Alexander Shearer: In the breeder ship, faced by a bunch of hatching aliens, Mulder doesn’t whip out his gun, either to defend himself or to hand off to Scully as he climbs. That surprised me. It also surprised me that a middle-sized clump of snow was able to disable one of those previously vigorous aliens.

Mike Trudell: When the little boy was taken by the black oil and the scientists, WHERE WERE HIS PARENTS?? There should have been at least one parent demanding answers.

Shaun Foley: When the bomb squad people were trying to get in, why not just burn off the part of the door surrounding the handle, instead of going all the way down the middle? Of course I know the answer... BILC.

Jeni Gordon: Why is Scully going down hills in BIG heels? Seems like it would make it VERY difficult to climb and run!

Greg Reed: The rooftop scenes in Dallas , well it wasn’t Dallas, but Los Angeles. Having worked in downtown LA I know the skyline quite well.

Brian Straight: The people in the black helicopters searching for Mulder and Scully should of had some night vision goggles, or heat detectors. So they shouldn’t have been searching rather franticly for our heroes.

Joshua Truax: In the final scene, there is a telegraph message that reads: X-FILES REOPENED STOP PLEASE ADVISE STOP

Note the hyphen in the word "X-Files". I always thought telegraph messages were always transmitted in Morse Code. I also always thought that Morse Code only covered the letters of the alphabet — no numerals or punctuation. If this is true, then how can "X-Files" be hyphenated in this telegraph message?

Kathryn Lewis: Just 2 little thing that make Chris Carter terrific! Scully’s phone number 555-0113 (not 555-1013 - that one is probably for Mulder’s cell.), but you see my point! The Well Manicured Man’s license plate was, LA365. Remember now that this movie was made last year (1 year before the big move!), so that would be Los Angeles in 365 days (1 year!). Neat huh?!

REACTION TO DS9'S SEASON FINALE

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Daniel Gunther: Near the end, when Sisko leaves the station, watch as he exits his office. There’s a light just to the left of his oval window. It must be a stage light, because when Odo and Kira enter his office a little later, there is no light in that area. (Well, there is, but it is too far from the window to be the one I saw.)

Murray Leeder: [This episode was] a sort of companion piece to "Call To Arms", and equally spectacular. Something tells me that Damar and Weyoun should have had knowledge of Dukat’s presence on Cardassia Prime some time before he walked through the door!

Dukat doesn’t hold a grudge against Damar?! That part rang false to me... something tells me that Dukat has an ace up his sleeve.

Why didn’t Sisko get a runabout, go into the wormhole, and ask the Prophets to clarify their immensely oblique message? It would only take him a few minutes!

Admiral Ross refused to allow the Prophets their request? Isn’t this the same guy who was amicable to evacuating the station during "The Reckoning"?

Isn’t Kira a better choice to stay behind and man the station?

So where is Dukat and how come he can beam on and off the station no problem?

Bashir was able to save the symbiont but not Jadzia? I thought the symbiont was more fragile! Just good luck?

Jason Gorel: Worf conducts the Klingon death ceremony on Dax, but her eyes aren’t open. I believe in the first season of TNG Worf performs the same ceremony on a Klingon and states the eyes must be open so that they can enter death as a warrior or something like that.

Rebecca S. Bare: After I finished watching the season finale of DS9 last night, my first reaction was "Star Trek likes to get rid of their main characters through senseless deaths." First, Tasha Yar died because some slimy monster wanted to see death, now, Jadzia dies because Dukat wants to harm the prophets. I thought it was a disappointing end to my favorite character on the show. (Note from Phil: And did you notice the circumstances of Jadzia’s death. She--the naturalistic minded scientists--for the first time goes to offer a prayer to the Prophets and is struck down without meaning or context. This was just almost mean-spirited of the creators, if you ask me. Almost like they were trying to get back at the actress for not returning for a seventh season!)

Corey Hines: Why was there talk of a problem with a Klingon and a Trill having a baby? As we’ve seen in Star Trek history, half breeds of any species are possible.

In the first meeting with Dukat, Damar and Weyoun, the Cardassian emblem is backwards.

The shot of Romulan warbirds decloaking around the station is from "By Inferno’s Light".

Very surprising that Worf wasn’t on Martok’s ship.

After O’Brien suggests his plan on how to destroy the generator, Kira orders the plan by nodding and even though O’Brien has his back to her and he still knows that she agrees with it. (Note from Phil: Don’t all good engineers have eyes in the back of their heads? Isn't that why Wufflethillians make such good engineers?!)

The controls on Dukats ship appear to be Federation, even though he uses a Dominion transporter.

Usually the departure of a character on a Star Trek series is given about half the episode for the characters’ reaction to it. Dax wasn’t given a lot of attention.

Just as Sisko is leaving he says to Jake "Let’s go home." I thought he said in "The Search, Part I" that thought of the station as home. And what about that long speech he gave at the end of "Call to Arms"?

Johnson Lai: All of the uniforms across Starfleet should have been changed over by now. So, what’s with that outcast in the background (wearing a TNG uniform) in the wardroom scene (when we first see the Romulan senator)? (Note from Phil: Gotta amortize those old uniforms somehow!)

J. Walker: This was a cool episode, though I am saddened at Jadzia’s death and the death (maybe?) of the prophets. General Martok has to be nominated for a Great Line: in response to the Chief Romulan Guy’s (sorry, bad with names) claim that Romulans don’t believe in luck, Martok says, "Good! That will leave more for the rest of us." Definitely one of the best lines he’s ever had.

Tony H Forbes: Well, I think that DS9’s finale was quite an episode! The choice of people kept on the station as opposed to the people on the Defiant [seemed odd]. They didn’t take Julian, or Dax(d-ohh), or Odo, but they took Kira, Jake, and Garak? What???

Wouldn’t it be a really good idea to put those regenerative shields on the starships?

Interesting trivia: the first drafts for the DS9 pilot were titled "Tears of the Prophets"

Bill Gallop: When Sisko is talking to Jadzia’s casket, the camera pans around. Look carefully at the text on the side of the casket, just before the UFP banner. It says it’s a torpedo! They can’t get caskets out there?!

John Latchem: Well I thought they could have done better. Especially Jadzia’s death. Why is Kira going on the mission and Dax staying? Seems to me the reverse should be true. Kira should stay. Of course that means Kira would be dead now, at the hands of the Dominion. Which should have an interesting effect on Odo. Hmm. That would have been an interesting story. Does [Dax's absence on the Defiant] have something to do with "Change of Heart?" Because Worf is going Dax cannot?

Why does Kira take over the Defiant? Ever since Worf came to the station he has been the first officer of the Defiant. Now Kira takes over for him. Does this have something to do with "Change of Heart?"

Why is Garak going along? No real reason is given.

This episode also contains a serious SWS. When the wormhole collapses and Sisko doubles over, I was thinking "he felt a great disturbance in the force," like Ben Kenobi when Alderaan was destroyed.

Mike Wilson: First I’d like to say that while I’ll miss Terry Farrell, the Dax character wasn’t what I thought she’d be like. During the first seasons of the show Dax was kind of aloof and maybe a little bit enigmatic, but by the end she was more of giddy girly type with a klingon wanna-be complex. I liked her better aloof. Still I can only wait until next season to see if the Dax symbiont will return with a new host.

The "leaving an imprint of our warp signature on the power complex by using our deflector array" to fool the platforms into firing on their own power source was kind of weak. I don’t know how to say it, but it seems like you can do almost anything with a deflector array! I wonder why the Cardassians would build an orbital weapons network with that inherent weakness anyway? Just take out the one power source and they all go dead? Does this make sense tactically? If all the platforms had individual power sources the Federation may not have won!

Jeni Gordon: Kira seems quite nonplused that the wormhole has closed up, and she can no longer be in contact with the prophets. One would think that she would be upset that the prophets have left Bajor! And, I am surprised that there is no movement among the Bajorrans to blame Sisko for what has happened. Since there are evil beings among the Bajorans (the episode where Keiko was possessed, and whatever Dukat got his hands on) Why isn’t Sisko or Kira or someone studying the ancient texts?

Alex Otis: Well, I normally find it a lot more difficult to nitpick DS9 than I do Voyager. All my nits revolve around Jadzia’s death. First, Dukat beams in. Odo has a great security force. He should have picked up on the beam in immediately. Since the security office is only two or three doors down the promenade from the shrine, he should have been there in seconds. And yet, Dukat has all that time on his hands. I know, I know, the Pa Wraith was helping him.

Now, how she dies. That had to be the lamest idea ever. A ‘god’ killed her! I’d expect that sort of idea when I’m watching Xena, but not DS9. I think they could have done better.

All in all, I thought the episode could have been better. I did, however, really like the battle scenes. Great shot of the Akira class.

Denny Kennedy: I just caught the last half of the DS9 finale on Thursday. The battle at Cardassia was a good story, and had some excellent special effects. I was not impressed at all, however, by the way the creators wrote in Jadzia’s death! It looks to me like they wrote the storyline months ago (before Terry’s contract problems), and just sort of jammed that part in wherever they could find a place for it. Her death was so pointless...she just happened to be in the way when Dukat and his pet Pah-Wraith decided to come visiting and trash the Orb. Jadzia deserved so much better! Couldn’t they at least have put her on the Defiant and have her killed in battle?

I must give kudos to the SFX folks, however. The Cardassia battle sequence was, in my opinion, the best I’ve seen on any Star Trek TV episode. It simply blew Voyager’s "Year of Hell" away! I’d even go as far as saying it was as good as, if not better than, the ST:FC Borg battle. The rest of the episode, however, left much to be desired.

Mark Luta: Sisko really seems to believe the adage that a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic. Twice now in recent months he has lamented one death while seeming to be less concerned about horrendous battle casualties. Did someone forget to tell him he was in the military (I guess concerns are different in the shipyard, or the offices he worked in before now).

At least now with the wormhole closed, the strategy for the Federation becomes clear. Strike at the "Clotis" system, and burn the planet down to bedrock to eradicate that fungus. Destroy that, and you destroy the Jem’Hadar!

David D. Porter: Great Line: "It was a private matter."

If the weapon platforms have no generators aboard, they are getting there power through their shields. That means there is a frequency window in the shields which should be exploitable.

"Evasive maneuvers . . . pattern Theta." Is there only one pattern Theta for a Defiant-class ship?

Worf and Dukat—now it’s personal.

Joshua Truax: Memo to all women, everywhere in the Alpha Quadrant: STAY AWAY FROM WORF!!! I don’t care how attractive you might think he is; don’t even think about pursuing a relationship with him. It will only get you killed before your time — just like K’Ehelyr and now Jadzia Dax.

In her DS9 swan song, Terry Farrell’s character gets the Tasha Yar treatment. Just like Denise Crosby’s TNG character when Crosby left that series, Jadzia doesn’t get a particularly heroic death; she just gets zapped, she dies, and that’s that. In fact, unlike Yar, Jadzia doesn’t even get an on-camera memorial service, or any other kind of mourning from anyone other than Sisko or Worf. This probably means one or more of the following: 1) the creators decided to push the Jadzia character out the door as quickly as possible, the way they did with Kes on Voyager, 2) they’re saving the grieving process for the first part of next season, and/or 3) they’re leaving the door wide open for Dax’s next host to make one or more appearances, in which case it’s really not the end of the character after all...

Once again one of Sisko’s superiors pooh-poohs Sisko’s role as the Emissary to Bajor’s Prophets. As I’ve mentioned before, one would think Starfleet Command would be a bit more supportive of Sisko’s Emissary activities after the Prophets saved the Federation from certain defeat by the Dominion in "Sacrifice of Angels". For that matter, I’m amazed Sisko has never pointed this out to them (respectfully, of course)...

Garak accompanies Sisko and company aboard the Defiant, saying it’s not every day he has an opportunity to liberate his homeworld. Then, once the invasion fleet is underway, Sisko orders a course for Cardassia. Did I miss something? I thought this fleet was going to invade the Chin’toka system, not Cardassia Prime itself. (Since Garak’s birthplace has never been established, I suppose Chin’toka could in fact be his homeworld, but why would Sisko order a course to Cardassia Prime if he really wants to go to Chin’toka?)

The power source for Chin’toka’s orbital defense grid turns out to be on an asteroid also in orbit of the planet. Aside from the vulnerability that goes with having just one power source, doesn’t this seem very inefficient? A single generator in orbit along with the weapons satellites could relay power to nearby satellites easily enough, but what about, say, all the satellites on the opposite side of the planet? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have many redundant power sources and relay stations scattered across the planet?

Brian: The only satisfaction I got out of the episode was knowing that at some point next year, Worf will kill Dukat with his bare hands.

Lisa Shock: I noticed that as Bashir and Quark leave the holodeck, Quark still has a champagne glass in his hand. This may not be much of a nit, since we don’t actually see it outside the holodeck.

I didn’t really understand the big deal about Sisko not being on the station during Dukat’s attack. I don’t think things would have turned out differently for the wormhole aliens if Sisko had been there. If Sisko had been in the temple, he would have been shot and the outcome would have been the same. (Maybe Dax would have lived.) If Sisko was in another location on DS9 nothing would have changed.

I thought that the explanation for Dax’s condition and death was pretty lame. The very delicate symbiont was saved. She’s conscious for awhile and was only hit in the abdomen. Obviously her heart is working all right, (I am, of course, referring to alien organs which serve analogous functions to our own.) her brain is intact, I don’t see why Bashir couldn’t just repair the damaged organs. She should have, at least, been placed in stasis until they could repair or replicate the damaged organs. The writers should have made her injury more serious. (Note from Phil: Of course, if there was something about the injury that required that the symbiont be removed then Jadzia would die no matter what her injury.)

THE UNFORTUNATE NEWS

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I would have preferred not to end the newsletter this way but after much pondering I decided it was better than beginning it with bad news. Those of you who visit the website regularly already know this but I have many nitpickers who don't have access to the website so I really need to go over this territory once more time.

My current writing career ended sometime around noon on Monday, May 11, 1998 when my agent Steve Ettlinger called. (Quite a way to start the week, eh?)

These are the circumstances as I know them. Apparently, there was an unauthorized movie guide for Godzilla that was due to be released in conjunction with the new movie. In mid-April, the copyright and trademark owners of Godzilla won an injunction against the publisher of the unauthorized guide and stopped it’s release.

Unfortunately, the judgment in the case was written somewhat broadly.

At the same time, Paramount has been actively protecting it rights with regards to the unauthorized publishing niche—as they did with regard to the Internet several months back—firing off letters to anyone and everyone that they feel might be infringing on their property. A few weeks ago, I spoke with a fellow author whose publisher had yanked his DS9 trivia book because of such a letter . . . after he had already turned in the manuscript.

And some of you may know of The Joy of Trek case. In December of 1997, Citidel released The Joy of Trek by Samuel Ramer. From what I understand, it’s a light-hearted look at how to improve your relationship with a Trekker. I’m told that there’s only 10,000 copies of the book in print. It’s a trade paperback and lists for something like $10.95. I would be stunned if the combined profit and royalties for the book exceed $100,000.

From what I understand, Paramount sued for 22 million and recently succeeded in gaining an injunction again the work. In the ruling against the book, the judge stated that "fair use" only extends to parodies, reviews and scholarly works.

In all honesty, I’ve been somewhat surprised that Paramount hasn’t taken this kind of action before. In my opinion, unauthorized episode guides and unauthorized trivia books are really nothing more than a rehash of copyrighted material. As I understand the copyright law, "fair use"—i.e. the ability to use copyrighted material in a new work—is restricted to works that have substantial new material. This is the reason movie reviews are legal even though the copyright holder is not involved. It’s the fabled "freedom of speech" protected by the First Amendment. Disallowing the discussion of copyrighted works unless you have the copyright owner’s permission in tantamount to a gag order.

Anyway, these events have sent shudders through the publishing industry.

To understand why, you have to understand that profit is slim in the publishing business and litigation is expensive. So, it’s really not a question of what is legal. It’s a question of what is risky.

Now, as far as I’ve been told, the Nitpicker’s Guides are as legal as you can get in the unauthorized publishing business. They are critique, commentary and analysis and Dell has never had any problem with the Guides evoking the threats of lawsuits from copyright holders. (I was even told by an insider that Paramount’s lawyers said they knew that what I do was legal. Likewise, when Paramount "cleaned up" the web, I never heard a peep from them. I had nitpickers writing in a panic saying, "Is Paramount trying to shut you down?!" And I’d write back, "Nope! What I do is legal!")

Unfortunately, it ultimately makes no difference whether what I do is legal or not. The fact is: It’s expensive to fight off a lawsuit even if you’re right. While the Nitpicker’s Guides have provided me a comfortable living, lawyers—charging hundreds of dollars an hour—would quickly chew through any profits that Dell has enjoyed.

In addition, Dell changed lawyers some time back and I’ve gotten the distinct impression that the new lawyer has never been thrilled with the Nitpicker’s Guides. This was the lawyer who was responsible for the deconstruction of the cover of the DS9 guide and the removal of the space station from the cover. And, if I recall correctly, there was some prediction of the lawyer’s discomfort when I initially discussed the possibility of the X-phile Guide with Dell. (In all fairness to her, she is just trying to do her job!)

When you combine a broadly-written judgment with Paramount’s actions and a skittish lawyer and a publisher whose profit margin is slim to begin with, you get this:

Dell has canceled the Star Wars Nitpicker’s Guide and has stated that it has no interest in publishing any other Nitpicker’s Guides.

However, as far as I know, Dell will continue to sell the current spate of Guide. But . . . my relationship with them has ended. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that another publisher would be willing to take on the risk—given the atmosphere of the market and other current lawsuits.

So . . . I am in the process of starting a new career. I’ve been careful with my money. I have some breathing room. I am brushing up on my programming skills. I used to be a cracker-jack software developer. It’s skill you never lose because you’re born with it. I plan to see if I can drum up some contract work. I think it would be nice to work from home and have a bit of time to continue the attempt to get some fiction published. But . . . if that doesn’t work, I’ll just find me a cubicle! ( I already have a very solid lead on what would be a very solid job but if would mean going back to work for a company.)

I’m really okay with this. I just figure that you win some and you lose some. I’ve done the best that I can do. I feel like I’ve put out some good product. I have plenty of other employable skills and, frankly, it’ll be nice to get back into a field where talent and discipline are actually rewarded. And, please understand, I don't offer that last statement in a mean-spirited way. It's just true. The publishing business has many successful authors who are simply not very good at what they do! But, people buy their books!

There was really only one moment when I came close to losing it during those first few days. On that fated Monday, I spoke with my editor Kathleen Jayes as well. She felt horrible but there’s nothing she can do. At one point, she said, "I just hate to see you leave writing." After a choked pause, I explained that I have a family to support and if writing can’t support my family, it’s time for me to do something else. And I went on to observe that I had learned enough about the publishing industry to realize that there are thousands of people who write better than me who will never get a book published and there are hundreds of people who write poorly who will—and will be successful in terms of making money. The publishing industry certainly wouldn’t be profoundly affected by my departure! (By the way, before the Star Wars Guide was cancelled, I had already read twenty-five Star Wars novels. These alone convinced me all over again of the relationship between talent and success in this business. I quote: "Mara Jade wore a tight-fitting jumpsuit: her curves looked like the hazardous paths through a complex planetary system." Oh man. What . . . is she lumpy?!)

I’ve gotten five books out the door. That’s not too shabby. And, as far as I know, Dell will continue to stock the Guides that are already in print. For the time being, I’ll continue the website.

Life goes on.

Happy Nitpicking!