"Scientific Method"
Air Date: October 29, 1997
Star Date: 51244.3
11/03/97 Update
11/10/97 Update
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done as much as we're going to do on it. You're welcome to send in addition nits and I will keep them on file but I won't be adding to this file any longer unless something really spectacular comes in!
As the romance between Paris and Torres heats up, Voyager collects data on a binary pulsar cluster. Meanwhile, strange medical maladies afflict the crew. Janeway has severe continuous headaches. Chakotay prematurely ages. Neelix begins to transform into a Mylean. Eventually Holodoc and Torres determine that some kind of tag has been added to the DNA of those affected. Unfortunately, at that moment, both Holodoc and Torres are targeted for attack. Though Torres succombs, Holodoc manages to transfer himself to Holodeck 2. He then contacts Seven through her audio implant. Using a method suggested by Torres just before she collapsed, Holodoc adjusts Seven's sensory inputs and Seven is able to detect dozens of aliens on the ship conducting medical experiments on the crew. Seven then makes one of the aliens visible by modifying a phaser but the captured alien merely tells Janeway that her people are scientists and will not leave the ship though she assures Janeway that the fatalities will be low and deformaties kept to a minimum. After all other technological solutions fail, Janeway decides to play chicken, flying Voyager straight into the binary pulsar cluster. The aliens flee. Holodoc repairs the damage done by them. And Paris and Torres resume their relationship--though they do wonder if the aliens tampered with their hormones to bring it about.
Brash Reflections
Well this was fun, despite some glaring oversights. There's plenty of nits to pick here and we have been short on new material for two weeks so I'll only take three and leave the rest for you fellow nitpickers.
I had an almost continuous neck twitch myself during this episode every time someone brought a PADD to someone else or used an excuse about needing to deliver a message. I know this has been mentioned before but it seemed especially prevalent in this episode. Namely . . . WHY DON'T THEY JUST USE ELECTRONIC TRANSFER ON THEIR REPORTS!! It appears that all the reports are written on computer devices. Can't these devices interface with the main computer? And, if not, why not?!
Holodoc's reaction to Janeway's headaches seems profoundly different that Crusher's reaction to Picard's headaches in "The Battle." In that episode, Crusher was appalled that Picard had headaches at all given the successful mapping of the brain. In this episode Holodoc seems to think that headaches aren't that unusual and Janeway is simply stressed out.
Okay so Seven shoots one of the aliens and make her visible. And what does the crew do for the rest of the episode with this amazingly useful bit of information. NOTHING! Why not take Tuvok and a security detail, spray the corridors--or get Seven to tell you where the aliens are--get them all visible and put them in the brig!
All in all though, the episode did have some fun moments and great dialogue. And I do have to say that I enjoy Janeway with a bit more of an edge on her! There were plenty of things about this episode that were definitely headed in the right direction! (At least as far as I'm concerned. ;-)
Reflections from the Guild
(Note from Phil: I haven't verified these reflections but they sounded good to me!)
Johnson Lai: After the Doctor modified Seven, she went into a turbolift and ordered it to go to deck 5. After she left the lift, she went into the Mess Hall. I'm pretty certain the Mess Hall is on deck 2.
Why didn't the other "scientists" free their captured colleague by "mutating" the guard?
Just before Janeway flies the ship in between the pulsars, she says, "You're relieved" to the helm officer. Amazing part is the officer knew she was the one being relieved since she didn't look back and Janeway didn't say who she was addressing.
Michael Apple: A bit of a ripoff of "Wink of An Eye" tonight, but still good nonetheless. Seven of Nine is turning out to be a good enough character. It'll be nice to see what happens as Ryan settles into the role.
NITS:
Interesting scene between Torres and Paris in the Jeffries Tube. Hmm, could this be a ploy for ratings? I could feel the ground rumble as all the fan fic writers in the world ran for their word processors. :)
Why did the aliens have so much trouble trying to disable Holodoc's portable emitter? Wouldn't it just take a single phaser shot to disintegrate it? For that matter, wouldn't just pulling it from his arm do the trick?
Those alien scientists must have had really good anesthesia. There were giant metal rigs handing from some of the crewmembers faces and not a one of them could feel it. Those metal spikes sticking out of Janeway's head looked painful.
Neelix begins to turn into another alien race because of activated genes left by his great-grandfather. From Chakotay's reaction, those aliens have a strong odor, something Neelix attributes to their sweat glands. How, then, did Neelix's great-grandfather get together with his great-grandmother? Wouldn't she too have been replused by the smell? ( Maybe he was wearing the interstellar version of CK One to mask the odor.)
Amazing. Chakotay left in a shuttle and the shuttle returned unharmed . There must have been great rejoicing on the ship tonight. They probably hung a big shuttle-shaped pinata.
One last thing: Harry said that he wanted more of Neelix's casserole for breakfast. Is he a masochist or did Tom put him up to it?!?!?!?!?!!?!? (Note from Phil: He *may* just like it!)
David T. Shaw of Hamilton, Ontario: Just saw "Scientific Method" and I don't have much since I am a little under the weather and wasn't paying too much attention. However, I have two points.
First - when people started coming down with problems, why didn't the Doctor do a complete test of Janeway? And how is it that he missed the increase in her dopamine levels to begin with? Holodoc seems very methodical to me, and just because he has one tentative diagnosis (i.e. "Stress") I can't imagine him not doing a full analysis (especially if he has Dr. Crusher's logs - she was shocked with Picard had a headache in "The Battle")
Second - I don't care if these beings are in phase or out of phase - if people are carrying around face masks and other apparatus (which certainly seemed to be strapped on somehow) even if they can't feel the straps, why can't they feel the weight? (I will ignore the bit about Janeway having all those pins stuck into her like a living voodoo doll, but unable to feel them - we know from some TNG episode (can't remember the title) when LaForge and Ro 'died' that out of phase objects don't interact with in phase objects (unless they are oxygen molecules or floors) (Note from Phil: The episode was, appropriately enough, "The Next Phase")
Shane Tourtellotte: Well, after half a dozen decent episodes to end last season, and another six to start this one, it was bound to happen. Didn't quite reach the "Threshold" threshold, but hey, what could? (Hope I don't find out.) And now, the nits.
Can *anybody* call up a site-to-site transport the way Paris did? Wouldn't there be some security alert? Wouldn't the computer disregard it as a waste of Voyager's precious energy? Wouldn't it be just awful if anyone could beam into your quarters without a hitch? There are *so* many things conceptually wrong with this? Besides, why couldn't Paris just walk to where Torres was working? Gee whiz ...
Finally, someone leans on a control panel, and all the beeps and boops go off. A little realism. Now, if the buttons actually did something functional, like shunt a plasma stream, or drop antimatter containment and blow up the ship. We might all have been spared this episode in that case. (Sorry, but this show got on my nerves *fast*!)
Somehow, I don't think it's possible to construct something as tiny as what we saw on the DNA base pair and make it functional. DNA and other organic molecules are about as small as you can get and still be functional. Nature's clever that way. That tiny little bar-code thing could scarcely be drawn on a DNA molecule to that scale, much less be implanted and *transmit messages*.
The Doctor's sketching technique could use a lot of work. His likeness of that Renaissance model was rather poor, especially the nose. Don't know if it's a nit, but you'd think a hologram with a computerized brain would have better spatial perception.
Was all this hardware the aliens put on/in people phased or something? I don't mean invisibility; I mean having bars in front of your face, but still being able to eat without noticing anything odd. I mean Janeway rubbing her temples, supposedly where spikes have been driven into her skull, and not bumping into anything.
If the aliens had been raising Janeway's dopamine levels for several weeks, why didn't The Doctor notice? Enjoying the role of masseur a little too much to actually wave a scanner over her?
If 7o9 could see the aliens, and if she successfully revealed one of them with a retuned phaser, why doesn't she shoot them all, just so her crewmates have a slightly better idea what's happening?
When one alien is reported entering the bridge when Janeway starts steering toward the pulsars, I didn't hear any whoosh of the turbolift doors. Did he/she/it beam up? If so, why wasn't this method mentioned? If not, what did he/she/it do, crawl through a Jefferies tube? (Passing a hot and heavy Tom and B'elanna on the way? ;-) )
When shields fail close to the pulsars, Voyager *should* be flooded with lethal levels of gamma radiation. In "Allegiance"(TNG), Enterprise didn't get nearly this close to one pulsar before its gamma bursts would have gone right through full shielding. Voyager gets much closer with no shields, and no effect. Worse, some seconds later Kim talks about rerouting emergency power to shields, which have already failed! Couldn't you do this a little earlier, Harry?
Note 7o9's damage report: hull breaches on decks 4, 7, and a couple other meaningless levels. Took long enough, but there's our 47.
Actually, I've changed my mind. This was as bad as "Threshold", or even ... dare I think it? Worse? (Note from Phil: Well . . . I felt like there *were* some elements here that worked. Now if they can just get those together with a plot that doesn't have big holes in it . . .)
Stephen Dickson: Nice show! Deals with the "We experiment on helpless creatures" thing that's going around, like experimenting on rabbits with shampoo, to see if their eyes will react.
Best line: When the captain was heading out of her quarters after the Doctor's massage with a towel on: "Captain, you may want to consider a change of clothes."
When Tuvok asked 7 o' 9 (Sonnie is what I like to call her... _S_even _O_f _N_ine... the first letters are SON) what she was doing when she was reconfiguring the engineering console for the neuroleptic shock, he said "Perhaps you should leave the repairs to the Engineering crew." I thought she WAS one of the engineering crew. After all, what crew has she worked most in the whole time she's been on the ship? And what crew has Janeway assigned her to time and time again. (Which raises an interesting question: What is Sonnie's official position, and her rank?)
KMYF scene: All over the episode! Paris's site-to-site transport with the flowers. B'elanna's line: "The plans are up on my personal workstation." At the end of the episode, Tom's line: "Perhaps we should call the whole thing off." (Note from Phil: True, but personally I find KMYF's funny when it's not supposed to be a romantic scene!)
Nice graphics of the X-rays. Tom and B'elanna's kissing skeletons, Chakotay's drinking coffee. However one nit on Chakotay's coffee drinking: According to what I've heard and read, the fluid doesn't just drop in one large clump into your stomach. Instead, it coats your throat and not all of it gets down right away.
Nice to see they're reusing props again. We saw the same handsink again in Chakotay's quarters that we did in Harry's quarters in "Favorite Son."
I also loved the scene in sickbay where Neelix and Chakotay were discussing their ailments. Neelix: "Well, my spinal cord's fusing, and in a few days I'll barely be able to walk." Chakotay: "I've got you beat there. I can barely walk now!"
And the continuity this season is sticking a little TOO close. Tom and B'elanna had their little "spacewalk" a "few weeks ago", by Tom's line near the end. Boy, this ship runs into problems awful fast! A warp core breach and ejection, Chakotay's alien abduction, B'elanna's encounter with "Mr. Clean", and Sonnie's little excursion to find her family's ship in "Football-helmet-wearing aliens space", and now "invasion of the DNA experimenters", all within "a few weeks". Boy, this ship DOES get a LOT of bad luck!
A Nitpick: These aliens in this episode were supposedly "Out of phase" from the Voyager crew. This would mean they would have the same ability as ghosts, to walk through solid objects. That would explain their ability to walk around without opening doors. How, then, were they able to place their equipment on crew members and keep it on while crew members walked around, without it being physically perceptible (the weight)? Also, how were they able to alter Janeway's dopamine levels with equipment that could pass right through her? A hypospray wouldn't be anygood... the spray would just float out to the other side. A old fashioned needle wouldn't either... it would just pass right through her. Also, how were the ships able to land on and attach to Voyager's hull without passing straight through? And wouldn't Tuvok or Harry have noticed a slight change in the weight on the outer hull?
Same thing with Sonnie's eye piercing probe. However, since she could see the alien, and the probe, I'm surprised her human instinct to blink to avoid something touching her eye didn't kick in and alert the alien she was on to it.
Oh well. I'm off to see B'elanna on Saturday at a fancon in Springfield, MA. If anyone else reads this and goes, look for "Stephen Dickson, aka ERPbridge".
Next week: Voyager time travels to the 8-9 time slot to battle the chroniton torpedo wielding Kremin in "Year Of Hell", which, surprisingly, only takes 2 weeks! Quick year, Voyager!
11/03/97 Update
David D. Porter: I see B'Elanna has reached the service equivalent of 'I'm turning into
my parent!'
I don't suppose an unnecessary site-to-site transport would deplete
energy reserves? (Note from Phil: My guess is that Voyager has solved at least some of its energy problem but they have grown so use to Neelix's cooking that they begged him not to quit. [snort!])
That became the most unsettling depiction of a kiss that I've ever
seen!
I hadn't realized that H-doc's 'ancestors' had included a masseur.
That's a UPC bar code on Chakotay's DNA! Someone's going to sell him
gene by gene!
H-Doc definitely sings better than he draws. Odd; drawing would seem
to be more valuable to a physician.
I fail to see how research on humans/Talaxians/Vulcans/et al will
benefit these aliens. Research on animals from the same genetic background
is one thing, but what do these species have in common? Other than being a
rather transparent reference to animal research, that is.
Josh Truax of Platteville, WI: It hasn't been very often that even diehard Trekkers such as ourselves have been able to use the phrases "Star Trek: Voyager" and "adrenaline
rush" in the same sentence. This episode was such an occasion, even if
its premise wasn't exactly cutting-edge. Kudos to everyone involved!
Not that it doesn't have nits to pick, of course. First of all, a huge
SWS ("Star Wars Similarity," for the uninitiated among you) at the end.
As Voyager hurtles between the twin pulsars, she announces to the crew,
"If we go in, we go in full throttle." I guess we can just call her
Captain Kathryn Skywalker from now on. (For those of you with poor
memories, Luke says almost exactly the same thing to his X-Wing squadron
at one point during their assault on the Death Star in "A New Hope"...)
This next one concerns Janeway's reaction to the budding Paris-Torres
romance. Paris and Torres think they are succeeding at keeping their
relationship discreet (albeit barely so), until Tuvok catches them in
the act. Shortly thereafter, Janeway keeps them after a senior staff
meeting and reads them the Riot Act about their conduct - but she denies
that it was Tuvok who brought it to her attention. So if Tuvok didn't
snitch to the captain about Paris and Torres, then who did? Did someone
else catch Paris and Torres in the act earlier and report it to Janeway
- and if so, how come Janeway's just now getting around to dealing with
the matter? Or has Janeway developed clairvoyance as a result of the
alien experiments, and that's how she knows about the Paris-Torres
romance? (Or is she just lying about Tuvok to keep him out of this
matter?) (Note from Phil: I took this to be a trip point in her frustration. It had probably been building for a while and she finally had had enough. As what exactly was the final straw . . . who knows if it wasn't that blabber-mouth Tuvok! ;-)
I've saved my longest ranting for last. These aliens seem to subscribe
to the all-too-humanly flawed logic of performing experiments on another
species, and expecting the results to apply to their own. Just today
(10/29), the Wall Street Journal ran an article which points up this
fallacy. To summarize: For years, the artificial sweetener saccharin
has been blacklisted by the FDA because of a study indicating that
saccharin causes cancer in laboratory rats. As a result, saccharin
products in the U.S. are required to carry a warning label explaining
the implied cancer risk to humans. Never mind that saccharin had been
in widespread use prior to this study, without producing a cancer
epidemic among users; or that the rats used in the study were given
doses of saccharin many times higher than the average person would
ingest in the same time period. Conventional scientific wisdom (or
dogma, depending on your point of view) holds that because rats are
mammals like humans, their biology is close enough to ours that what's
bad for them is probably bad for us. That is apparently the same logic
employed by the aliens in this episode: "If one of our operations works
on these humanoids aboard Voyager, it should also work with us, because
we're humanoid too."
Well, the FDA is now considering removing the aforementioned warning
requirement. The reason: New studies indicate that saccharin-related
cancer in rats is dependent upon certain idiosyncracies of rat biology
that do not apply to humans! This effectively shoots down in flames the
notion that "rats are like little people." Still, researchers continue
to rely heavily on experiments on rats and other rodents for studies
that ostensibly apply to humans - just as these aliens automatically
expect the results of their experiments on the Voyager crew to be
applicable to their own species. Now, does anyone else see a problem
with this logic? (And I'm not even an animal-rights activist, either!
Even so, I'd be remiss not to acknowledge that this whole affair
illustrates a powerful argument against using animals as research
subjects. Ethical and moral issues aside, the cold, harsh fact is that
the only reliable way to research human health problems is to perform
experiments on humans. Period.)
Now that I've finally come down off my soapbox, I think I'll sign off
now. Until next episode...
Ross A. Fillmore, Columbus, OH: Good episode! Really creepy! Not exactly as "Halloweenish" as I'd hoped
but still creepy. I was, however, reminded of five different Next Gen eps
by this one: Allegience, Ethics, The Next Phase, Schisms, and Phantasms.
Here, again, we have some kind of an interphasic alien experimentation
thing going on, but the show was still individualized in its own right. I
enjoyed it just the same.
I thought that Tom and B'elanna's antics were a little over the top also,
and I didn't think that Janeway was out of line at all either when she
chastised them. It does make sense though that they could have had some
kind of hormone experiments happening with them. Other than that, their
behavior was very unprofessional. Cute... but unprofessional.
How many people had the thought when Chakotay aged rapidly, "Hey, Holodoc!
Do the Pulaski Maneuver! Send him through the transporter and load his
original DNA pattern into the reconstitutor thing!"
Also, another dead horse, WHAT??? No, back-up for the Holodoc yet???
Odder still nobody seemed too concerned when they couldn't bring him up!
Very sneaky of our EMH routing his communication through 7/9's Borg
implants. I bet that's a wrinkle not too many people would have thought
of! Very clever!
Tuvok IS getting a sense of humor, even if it is sarcasm. "Shall I flog
them as well?" True, it got his point across, but isn't that a little
unorthodox for a Vulcan? (Note from Phil: Granted, Spock was only half Vulcan but he used biting satire with McCoy all the time.)
Equipment oddities: Okay, so are we lead to believe that TAKING OFF the
comm badge also turns it off? In TNG episodes we have seen people take off
the comm badge as a way of misdirecting someone, but it never gave us the
impression before that taking it off also turned it off. Does the
technical guide say anything about this? (Note from Phil: The Tech Manual is lite on details about the comm-badges! ;-)
Michael Apple: I just realized that the scene where I thought Chakotay had been in a
shuttle was actually a scene where he was in his quarters. I had to watch
the show in double vision because the UPN station up here has the
broadcasting wattage of a turnip, and I missed a few minutes because of an
emergency floor meeting. Hope all you nitpickers can find it in your
hearts to forgive me.
That means that they didn't send a shuttle out, which means that there
was no party. I guess they'll just have to wait on the pinata. :)
Also, I forgot to mention something. Did they show that commercial
for "Year of Hell, Part I" on all the stations? It was a variation on the
preview, except that it included the scene from "Future's End" where
Janeway complained about how she hated paradoxes. Who had the bright idea
of throwing THAT in there? Did they actually think it would go unnoticed?
Dustin Westfall of Fullerton, CA: Well, this was definitely an interesting ep. I still can't figure out if I like it or not. Oh well, on to the good stuff...
Why does Be'lenna say that Seven will adjust to STARFLEET life? (emphasis mine) Did
Janeway hand out another field commision? Or did she just say that because their on a
StarFleet ship?
I'm sorry, but Tom only seemed slightly out of character, despite what he said about
the possible enraged hormones. Also, he mentions prior to a couple of weeks ago, she
had no feelings for him. Did he just happen to forget about that little excursion in
"Blood Fever"? She seemed pretty hot for him then.
When someone loses hair, is really like what they show us? I mean, the hair just moved
aside, and it looked like the hair was never there(no signs of any miniscules hairs at
all). Also, I got a laugh about how it looked when he did it. He started at one side,
then the other. At that point, it looked like he was going to have a mohawk(I pity the
foo, with apologies to Mr. T). Also, why did it seem like his eyes were sunken? No one
ever seemed to mention it.
If the DNA particle thingies(I don't think they gave it a name) are out of phase, how
did they see it on the super-duper microscope?
Why did the Doc hide in the DaVinci simulation? I hope they don't turn it into the
same as the resort sim. I know they have to get as much use as they can to justify the
expense, but still...
Yet another out of place reference. How does Janeway know what a tin can is, or how it
would crush? She lives in the age of replicators, for crying out loud.
I was waiting for Tuvok to take the odds out to twelve decimal places, like Spock used
to do. Oh, well, maybe next time.
How long have these aliens been here? How do we know they won't come back? Is there
any real way of stopping them?
My favorite scene was with Chakotay and Neelix, one-up-ing each other about their
ills. However, that is their last scene. Nothing more. I guess the last minute, Doc
saves them in the nick of time, ending didn't leave room for them.
Next Week: Time change. Great, and I work until 8:15. Oh well, I guess I'll have to
call in sick. After all, I can't miss the YEAR OF HELL!!!! And to think, it will only
take two hours. I also have to figure out Janeway's comment about erasing them from
history. How in the world do they do that?
Ryan Smith: There were a couple things I
caught that might be of interest to Doctor Who fans. First, the imaging
scanner was very reminiscent of the TARDIS console. And I thought the aged
Chakotay looked a lot like Davros.
And how do we fix Chakotay and Neelix? Use the old RVN technique from
"Racsals" [TNG]. The magic's in the RVN, I'm telling you.
And your garden-variety nits:
If Tom and B'elanna are so worried about someone catching them in a
compromising position, why don't they just lock the door?
When Tom and B'elanna, uh, diagnose their problem in Engineering, B'elanna
is all over that workstation and it beeps a few times. Yet Riker sat on
the aft workstation in "The Naked Now" and nothing happened. Can those be
turned off like that?
If the ship is going between two binary stars and the structural integrity
field is going, shouldn't the ship be shaking, as it does in every other
episode?
No one really grieves much for the dead crewman on the bridge.
After Tom holds the turbolift for his talk with B'elanna, the turbolift
gives them the silent treatment when it resumes. The regular noise and
lights aren't on.
7 of 9 goes to Deck 5 and winds up in the mess hall. But Tuvok led his
students through the mess hall on Deck 2 in "Learning Curve." I guess it
wasn't much to remodel the ship, given that the ship takes a huge pounding
on a regular basis.
Speaking of a pounding, I have an exam to study for, so I'll sign off for
now.
Jason Gorell: Does this plot scheme remind anyone of TNG? They start out with a couple of
plot possibilities at the beginning of the show but don't really let you in
on just which one will be the main plot. Here we think the show will be
about Tom and B'lana consecrating every room and workstation on the ship but
instead we go for some very interesting alien experimentation, nicely done by
the way. Yeah yeah everyone who looked at the TV guiede previews knew what
it was going to be about beforehand but still, it's a nice change of pace to
keep you guessing past the opening scene.
Nate Greene, Louisville OH: Hi everyone! Another Great Episode! However, I did get a Nit for you guys! When The Doctor Said that the ensign was brain dead, I said WHAT!!!! Doesn't
it take like 6 minutes for a person to become brain dead? That was like 15
seconds! (Note from Phil: Not sure! Anybody?)
Bob Weiss in Bowie, MD: The aliens and their large medical implants and implements are invisible,
per the episode. Yet while invisible, they also violate the laws of physics
by occupying no space!!! Example, Janeway rubs her head but never touches
the probes stuck therein. Tuvok sits next to her on top of an alien but
still makes contact with the cushion! If you wish to argue that while
invisible they are also "out of phase" so that they cannot interact with
matter in the "normal" universe occupied by Voyager, then their probes and
experiments would have no effect on the Voyager or its crew!
I guess there really are things about physics we don't understand, but
apparently the writers at Voyager have unlocked the mysteries of matter and
time.
Trevor Ruppe: WIVRON: "Schisms" (aliens that the crew can't see perform bizarre medical
experiments on the crew) and "Phantasms" (alien beings are all over the ship
but are out of phase and can't be seen until they're bombarded by
"technobabble particles")
Having said that, though, I found "Scientific Method" much more enjoyable
than either of those two NextGen episodes. The special effects were
impressive, as was the acting--especially Janeway--with the sole exception
of Chakotay, who didn't make an even remotely believable old man. :(
Bob Canada: Didn't find a lot wrong with Scientific Method, although I was watching
it on fuzzy tv too, so I was going mostly by sound.
The main nit I noticed was what did the aliens hope to accomplish by
experimenting on the Voyager crew? Wouldn't humans be radically alien to
them? Aren't the two races naturally separated by 60,000 light years?
Are their bodily functions so identical to ours that they could glean
any kind of usable data from them? I find this hard to believe. Even
here on earth, different species have widely different reactions to the
same medicines. Aspirin will kill dogs, yet its a wonder drug to humans,
and digitalis is fatal to cats, yet its saved the life of countless
humans. Sure, the aliens could probe the crew and see what makes them
tick, but I'm not sure how they could use apply that info to themselves.
By the way, in keeping with the Star Trek tradition of "message shows,"
I believe this was the "unethical animal medical experiments" episode.
Derek Giromini of Richardson, TX: All in all, a very enjoyable episode.
Best moment: Tuvok responding to Janeway's overcompulsive requests to
regulate the crew: "Shall I flog them as well?"
Most uncomfortable moment: Janeway confronting Torres and Paris about
their overt relationship. I felt like I was watching a parent punish a
child.
Silliest moment: Chakotay and Neelix comparing ailments.
I wonder when in Human history the concept of email was abandoned. What's
with all this handing of reports to other officers? I can understand the
military reason behind this, but there is no functional reason for it. I
think Tuvok has better things to do at Tactical than run reports directly
to Torres.
Tom and B'elanna getting hot and heavy in the Jeffries Tubes? Hey, if
Jean-Luc Picard can get away with it, so can a couple of lieutenants.
Did I miss something? What did Seven do to that phaser to make one of the
aliens appear in phase? (Note from Phil: She did tap a few buttons. I'm assuming that she reset the frequencies or something!)
If I drank some coffee and suddenly started aging, I would first look at
the contents of the coffee. I guess that was already dismissed by the
time we see Chakotay converse with the Doctor.
The aliens weren't as creepy-looking as the ones in "Schisms", but what we
saw from Seven's POV was eery to say the least. I was impressed.
Next week: The President of the Federation trims his hair and wreaks
havok on Voyager. I guess he took that assassination attempt on Khitomer
a little hard. :-)
Matt Nelson: Ok, just one thing to say. Not only was this a good episode for
Voyager, this was a good episode for ANY incarnation of Trek! This
was an AWESOME episode! I loved it! Enough, needless to say, kudos
to the creators!
Best line (of Voyager EVER): "Shall I flog them as well?"
Y'know, far be it from me to criticize the makeup artists, but
Chakotay didn't really look old to me, he looked... Well, dead.
Speaking of Chakotay, the scene between him and Neelix was
priceless.
Again, far be it from me to criticize the prop department, but one of
the guys in the mess hall looked like he had a reading lamp strapped
to his head. But, you never know about alien technology...
Big-time T?TW? in the conference room. Chakotay tells Tom to move
out to ninety. Ninety? Ninety what?
The aliens had plenty of opportunity to activate everyone's genetic
markers WAY before Janeway pulled her little stunt. These guys
really ARE wimpy scientists.
Was it just me, or did the CGI Voyager look kinda.. long when it
zoomed out from between those two stars?
Shinichi Evans of San Diego, CA: The preview, as usual, hyped up this episode. It made one expect that there were some space ghouls playing some paranormal tricks on Voyager.
In the actual episode, it was a group of humanoid aliens with funny ears
and widows peaks (there had to be something unusual looking about them)
going around invisible (because they were phased) and doing
psychological and genetic experiments on the Voyager crew without their
consent. Chilling premise but not very "Halloweenish."
Let's beat a dying horse (not literally!): Seven of Nine has a new
catsuit in a more subdued fashion color. We'll probably find out that
she has a whole closet crammed full of these outfits (in every color of
the spectrum) by the end of this season. I didn't notice the "Borg
ribs" this time. I hope Jeri Ryan will "assert" her right to wear more
comfortable clothing as the show progresses. (Note from Phil: Remember the demographics . . . remember the demographics . . . remember the demo--)
When the Doctor mentions progeria, he says that it was eradicated two
centuries ago. How? By eugenics? By gene splicing? By removing the
allele for progeria from individuals so that they won't pollute the
human gene pool? I thought genetic was illegal for Terrans (with the
exception of fixing genetic disorders). In DS9's "The Wire", wouldn't
Mr. and Mrs. Bashir feel that pre-adolescent Julian Bashir's mental
slowness was a genetic disorder that should be fixed?
Great line from Tuvok: "Shall I flog them as well?"
Seven of Nine, in the tradition of Geordi LaForge, has become a walking
tricorder by having the Doctor adjust her occular implants so that she
can see and observe the aliens and find a way to stop them. Now the
Doctor can adjust her occular implants to do whatever is necessary.
When Seven of Nine goes into the mess hall, she walks into Neelix's
kitchen and no one notices. I guess everyone is used to walking into
the kitchen and helping themselves when Neelix isn't around. Who
watches the kitchen when Neelix is incapacitated or on an away mission?
Matthew Chiappardi of Hamilton, NJ USA: What was great about this one was to finally see 7 of 9 as the hero rather than a pensive either potential villian or 'fish out of water'.
This episode presents the same problems as the classic "Wink of an Eye"
and 'The Next Generation''s "The Next Phase". How did the aliens move
from deck to deck? Did they just wait for the turbolift to open and
stoaway (apparently yes...) and of course how did the aliens stay on the
decks without falling through, why did their inertia leave them in empty
space when Voyager moved...and so on.
The 'Kirkanization' (as you like to call it) of Janeway continues
here. Most appropriately with the line "these lab rats are fighting
back". It sounds exactly like a cheesy line they would write for Kirk
back in the 1960's.
The end scene was a bit over the top, does anyone believe the crew of a
starship would allow their captain to take such and unbelievably
reckless course of action. 1 in 20 odds would not make me feel very
comfortable. This does raise the question...who has the authority to
relieve the captain of command? In other shows and on other ships that
responsibility fell to the chief medical officer. Voyager has no CMO
except a hologram, I doubt they would let the computer make a crucial
decision. So...who is it? The exec? But he's not really an officer,
just a field officer. The security chief? Who knows? Neelix?
Does anyone else think the scene where 7 shoots the alien so it will be
visible to the rest of the crew was a writing cop-out. It was a tense
scene when Tuvok confronts her...but she did exactly what I expected her
do. (you could argue it was well written since she did what I thought
her charatcer would but...)
I can't really explain this one, but the scene where Chakotay lost his
hair...his hair looked obviously fake in the mirror. Before I saw the
hair coming off I said to myself "wow, Chakotay's hair looks really
funny here", and low and behold the hair came off.
This was a great...here's to my prediction that next weeks episode will
be terrible. (Note from Phil: Hope not! ;-)
Clay: Perhaps "out of phase" in the TNG ep "The Next Phase" is different than in
this Voyager ep. I always thought that out of phase could mean either out of
your physical world kinda like they were almost or, out of your visual field.
I thought that these aliens somehow were in a sort of different continuum
from ours. Maybe they could interact with us but not the other way around
until we could see them? Any thoughts? (Note from Phil: Only the creators know for sure! ;-)
Craig Cicero: Good episode! Or at least most of it was, anyway- the dialogue was
EXCELLENT, the technobabble got annoying, and the show seemed like a
combination of elements from "Distant Origin" (out of phase scientists
observing the crew), TNG's "Night Terrors," and I'm sure there are a few
others. And the science was goofy, absurd, wrong and totally ridiculous on
MANY levels (as I've come to EXPECT from Voyager, sadly).
But that aside, I only have a few REAL nits:
Barcodes on atoms? Sure. Whatever you say, Voyager writing team.
Along the same lines, the word "submolecular" is banded about frequently- did
the word "atomic" go out of fashion? (Or is the UT malfunctioning again?)
I also wonder why the "scientist" aliens didn't adjust their phase varience
trans-flux inducer technobabble devices and "observe" the crew more after the
episode ended.
For some reason, "they" didn't transmit the next episode's teaser in my area-
I got a promo for some other UPN show (I don't even GET UPN!)- based on some
comments, I'm assuming the next episodes are "The Year of Hell" parts one and
two. I've been wondering this for a LONG time- is it really going to be a
whole year? In two weeks? What, do they time travel back to this year after
the whole Krenim crisis is over? I also wonder if they'll act as if "Before
and After" ever happened. But that remains to be seen. (Note from Phil: I am certainly no expert in this but I would imagine the "Year of Hell, part 1" will kick off the Year of Hell and it will last the rest of the season.)
Gina Torgersen: I don't have any nits for "Scientific Method" but it did change my opinion
of one of the main characters. I never cared much for Capt. Janeway. I
thought she was too monotone sometimes. But this episode I loved her speech
to the alien on experimentation! When she was talking I was thinking, she
is so cool! So it was a good episode although it was way over the limit on
kissing.
Erin Hunt of High Point, NC: Dopamine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that has been linked, in excessive amounts, to schizophrenia, but I don't think it's been linked
with aggression per se. Now a schizophrenic Janeway- that would have
been better.
I'm assuming that if those metal apparatus's could stay on, they weren't
"out of phase" or anything, so wouldn't people have noticed them when
they put a hand up to touch their face or hair, tried to lay down, etc?
Gareth Wilson: There's a good explanation for why no-one transfers reports
electronically on Voyager, or indeed any Trek show.
Having someone come in with a report allows the audience to find out
what's going on without a clumsy voiceover, or someone reading out their
computer screen to an empty room. It may be a little silly from a
technical point of view, but it makes for better drama. Imagine the
"chasing comets" scene from First Contact if Picard had just downloaded
Riker's report. (Note from Phil: Hence the challenge of story-writing. The creators made the rules, they invented their technology. If they are going to circumvent it and pretend it doesn't exist and we're just going to nod and say that's all right then by that standard we should really put every equipment oddity--actually every kind of nit except continuity and production problems--under the "dramatic license" banner. Why didn't the warp ejection system work . . . again?! Well, it's more dramatic if the WES doesn't work. This seems less than satisfactory to me. If the technology is in the way of good drama in a fundamental way every week, something is very wrong with the setup! ;-)
George Padovan of Bridgewater, NJ: This episode had dragged for the first two acts before picking up the pace with the aliens. It was funny to see the Doc giving Janeway a
buckrub and she almost walked out of her quarters in just a towel! (evil
grin)
For the first time we see that Chakotay's tattoo extends over his left
ear. Hmmmm. I guess he had to shave himself in order to move the tattoo
that far.
Seven's ability to help against the aliens were great and it showed her
growing character very nicely.
Okay, now the nits:
If Seven's left artificial eye was Federation made and the Doc adjusted
that eye for her to see the aliens, it shouldn't be hard for Tuvok to
adjust the internal sensors (which should also include video) to the
same adjustments as Seven's. After all, if Seven was still able to see
the aliens, even after they being discovered, the sensors shouldn't be
having any problems at all! (Note from Phil: Did the Doctor adjust Seven's Federation eye or her Borg prosthetic?)
How did the Doc transfer himself to the holodeck when he was wearing his
mobile emitter? In order to transfer himself to the holodeck without his
emitter, he need to be in a room where holographic emitters are already
installed and that means Sickbay. (Note from Phil: I'm not sure we know enough about the way holodoc works to make this claim!)
Why did that alien stay in the brig? If she could transport herself off
the ship, she could had easily escape the brig.
As for Janeway's method of getting rid of the aliens, I leave you with
famous words from *another* pointed-ear little fellow from a galaxy far,
far away. "You are *reckless!*" I *agree* with him, and I certainly love
her style. (smile)
Stephen Mendenhall: I don't have many comments about this episode. But it was so heavy-
handed!
Well, I was glad they didn't have that ugly scowling tone of voice of
the usual villains, they sounded like perfectly rational scientists!
Ironic how the scientific method is mentioned in a series with so
many scientific errors![g]
So they have a cure for progeria but not a cure for aging? Why
aren't they immortal yet? Why didn't they beam Neelix directly to
sickbay?
So did humanity stop experimenting on animals before or after we
found cures for AIDS, bulimia, cancer, dandruff, eczema, encephalitis,
gangrene, progeria...? [g]
I thought they were already in the sickbay instead of the science lab.
Why don't they have a science lab in sickbay?
90 million kilometers is way too close.
One in 20 odds? Not very dramatic considering we know the series
hasn't been canceled.[g]
I didn't see any previews for next week, did you? Is it another
rerun? (Note from Phil: The preview played in the middle of the episode and announced Voyager's new time of 8 Eastern, 7 Central.)
Brian Webber: The next two episodes will be titled Year Of Hell. However, that's
because it's the start of something that'll drag out for the rest of the
season. It's gonna be a rough year for Voyager, and this thing with the
Krevin or whatever they are called is just the start of it. Personally I
can't wait.
Murray Leeder: I'm afraid that I don't get UPN anymore. So I can't watch Voyager until
Thursdays. Ah well.
A decent episode, although the anti-vivisectionist propoganda was a tad
obviously handled.
Boy, Janeway sure does look bad! And she acts like Sisko!
What's to stop these baddies from coming back, exactly?
Shon Libby - Chicago, IL: I thought "Scientific Method" was a bit heavy-handed with the "let's stop
animal research" parallels - I almost thought PETA might have been
sponsoring this episode at some points! It was fun to see 7o'9 get to save
the ship, though. Also, I enjoyed the scene where Chakotay and Neelix
tried to out-do each other in the "worse-off" category - it reminded me of
a LOT of conversations I heard/participated in at MIT... =-)
(i.e. oh yeah, well I've got 5 tests, 3 papers, AND a lab report due next
Wednesday!)
Anyway, on to the nits:
Of course human brain chemistry is still one of those mysteries of life,
but a lot of scientists think that some of the reinforcing and addictive
actions of drug abuse is due to a relase of dopamine in certain areas of
the brain. I guess this may or may not be a valid nit b/c the writers
didn't say where the increased dopamine levels were in Janeway's brain, but
I find it difficult to believe that it would give her excruciating
headaches and increase her stress levels.
Another scientific nit is the picture of DNA that the scanner/microscope
thingy showed. Completely inaccurate! And I agree with another nitpicker
- even if the aliens were more technologically advanced (or merely less
scrupulous), there's no way 1)to create that little bar code thingy and 2)
that the bar code thingy could induce the expression of certain DNA by
giving off some sort of signal. Or maybe the signal was for the
researchers' benefit and not directly related to its DNA-mutating
qualities.
My husband hates it when I start railing against scientific inaccuracies on
television, so I'll stop now. ;-)
Brian Webber: Now that Torres and Paris are together I have proof of
my Star Trek: Friends theory. Below is the type of discussion I can see
the two having in a future episode.
Paris: Ah. There you are.
Mike Brzozowski: A fairly well done episode, but an obvious Halloween wannabe.
When the doc and 7 are in the Holodeck, he says, "one room down, 256
to go". 256 is an odd number of rooms to have left, unless it's, hmm...
44! The seven is in 256 + 1 (257).
Doc tells 7 to contact him on channel epsilon 2. Isolated or not, it's
still using the ship's comm system. The IFOS being the IFOS, wouldn't it
have been better for Seven to actually return to the holodeck or use her
implants? (Seven seems to be turning into a Swiss army knife, the implants
which the doctor tried so hard to remove seem so helpful.)
Seven couldn't have TALKED about the aliens to Janeway, but why didn't
she try to walk in, hand her a padd saying it's "tomorrow's duty roster"
(Chuckles' best excuse), and walk out? Janeway would have eventually read
it and noticed a little message explaining the situation.
On the bridge 7 says an alien has entered the bridge. Enter implies
to move from one adjacent place (i.e. room) to another. Turbolift? We never
heard the door open, and if no one would have noticed the door opening
we have an intrusion threat on the bridge. So maybe she climbed up the
shaft and went through the door like Geordi and Ro were phased in
TNG. How would she hold onto the rungs on the shaft, much less operate
the computer to try to delete the doctor? The most reasonable explanation
is that she transported to the bridge, in which case 7 should have said
"transported", "appeared", even "materialized". Pick pick pick...
The aliens seem to be capable of transporting and phasing/dephasing
themselves (final scene on the bridge). (Even though they don't seem to
be carrying any comm badge or equipment) So why did she allow herself to
be stuck in the brig? I know, I know, otherwise she wouldn't be able to
tell Janeway exactly what they were doing...
At the point where the aliens decide to leave, Voyager's already pretty
close to the pulsar. Did they really think they'd stand more of a chance
of breaking the pulsar's gravity with their own puny engines (moving in
a direction OPPOSITE their momentum, I might add) than by remaining attached
to the hull and riding Voyager through? As soon as they transported back
to their shuttles (which looked oddly like the Borg torpedo launchers),
Janeway decided they'd left, so why did they try to detach from Voyager?
About the aliens, their whole research method seems to be pretty wasteful.
Experimenting on alien races is too mixed a population, all with different
physiologies. Especially Voyager. Take the species we've met thus far:
Vulcan logic, Cardassian xenophobia, Bajoran spiritualness, Klingon agression,
Ocampa psychokinesis, Betazoid telepathy, etc. This is in large part due
to the brain fluids, as Seven said in The Raven: Vulcans have an enlarged
neocortex. As Garak said in Empok Nor (DS9): Cardassians have xenophobic
tendencies.
So experimenting on the mind is useless. Of course, experimenting on
the rest of the body is useless too: you have your species with two hearts,
your species with transparent skulls, your species with symbiants...It
seems like a tremendous waste of resources for data which may not be conclusive.
Even Earth scientists conduct research with a wide variety of animals because
no one mimics all the human functions closely enough.
Silliest line award for this episode goes to Kim: "Captain, I don't believe
it, but we're still alive." And the female Q was impressed by the Vulcan
talent for stating the obvious. No wonder Harry's still an ensign after
three years...
Karen Fischer: I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but in the
beginning of the episode, the Doctor is giving Janeway a massage. She
asks if a hypo-spray wouldn't do the trick, and he tells her it's the
easy way out. He tells her that she needs to get away from her
responsiblities for some time and take a vacation.
Now later in the episode, the alien that Seven materialized tells
Janeway that she's amazed at the Captain's self control, since they've
been increasing her dopamine levels over the past several weeks. Now,
maybe they just did this to progress the story, which seems likely,
but when Janeway complained to the Doctor about her headaches, why
didn't he catch that her dopamine levels were elevated. She complained
that she hadn't been sleeping well, been suffering severe headaches,
and overall was feeling stressed and anxious. I can't understand why
he didn't run a medical tricorder scan over her. Isn't that normal
proceedure?
Joe Buss, Cicero, IL: Scientific Method is a case of severe ripoff. Clearly, it rehashes elements
of "Where Silence Has Lease", "Schisms", and "Phantasms", all TNG stories that
were better written and acted. The ending was stolen directly from WSHL. I really
wish TPTB wouldn't do this because 1) it emphasizes their complete lack of
original or creative ideas and 2) It hangs a big sign over Mulgrew's head that
says "Patrick Stewart did it better!", the last thing she needs.
I was almost ready to give Tuvok credit for actually doing something right
when he caught Seven trying to modulate the phase emitters. But then I had to
ask myself: Why is the Borg being given unsupervised, unrestricted access to
Voyager's systems, after she has made no less than four attempts to take over
the ship? More of that wonderful Voyager writing.
When did Jeri Ryan become the star of Voyager? Almost every episode seems
to be about her now. While she has turned out better than I expected, it now
seems that she has knocked every other character to the back burner, and a
couple (Kim, Neelix), off the stove altogether. Compare that to when they
brought Worf to DS9. The other characters were not abandoned. Almost all were
featured in stories over the fourth season. (Note from Phil: Seven is hot in the press and apparently the mostly male writing staff kind of likes her as well.)
Todd Felton of Victoria, BC: A couple things reminded me of Next Gen episodes. The crew had these out-of-phase things on their bodies, like the life forms in
"Phantasms". The gear on their heads etc also reminded me of Phantasms
(remember the straw into Riker's brain?) Janeway risks the destruction
of the ship, killing everyone, rather than be subjected to tests and
some fatalities--"Where Silence Has Lease". Aliens living out of
phase--"Time's Arrow".
On your web page, you wondered why no one starting shooting the aliens
to make them visible. How could they do this effectively? Almost the
entire crew was being subjected to tests by the aliens (except 7 of
9--how convenient!) So if they started planning or grabbing phasers,
they could easily disable the crew member. And if Tuvok or 7 were able
to go and start shooting some and putting them in the brig, the other
aliens could just start putting other crew members to harm through their
experiments. ("Oh, you're making some of us visible, eh? I wonder what
would happen if I stop the hearts of these six cremembers...hmmm?) The
Voyager crew really couldn't use the phaser trick then. (Note from Phil: Okay, so why didn't Seven just shoot the other two aliens who were standing there gaping at the one Seven made visible? Answer: Because then there would have been three in the brig and the creators would have had to pay money for more actors! ;-)
Hmm, wouldn't you think that with ships attached to the hull, even out
of phase, it would cause some sort of warp drag-coefficient?
How could the aliens delete his program, when it's in the mobile
emitter? I guess they would have had to be working directly on the
mobile emitter at the time. Wouldn't it have made more sense if he had
been in Sickbay and they were trying to delete his program (from the
computer), and he could THEN upload his program into the emitter instead
of transferring to the holodeck?
Matthew Chase Maxwell of San Francisco CA: Why does the Voyager stop its trip to circle the pulsars in the first
place? Chakotay indicates it is for a survey. I hope it is believed
that such a survey will effect a shorter trip home. If, however, it is
merely for scientific purposes, I will remind the creators of my maxim
for the Voyager: Move Along Home!
After the Paris/Torres kiss in the bowels of the ship, Paris appears to
have Torres' lipstick on his face. Looking back on it, I suppose Torres
has always worn lipstick. This strike me as odd, however, even for a
half Klingon. Also, Paris doesn't seem to have the same lipstick
problem following the kiss in engineering.
The head of ship's security has his phaser stolen by Seven of Nine. He
then stands by while she remodulates its frequency and fires the
weapon. This does not set a good example for his officers.
I can only assume that the alien allows herself to be confined to the
brig after being shot by Seven. (Certainly, other aliens could have
rescued her or she could have simply rephased.) However, she later
tells Janeway that it is a breach of protocol for her to speak with one
of her test subjects. Why is she doing it then? Is she lying about
protocol and merely running another test which includes the captain?
Janeway's CPR on the bridge is the worst attempt I think I've ever seen. (Note from Phil: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! I was waiting for someone to mention this. I really cannot understand why someone can't give actors a few pointers on how to properly sequence CPR. To me this is just irresponsible since the images of actors doing CPR are going to lodge in viewers' brain and there will be atleast some of us who will think that we can fake our way through giving CPR just because we've seen it done on TV!)
Finally, I like the way that Janeway resolves the crisis, using the
tried and true Starfleet Captain "Throw the Baby Out with the Bath
Water" method. Destroy the ship, but do it for the right reasons.
Unfortunately, it doesn't quench my twentieth century need for revenge.
Only one of the two alien vessels is destroyed in their attempt to
flee. I want the second one as well.
Brian O'Marra, Little Rock, AR: I have just read the nits and observations from you and my fellow nitpickers! I agree that the episode borrowed too heavily from "Next Phase," and "Times
Arrow." Okay episode, but you are all correct--lots of ground to nit!!
One possoble nit occurs early on where 7 tells Torres that she's not used to
a hierarchical structure, she's used to a collective. Interesting. In the
movie First Contact we learned that the Borg had a queen!! The movie flashed
back to the Star Trek TNG episode "The Best of Both Worlds" where you hear
this same queen Borg speaking. Now I ask you--do they have a hierarchy or
don't they??
Later, when Chakotay ages holodoc says there is a medical precident for
children aging rapidly but no record of adults. I have a suggestion: try
running the Starfleet database and go back to stardate 3478.2. What occurred
on the Enterprise that stardate was rapid aging by the crew (the adult
crew!). The episode by the way was "The Deadly Years!" (In that episode there
was a theory running that the Romulans may have been responsible.)
Next, I have a question. I'm still puzzled how these combadges work. At the
end of the show there is a slightly humorous scene where Torres and Paris are
trying to have a quiet dinner. First, Torres is interrupted by a message via
computer. Next Paris has Kim interrupt him at his door. In frustration both
just remove their combadges and put them nearby. Torres holds hers in her
closed fist.
Question: Do the combadges need to be pinned to their uniforms in order for
them to be contacted by other crewmembers over the ship's computer? Torres
never slapped her combadge to answer the message and no one tells the
computer to hold all calls. (Note from Phil: Only the creators know for sure!)
Tony H Forbes: Alas, Voyager has
slipped back to the "F5" formula. F5 means Fix it in 5 minutes, by the
way. This episode was still okay though, but not without nits.
Are 7/9 and Ensign Kim not working on the Astrometric Lab thing anymore?
If 7/9 was going to realign the power whatzits, then shouldn't Kim have
said, "Check with B'lanna" first?
When Tuvok talks to 7/9 from the bridge (when 7/9 is trying to rig the
EPS stuff), Tuvok's pips look like they go open-closed-open. Later they
are open-closed-closed, which is correct.
The scene between Commander "Just Plain Old" Chakotay and Neelix the
Giraffe Man was great.
At the end of the episode, both Paris and B'lanna say "Thank God." God?
Which God? Zeus? Allah? Kahless?
Oh yes, and in that final scene, both Paris and B'lanna remove their
comm pins. Are they worried that someone is going to try to beam them
out of there? The communicators are going to work no matter what.
Kudos to the Creators! Janeway said she felt like there were "hot pins
and needles" being stuck in her head. And guess what was going on?!?!?
However, we saw, through 7/9's eyes, several crewmembers with strange
contraptions on their heads that looked like the aliens were trying to
press the crewmembers' noses into their skulls. Why weren't they
complaining?
NEXT WEEK!: Janeway gets a haircut. I'll talk more about that next
week. Oh yeah, and some wierd temporal stuff happens. Anyone else
think Voyager's new time slot is annoying? (Note from Phil: The new time slot reflects a fact of life for Voyager. Lots of kids like it and the 9/8 hour is a bit late for them.)
Mike Cheyne: Say, wouldn't it nice to have some sort of alarm when someone tries to
transfer energy from Engineering?
Why do Paris and Torres work in Sick Bay? Do they have medical
training? I haven't been watching lately, so I don't know. (Note from Phil: Now that Kes is gone, Janeway decided that Helmboy didn't have enough duties so holodoc drafted him.)
Since site-to-site transports take up a lot of energy, don't you think
there should be some fail-safes?
Great idea to slam Torres into that control panel that controls that
big blue core, Paris!
Do turbolifts start up automatically after about 20 seconds or so like
elevators?
Paris says "ma'am". Which I believe he does a lot. What happened to
gender-less titles? (Note from Phil: In an early episode Janeway stated that she didn't like "sir". But . . . she also indicate that she thought "ma'am" should be reserved for "crunch time.")
Chakotay orders coffee...but never says what kind. Is Earth the only
planet with coffee?
The Doctor forgets the aging diseases from "The Deadly Years" and
"Unnatural Selections".
This episode was like a James Bond movie, with the Doctor's line--"Pay
attention, Mr. Paris" (a Q line), and Mission: Impossible with Seven of
Nine sneaking around. Or with the Doctor's paranoid lines, it's like
"The X-Files".
The Doc's the Science Officer and Medical Officer! Hope he gets paid
double.
Seven of Nine, an non-Engineering personnel apparently, as Tuvok
states, wanders into Engineering and starts to tamper with something.
Nobody notices. Flog 'em!
Due to this alien problem, shouldn't we be at Red Alert already?
Kind of expected Janeway at the end to do a Han Solo and yell "Never
tell me the odds!" to Tuvok!
Does Paris just want to end his romance with Torres? "Maybe it was
those aliens that were making us fall in love."
Derek Moffitt and Melanie Koleini: Seven said she didn't consult Torres before rerouting power because she
thought it wouldn't affect engineering. With everything she knows about
Voyager's systems, shouldn't she have known better? (Note from Phil: I think she was just making an excuse because she knew the aliens would find out what she was doing if she talked with Tuvok.)
When Torres leans against the control panel, an alarm goes off. This does
make sense, but no other control panel in Trek has ever behaved this way.
Don't the panels only respond to fingerprints?
The structure of DNA molecules is a lot more complicated than the pictures
the scanner was producing. The "rungs" of the helix aren't straight rows
of atoms but rather multiple rings.
Uhh...they can put barcodes on atoms?? Now *that* is advanced technology!
Voyager only has 257 rooms? The ship looks a lot bigger than that. That
would mean an average of 17 rooms per deck. Even taking into account that
the first few decks in the saucer are fairly small, that figure sounds too
low. Also, the ship's crew complement is 141 (and it's been comfortably
housing close to 150), and the senior officers' quarters are more than one
room apiece, so that doesn't leave much space for anything else. (And if
the ship really does have 257 rooms, this conclusively proves that the
quarters don't have bathrooms.)
For those of you who are counting, ACBTD! (And further proof that
gold-shirts have replaced red-shirts as the designated corpses!)
Nobody even questions Janeway when she relieves the helmsman and steers
the Voyager toward the binary pulsar. Isn't that exactly why the fake
Picard was relieved of command (in the TNG episode where he was kidnapped
and his double was singing drinking songs and playing in the poker game)?
In this episode, the blue-shirts are even working *in sickbay*! So why is
Paris still in charge? (That makes about as much sense as, well, Bashir
taking the conn in last week's DS9. Or Troi in ST7...hmm, I think I see a
pattern here....)
Was the conversation between Tom and B'Elanna at the end of the episode
supposed to be giving us an excuse for why she's going to be pregnant so
soon? Tune in next week....
Speaking of next week, is our local station just getting its signals
crossed, or was there really no preview for next week's episode? (Well,
that's one way to avoid PAL/PAS.) (Note from Phil: Hmmmm. That's two stations that didn't have a preview. Hmmmm.)
Tim O'Lena of Centreville, VA: You would think that Federation personnel would have a handle on this
"out of phase" stuff. It has come up before. By now, they should be able
to detect, use and counter this "phase" technology. If the aliens were
at .15, then what happens if someone goes to .20 ? This is one of Star
Trek's silly make-believe technologies...
What ever happened to Scalosian water from TOS "Wink of an Eye" ?
Any time there was a weird infiltration like this, they could try to get
on top by accellerating some crew members. Of course, this would ruin a
good deal of episodes, and really screw up the Trek universe once
everyone else learned the trick... (Note from Phil: Not only that . . . if all the characters started using Sclosian water the creators would have to use faster cameras to shoot the footage and nobody would be able to see the commercials because the episode would be over in two minutes! ;-)
Holodoc is a projection and a manifestation of a program running on
Voyager's computer. His "thoughts" exist inside the computer, not inside
the hologram. He never needs to touch a control panel or utter a voice
command to the computer. Any medical lab like Voyager's would have the
Doc computer linked to everything else. That's the whole point. Whatever
he needs to have happen will do so when he "wills" it to.
When the aliens tried to down Doc and Torres, Doc should have been able
to split without batting a holographic eye. The last moment rush to the
controls should be unnecessary.
Why couldn't Doc function invisibly? That should help Voyager fight
intruders! Does he HAVE to be visible?
11/10/97 Update
Alexander Shearer: [Concerning Nate Greene's wonderment about the time involved for brain death,] I didn't see the episode, but if the aliens did something funky to
his mind, he could be instantly brain dead. The "six minute limit" is
approximately when irreversible brain damage begins after extended oxygen
deprivation (that is, after six minutes w/out oxygen, your brain starts to
go). If something other than oxygen deprivation did him in, it's up to the
writers.
Bob Woolley of St. Paul, Minnesota: With 7 of 9, we have a new way of demonstrating that, during bridge scenes when
the ship is encountering turbulence, it is the camera that is moving and not the
ship and its crew. With her, uh, unique endowments and outfits, it is quite
remarkable that with all that shaking and rolling going on, she shows no
anatomical jiggling. So either the ship isn't really shaking, or in the 24th
century brassiere technology has advanced far beyond what we have now!
Christopher Shaffer: Hasn't 7o9 heard of rerouting nonessential or auxiliary power?
Everybody else does it, and it seems more polite than stealing juice
from Engineering.
By the way, couldn't 7o9 just ask the computer to reroute some
power?
How, pray tell, did Paris get himself in position to transport
holding the flowers through the opening (doorway, hatchway?)? On second
thought, I don't think I want to know.
I think I should appoint myself new security chief on board
Voyager. This episode has a definite "Anonymous Local Hacker Syndrome"
(see below). It's been demonstrated by 7o9 that the power relays can be
configured to knock everybody on the ship at once!!!
I would like to propose a new nitpicker term: Anonymous Local
Hacker Syndrome. Anonymous Local Hacker Syndrome- a term used to indicate that a way
has been found for any anonymous local hacker could conquer the ship.
Shinichi Evans of San Diego, CA: On the nit I submitted, I said the DS9 episode where we learn Bashir is genetically engineered was "The Wire." It's "Doctor Bashir, I Presume."
Michael Gurwitz of Washington, DC: I enjoyed this episode, and aside from the MAJOR nit about how the "out of phase" aliens and their apparatus actually worked, it was relatively
nit-free.
Now, I'd like to nitpick some nitpickers: Those of you who criticized the
anti-vivisectionist message of this episode have forgotten that one of
Star Trek's greatest qualities is that, unlike most TV, it is willing
to take a moral stand. Think back to the great TOS episodes which took
on such issues as racism, fascism, and war. Or the NextGen episode
which tackled homophobia. Star Trek stands for the premise that
humans will become BETTER in the future. Just as it has been mentioned
numerous times that humans no longer kill animals for pleasure or food, it
also makes sense that in the future, a more enlighted humanity will stop
experimenting on other "inferior" animals.
Murray Leeder: Since the tags are so far ahead of Starfleet technology, I suppose
they'll never be able to remove them! (Note from Phil: And yet . . . dialogue seems to indicate that holodoc did!)
Scott McClenny: Just read some of the online nits for Scientific Method.
Didn't think of the similarity between Davros and Chuckles,guess I wasn't
looking. As far as the whatchamacillit looking like the TARDIS control
console,yeah I thought of that too.
Actually,that TARDIS control console seems to be getting around as it looks
like they're also using it in the conference room in Team Knight Rider.
This was more or less 7's episode as she had a lot to do here.Wonder if her
Borg implants kept her from mutating after the alien stuck her as everyone
else seemed to have mutated rather rapidly. Guess Neelix should apply for
membership with the X-men now,huh. (Just a reference to the fact that Star
Trek is now published by Marvel instead of DC) So how come the alien didn't
make herself invisible again? Seems to me that if they could do that once she could've done it again when
the guard wasn't looking and faked him into releasing her.
I guess the Kremins are really angry at the Voyager crew as they not only
are trying to erase them from history,but have obviously been successful
to transfer them from 9 to 8 switching time with The Sentinel(and boy
could those guys have used Ellison's heightened senses last week!).:)
Michael Apple: Dustin Westfall of Fullerton, CA wrote that it seemed anachronistic to
have Janeway say "crushed like a tin can", since they don't use tin cans in
the 24th century. I'm not sure this is really a nit. After all, we have
plenty of archaic saying in our vocabularies, for example "dead as a doornail."
How many people out there have doornails on their doors? This expression
originated in the Middle Ages, so it's not really too difficult to imagine
a few present-day expressions surviving to the 24th century.
Daniel Huffman: After holodoc and seven of nine verify that the room is free of aliens,
the Doc says something line "1 room down, 200 to go" I'm not sure of the
number he said, but it was aroud 200. I don't have many facts on
Voyager, since I'm not too big of a fan, but I think Voyager has about
half as many decks as the Enterprise-D. That means Voyager has about 20
decks. If there's 200 rooms, that averages out to about 10 rooms per
deck. It seems to me that each deck would have more than 10 rooms.
Gareth Wilson of Christchurch, New Zealand: The reason actors don't do realistic CPR
is that it's easy to break the ribs of the "patient".
However, I agree that most TV CPR looks _extremely_ fake
and is likely to mislead people. Maybe they should replace
the actor with a dummy like first aid courses do.
(If you want to see really bad CPR, watch the beginning of
"The Karen Carpenter Story" where someone tries to revive Karen.)
Andy Bay: Is it just me or did the aliens seem to run fairly quickly? Does this mean
that everybody still has all that stuff still stuck in their bodies? (Note from Phil: Thereis a quick line about holodoc removing it.)
Carla Bandeira, Voorhees, NJ: I have to say that I loved this ep-- nits and all. We were able to
really see the cast in full acting capacity. It was wonderful.
Now, nits.
That phase thing drove me up the wall-- I can understand the
genetic tags and possibly even the increase in hormone/dopamine/whatever
levels going on in the crews' bodies. For a race technologically
advanced enough to be "out of phase", that makes sense. However all of
the other equipment was ridiculous-- I understand that they wanted us to
be "scared" or whatever, but, please. If the aliens could make genetic
tags that tiny, they shouldn't need to strap lamps and pins onto their
subjects bodies.
Why did Seven bother to pour the coffee? The way she did it, it
looked even more suspicious than if she had simply walked through the
mess hall, or took the cup with her.
Chakotay might have looked old, but his voice didn't sound old...
This is kinda a general nit-- I don't understand why Seven wears
those heels-- wouldn't a Borg consider appearance and such irrelevant?
Now to de-nit:
Somebody mentioned Harry's liking Neelix's cooking. Couldn't
that have also been an effect of the alien's tampering (like maybe he
lost his taste buds or something), like Tom's and B'Elanna's hormones,
or Neelix's DNA (the bad taste gene?)
Also, Matt Nelson mentioned the stretched CGI Voyager. That
kinda makes sense, considering the ship was at an extremely high speed
(escape velocity), which would have warped its appearance. We can also
take it as an effect of length contraction, as soon as the ship got out
of there, it probably started to decellerate. As a result, we went from
seeing Voyager contracted and temporarily, it looked warped as a reesult
of such (either that or they just messed up, as Matt surmised...)
Gina Torgersen: This has been wandering around the back of my head since I first saw the
show last week. I just now had a chance to make sure no one had already
said it.
I'm a trekkie, not a physicist, but the way I understand it, if the sticks
sticking out of Janeway's head are phased so that they are not affected by
normal matter, such as Janeway's hand passing through them, they should
follow the law of inertia (an object at rest tends to stay at rest) and just
stay there when Janeway walks off! Because they should remain there until
something pushes against them, which would normally be Janeway's head,
except that it is normal matter and cannot affect them. Obviously, this
can't be it. The only other explanations I can think of are that the end of
the stick which sticks out of her head is phased to a greater extent or
differently than the part of the stick inside her head or that the sticks
are phased so that they interact somewhat with matter but can also exist in
the same place, which might allow Janeway's hand to move through the sticks
but she would probably feel it and might let the sticks move with her head
at the same time.
Shane Tourtellotte: Perhaps I did overreact a little against "Scientific Method". First
came the predictable PAL; then all these nits that struck at the heart
of the episode's plausibility; then came the back-up siren as the
eighteen-wheeler truck arrived to deliver the show's message. It pushed
me a little over the edge. Don't get me wrong: the episode was plenty
bad, but it was no "Threshold". (What was I *thinking*?)
Lisa Solinas: I only saw a few bits, heard lotsa dialogue, read lotsa nits.
Seven has lotsa handy-dandy implants? Shouldn't we see some
little boxes or switches under that TIGHT SILVER CATSUIT?
Hmmmmmm?
Alright, let's say that the probes in Janeway's head are both
invisible and intangible. Wouldn't there be little gaps in her
skull where the probes stick out? ["Doctor.... I have holes in my
head."]
Aren't barcodes those little black things on wrappers and boxes
and magazines and books? If so, how much do Chakotay's cells
cost?
So Neelix isn't pure Talaxian? That's something new....
Chakotay's hands start to shake. He runs into his quarters and
washes them, then rubs at his hair. As it falls off, we get a glimpse
of his scalp. It appears to be the same olive color as his face. HOLD
IT! Your scalp is LIGHTER than the rest of your skin!
Alright, Janeway acted like Sisko. That is about the ONLY thing
about this episode that is like DS9. I'm going to skip this next time
and watch "Favor the Bold."
Too bad Kes isn't still around. She could have made
all Janeway's nasty implants explode [and her head with it].
During "Scorpion 2" Seven blabs away about the arms of Voyager
[I mean the armament.] If they know this much ["we are Borg"] how
come she doesn't know about how the power systems work?
Brian Dominguez, Oswego, NY: I thought this was an awesome episode. However after an exciting climax, the last three minutes with Torres and Paris just lost the
energy of the climax. Why didn't they just fill it in with what they
did to restore Chakoti and Neexlix?
By the way, for Chakoti, do you think they did the Pulaski Meneauver,
The Rascals Method, or the Troi Method (When the aliens die or leave,
the effects wear off and youthfulness is returned spontaneaously)?
For Neelix, do you think the Doctor used the synthetic T-cell, the
anti-proton chamber, or the amniotic fluid method to hinder that gene
from showing itself?
Speaking of the scene with Paris and Torres, there were still
contactable even without their combadges. In the TNG episode where Troi
and Worf had a "sleep over," when Dr. Crusher contacted Worf, we heard
his combadge chirp, but when she contacted Troi, we heard the "boop"
sound.
Why oh why when the doctor linked with Seven's audio implants did her
ask he "Can you hear me?" What was she supposed to do? Trivial nit, I
know, but just think if she said, "Doctor, is that you?"
And when they meet the second time in the Holodeck, what's up with all
that walking around? I know humans sometime need to pace to come up
with answers, but the doctor is a computer. (Although I did like it for
dramatic effect)
Speaking of Seven, why didn't she get Tuvok's help? He didn't have any
dudads on him or have any Aliens following him. (Although I do prefer
the way it happened anyway!!!)
LISTEN UP ALL YOU SUPERVISORS IN NITCENTRAL, this episode can be used
for the "Everything I Learned, I Learned from Star Trek" Class.
In the opening Scene, Torres is reprimanding Seven for rerouting power
to another department. She tells Seven that she should get her
permission to do so.
Seven had to find out somehow that that department needed extra energy
from someone in that department. I think they should have told her the
procedure for transfer of power. They are the ones who need to be
yelled at.
Secondly, it was made quite clear the Seven isn't part of the
engineering crew, so what is supposed to be doing? Janeway asked her to
participate, but wasn't given an assignment. It's as if the CEO of IBM
hired me to work for the company, and left me to find someplace to work.
Then Torres goes on to say, "I had to get used to Starfleet protocols
and so will you."
Well, well, well. Did anyone give Seven any Starfleet Training? We
know Torres and other Maquis members where part of Starfleet at one time
and know the rules. Moreover, Tuvok even trained some of the Maquis
officers during the first season, but it's doubtful that Seven had the
same training.
When Torres wanted an apology, I would have said, "First, you kidnap me
from the Borg, then you tell me to work on the ship without any formal
training, and now you are yelling at me for doing something that I
thought would help one of the ship's systems work more efficiently? You
know what you can do with your apology."
Sorry all, I think I might have regressed. But I think we can all
relate to Seven's situation.
Did anyone see the
Voyager add in this Week's TV Guide. The picture of Seven of Nine was
reversed. We now know that the Advertising Department at UPN doesn't
watch Voyager.
Melanie Koleini and Derek Moffitt: No, removing comm badges does not turn them off. In the four-month
episode where Janeway and Chakotay were left on the planet, Voyager
contacts them after returning with the cure, and their comm badges pick up
the signal while sitting on a shelf. (Wow, those things have long-lasting
batteries!)
The holodoc *does* need to access the computer through a control panel
rather than directly. Although the reason has never been stated, it's
probably a safety feature in case of malfunctions in his program.
It's dangerous for anyone to have a direct connection to the computer;
witness the isomorph in "Revulsion", or Barkley in "The Nth Degree", or
Moriarty in (whatever the title was), or Garibaldi in the last B5....
It's actually a very good thing that Starfleet thought of this precaution.
On the nit we sent in previously about Seven's knowledge of Voyager's
systems: Later in the episode, she's clearly bluffing to distract Tuvok.
But at the beginning, in the scene where B'Elanna realises she's sounding
like Janeway, Seven should have known that her modifications would cause
problems in Engineering; since she knows everything else about the ship,
she'd know that running a diagnostic takes more power than is ordinarily
needed. (But speaking of bluffing to distract Tuvok, didn't she say back
in "Revulsion" that dissembling wasn't a skill she'd learned in the
collective? She's a fast learner!)
Oh, and we have a theory on the Mystery of the Missing Previews. Phil
said the preview included a mention of the show's new timeslot. Well, we
see the show at 10:30 PM Saturdays, and the time isn't changing. Perhaps
the station cut the preview to avoid confusion over the timeslot. Do the
other stations that were missing previews also air the show at non-UPN
times? (Note from Phil: Ahh! That makes sense!)
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done as much as we're going to do on it. You're welcome to send in addition nits and I will keep them on file but I won't be adding to this file any longer unless something really spectacular comes in!
If you would like to add some comments,
drop
me a note at chief@nitcentral.com with the Subject line "Scientific Method". Please include your real name, city and state (or province
and county as the case may be) in the body of the e-mail so I can give you
credit if you are the first person to bring up a particular nit. (Remember
the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right
to use yourname in any future publication by me. I will do my best to give
you credit if you are the first person to submit a particular nit but I make
no guarantees. And finally, due to the volume of mail received at Nitpicker
Central, your submission may or may not be acknowledged but that entry will make you a part of the Nitpickers Guide is you aren't one already!)
Torres: Ah, bite me.
Paris: What'd I do?
Torres: You were wrong.
Paris: Wrong? Wrong in what way?
Torres: You were wrong, all over the place.
Paris: Just a general wrong-ness?
Torres: Yes.
Paris: Okay. Now, what'd I do?
Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.