"The Omega Directive"
Air Date: April 15, 1998
Star Date: ???
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done all we're going to do on it! You're welcome to send addition nits but they will be filed for future reference instead of uploaded
(Note from Phil: Well somehow I didn't get my tape set correctly--I had tapes set to record at both 7PM and 8PM--and I missed the episode! So the plot summary will have to wait until Saturday when it replays. Sorry about that!)
Brash Reflections
If there's anything left by Saturday, I may add a few comments but until then I leave to you fellow nitpickers!
Reflections from the Guild
(Note from Phil: I haven't verified these reflections but they sounded good to me!)
Chris Booton: Interesting episode, cool idea with the molecule omega. Here are the nits I noticed.
Near the begining Janeway says that if when she and seven go on the mission and they fail and Voyager detects a large scale explotion the lay in a course for the alpha quadrent and dont look back, problem is later we learn that if an omega explosion that big took place then much of the delta quadrent would become warp travel impossible, so what good would going to warp do?
The greek letter omega appears on the computer concils everywhere when omega is encountered? Not a good idea! Talk about giving it away!
At the end when the omega particles stabolize why does Janeway not stop the decompression? If they stabolized then they could contact the ships and tell them that this had happened! They could very well have lost a chance at a major scientific breakthrough.
Thats it for now until next time
Rene Charbonneau: Okay, it's an obvious mistake, but at the beginning of the episode ("The Omega Directive"), our ex-Borg gives a stardate that starts with 15...obviously the actress who plays Seven probably reversed the numbers....
Kevin Loughlin: Well, this one went in a very different direction than I could have guessed; that's a good thing. The ultimate message, and Seven's 'epiphany', gave the whole issue an entire different angle than what would be expected, and improved the episode over the standard Janeway-and-Seven-bickering plot.
Still, there's those little things that drag it down....
So, Janeway's not supposed to tell anyone, so it's just her and Seven at first. Then, Chakotay convinces her to tell the senior staff, and the info is not supposed to 'go beyond these bulkheads'. Yet, we see piles of ensigns in Engineering, on the planet and in the cargo bay helping while the situation is constantly discussed. Somehow I get the impression this isn't as classified as Janeway had hoped. (And if the crew knows, why are her logs encrypted?)
I suppose she's allowed her quirks, but Seven giving designations to her crew? And Chuckles saying Harry should work with it? This is just silly.
On the flip side, I liked Seven's side comments about deactivating DaVinci when she came in. And I'd thought they'd recycled that set by now...
Of course, ask any cosmologist and they'll tell you a complex molecule like that existing at the moment of the Big Bang is pure bunk. Matter had very little cohesion in those first moments, let alone atoms or complex lattices like Omega.
So how big a section of subspace was crumpled from Warp use by that last explosion? They never seem to address it, intriguingly...
Well, that's enough for my ahead-of-the-game nits. I'll see what other issues come up tonight after the regular broadcast.
Alex Otis: So Seven can play Kalto. Is there anything she can't do? Kim has been up all night playing Kalto and he looks wide awake. I don't know anyone that is THAT awake after an all-nighter.
I thought Seven cared about Voyager after that speach in "Prey". Yet she wanted to continue an experiment that destroyed 29 Borg vessels.
If the base was destroyed when the scientist had just created the Omega molecule, how did the Federation know what caused the explosion?
Well that was a first! Janeway seems to be the first Captain to resending the Prime Directive. All the others just blatently disregard it.
The part between Seven and "Six/Two of Ten" was very cute!
Matthew Patterson: Stardate 15781? That's 25 years before the beginning of NextGen! Does ANYONE else see a problem with this?
You know, I kind of like the name "Omega Directive." It just sounds good. I don't know why.
Oh boy. Modifying a SHUTTLECRAFT to go on some insanely dangerous mission. Why does using a SHUTTLECRAFT not seem like a good idea? Why not Voyager? (Then again, they seem to have balsa wood or dehydrated shuttle kits in storage anyway, so what does it matter what they do with the things.)
Confine Seven to quarters? Not likely!
What is this Theta radiation? Everyone says it, but nobody explains it. And why doesn't the Doctor know about the Omega Directive? He's a HOLOGRAM! He IS (or at least could be) the computer!
Why do they love the prefix "iso-?" Just what does it mean, anyway? (Note from Phil: As far as I know it means "homogenous" or "equal"!)
Hmm, 847 2. Need I say it?
Seven's voice sounds rather flat during most of this episode.
Well, why can't Janeway change the Omega Directive to fit the circumstances? It's not like she hasn't done it PLENTY of times with the PRIME Directive. (I bet she loves the Omega. Later in the episode, we learn that the Prime-thingy is on hiatus for the duration of the emergency.)
So what happens when 'Fleet flag officers retire and accidentally blab about the particle? What happens if the Romulans capture a Starfleet crew and torture them for info?
That research station looks like K-7 from "Trouble w/Tribbles."
Space-faring civilization would cease to exist if a handful of Omega were detonated? Uh, no. What about the other three quadrants? Apparently the Alpha Quad is the only one that counts.
How does Janeway know about Genesis? I thought that the facts about that were classified so some hostile force wouldn't get hold of it and do a little hostile terraforming? And anyway, it wasn't Carol Marcus' fault that Genesis went wrong. It could have worked perfectly if her young upstart son hadn't used the protomatter!!!!
How do you inoculate for radiation poisoning? I thought you could only treat after the exposure?
Does it really seem wise to take Paris, the hottest pilot in Starfleet, wit her on an insanely dangerous and possibly suicidal mission where if something goes wrong, they will need some fancy piloting to get out?
Hmm, Seven is giving out Borg designations. Doesn't sound any worse than things that have been done on Dilbert. I bet one of her favorites gets 4 of 7.
Pulling rank? I bet Seven's new temporary designation is 10 of 10. (If it is, this will be an interesting coincidence. "10 out of 10" is her designation in the Star Trek satire/nitpicking strip "Sev Trek" Has anyone out there ever heard of it?)
Well this is a change. This is the first time that Seven has followed Janeway's orders without a major fuss involving half the episode and some sort of restrictions which are then promptly ignored.
If they could figure out how to use the particle as a weapon for some sort of local, focused subspace disruption, that would be a VERY, VERY good thing. Picture this: Starfleet ship encounters Borg. 'Fleet ship shoots Omega beam. Borg subspace link to the collective disrupted. Borg ship explodes (or at least is knocked out.) And since Seven says that Omega is "perfection," the Borg can never, ever, ever adapt to it.
This is a new one. I thought that Seven would naturally regard religion as irrelevant.
A question about the transport of Omega. If Voyager needed to get really close to and use pattern enhancers to transport Omega because of the distortion, Why do Janeway and Tuvok stand outside the enhancers? Aren't they close enough to the Omega to require the use of the enhancers? Or do the things put out some sort of field? But if that's the case, why do they always need a bunch deployed in a ring around the object? And how do the enhancers get back to the ship? Do they beam up to the ship with the object? Do they come up later? Does a pattern enhancer enhance its own pattern? (And how did they get beamed up and down within a shielded area? Remember, Tuvok said he could not detect Omega, but some areas were shielded.)
It could take hours to neutralize the remaining Omega? She got 7% in the little space of time they were talking!
Wow, 7 and Janeway working together without argument? I never thought I'd see the day.
The computer actually counts down with the correct time interval between announcements! There were even EXACTLY 15 seconds between the computer's 15 second announcement and Tuvok's statement that decompression was complete! Be still my heart!
I believe that this is the first time they have Seven show any major growth as a human since "The Raven."
Alex Smith: Well, a decent episode, I suppose. Guess I was spoiled with 2 hrs of B5 before VOY.
Well, Earth-centric thinking again, using Earth's Greek alphabet to name the molecule.
The Omega Particle: POTW to new extremes...
I just noticed this... but those pictures in Astrometrics are from the Hubble. Voyager could not have taken those pics, because they would see the images from their perpective, not from Earth's. And why put up ancient images from Earth on displays in Astrometrics? (I know...BILC)
Lose the ability to go to warp; well that'll kill off a few nits about traveling faster than light... guess they better start using jumpgates (Wink wink).
The Borg swiss-army knife again: 7 creats a "harmonic chamber" to destroy Omega from Borg info.
If the species who created Omega were pre-warp, doesn't that mean that she is breaking a whole lot of Starfleet regs by talking with them? And why does Tuvok point this out *after* they get to the moon?
Great line from Chuckles: "When in the collective, adapt."
Ok, in the beginning, they say that just 1 molecule took out a starbase and messed up subspace in the system. 7 also mentions that 60+ borg ships at 6500 drones were taken out by 1 molecule. Then Janeway talks about how devistating a few could be. But the AOTW created thousands of them!! I think it would take out more than half the quadrant.
OK, so these molecules are so unstable that Starfleet left them alone after 1 became unstable. And they can be transported?!?!
The AOTW kind of reminded me of the dying alien in "The Swarm."
How did *1* molecule form a chain reaction and destroy the Starfleet and Borg scientists in their attempts to control it?
Patrick Wenker, Saint Cloud, MN: I enjoyed this episode, and one to enjoy has been a long time coming. The remark about (Carol) Marcus was very nice, and I also was surprised to see the Borg having some sort of religious base.
Shane Tourtellotte: I was stunned to hear 7o9 garble the stardate in her log entry, saying 15781.2 when she meant 51781.2. Later, after she makes her winning kalto move, Kim asks her "Is there anything you don't know?" I immediately shot back, "Yeah, the date!"
I note there are still three alcoves powered to service one Borg. I've almost given up commenting about this, and am ready to assume they're linked in some kind of serial circuit, which won't allow you to power one without powering all. (The Borg, in their collectivist wisdom, would probably do it just this way.)
My stretch of the week: The number in the upper right of Janeway's screen as she reads about the Omega Directive in her ready room is 9212. 9212 is 196 times ... 47. Yes, I've gone completely obsessive, but it's all their fault.
Has 7o9's eyepiece been altered? It looks lighter-colored, and appears to have a new branch to it. I thought The Doctor was trying to remove all her implants, not refurbish or replace those she had.
When Janeway holds a senior staff meeting to inform them of the Omega Directive, Torres is notably absent, when she usually wouldn't be. I'm guessing this is another instnace of HOPping(Hiding an Obvious Pregnancy). The table in the conference room is too low to hide her abdomen.
When Voyager dropped out of warp, it was because of the detection of Omega molecules 1.2 light-years away. Voyager doesn't start moving again until Janeway orders Paris to head for the cluster of molecules at full impulse. With the NG Tech Manual saying that full impulse is one-quarter light speed, it should take Voyager 4.8 years to get to the molecules. Somehow, I don't think they took *that* long.
7o9 says the Borg assimilated Species 262 only 229 years ago. However, when introducing the Borg in "Q Who", Q said the Borg had existed for hundreds of thousands of years. So, 261 species assimilated in hundreds of thousands of years, then 8210 more in 299 years. Sounds odd. No, I'll restate that: sounds wrong.
If the Omega molecule exists in a "flawless state", as 7o9 says, why is it so unstable? Instability is a flaw in my book.
The M-class moon with the research base has an atmosphere more than 5000 kilometers thick, according to dialogue during the approach of the alien vessels. Aside from the fact that they slipped and called it a planet, I don't think it would have so dense an atmosphere. 200-300 kilometers gets you essentially into vacuum above Earth. Would a moon have that much thicker an atmosphere?
Brian O'Marra, Little Rock, AR: Not too bad a storyline...Seven has a spritual experience. I guess it's her turn. Neelix had a spiritual crisis not too long ago!
However, lots of material to nit.
First, what's with the walls on this ship? Are they paper thin? Examples: Chakotay says that he's gonna get Harry to trace the source of the Omega image. The doors open, then Janeway says, "don't do anything, I'll take care of it!" Janeway heard Chakotay when the doors were shut?
Another example: Harry asks alot of questions about the gravimetric charge. The doors open, then Janeway says "Mister Kim you ask too many questions!" Now, not only did Janeway hear Harry's question before the doors opened but his other questions apparently well beforehand. And she holds a private meeting with the senior staff about this top secret mission? I bet the whole ship heard it!
We also get a glimpse into how long the Borg have been assimilating species. Seven says that 229 years ago the Borg assimilated species 262. Funny, in the TNG episode "The Best of Both Worlds," Picard stated that the Borg changed their directive from assimilating technology to technology and species somewhere from their last encounter ("Q Who") between stardates 42761.3 and 43989.1! Doesn't sound like 229 years to me!
Janeway checks on Seven to see how the neutralization of Omega is coming. She announces that 11% has been neutralized. Later seven says that 18% has been neutralized. Janeway complains that at that rate it could take hours. Really? The time elapsed between the two figures is about 1 minute 10 seconds. A 7% jump at that rate would mean that Omega would be completely neutralized in 12 minutes or so, not hours! I know, I know, picky, picky, picky!
Finally, at the end of the episode, Seven is running Janeway's DaVinci program. Janeway remind Seven that the master doesn't like visitors in the middle of the night. Seven comments that he complained so Seven deleted his program! Is this right? Can a crewmember interfere with a superior officer's holoprograms?
That is it for me! Until next week, Happy nitpicking!
4/20/98 Update (Note from Phil: I *still* haven't seen this episode! I got it taped over the weekend but I was really busy all weekend so I'm just going to upload everything that came in--duplciates and all--because I'd really like to see the episode before reading through *all* the nits! [grin] Except, I won't be uploading redudancies with regard to Seven flubbing the star date. That nit's been picked!)
Michael S. King: I think that the cross at the end was the most explict reference to
Christianity seen in any Star Trek episode or movie (I am sure someone will
disprove me there.)It would really be interesting to see the religious
theme followed up with Seven(or even just in general).
>{?
I missed several minutes, bit I didn't notice Neelix. Is there even a use
for him anymore?
It was interesting that Paris didn't know what the omega symbol was. If he
has any knowledge of math and physics, (like any good Starfleet cadet) he
should have some knowledge of it from various equations.
Todd Felton: Why, in Engineering, does Chakotay ask B'Elanna what she's heard re
rumours as to what's happening on the ship, then tell B'Elanna/7 of
9/Paris to keep gossip to a minimum a couple sentences later? Must be
one of those "do as I say, not as I do" things.
Joshua Truax: Cool episode. One of Voyager's best, in fact. It shows you just how
great the series can be when the writers aim high and hit the mark.
Now, if only they could just *stay* at this level...
Even Internet spoilers can be deceiving. The one I read for this
episode suggested that the crew was going to try to harness the Omega
molecule as a power source. Given Voyager's circumstances, this would
have made some sense. As it turned out, only Seven of Nine wanted to
harness Omega. Then again, considering how the creators sometimes seem
to want to turn Voyager into "The Seven of Nine Show", this is somewhat
understandable...
Upon detecting Omega, all the bridge monitors go off-line, then come
back on, displaying only a great big Omega symbol. The reason for this
protocol is soon explained, but does it seem like a bright idea to
effectively render the crew deaf and blind to the outside? (For
instance, what if this had happened while Voyager was in the middle of a
battle?)
Given Voyager's circumstances, Janeway decides to let her entire senior
staff in on this Omega business, but she admonishes them not to discuss
it with the rest of the crew. Yet shortly thereafter, she and some
other senior officers are discussing it on the bridge while there is at
least one anonymous crew member present! Furthermore, not only does she
bring more lowly crew members along with her on the away mission to
retrieve the Omega molecules, but she and Tuvok freely discuss the
mission in said crew members' presence!
Starfleet really takes this Omega business seriously. So seriously, in
fact, that it even supersedes the Prime Directive. But if it supersedes
the Prime Directive, then the Prime Directive really isn't all that...
well, *prime* anymore, now, is it? Then again, I guess calling
noninterference with alien cultures the "Secondary Directive" just
doesn't give it quite as much "oomph." (In fact, anyone below captain's
rank would probably think it silly to have a Secondary Directive without
a Prime one...)
Don Ferguson, Queens, NY: hello fellow nitpickers, I missed last weeks episode due to a new time slot
but I caught this
weeks and since I have not had anything to nitpick since "Killing Game" I
am a tad nit
starved so here I go :)
How did Captain Janeway know about the message?
no one called her ( and shouldn’t they have? more on that in a bit) yet
she waltzes right
off the terbolift barking orders like she knows exactly what is happening?
was she already
on her way to the bridge for some reason and the then the ship decided to
pop those lil
Omega symbols all over the ship, she saw it on a terbolift monitor and
thats how she
walked off the lift just seconds after the shockwave hit them and she was
all caught up
before anyone said anything??
About that shockwave... it hits the ship and Chuckles asks for a report, I
dont remember
anyone telling janeway when it happened, sounds like something you want to
inform the
captain of, I may have just missed the part where they did call her but
then the computer
goes unresponsive and displays those Omega symbols and all chuckles says is
that they
have to find a solution? even after the computer tells him he doesn’t have
enough
clearance to access the message? hello.... not only is there someone one
the ship that has
higher clearance then you but she is the one person that should have
received a message
stating "captain we just got hit by a shockwave and now all the computers
wont respond
and all we are getting are these funky lil Greek letters for omega..." or
even the classic
"captain there is something I think you should see up here....."
why doesn’t anyone know of mediphasic shields??
Janeway orders Torress to put one around the warp core...and then Paris is
ordered to
modify a shuttle to withstand extreme thermal pressure... ISN’T that what
medephasic
shields does??? why put one up around the warp core? what good would
putting one
around the warp core do?? isn’t a metiphasic shield designed to let a ship
enter the corona
of a star? why not just slap one around the entire ship and the shuttle and
not just put one
on the warpcore and then try to figure a completely different way to
configure the shuttle
so it can withstand thermal pressure? methinks TPTB forgot what metiphasic
shields does
and are just using the term as throwaway tecknobale.
well its good to see the crew still isn’t listening to the Captain.... as
soon as she learns of
the directive, she ordered everyone on the bridge to not discuss it with
anyone else..... yet
later we learn Torress has already heard gossip about it , so in spite of
her orders not to
discuss the message, the brige crew went gossiping to everyone else on the
ship? Oh wait!
I got it! maybe they were not really disobeying her.. maybe she just didn’t
issue the order
in time... sort of like this
*shockwave hits and Omega pops up on the screens*
*nameless redshirt hits his/her badge and proclaims* " torress, you have to
hear this... we
just ran into a shockwave and all the computers shutdown, and are now
displaying some
mysterious omega symbol...oooh now the captain is here and she seems really
serious
about it....she just ordered everyone not to discuss it, gotta
go....but
remember...she ordered *us* not to discuss it, didn’t say anything about
you ok? talk to ya
later...bye"
7of9 tells the captain she always wanted to experience omega first hand?
she was a borg,
cant she recall the experiences of the borg that encountered omega? true
she tells Kim this
episode that she doesn’t have the complete knowledge of all assimilated
races but she says
the borg all share the really important stuff...so shouldn’t 7 have a
complete record of the
experience with omega through the viewpoint of the borg that experimented
on it?
7's collective in the cargo bay....where to begin? there are SO many things
that bothered
me about that.... the captain gave her permission to construct the device
they needed and
use any resources she needed but dont you think 7 went too far (no surprise
here) with
this one? I mean renaming everyone with borg designations? I understand she
wants things
to be efficient but first of all I think renaming everyone only adds
confusion to those
involved ("4th of 10..is that me or am I 2nd of 10? or was I 2nd of 4?")
especially
re-designating ppl when you change there task, and second... I know she is
in charge but
dont you think just about every crewmember there has the right to say "ok I
will do the
task you have given me but call me by my name..I wont answer to a borg pin
number ok?"
yet only harry seems to have a problem will working in this lil
collective...that brings me to
problem 3... even Chuckles didnt seem to have a problem with everyone being
given a
borg designation when harry complained..
Janeway says they detected hundreds of particles yet when they get there
and 7 asked the
head scientist how many they created, he says they made 200 million...this
also begs the
question, how can something so powerful and complex as Omega be synthesized
in the
first place? now I am probably wrong here since I dont know a lot about
physics but
wouldn’t it take more energy to create something so complex then you would
get out of it
once you created it? another question about this lil synario... Janeway and
crew take away
the omega particles....but these aliens just created the batch you are
stealing now... cant
they make more when you go away?
Dont you think janeway was handling this super dangerous particle a bit
rough rushing the
procedure... jetting the pod out in space and hitting it with a torp ect..?
and about that
Torpedo.. in the end they fire it and hit the omega pod just a few
kilometers away from the
alien ships... didn’t harry comment on the HUGE warhead they were
installing in that
torpedo before? woulnt there have been a massive bang when they destroyed
the omega
particles?
The omega particles stabilized at last second.. why still destroy it?
wasn’t the whole
reason behind destroying it because it couldn’t be stabilized? if it
became stable, there is
no need to destroy it..right? and about destroying it, when the aliens
hailed them, they
were under the impression Voyager wanted the secrets of omega for
themselves and the
alien said they would first destroy voyager and omega before letting it
fall in enemy hands.
why didn’t Chucky just tell the guy they didn’t want to steal it, just
destroy the particles
cause they considered them too dangerous to exist. true the alien might
have still balked
but it would have given more options then leading the guy to think you are
taking off with
his tech. for your own use.
starfleet cant replicate certain components of romulan blood cause its too
complex yet
they can replicate omega particles?
in the end Janeway says she is returning the scientists home.... pardon me
but arnt these
aliens a bit ticked at you? dont you think they are going to want to smack
you around a bit
if you re-enter their space...or at the very least hold you for questioning
about taking and
destroying their tech.??
GREAT LINE:
"He protested...I deactivated him"- 7of 9 talking about the di vinci
simulation being upset
over her intruding on his abode after midnight.
as usual there is plenty more where those nits came from but alas I have
been up 48 hours
strait and sleep beacons me...and I am sure there has to be at least one 47
floating
around... with all those borg designations flying around in the cargo bay
and all those
calculations ect.... have fun guys and gals..
LIVE LONG AND NITPICK!
David D. Porter: There, again, is the blurring between intelligence and knowledge. The
ability to store great quantities of data does *not* necessarily imply
great intelligence. Conversely, there do exist highly intelligent people
with poor memories.
Let's look at the people involved in this Omega project. Two Maquis,
a former prisoner, and a former Borg. This is Top Secret, destroy before
reading, highest security?
Interesting that 7 still refers to the Borg as, 'we.'
Also interesting that the Borg casualty figures are '29 vessels,
600,000 drones.' That's a rather round figure. I'd've expected her to use
exact numbers.
Curious that the computer, as H-doc, can't access itself to find out
about Omega. It would seem to be simple enough to render H-doc unable to
discuss the matter without proper authorization.
What's an isoton? As I've said before, the prefix 'iso-' means
'same,' e.g. isobar. So, 54 'same-tons?'
Harry should know better than to try to speculate about secret matters
with, of all people, the Security Chief, who is also a Vulcan.
Chakotay's best chance to get Janeway to fill him in is that someone
needs to know what's going on in case she doesn't come back.
Why isn't the Chief Engineer at the Omega brief?
Neat reference to Carol Marcus and Genesis.
7 still needs to learn that one doesn't issue orders to the Captain.
Janeway needs to stop letting her do it.
Particle as deity? This is a slightly different take on the matter.
Corey Reid: A potential NEWS: Chuckles falls for an alien, who seems to be suffering
from Grandma Syndrome ("My, what big ears you have, Grandma"). This looks
like FONG (First Officers' Numerous Girlfriends) to me...
Brian Henley: This is the first Voyager where I silently took notes on a piece
of paper as my friends watched the show. In true form of a nitpicker I was
able to uphold both the Nitpicker's Prime and Secondary directives. I
liked this episode. 7o9 getting a spiritual side? Neat. Decent charachter
development on Seven.
But there were nits .... Oh, yes ... there were nits.
Prolouge:
Seven reminds Harry of his duties and he asks for more time? Does
this make any sense? Is there any form of military discipline here?
ACT1
How does B'lanna hear rumors of this "Omega Directive" Those two
words weren't even mentioned together untill Janeway entered her ready
room, and set up all the security features. Unless Janeway herself
blabbed (unlikely), B'lanna should just know that Janeway spent a large
amount of time in her room, and shouldn't even know of the Omega
Directive.
ACT II
After the Year of Hell, one wonders why Holodoc even bothers to
stand up to Janeway at all. She gives an order, he squawks a bit, then he
backs off. Same old story.
NANJAO- Harry mentions Hickman again. This is the same person who,
according to Chacotay in "Scorpion" does a pretty good impersonation of
Janeway. From that episode, I got the impression that Hickman was a
female, although that was never confirmed. Aparently not, because Harry
uses the pronoun "he". Different Hickman? I wonder.
What's with the cloak and dagger in Star Trek? The Omega
Direcetive - a top secret - hush hush- need-to-know scenario. DS9's
Section 31 (sing the MIB song here). We just met the Promethius a few
months ago. Wierd. Dark. Nasty.
Only Captians know of the Omega Directive? Does this make sense?
Answer:NO. The role of a first officer is to offer alternatives, AND to
take over if the captian is incapacitated. In that way the executive
officer (called the XO in the Navy) is a bit like the Vice President of
the country, or the Co-pilot of an airplane. The number two man takes over
immediately, having already been informed and trained on how to be a
captian.
The very late first officer of Voyager should have known of the
Omega Directive. And when Chuckles became the XO, he should have been
similarly trianed. What would have happened if Cap'n Kathy had died a few
episodes ago? Chuckles would have looked at the omega on the screen like a
chimpanzee looking at a calculus problem.
ACT III
Loved the reference to Star Trek 2. Wonder if we'll see a science
vessel named after Carol Marcos.
If Omega is so secret that nobody knows what a molecule looks
like, how does the computer know to look for it?
Tom as away team medic? (gasp!)
Now seven of nine confronts holo doc and wins! "Computer: please
initiate holo- backbone ..."
H-doc mentions that the alien patient is barely concious. But
didn't he look fairly lucid and peppy to you?
ACT IV
Did Tom say that Voyager would burn up if they go further into the
atmosphere without their shields? Can't the ship S l o w D o w n? Please
correct me if I'm wrong, nitpickers, but I always thought that things burn
up in atmospheres because they're going at terrific speeds. Should't
Voyager be okay if they take it easy?
Those alien ships were on Voyager in a lot less time then the four
minute warning Tom gave.
ACT V
Those alien ships looked a little bit (to the eyes of this plastic
model kit builder) like SR 71 Blackbirds, the tri-supersonic spy plane.
TIOTS: The alien ships open fire on Voyager, Does Voyager shoot
back? Nope.
We close with a great line:
"Maestro Leonardo objected; I deactivated him." 7of9. (Guess
John-Rhys Davis couldn't come in, could he?)
Corey Reid: The title of the episode made me think of Charlton Heston for some strange
reason.... hmm.....
A KMYF moment: Last scene where Janeway tells Seven, "If I didn't know
you better, I'd say you had a spiritual experience." At that moment,
Janeway was gazing at Seven.....
Good moment: Janeway's mention of "Marcus' Genesis". (And she would know
of Genesis for the same reason she knows of Omega... because she's a
captain... and BISC)
Another "Wildman" mention....
OK..The computer is giving the CAPTAIN orders? Not a good idea....
A Parent Syndrome moment: When Seven is sent to the principal's office
..er.. ready room, and Janeway tells her of the plan. Janeway says either
help her or be confined to quarters (without supper).
Yet another example of BIMOL: Neelix in the containment room, and
B'Ellana in Engineering.
Did anyone notice how the finished kalto and the "perfect" Omega seemed to
look strangely alike? Did Seven know that they would encounter Omega? :)
...as to why Janeway knew what Chuckles and Kimmy were saying before the
doors opened....SRTS (She Read the Script). That, or she's secretly a
Betazoid....
Great Janeway line: "There are some borders of the final frontier that
shouldn't be crossed..."
Others noticed this too: the lack of B'Ellana in the Omega briefing, who
happens to be a SENIOR OFFICER (did she get crib sheets from Tom? :)
Another KMYF moment: The AOTW in the biobed, after grabbing Seven's arm.
It is me, or is Janeway's hair getting shorter with each episode. By
season's end, she'll look like Picard! (Guess this means no more "Janeway
Manoevre")
New acronyms:
7VJA (Seven versus Janeway, Again)
NGC (Not Gon' Cry): Seven (who sounded as if she were on the verge of
tears) in many scenes describing her desire to see perfection to Janeway
Christine Grabb: Well, this was an ok episode. Only a few comments:
(This may not be a nit, help me out here guys.) When Voy first encounters the Omega
Particle, does the ship shut down? Chuckles can't access his controls, Paris can't do
anything. Does this seem like a reasonable action for Starfleet to take? What happens if
the Captain isn't on the ship when this happens? Dead in the water, ripe for the plucking?
But, I could have misinterpreted the entire scene....
So, the Omega particles are stable enough to be contained and transported - what are they
doing to them to make them unstable?
7 claims that the Borg only retain useful information; since when are mythology/fables
useful information to the collective (I thought they assimilated technology)?
Was that exasperation on Tuvok's face when Kim said he wanted to finish the game? And is it
a good idea to tell another crewmember that you aren't ready for your duty shift because
you're playing a *game*, especially in front of a senior officer?
Loved the scene between Kim and 7 re: Kim's rank in the 7 Collective.
Brian Lombard: Chuckles tells Seven that he'd pursue his god if given the
opportunity. In fact, he did this already, in "Tattoo", when he hunted
down the rubber tree people.
The alien ships looked very Vidiian.
Where was Torres during the senior staff meeting? Or Neelix for
that matter.
According to Seven a few episodes back, the Borg would not
assimilate the Kazon because they were not advanced enough to add to
the Borg perfection. But in this episode, she says they asimilated
several races who were not scientifically advanced to understand
omega, explaining it away as an act of god. Now let's be honest. The
Borg is a godless society. I find it hard to believe that they would
consider a spiritual society to add to their own perfection, and not
the Kazon, who had warp capabilities.
BTW. If Seven is still looking for perfection, she need look no
further than the closest mirror. ;)
Richie Vest : At the senior officers meeting why oh why was Bleanna not there.
Mica Colston, Springfield MO: Janeway has orders to ignore all previous directives while eliminating the Omega particle. Would this also mean kill everybody who is trying desperately
to make this particle?
And yet she wants to beam the survivors to sick bay, patch them all up, and
when voyager resumes the trip back to earth, these scientists will pick up
where they left off and start creating more particles.
Let's hope nobody else is making these particles in the Delta Quadrant, the
ships computer will notice it and insist Janeway change course to intercept
the particle.
This sort of duty will add years to their voyage.
Also, it's amazing what these pre-warp societies can do? Last I checked,
those of us living in the 1990's are still pre-warp. I was working on such a
particle, but I took a break to write these Nit's. Oh well, back to work.
Jeff Winkle: Interesting episode.
I wonder if they use any other Greek letters to indicate seroius
trouble. Or if Janeway plans on leaving some kind of encrypted file for
Chakotay explaining any other "Captain's Eyes Only" files.
Janeway says the Prime Directive is recinded for the mission. Ok, but
the race that is using the ships leaves me to ask one question: did
those ships come from the pre-warp capable planet, or were they from
another system close by? If they were from the nearby planet, they were
quick to respond and well armed, if they came from a nearby system, they
probably needed warp speed to get there. Either way, resinding the PD
seemed moot.
John Latchem: Secret Starfleet directives, classified energy sources, a threat worthy enough
to superscede the Prime Directive. On the heels of a DS9 episode that
introduces Section 31, the ultra top secret Federation shadow agency. I like
it. Although I have a feeling Roddenberry would be turning in his grave if he
weren't cremated and shot into space.
Not a nit, more a comment. I'm kind of disappointed that Janeway didn't use
holography in her Omega briefing. Remember the early TNG episodes. Data used
a holographic display in the observation lounge in "The Last Outpost" and I
remember Picard once studied a planet's orbit in his ready room with a 3-D
holographic display. But since then everything has been shown on those flat
2-D screens.
Now look at the Voyager conference table. It has that huge black center. I
guess that is only for asthetic purposes. I would have thought it was a
hologenerator, for 3-D holographic displays. Janeway's briefing would have
been a lot cooler if it were in 3-D. I guess it's just too expensive.
I guess this is one of those episodes when Neelix is not a senior officer. I
nominate a new glossary term: SWIC, for Senior When It Counts. It basically
refers to an instant where a character, most notably Neelix, is only
considered among the Senior staff when the story demands it. In the early
episodes when Neelix was the field guide he'd show up just to inject a few
words about the alien culture Voyager would find. But some episodes Janeway
would ask all Senior Officers to report to the bridge and Neelix would stay
put. I guess he isn't a Senior officer anymore, despite the fact he is the
ship's Ambassador.
And what about Torres? Don't feel the need to let the ship's engineer in on
the situation. She is told to reinforce the Warp core, and then disappears.
Was this when Roxann Dawson had her baby?
Not a nit, just an observation. As to the Genesis device it seems history has
put a new slant on the subject. Obviously the specifics are classified, but
the overall project is probably pretty well known. Although I doubt Carol
Marcus thought of it as a weapon. She saw it as life. It was the Klingons
who pictured it as a weapon. Indeed if used as such it could be a powerful
weapon. But this is the view of history, not Marcus. With David Marcus
declaring the project a failure because he used protomatter, and the Klingons
calling it a weapon, the view of 90 years of hindsight to Janeway probably
makes the project seem more sinister than it really was. I wonder how much
Janeway actually knows of the project, and how much was classified. It's just
interesting how hindsight reclarifies historical perspectives.
As for the Borg existing for Thousands of Years but assimilating for only the
last few hundred, well, here's my take. Obviously the Borg did not start off
like they are now. I imagine they started off as a humanoid race, who,
thousands of years ago, began experimenting with simple biotechnology.
Artificial limbs, mechanical hearts, optical enhancements like VISORs, etc.
Maybe they created a few androids.
So after a few thousand years of this things start to get more complex.
Exploring the stars, these people learn more, find new technologies, see new
races. Instead of use biotech as replacement parts, they begin to use them to
enhance. Combining Man and machine. Doctors do experiments with subspace
communications and biomedical fields and find, with cranial implants, they can
spread the field over vast distances, revolutionizing health care.
Biomechanical enhancements become even more complex. The people are cyborgs,
all linked through subspace, but still individuals. Experiments are done with
collective conciousness is close groups. Crews on ships are linked up for
efficiency. Perhaps they are fighting a war and this makes it easier.
Eventually the entire society is hooked up, and things get out of hand. The
collective takes over, and the Borg lose the ability to innovate, and to
create. They win their war, and assimilate their first species. They grow
even faster now, expanding, taking new technologies through their assimilation
of new species.
And we can guess the crew compliment of a Borg cube now. Seven says 29 ships
and 600000 drones were sacrificed in the Omega experiment. Assuming the 29
ships were Borg cubes, and assuming the perfect Borg keep exact numbers on
each ship, the crew is 20690. Of course Seven probably rounded the drone
figure, which I guess is a nit, since I'd think she'd give a precise figure
like Data would have.
Steve: Nice episode, had a very good moral, but then DS9 gets you off the morality
high with it's horrible horrible...
Well here are the nits:
Why does 7 tap her communicator to start a log entry, haven't seen that before
(well I haven't) Tuvok seems much more competetive now. If 7 hadn't already
noticed, it would be a horrible idea to tell her that she doesn't need the
Voyager crew. Janeway tells the bridge crew not to discuss what happened to
anyone, but the bridge crew should know everything everyone else knows if the
Omega symbol had been popping up on everyone's monitor (Just think, playing
some game on your padd, then suddenly...) If Omega is so bad, why doesn't
janeway just zoom away without telling anyone. Sure Janeway told 7 to come to
the ready room, but she did unlock the doors first, right? Now is the second
time that Voyager does something that the borg couldn't, stabilize omega, and
fight off 8472. They refer to the object in question as the Omega Particle,
and the Omega Moclecule, so which is it? It doesn't seem very logical for the
borg to assimilate primitive cultures (depends on what they consider primitive
though). Didn't the away team keep an open comm link, so why did someone tap
their communicator badge (I took notes, so this is a little cloudy) This alien
race has developed a way to stabilize omega pretty well, but not warp travel?
This is another cloudy note, but when someone makes a reference to isolinear
processor, those AREN'T isolinear chips (at least ones that I've seen) 7 says
Voyager's rank system is effecient, but then why don't the borg use it
(because ranks aren't effecient) Tuvok needs his phaser to open bulkhead 13 cm
thick, sounds hard, but Vulcans are strong, he should be able to do it. These
aliens speak english, and use our units of measurement. 7 hasn't been a member
of the crew for 9 months, on the stardate system it would be October 12, 2374
when she makes her log entry. Correcting 7's log entry it should be 4:48 AM,
but she states it is 6:00 AM. Borg tried to worship and assimilate ONE
MOLECULE??? Assimilate as in use makes sense, but I don't think you can quite
borgify a molecule. Only 1 molecule destroyed 29 borg cubes and exactly
60,000 borg drones (and conveniently not 59,999 or some other normal number.)
Janeway threatens to confine 7 to her quarters, but referring to the cargo bay
as QUARTERS? How does 7 know if 1 drone's knowledge will be relevant. This
brings up an interesting question, why don't the Borg make some implant that
automatically wipe a drone's memory if being de-borged? What does Janeway
really need 80 isotonne bombs for?! When Chakotay keeps babbling on to Janeway
about how she needs to stay on Voyager (etc, etc.) why can't Janeway just
order Chakotay to shut up? (seems quite suitable for Janeway's character) OK,
very nice, so a federation scientist named Cataract discovers Omega, his
parents must have really loved him to give him a name like Cataract! (Or maybe
Cataract and hsi parents were Andorians and would name someone something like
that) It seems horribly stupid to fly that close to Omega. Omega can't be
infinite, whether it's a particle, or a molecule. Oh, no, we're going to burn
up in the atmosphere when we go down to 5000 KM of the planet's surface. 3
things I know very well are Star Trek Ships, orbit altitudes, and the metric
system, and I know that Voyager won't burn up that high, and the exosphere
isn't enough to hurt you at all. That moon sure is close to that planet. At
the rate that Omega stabilizes it shouldn't take hours like Janeway said, only
minutes! Couldn't they get Omega out another way other than decompressing the
deck? If they couldn't, I really hope that wasn't a decompression over the
course of 30 seconds because a human can still be safe at about 560 mbars, but
janeway and seven get out right before it decompressed completely, and that
would be well below 560 mbars. Even if it wasn't gradual it doesn't seem smart
to watch omega right until a few seconds before the deck is decompressed.
Denny Kennedy, Orlando, FL: This is my first Brash Reflections submission. Usually I don't have a chance to watch for nits but there were so many obvious ones I
thought I should submit them this time:)
Janeway must have been having a bad day...She was responsible for
nearly all the nits I saw in the episode. First of all, when she is
briefing the senior staff on the Omega particle, she ends by saying
"I don't need to remind you of the consequences of an Omega
explosion", or something like that. So, what does she do next? She
reminds us that an Omega explosion would make warp travel impossible
in the quadrent. (I know, not really a nit, but kinda funny:) )
Also, during one of her "discussions" with Seven about the particle,
she begins by saying "MY race...", referring to humans (I hope!).
But wait! Isn't Seven a human? Sure, she was assimilated, but that
doesn't mean she's no longer human, does it?
When Janeway and Chakotay are on the planet discussing Omega,
Chakotay says destroying the particles and the equipment would
violate the Prime Directive. Janeway replies that the Omega
directive takes precedence. I thnik she meant to say that the Omega
directive took precedence "for the duration of the mission", but when
I heard it it sounded like she said "dictation" instead of
"duration." It might have been my TV though...
There also seems to be confusion as to how powerful this Omega
particle is. One particle destroyed subspace throughout a large area
of space around that research station. Janeway states that a small
chain of Omega particles could wipe out an entire quadrent. However,
she also reports that the shock wave which hit Voyager contained
HUNDREDS of particles. Supposedly, Omega breaks down when not
contained. So, either those hundreds of particles in the shock wave
are just remnants of exploded Omega molecules, or they somehow
remained stable outside containment. If a few particles can destroy
an entire quadrent's subspace region, hundreds of exploding Omega
particles should have at the very least ravaged the entire galaxy!
Also, when looking at the remaining Omega molecules on the planet,
Janeway says" There's enough here to wipe out HALF the quadrent!" If
just a few particles can destroy an ENTIRE quadrent, how could all
the particles which must be left on the planet only destroy half?
Oh yes, and Janeway needs to brush up on her math skills. When
Seven's device is breaking down the particles, Seven reports that 11%
of the particles have been eliminated. Janeway and Seven talk for no
more than a few minutes, and Janeway asks about the status of the
procedure. Seven replies that 18% of the Omega particles have been
broken down. Janeway responds by exclaiming, "This could take
hours!" Hours? If about 7% of the particles are eliminated in a few
minutes, how does that work out to hours?
Finally, not a nit, just a comment. Voyager meets one of the
(apparently) few non-hostile races in the Delta Quadrent. By the end
of the episode, Voyager is being fired upon by them. Aren't there
ANY decent, non-violent races in the Delta Quadrent? And, when those
few appear, why does Voyager always end up making enemies out of
them? If this were "Real Life" instead of Television, thenVoyager,
despite her advanced technology and those invisible elves who
must repair the ship while the crew is asleep, Voyager would have
been reduced to space rubble a few seaons ago. Have they met a race
whose members haven't fired a shot at the ship or her crew? But,
that's another rant...I'll shut up now and stop boring you :)
When Voyager was leaving the moon, they were traveling at full
impulse. So, how were the pursuing ships *catching* them? Do they
have a faster-than-impulse propulsion system?
Dora Turje, Vancouver, British Columbia: I just
watched "The Omega Directive", and I think it's a pretty good episode,
despite the nits. Most of the things I spotted have already been
mentioned. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that Torres wasn't
at the briefing. She really should have been, but I guess there's some
times when strategic camera angles aren't enough to HOP properly :). I
think it's rather interesting that the Omega Directive rescinds even the
Prime Directive. Well, I do have something to say that I don't think
anyone's mentioned yet. It falls very much on the side of splitting
hairs, but I still feel it bears mentioning. When Janeway is in her
ready room, trying to figure out what to do about the Omega-wossname,
her desk is littered with PADDs. Does this make sense? Why can't she
just have all the data on her terminal? (Yes I know, picky, picky,
picky. I told you it was splitting hairs) Well, I've put in my two cents
worth, so I'll be off. Happy Nitpicking!
Nick Angeloni: Near the end of the episode, Janeway walks into the cargo bay to talk with
Seven about Omega. The doors close behind her, but for about three seconds
or so remain open, then decide to close all the way.
Nina Culver, Spokane, Washington: A pretty good episode, but there's one thing I had to mention. The
molecules stabalize themselves and then Seven says she feels like they
were looking at her. So are these things sentient, or what? And if so,
why does nobody seem to care that they've been blown to bits? Yes, I
know, danger to the whole quadrant and all that, but what happened to
``explore strange new worlds and seek out new life"? Oh, and one other
thing. So what would have happened if Janeway had been killed during one
of their little adventures? Would the ship have just sat there and
locked out all computer access forever? Seems to me the first officer
should be let in on the secret, too.
Murray Leeder: A good episode. I thought the ending "act of God" was laid on with a
trowel, but otherwise an effective episode.
I've only taken a little Chemistry, but why bother destroying Omega's
interatomic bonds? Why not just destroy its intermolecular bonds?
Neither of Harry's very fun theories make much sense. If it is 8472,
why keep it secret? And if it is a potential wormhole, why not at least
tell the senior staff?
So why did Janeway want to have Paris travel nearly a lightyear under
impulse?
Lars P Ormberg: Sadly, I saw this "Super Seven" episode coming early...when I saw her
with that Vulcan logic game as Harry reports being close. Jeri Ryan
should do commercials for Microsoft. "What do I want to do today?"
I don't quite understand the "wisdom" behind Starfleet's Omega policy.
It's a horrifically dangerous substance that everybody would love to
play with but can't. So cleverly they only tell flag officers and ship
captains about it. But this causes a few problems. What happens when
Omega is detected and the captain doesn't intervene, say, if the captain
is dead? The Omega detection seemed to lock out the crew. Therefore,
it looks like you attack one starship with Omega, and the rest of the
fleet is crippled.
Why doesn't the doctor know about Omega? He's a hologram. Why can't
Janeway tell him?
I know its for the cabbageheads in the audience, because Janeway
certainly wouldn't have to tell her crew that Omega is the last letter
in the Greek alphabet.
Did those two ships come from the surface? They must have, though the
dialogue sounded like they had arrived. But since the system was a
killer on warp engines the two ships would have been visible to Voyager
long before that. Did they come from the pre-warp planet? Do they just
not care about subspace?
During Seven and Harry's initial conversation, I wish he would have
thought to ask "how do you contain all the information of the collective
within the convines of a single human brain?" I was sure asking.
Why did Janeway need to modify the Omega Directive? Doesn't Starfleet
have some policy in mind for those out of touch with Starfleet command?
What if Omega is detonated in your area and your sector is untravelable
by warp because of subspace interference? Your subspace radio wouldn't
work either, leaving you to go it alone. This sounds more and more like
a nasty idea.
While under attack, Seven warns that power fluctuations will destabilize
omega. Isn't a power fluctuation what is happening every time the ship
rocks and the inertial dampening field fails?
Seven is clearly having on off day. She gets an opportunity to defy
Janeway's orders and endanger the ship on her own tangent, but forgets
to and works on the Omega Particles instead.
Why is Omega a molecule? I suspect it was done to explain the fancy
buckeyball-like pictures that the crew uses, as we would think something
smaller would not be so detailed in the picture. But not only does this
not allow it to be present as the universe began (when even atoms didn't
exist and only subatomic particles with insane energies flew about), but
it negates the claims about Omega. It can't be a huge power source,
because its bonds are molecular which aren't as powerful as the atomic
bonds. Conservation of energy being as it is, to create omega you would
need more or the same energy going into it as you get out...so any
Federation scientist to "create" it would be running up one big power
bill.
At the beginning of the episodes, did the warp drive fail because the
subspace interference by Omega was dampening the nacelles? Or was it a
computer activity coinciding with the Omega Directive (again, a nice
feature if you're being chased by Romulans at high warp and this thing
kicks in)? If it was the subspace interference, did the interference
subside outside the system throughout the the course of the episode? We
know that when Janeway/Seven were planning to leave, warp was possible
within the system. So if the computer is what killed the warp drive,
why did Paris travel the 1.2 lightyears at impulse rather than just
going to warp?
A bigger concern, when Janeway and Seven were planning their shuttle
excursion, Seven said the Omega Particle was detected within 10
lightyears. But by the sound of the dialogue, Janeway was going to
leave Voyager in its present position. So by the time Janeway and Seven
had gone in the shuttle, neutralized the particle, and returned back,
Voyager could have gone back to Earth and come back with the
decontamination team.
Stephen Mendenhall: An okay episode, but it would be hard to keep a secret. What if the
T'kon computer had had info on it? What if a civ. more advanced than the
Feds start working on it?
Why didn't they make the slightest effort to tell the aliens, "We're
familiar with this thing, it's dangerous to the entire galaxy, and we
want to get rid of it Right NOW."
It would have been better to call it something other than a molecule,
like an
unusual arrangement of mini-singularities...but that's too many
syllables. I'm sure in whatever futuristic 24th century language the
characters are speaking, they probably have a short simple term the 20th
century audiences don't have.
So they use the particle's own resonances to make it stable? So the 20th
century writers came up with a solution the Borg couldn't come up
with?[g]
Somebody questioned why it's considered so perfect when it's so
unstable. Well, it's supposed to *be* perfect once it *becomes*
stable. [g] I guess.
I don't understand why they can expect to blow it up with a gravimetric
torpedo without destroying subspace in that region.
They said something about subspace in another region being
destroyed...so how did the Fed investigators know exactly what had
happened? I guess the scientists had been transmitting their data to
colleagues...so how did the secret get kept? Did those spies from that
DS9 episode this week, use mind control techniques to keep it secret?
And this was reminiscent of TNG when they found out warp drive was
damaging subspace and decided not to go faster than warp 5. I wondered
if they were going to mention that.
Somebody asked how to inoculate for radiation poisoning. I have an
idea--it's a genetically engineered thing whose purpose is to repair
cell damage, it would be injected, and it's ready to go to work as soon
as the radiation poisoning occurs.
Oh, and one kinda fun one nobody else got yet.
600,000 drones in 29 ships. Now, maybe not all the drones died, but that
seems unlikely.
But divide one into the other and you get 21,689+ drones per ship. Why
such an irregular number? And 29 times 21690 is 600,010. Why didn't she
give that number? Sounds like the writers didn't bother doing the math.
It's more likely to be a number like 32,768 drones per ship. That's20
32x32x32, a perfect cube. I don't know why they'd choose 32, but that
brings us *close* to 21690.
Just as likely is 27 cubed, or 3x3x3x...etc. That's 19683. Or if we
raise 3 to the nth power such that it equals 2 raised to the nth
power...but never mind.
Maybe some of the drones did survive, so all this math would be
irrelevant...futile...etc.[g]
I wish they had given us some idea of the size and population of each
ship.
And remember the gigantic molecule ship of the First Federation in
"Corbomite Maneuver"? I wish they'd tell us what happened to them!
And also, it's still bugs me, the implication that the events of
ST:First Contact had absolutely *no* effect on the Borg!
Jonathan Klein: First off, I thought this was a great episode. For the first time, we see
Seven finally starting to follow orders (thank God- I half expected her to
try to stabilize Omega against Janeway's orders.... no, make that I was
sure she would). I found four unpicked nits though.
First, everyone seems to be saying "We can't risk keeping Omega on board,
we don't know if we could stabilize it." When the Borg made 1 Omega
molecule, it collapsed in a small part of a nanosecond. Starfleet's
attempt had similar results. Yet the AOTW had a whole tank of the things.
Then V'ger beamed the whole bunch up and safely stored them for a while.
If the Omega blew up in less than a nanosecond when unstable, they seem
pretty stable to me to last for hours.
Second: Someone says something to the effect of "If those things blew up,
we'd lose the ability to go to warp forever." Even if the whole quadrant
was rendered unusable to warp speed, V'ger could still move at impulse.
Granted, it would take thousands of years to clear the effected area, and
everyone on board would die. But this is hardly forever.
V'ger dumps the OMega particles, fires the torpedo,
and then goes to warp a second later. Uh... couldn't they have held on to
the things for that last second and dumped them later when they had more
time. Furthermore, Janeway said "any disturbance to the power grid could
detonate the molecules." To eject them into space, wouldn't they have to
unplug the tank, thereby cutting off the power flow?
Harry says that the modified Photon torpedo could destroy a small planet.
If the technology exists to modify a torpedo to have this explosive yield,
wouldn't it be wise to convert them all to this standard?
Gerry Canavan of Randolph, NJ: First off, I'd just like to say that the whole premise of this episode is
rather hard to swallow. The Omega Particle doesn't seem to be so big a threat
as to be THE Prime Prime Directive of Starfleet. Sure, it's bad, but so are a
lot of things. For the Doctor to say immeadiately after the Captain's
countermand of his medical duties, "Don't tell me--The Omega Directive" seems
a little fishy. It doesn't seem like it would come up that much.
The Omega Particle also seems to be quite rare indeed. Space *ought* to be
littered with subspace irregularities from when previous cultures discovered
it, but it isn't. Everything Starfleet has has probably already been
discovered by other races, what with the multi-billion year history of the
Universe and all. So why haven't we seen more Omega Particle devastation?
Also, it seems like Starfleet gave up on Omega too quickly. I don't
know--maybe I'm a science nut--but I think Seven was pretty much right
throughout this episode. With a little more research Omega could have been
used for the benefit of everyone. Starfleet really chickened out too soon.
Seven figured out how to stabilize it almost immeadiately, after all.
Did we ever get an explanation as to why they couldn't just put the
transporter on "wide dispurse" and scatter the particles?
No one even noticed that Janeway unnecessarily killed two ships in her efforts
to eliminate Omega. She didn't even TRY to resolve the situation
diplomatically!
I think this episode also highlights an interesting problem on Voyager,
unfortunately one that we'll never get to see addressed, but...Why do th
Maquis crewmembers put up with Janeway's lunacy? Her strict obedience to
Starfleet protocol has stole their chance to get home, or to make their lives
easier, any number of times. And in this episode she just went too far. I
don't think Janeway is democratic enough, to be honest. Sure, the captain is
in charge, but 60,000 miles from Earth it's difficult to pull rank. I can't
imagine that the Maquis crew, or even the Starfleet crew for that matter,
would be satisfied by "I'm the captain, that's why." But that's exactly what
she says when she deals with the Omega Particle throughout the first half of
this episode. I really think she ought to have filled everyone in--and I'm
really surprised that they let her get away with NOT filling them in.
Steve Oostrom, Oshawa, ON "The Omega Directive," not a bad idea, with
secret orders known only to the captain and only activated in certain
situations. Then again, with every computer monitor on the bridge
showing a big "Omega," discreteness was certainly not part of the
directive. Personally, I think that Janeway should have been notified
in a more discrete way that the Omega Directive was being invoked.
One thing that confused me was calling the Omega a "molecule," which
does not seem right. It seems more likely that the Omega is actually a
particle, or perhaps an arrangement of particles that requires a great
deal of energy to assemble and then becomes very difficult to keep in a
stable arrangement (like was seen at the end, just before the chamber
was ejected into space). When mention was made of the Federation
scientist and Borg armada that made "one" particle, it seems that they
in fact made one of the arrangements of many particles.
I also do not think that the actions of Janeway and Voyager actually
ridded the Delta Quadrant of the Omega. Afterall, the AOTW scientists
are still around, and if this race is determined to exploit Omega as a
power source, they will simply start again. The Delta Quadrant could
still be devastated.
The "class M moon" sure was a curious one. Seen on the viewscreen, it
looked like it had hardly had any atmosphere at all, but the dialogue
indicates that the atmosphere is at least five thousand kilometres and
perhaps eleven thousand kilometres thick. That is awfully thick.
Imagine the surface pressure. Imagine the size of the planet to
generate enough gravity to hold all of that atmosphere. Maybe that was
what was needed to contain Omega. In addition, the AOTW apparenlty has
no prime directive, since they're conducting their experiments in a
system containing a planet with a pre-warp civilization (I never got the
impression that they were one in the same), with possible catastrophic
results.
Peter Tatara: I just watched the latest VOY episode, Omega Protocol (I think).
Tell me, if you found the most perfect 'thing' in the universe, wouldn't
you invest some time and money into it? The Borg had the right idea.
Well, ok so there is no money in the 24th century, but wouldn't Starfleet
see the benefits of it. Just find an isolated moon and set up camp. If
that's not enough, an isolated system. I know, I know... Ok, you find an
isolated parsec (or something) and drop a Federation lab right smack in the
middle of it.
So, you got yourself a lab in the dead of space, with only a
handful of experts. Now, if subspace is distorted, you simply have a sight
to sight 'buoy' satellite system. You bounce a laser coded signal across
the satellites and give Starfleet HQ the good news. Still, if the Omega
molecule is as great as it's cracked up to be, couldn't it be configured to
power a ship? You pump all that power through a shuttle and you crank it.
Let's see if we get to warp.
Still, if you wait for Starfleet to come get you, with the particle
perfected, you won't mind. You could stay in cryo-stasis, with the EMH /
LMH busy at work keeping things going. Still, why not just use holograms?
Record the top scientists with the same methods used for the EMH program.
So, no risk of fatalities. Just have 'em back up their data and records
every 10 minutes and laser bounce it back to Starfleet. Or,
instantaneously have a constant update going.
Ok, the admirals don't like the whole holo-scientist approach.
With that little molecule powering the station, they can stay there for
quite some time. Just a few months/years of Omega powered replicated food
and holodeck time.
Ok, time for me to yell at Janeway. If, even for a second, the
molecules became stable, wouldn't you stop the sequence? Just think, if
you save even one. I'm not talking about designing a new propulsion system
driven by the molecule, but just convert the warp core. The ride home will
be A LOT faster at Warp 9.9 without stopping to renew supplies or letting
the warp drive recharge.
When the time comes, a new drive system would be initiated. Then,
I'm sure Earth would be A whole lot closer. Focus all power into the main
emitter and a few minutes of techno-babble later, you've opened a wormhole
right above Earth, or create a transwarp system based on the Borg tech used
in TNG with 7's help. Janeway goofed up BIG.
Shane Tourtellotte: Matthew Patterson asks how one inoculates for radiation poisoning,
implying it's impossible. Actually, we have a rudimentary method right
now in the 20th century. When Chernobyl melted down, some European
countries distributed doses of iodine to their people. Iodine collects
in the thyroid, and the doses given out saturated the gland. So, when
radioactive iodine fallout came in, it couldn't accumulate in people's
thyroid glands because they were already full of safe iodine. I imagine
by the 24th century(as seen in _Star Trek_), medicine will have much
more sophisticated methods of radiation prophylaxis than this.
Jacob Boxer: I really dont know about this episode. I mean, it had a good premise, but as
usual, bad writing and mediocre acting practically ruined it.
Well, now that you have my review, on to the nits:
A major, MAJOR problem came right at the beginning: HOW CAN THEY NOT
RECOGNIZE AN OMEGA SYMBOL?? Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet,
and I KNOW that the Greek alphabet is used quite a bit in the Star Trek
universe. Look at the galaxy: ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, DELTA quadrants. All Greek
letters. Even today's "primitive" science uses Greek symbols. Especially
chemistry. I find it hard to believe that NOBODY on the bridge can recognize
Omega. Even Tuvok!
Okay, so we learn through Janeway that Omega molecules destroy subspace
right? Now, we also learn that a small chain of them exploding can destroy
subspace across half of the quadrant. So, now we have a problem. When the
initial omega explosion occurs, Voyager drops out of warp because subspace has
been wrecked. Good so far. But, we also learn that there are 200,000,000 of
them (200 million) on the planet when the explosion occured. Now there are a
lot less. So, if a few can cause that much damage.....how come all those only
damaged subspace in that area? I don't think a 13 cm. Duratanium door can
offer THAT much protection. An explosion of that size should destroy subspace
clear across the galaxy!!
I like the Borg way of research. No fear of failure, no risk to great to
get at their goal. 29 vessels destroyed and 600,000 drones killed just to make
a molecule that stays stable for 1 trillionth of a nanosecond. AND THEY WERE
WILLING TO DO IT AGAIN, if they had the material. Something tells me Janeway
wouldn't do that.
The doctor must be a miracle worker. One second he is telling 7 that the
man on his biobed is barely conscious, and the next the same man is sitting up
and yelling at 7. What is the doctor's definition of conscious?
The very concept of the Omega Directive is flawed. A captain cant reveal
ANY information on the particle except what is needed. I suppose the crew is
just supposed to blindly follow orders and do whatever the captain says
without so much as a word as to why. That is really a bad way to do things,
especially on a starship where everything is open and shared. I could
understand if the Romulans and Cardassians did this because it seems like they
run their ships that way all the time. And what happens after they destroy
Omega? They just go on their merry little ways like nothing happened?? It's
like the Genesis device (Which they made a nice reference to). Once one person
finds out about it, everyone's gonna know, especially if they have to build
one of those chambers. People talk. Speculation begins. Look at Kim. He
thought they were going to detonate a protostar!
Craig Sapp of Crestview, FL: It was one of Voyager’s better episodes this season. But like most Voyager
episodes there were nits and plot flaws.
When the Omega Particle was detected, why doesn’t the computer simply hail or
request the Captain (or Commanding Officer) instead of plastering the Omega
Symbol all over the place? They still could have shown us the pretty graphic
after she answered the summons. And what’s this deal with Captains and Flag
Officers having already been briefed, why not just have the computer do it
when required? This poses a security risk if they are captured, by say the
Borg. And what would a vessel’s commander do if (s)he had not received the
briefing and possessed the authorization codes - like Chakotay, or Worf, Dax,
and Kira (who command Defiant from time to time)? Seven could still have
possessed knowledge of the Omega Directive from the Borg’s assimilation of
Federation Starships - having the files onboard Starships is a necessary risk
while briefing Captains and Flag Officers ahead of time is not.
Since Voyager is not in the Alpha Quadrant, does Janeway have the right to
decide whether Omega should be destroyed without consulting the native aliens.
They are supposed to be a Prime Directive protected society and apparently
created Omega as part of their natural technological development. The alien
scientist told Seven that Omega was the "…salvation of his people…", "…our
resources are nearly gone…", and the "…future of my people depends on this
discovery." Voyager could have offered the aliens assistance with
constructing reactors, replicators, etc… to compensate for the loss of Omega -
Janeway did give the Hirogen holo-technology (which I personally think was a
questionable idea). And well, the Prime Directive had already been violated
(excuse me, "recended"). If she had opened communications and possibly
negotiations, maybe the confrontation with the pursuing alien vessels could
have been avoided. The aliens might have even helped destroy Omega if they
had been offered an alternative to it. When they thought Voyager was stealing
it they did try to destroy it - talk about crossed lines of communication. I
know time was a factor, but Janeway didn’t even try reasoning with them.
Why didn’t they warn the aliens about the impending gravimetric blast (more
communication problems?), and shouldn’t the two alien vessels have been
destroyed or atleast severely damaged? Someone said there was "…no risk
except to the two ships behind us." then Chakotay ordered Voyager to maximum
warp because they were at ground zero when the gravimetric torpedo detonated.
Looked to me like the two alien vessels where even closer than Voyager and
they didn’t have warp (only detected a pre-warp civilization when entering the
system). But afterwards the "Alien ships are out of range." and apparently
okay - oh really?
A final thought. Why didn’t Janeway consider stopping the destruction of
Omega when it stabilized? The consequences of its instability was her only
valid justification for the mission to begin with, since the
Federation/Starfleet shouldn’t be making decisions for the inhabitants of the
Delta Quadrant? Wasn’t preserving their ability to return home the real
reason they destroyed Omega? Besides, would the Delta Quadrant losing its
subspace technology really be a big loss based on what we’ve seen of its
inhabitants so far (just kidding)?
Matthew McLauchlin: Right after Janeway says that they are to discuss Omega with nobody, we
see Chakotay talking about it with B'Elanna and 7, and we find out that
there are *rumours*! How do you get rumours? Someone would have had to
disobey very strict orders. Why didn't Chakotay bridle at this?
Also, note that when Janeway sends Voyager in to investigate Omega, she
discusses it quite openly on the bridge when there are non-senior staff
around. She said she'd only discuss it with senior staff!
Chakotay says that it's not Starfleet policy to send captains on suicide
missions. I guess he wasn't briefed on Picard's little jaunt to capture
the metagenic weapon in "Chain of Command".
So the Omega molecule is supposedly this vast vast (vast!) energy
source. C'mon now... Even if all the mass in the molecule was converted
into energy, there would still only be a very very teeny amount of
energy (commensurate with the teeny size of the molecule), not the "one
molecule = warp core" stuff we've heard about.
There are constant references to the energy being released because the
molecule "went unstable". Apparently what this means is that the energy
is released when the molecule decomposes into simpler forms. Two
problems: 1) A chemical reaction really can't release that amount of
energy. Come on now. 2) Isn't "converting the molecule into a stable
(simpler) form" exactly what Seven was trying to do?
Accepting the "one molecule = warp core" equation, there are still a
number of inconsistencies. 1) The space station that the scientists were
working on wasn't destroyed, it merely had a hole punched into it.
Surely a warp core can do more. 2) 26 Borg cubes were destroyed when a
single molecule destabilized. Surely a warp core can't do that much.
I have one little problem with the idea that only captains and flag
officers know about Omega. What if Janeway had died two or three seasons
back? Chakotay wouldn't know what to do today! (Well, you say, he would
have had the command codes transferred to him, and he could have been
briefed by computer. Well, I say, it makes no sense for the info to be
on the computer, because what if the ship were captured and the computer
cores analyzed? It would make more sense for the computer to be
programmed to just go "OMEGA" whenever the particle was detected.) All
I'm trying to say is that the security precautions don't seem to be very
well planned, especially considering my first point above.
Thanks to the creators for the STII-TWOK reference: "Marcus and the
Genesis Project..."
The word "infinite" is used far too loosely in this episode. Omega can't
be an infinite energy source. If it were, it would have released
infinite energy. It didn't (there is still matter present in the
universe).
Why are there subnucleonic reactions in the atmosphere of the planet?
Subnucleonic = under the nucleon (proton and neutron) level = at the
level of quarks. This from a molecular decomposition reaction?
Why in the heck is Neelix working on the containment unit?
How close to several million exploding warp cores can you be and still
survive? In the next room, apparently, even if the explosion devastates
many thousand square kilometres. I refer to the surviving scientists in
the complex.
Why in the name of the Great Bird of the Galaxy does that scientist give
frequency in hertz? (I know... UT, UT, UT... By the way, a thought just
struck me. Ut is the Latin word for "in order that". Coincidence? I
think not. :)
One molecule (on the space station) rendered space impassable to warp
traffic. Several *million* molecules (on the planet) didn't even cause
Voyager to think twice about warping away at the end of the episode!
There is a reference to a massive "thermal reaction" taking place in the
research lab. 1) Why didn't it melt the whole facility and everyone in
it? 2) Why didn't it burn off the "M-class moon"'s atmosphere?
In the process of destroying the molecule, Seven reports at one point
that 11% have been destroyed. Two minutes later, she says 18% have been
destroyed. Janeway responds that that could take hours. Um, they just
did 7% in two minutes. That means that 100% would take approximately 28
minutes, not hours.
Robert J. Woolley: Seven has been willing to flagrantly disobey the captain when she simply
disagreed. Now, when faced with the temptation to see and possess the thing that
is most precious to her, that for which she explicitly said she would give
anything, the captain says destroy it so she destroys it. Where did this
deference to orders over her own judgment suddenly come from?
Seven reports that the Borg managed to keep an omega particle stable for
one-trillionth of a nanosecond. Isn't it more likely that she'd use proper
scientific notation and say that they kept it stable for 10^-21 seconds?
Let me get this straight: Janeway feels obligated to carry out her orders to
destroy omega, even when it turns out there's a reasonable chance for
stabilizing it, but she can rescind the prime directive with the snap of her
fingers?????
4/27/98 Update
Joe Griffin: [Concerning Chakotay, rumors and gossip,] Chakotay asks [about the rumors] very guardedly. He is trying to determine what the
nature of the rumor is. If it's way off base, he's got nothing to worry
about; he can safely tell the crew the rumor's incorrect and keep them
calm. If there is an element of truth to the rumor, that means there's
some sort of security breach, whether it's a loose-lipped Kate or a
hacker or someone in engineering who got his previous captain drunk on
Rigel IV and got him to spill the beans about lots of classified
stuff... In any event, if this Omega particle business is supposed to be
so heinous and hairy that starship captains quake in their boots about
it, and nothing else matters, including the Prime Directive, Chakotay is
justifiably concerned about whether there's any truths within the
rumors.
By the way, could someone please explain to me why Ensign Kim is part of
the "senior staff?" I must have missed something in the pilot.
([Odd] time to ask, I know, but...)
[Concerning the synthesizing of complex particles,] There are several elements in the Periodic Table that have only existed
on Earth by being "created" in laboratories. They usually only exist
for short periods of time. I would guess that this practice is the
model for the Omega Particle idea.
[Concerning the aliens making more particles,] Their lab was destroyed.
[Concerning the Year of Hell,] There was no Year of Hell. Never happened. Big Reset Button.
[Concerning the Borg retention of mythology and fables as "useful" information,] "Any science sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."
Some mythologies and fables might point to other species to assimilate.
For example, our own UFO mythology would indicate to the Borg that they
should be on the lookout for another race more advanced than us.
[Concerning using Greek letters to indicate serious trouble.] Yes, in fact. Since the Greek letter Delta is used to indicate change
in chemistry shorthand, the Delta is used on the Ten Forward soda
machine to indicate "coins only."
[Concerning using a holographic display in the observation lounge,] We still can't get our executives to learn the overhead projector in the
conference room, and forget about PowerPoint! Be thankful there's no
chalkboard on Voyager.
[Concerning the threat of the Omega Particle,] We have four television series and seven movies here, an entire
fictional universe whose characters can only interact with each other by
travelling faster than light, and something comes along that can disable
warp travel permanently, and you don't think that's a big deal?
[Concerning Janeway's rescinding of the Prime Directive,] Several nits concerning the Prime Directive here. It was my impression
that part of the Omega Directive protocol is that the Prime Directive is
rescinded; in other words, Janeway didn't just decide to rescind it
herself. I wouldn't be surprised to find the phrase "all other concerns
are secondary" in the Omega file.
Mike Felmar, New York: Does anyone notice a disturbing trend in the depiction of Federation
philosophy recently? From Roddenberry's rose-colored days of IDIC to the
AUTHORIZED suspension of the prime directive when convenient (okay,
direly important, but not essential), not to mention DS9's recent
experience with the Starfleet secret police. Looks like the only race
you can trust to stick to their principles these days are the Klingons.
Okay, done ranting, one nit: the Borg babe said it was a Borg ambition to assimilate Omega.
ASSIMILATE? A molecule? What, do they rip out it's electrons and
replace them with cybernetic units?
Lastly, I'd much rather they come up with a decent, well-plotted story,
compelling, original and well thought-and-fleshed-out characters, and
actors who . . . well, too late there . . . than that Mike Okuda stay up
all night cross-referencing. Substance is the thing lacking in the
Delta quadrant.
Matthew Patterson: In my comments about radiation inoculation, I did not think I implied
that it was impossible. I simply wondered how it could be done. I
suppose that if you have Borg magic nanotech, anything is possible.
Raising the dead, modifying a grenade to disable electronics, all in a
day's work for 7 and crew.
Gregory Pietsch: Here's one nit nobody thought of. In the dialogue, 7-of-9 states that
the Borg's highest priority was to assimilate the Omega Particle.
Individuals, yes; species, maybe; but inanimate particles? Think about
it.
Brian Henley: My bad! My thanks to William Alston, John Latchem, Adam Howarter, and Joe
Griffen for pointing out my oopsies. I was typing late at night, didn't do
my reasearch ... you know the drill.
Shirley Kolb: I just wanted to comment that I think that Voyager must have gotten
a lot of flack over their destruction of Neelix's faith in the episode at
Christmastime, "Mortal Coil". So in "The Omega Particle" they tried to make
up for it by giving Seven faith. In fact, she went seeking perfection and
looked to the crucifix in the DaVinci program. I don't know about anyone
else, but to me, giving Seven faith does not make up for the wretched way
they insulted people of almost any faith by the Neelix episode. And it was
so unnecessary. It would have only taken a few lines of dialogue to avoid
it too. Chakotay could have just said to Neelix something like "since you
were brought back from the dead, we have no way of knowing if you
experienced what someone would really experience of the afterlife." Instead
they left the impression that there is no afterlife and that only little
children need to believe such a thing. I don't expect Star Trek to be
Christian but I also don't expect it to be so blatantly insulting and
ridiculing not only of Christianity but of most of the other world religions
that believe in an afterlife. I don't think Roddenberry would have approved
either. He was a humanist but he believed that people should have the right
to believe in God or religion if they wanted to and should be respected by
other people. Otherwise why was there a chapel on the original Enterprise,
and why was Data talking about a Jewish holiday on "Data's Day"?
Sorry to go on but I've wanted to talk about this ever since I saw
the Neelix episode, and "The Omega Particle" just brought it all back to me.
(Note from Phil: Well, seeing as how I *still* haven't seen the episode--once I miss it in the slot, it's tought to find the time to get back to it--I can't really comment except to say: Could be!)
Jeff Carpenter, Springfield, VA: I'd like to talk to everyone who thought in any way, shape, or
form that saving Omega would be a good idea. They claimed it was
stable at the end of the show, or they should find some way to keep it safe. No offense to
any of you, the key here is the human
condition. Sooner or later, someone may make a mistake with it. Or a terrorist could
sabatouge it. Or someone with an objection of faith could try'n take it out. (Happened in
the 2nd or 3rd DS9, didn't it?) Point is: if ANYTHING ever sets that stuff out of whack,
you've just lost a lot of warp-viable space. NOT A GOOD IDEA.
Don Bayard, NJ: have been visiting your site for quite some time, and this is the first
opportunity I have to actually submit something before it is filled up.
The stated yield for the Gravimetric Mine was 50 something isotons, and
Harry made a statement along the lines of, "What are we trying to destroy
the planet?" Correct me if i am wrong, but 7o9 defined the power output of
a photon torpedo at 100 isotons in Scorpion pt 1. Since we all know that it
takes multiple photon torpedoes to take out a lowly BoP this is obviouslly
just another error on the part of the "science advisors", you know the ones
who fill in [tech here].
Dustin Westfall: Definitely the best episode I have seen in a long while. Usually by 20
minutes in, I have half a page of nits already. I had a total of 1 by 20
minutes into the show, not to say there weren't any there, I was just so
engrossed in the story(Yes, there was an actual story in this one). On
to the nits...
Why is Janeway encrypting her logs? Didn't I just hear an episode or two
ago that they are automatically encrypted?
Why are Janeway and Seven dancing? (Okay, it's not dancing, but it sure
looks like it.) They switch back and forth and back and forth. Why can't
they just do what they need to at the one console, then turn to the
other one, or ask the other person to do something at the other console?
So, the Borg classified Omega as Particle 010, right? Are they saying
they only encountered 9 particles before that?
Stephen Crow: As becomes obvious from the content of the show, only
the commanding officer of a Federation ship is aware of
the Directive. So, why doesn't Tuvok know about it?
He commanded the ship for a considerable period of
time, back when Janeway and Chakotay were trapped on a
planet back in "Resolutions." Shouldn't Tuvok know
about the Directive? Or is this information only
revealed to a new, commanding officer when the need
arises (i.e., when the computer senses the molecule and
must warn someone, and knows the captain is absent)?
This doesn't seem very reliable. What if the computer
is damaged in the interim? How would a commanding
officer, taking over for a missing or deceased captain,
obtain this information?
This part isn't really a nit. However, do Riker and
Data know about the Directive? They both have
commanded starships in the past (The Best of Both
Worlds, Redemption).
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done all we're going to do on it! You're welcome to send addition nits but they will be filed for future reference instead of uploaded
If you would like to add some comments,
drop
me a note at chief@nitcentral.com with the Subject line "The Omega Directive". 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 if you aren't one already!)
Copyright 1998 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.