TNG Spoiler: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Timescape"
Tim Lynch
Review by Tim Lynch <tly...@juliet.caltech.edu>
===============================================
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for "Timescape", this
week's TNG episode. If you don't get out now, you may not be able to prevent
being spoiled.
Now *that* was bizarre.
A generally nice form of bizarreness, mind you, but "bizarre" is definitely
the most appropriate word. More, of course, after the usual synopsis:
The Enterprise, with Riker in command, goes to answer a Romulan distress call
claiming engine failure, but keeps shields up and red alert ready just in
case. In the meantime, Picard is returning from a conference, along with
Troi, Geordi, and Data. They pass the time discussing various facets of the
conference, but Troi suddenly finds that from her point of view, everyone
else has suddenly frozen!
They "unfreeze" in a few seconds, but all are mystified about what it is Troi
could have seen. As Data and Geordi run a diagnostic, Troi tells Picard
about the situation -- and then finds that everyone is huddled around her
seeming very concerned. This time, *she* is the one that froze -- and did so
for a full three minutes. What's more, Geordi's readings suggest that she
didn't age during those minutes either -- as if time simply stopped for her.
Still unable to contact the Enterprise, they increase speed. However, just
at that moment, the starboard nacelle inexplicably fails. They stabilize
their flight, but find that the nacelle's readings indicate continuous
operation for almost _50 days_. Puzzled, Picard goes to check the fuel logs,
but finds that the bowl of fruit previously on the table is now full of very
rotting fruit. He reaches for the fruit, and suddenly screams in pain.
Troi and company arrive, concerned, and find that Picard's hand has aged at
more than fifty times its normal rate while he was near the bowl. The
tricorder detects a bubble of temporal instability within which time runs at
about fifty times normal speed -- and the bubble includes the starboard
nacelle of the runabout, thus explaining the engine failure. They attempt to
move away from the bubble, but find themselves backing into another -- in
fact, the sensors now detect a whole host of these pockets, varying in shape,
size, and effect. It appears that the space-time continuum has been
"shattered" in this area, and the trail of breakage leads to the place where
they're supposed to rendezvous with the Enterprise. They head for it as
quickly as possible, while taking pains to avoid any of the pockets.
When they eventually reach the Enterprise, they are stunned to see it frozen
in time. It sits, dead in space -- with a Romulan Warbird near it, also
frozen, and firing on the Enterprise. The Enterprise shows damage, while the
warbird does not, prompting Geordi to suggest a surprise attack. There is
also a second beam going from the Enterprise to the warbird's engineering
section, which no one can explain.
They decide to go aboard the Enterprise, and after Geordi and Data work up a
skintight force-field to let them enter a different timeframe without being
integrated into it, all but Geordi go aboard. First, on the bridge, they
find three Romulans, all with disruptors. One sits at Con, and another is
standing over a helpless Riker. Picard and company discover that they can
move objects, but decide not to try to change the situation until they
discover more about it. Based on the data readings existing on the screens
(which they can't change), Picard heads for transporter room 3, Data for
engineering, and Troi for sickbay.
In sickbay, Troi finds several Romulans, and the usual complement of sickbay
personnel. The Federation officers are all staring in shock at something,
and Troi turns to see that it is Beverly, being hit point-blank by Romulan
disruptor fire. She quickly heads for Picard, but in doing so brushes a
female Romulan, who begins to move...
Picard, in the transporter room, finds three Romulans being beamed aboard by
Worf. These Romulans, however, have no weapons -- and one even appears
injured. As the mystery deepens, and Troi tells Picard that Beverly can't
survive once time begins to run smoothly again, Data calls them both to
Engineering.
There, he shows them the cause of strange readings they saw on the bridge:
the warp core is in the process of exploding. What's more, since the
explosion occurs so rapidly, Data can now tell that time is _not_ stopped
dead, but merely slowed down to an infinitesimally slow rate. He estimates
that the explosion will destroy the Enterprise in just over nine hours. The
cause is unknown, but is in all probability related to a power transfer
currently going on between the two ships, which is the second beam they'd
seen earlier. The analysis is cut short, however, when Picard begins to snap
from the strain, alternately laughing hysterically and crying for help.
Geordi brings them back, and finds that the protective fields aren't quite as
good as he hoped -- Picard was in a state of "temporal narcosis", in effect
drugged by the conflict between the two timeframes. Modification isn't
possible, so their only choice is to continue and keep visits to one or the
other ship _short_. With Picard staying behind this time, the team goes to
the warbird's engine room.
There, Data, Geordi, and Troi see signs pointing to a Romulan _evacuation_,
not an attack. The core breach on the Enterprise is traced to feedback on
the power transfer beam, which the Romulans were apparently trying to stop.
With the signs pointing away from a Romulan attack, they look at the Romulan
engine core, which is reading as stopped. They find a maelstrom, still
moving, which is a strong break in the space-time continuum, like the ones
they'd found before, only more than a million times as powerful. There are
also several dark specks seen in the core, which register as organic and
possibly alive!
The core, hit with a great deal of energy from the tricorder, suddenly
flashes -- and time begins moving again. The team sees the Romulans doing
their level best to sever contact with the Enterprise and prevent the core
breach -- except for one Romulan they do not see, who sees them and quickly
heads for the shadows. The attempt is unsuccessful, and Picard sees the
Enterprise explode -- except that immediately following that, time flows
*backwards*, back to the point where they first saw it.
With time frozen again, the team continues exploring the engine room as they
speculate on the cause of the sudden change in time. Geordi, however, is
attacked by the one Romulan from the shadows, who is still able to move.
Both are knocked unconscious, and Geordi is put into severe shock. Unable to
save him, Troi removes his force-field, thus "freezing" him in the hopes that
he can be saved later. The Romulan is alive, but Data's scans show that he
may well _not_ be a Romulan...
Data, Troi, and the prisoner return to the runabout, where the tricorder data
is analyzed. The structure of the "specks" is similar to that of the alien
they've taken hostage, though far simpler, and Picard theorizes that they are
embryonic forms of the alien they see. That alien wakes, and tells them some
of what they need to know. He "assumed" the Romulan body in order to exist
in this timeframe, and had come to save their young. This species, it is
discovered, nests its young in singularities such as black holes. The
Romulan engine core uses an artificially created singularity which they
thought would suffice, but instead the nest's presence shut the engine down.
The alien stops there, but Picard continues: The Enterprise came to help
them restore the engine, and the power transfer endangered the nest, which
created the feedback that destroyed/destroys/will destroy the Enterprise.
That act also disrupted the space-time continuum, causing the problems
they've encountered so far. The aliens did their best to attack the
Enterprise to save their young. The prisoner goes so far as to say that
there is one other adult around, but dies before he can say more.
Shortly thereafter, Picard suggests altering the tricorder and then using it
on the engine core again. With luck, it can be altered so that time will
flow backwards *first*, then forwards -- and if it goes back far enough, the
power transfer might be preventable. As Data works on it, Picard and Troi
plan where to be and what to do, as they are likely to have very little time.
Everything is made ready: Picard is on the bridge, Data in Engineering, and
Troi in sickbay. Data remotely activates the tricorder, and time begins to
flow backwards. As things flow backwards, however, Data is attacked by the
second alien (the "Romulan" seen earlier in sickbay) and incapacitated
temporarily. He recovers quickly, but not in time to stop the transfer. He
places a containment field around the warp core and hopes...
Meanwhile, Picard sees the Romulans helping on the bridge, including one
Romulan reaching down to help Riker up from a fall. Picard orders a very
surprised Riker to continue evacuating the Romulans, and to get Geordi from
the engine room as well.
Troi pushes Beverly out of the way as the Romulan fires, then holds the
Romulan at bay. He and Beverly, however, explain that he was firing at the
alien and that she only got in the way -- "and where did she go?"
Data tells Picard that the transfer is still underway and that feedback is
imminent. Picard remotely guides the runabout into the path of the power
transfer, disrupting the beam. The Enterprise is saved, but the warbird
vanishes into a different timeframe, along with the aliens. Everything
is back to normal, although Riker is very confused. "It's going to take a
little time to explain, Number One..."
Ooooookay. Finished? Good. Now, let the comments begin.
"Timescape" is the sort of show that will make a lot of people's heads hurt.
It wasn't so much a time *travel* story as it was a time *manipulation*
story, and the latter is usually a much tougher idea to play with.
(Think about it. Time travel is simple enough that it can be turned into
something like "Terminator 2", but how often do different flows of time come
into play?) That rarity, if nothing else, might cause some confusion.
Personally, I rather enjoy being confused when it's at a time and place of my
choosing, so I didn't mind that at all. If you prefer avoiding things this
odd, then "Timescape" will not be to your liking. (Of course, you'll have
to learn to check the writing credits -- when we've got the author of "Frame
of Mind" and "Cause and Effect" at work, if you're not expecting a little
confusion then you're confused in a totally different way. :-) )
More seriously, "Timescape" does suffer a bit in that it's an almost totally
plot-driven show. "Suffer" may be too strong a word, actually; it's not like
being plot-driven is inherently *bad*. I just prefer the heavy character
episodes like "Frame of Mind" myself. Here, the premise is mainly the
characters (and us) solving the mystery of "what the hell happened?" and
finding a way to resolve everything. That's what the show boils down to if
you take away the frills, and that by itself isn't the most exciting of
premises.
However, the premise isn't everything, and "Timescape" without a lot of the
frills of time-shifting would be like "Jurassic Park" with 1950's-style
dinosaurs -- just a bit lacking. "Timescape" had a lot of little touches,
both in execution and in the characters, to rise far above that mystery
premise.
For some examples of character touches, I'd have to include virtually the
entire teaser. Both Troi's impression of Dr. Whoever at the conference and
Picard's impression of one particular speaker seemed very in character, and
were absolutely _dead on_ for scientific conferences to boot. (Naren
Shankar's the one PhD scientist on staff -- he must have lent some advisory
remarks to this bit.) I also particularly enjoyed Riker's problems feeding
Spot ("all of a sudden there's this hissing ball of fur coming at my
face..."), but that may be a product of being awakened all too many times by
hissing balls of fur coming at MY face at 4 in the morning.
Another, much subtler one is Troi's little ear-tapping when she's trying to
explain what she saw to Picard. We've never seen her do it before, but it's
been mentioned as a Betazoid relaxation technique in the past -- and to
actually see her do it this time suggests that some people did their
homework.
Some equally strong non-character touches to the show were that it was an
extremely _good_ mystery. Although I kept thinking that it didn't feel like
a run-of-the-mill Romulan attack, my theory about what it *was* was quite
different.
I'd figured that the temporal effects kicked in differently in different
locations. Thus, perhaps the transporter room and main engineering "froze"
first, along with something on the Romulan ship. The Romulans, already
jumpy, could have interpreted it as some sort of Federation attack and
responded in kind, both from the warbird and the Enterprise -- and then the
battle sequences could have frozen after that. That might also explain a
great deal of what we saw.
Don't get me wrong -- the eventual explanation was just as sensible and just
as interesting, and it's a credit to the thought that went into the show that
there *was* more than one plausible explanation. I just wanted to mention my
own original ideas on the topic, so that anyone out there who had them as
well doesn't feel lonely.
Moving on, the show looked and felt great, but there are some questions I
have nibbling at the margins about the show's internal logic.
First, in the final rescue attempt, exactly who was it that was firing on the
Enterprise? We're strongly led to believe the first time that it was the
alien on board the Romulan ship, since they were trying to save the young.
But the final time around, that alien was dead. Who decided to fire?
Second, it's not entirely clear to me whether the aliens had freedom of
movement or not once time froze. I think the implication is that they did,
given that (1) the male one did so when it attacked Geordi, and (2) the
female one wasn't in the path of the Romulan disruptor in sickbay, but if so,
it seems a little too coincidental that the female was anywhere *near*
sickbay once everybody we know came aboard. It's not a big deal, but it's a
little _too_ neat.
Speaking of sickbay, I do think it's a bit of a cheat on the part of whoever
chose to put the female alien out of the path of the disruptor when Troi
first arrives. If she'd been in the beam's path, but significantly far back,
then everything could be fine. As it is, her position was not only not a
clue for us, but a deliberate deception preventing us from figuring out the
situation in sickbay. That's sort of like hiding the murder weapon; a bit,
well, _tacky_. I don't know whether Brannon Braga or Adam Nimoy made that
decision, but it's not the way I'd have gone.
That said, everything else worked swooningly well for me. Everybody acted
appropriately and intelligently, Geordi's removal from the action made
perfect sense, and Picard got to make a smiley-face in the middle of a
warp-core explosion. What else could anyone ask? :-)
So, some shorter points and I'm off.
-- A small scripting glitch: the acceleration on the runabout couldn't
possibly be only *50* times normal, if the starboard engine had been shown to
be running for 47 _days_. Besides that, Picard's hand was only in contact
with the bubble for a few seconds -- that's not a few hundred seconds' worth
of growth, nor a few hundred minutes' worth of rotting in the fruit. 500
would seem a more reasonable estimate.
-- Say, how'd everybody end up on a runabout, anyway? That's the first we've
ever seen of them on TNG -- where did it come from?
-- No comments, please, about how we shouldn't be able to see if light isn't
moving and time is really still. That's called "suspension of disbelief" if
used properly, and "really anal-retentive thinking" if it's not used.
-- When we saw the similar but simpler version of the aliens in the engine
core, I'll admit that my first thought was not alien embryos, but that time
had accelerated for a few of them and that they'd _evolved_ really quickly.
Too much Asimov late at night, I guess...
-- Finally, while I still think the "forced quantum singularity" idea for the
Romulan engine is a fairly silly idea, we had here a very sensible use of it
that actually dealt with what the engine source must be. Neat.
So, all in all, lots of fun. A few questions that make you wonder, but all
in all the headaches you'll get from "Timescape" will be intentional. Nice
work.
So, numbers time, as always:
Plot: 9. A bit off for the logic, but not much.
Plot Handling: 10. Edge-of-your-seat stuff, most of it.
Characterization: 10. Spot-on (no pun intended :-) ).
OVERALL: 10. Nice one.
NEXT WEEK
The season finale. "The Borg are back, and Data is in trouble ... hey na,
hey na..."
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Where's that cat of yours?"
"Spot is sleeping. Why do you ask?"
"No reason."
--
Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
Chris Wayne
>
>Another, much subtler one is Troi's little ear-tapping when she's trying to
>explain what she saw to Picard. We've never seen her do it before, but it's
>been mentioned as a Betazoid relaxation technique in the past -- and to
>actually see her do it this time suggests that some people did their
>homework.
>
bogus technique that Troi told Barkley to get his mind off his problems.
If this is true, then someone blew their homework. I wonder, if Barkley
does this ear tapping tonight, will the Suns win??? :-)
--
Chris Wayne @ UNM | "THE CAST AND CREW OF STAR TREK WISH TO DEDICATE
cwa...@hydra.unm.edu | THIS FILM TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE SPACESHIP
--------aka--------------+ CHALLENGER. THEIR COURAGEOUS SPIRIT SHALL LIVE
Don Quixote of RAS \ ON TO THE 23RD CENTURY AND BEYOND."
Aaron E Belenky
:>Another, much subtler one is Troi's little ear-tapping when she's trying to
:>been mentioned as a Betazoid relaxation technique in the past -- and to
:>actually see her do it this time suggests that some people did their
:>homework.
:>
: Wasn't this in one of the "Barkley" episodes. The ear tapping was a
:bogus technique that Troi told Barkley to get his mind off his problems.
:If this is true, then someone blew their homework. I wonder, if Barkley
:does this ear tapping tonight, will the Suns win??? :-)
Yes, Troi advised Barkely to use this technique as he tried to overcome his fear
of transporters in _Realm_Of_Fear_. She called it "plexing". I don't recall
any mention of it being a bogus technique in the episode. Troi claimed that
it was tapping on a nerve center to release natural endorphins and relax the mind.
-Aaron
Kenneth Jubal DeMonn
:Review by Tim Lynch <tly...@juliet.caltech.edu>
:WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for "Timescape", this
:week's TNG episode. If you don't get out now, you may not be able to prevent
:being spoiled.
:Ooooookay. Finished? Good. Now, let the comments begin.
:For some examples of character touches, I'd have to include virtually the
:entire teaser. Both Troi's impression of Dr. Whoever at the conference and
:Picard's impression of one particular speaker seemed very in character, and
:were absolutely _dead on_ for scientific conferences to boot.
While I enjoyed the humor of the scene, it was a reminder to me of how
drearily mundane ST can be at times-- in four centuries they've still not
come up with any better ways to convey information than to have people
ill-equipped for public speaking give lectures.
:I also particularly enjoyed Riker's problems feeding Spot...
Nor with feeding the cat.
:Some equally strong non-character touches to the show were that it was an
:extremely _good_ mystery.
As you say, two mysteries: how the Enterprise got into the situation it
did, and how Picard et al were going to get them out. I thought the first
was handled well; the second not.
:Moving on, the show looked and felt great, but there are some questions I
:have nibbling at the margins about the show's internal logic.
:First, in the final rescue attempt, exactly who was it that was firing on the
:Enterprise? We're strongly led to believe the first time that it was the
:alien on board the Romulan ship, since they were trying to save the young.
:But the final time around, that alien was dead. Who decided to fire?
Well, you see, the first time around the alien pressed the button to
fire. When they rewound time the Romulan ship went back to the point
where the trigger had been depressed, so even tho the alien himself
continued forward in the runabout's "normal" time the ship still
fired the weapon, sans a person at the controls. 1/2 ;{)
:Second, it's not entirely clear to me whether the aliens had freedom of
:movement or not once time froze. I think the implication is that they did,
:given that (1) the male one did so when it attacked Geordi, and (2) the
:female one wasn't in the path of the Romulan disruptor in sickbay, but if so,
:it seems a little too coincidental that the female was anywhere *near*
:sickbay once everybody we know came aboard.
She also opened her eyes after Troi passed her by; her expression seemed
to me to indicate that she had been feigning motionlessness. One wonders
if she came aboard deliberately to ensure the stoppage of the energy
transfer-- perhaps before her compatriot decided to fire on the E-- or was
just brought aboard as part of the transfer. (The last part of which was
incredibly quick, btw.)
:-- A small scripting glitch: the acceleration on the runabout couldn't
:possibly be only *50* times normal, if the starboard engine had been shown to
:be running for 47 _days_. Besides that, Picard's hand was only in contact
:with the bubble for a few seconds -- that's not a few hundred seconds' worth
:of growth, nor a few hundred minutes' worth of rotting in the fruit. 500
:would seem a more reasonable estimate.
Either case leads one to ask nagging little questions like "How did
the fingers receive enough blood flow to do all that growing?", given
that the upper arm was still in "normal" time.
:-- No comments, please, about how we shouldn't be able to see if light isn't
:moving and time is really still. That's called "suspension of disbelief" if
:used properly, and "really anal-retentive thinking" if it's not used.
I think the gravity generators must also provide paratemporal illumination.
(It's this energy leak that likewise causes ST orbits to decay.)
:-- When we saw the similar but simpler version of the aliens in the engine
:core, I'll admit that my first thought was not alien embryos, but that time
:had accelerated for a few of them and that they'd _evolved_ really quickly.
A rather reasonable conjecture, actually.
:Too much Asimov late at night, I guess...
Speaking of Asimov, the Good Doctor wrote that for a very long time no-one
(ie, Campbell) thought a science fiction mystery could be written, because
the writer would not "play fair" with the reader, and resolve the mystery
with a technical solution not deducible from story.* This is by far my
biggest complaint with "Timescape." The ending is a cheat! They go back in
time and change history. (For when history begins, see Asimov's "The Dead
Past.") If this were the only episode of ST I'd ever seen I'd only be mildly
outraged at the deus ex machina, but we've been told repeatedly in other
episodes how inadvisable this is. It is contrary to the entire ethos of the
ST universe, and bad drama as well. It is a solution that if applied broadly
disallows *any* threat to be taken seriously. A crewman falls into the warp
core-- well, go back in time a few minutes and tell him to be more careful.
The Klingons assassinate Gowron and install a militant leader who makes war
with the Federation... no biggy, just go back a ways and stop the murder. Et
cetera, et cetera. It just drives home how often ST fails to consider the
implications of the actions shown. (And as I suggested in another post, if
they're going to do it, they should do it right.)
:So, all in all, lots of fun. A few questions that make you wonder, but all
:in all the headaches you'll get from "Timescape" will be intentional. Nice
:work.
:So, numbers time, as always:
:OVERALL: 10. Nice one.
You're far more more charitable than I. I thought it had an interesting
premise, a few moments of humor, and the wonderfully manic smiley-face on
the explosion. But my belief suspension was sorely tested by all the
contrivances needed to make it work, and I thought the resolution was both
rushed in execution, and fundamentally flawed in principle.
:Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
:Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
* So he wrote _The Caves of Steel_.
--
Kenneth Jubal DeMonn | "I'm not giving up on implausible
Internet: dem...@emunix.emich.edu | dreams... experience to extremes,
CIS: 73250,2003 (checked infrequently) | experience to extremes." N Peart
Iain Odlin
Spoilers, I s'pose... More after space.
Right. Two things: (1) I was not terribly impressed with this episode;
I kept waiting for something new... Ah well. And then DS9: "Duet" came on
and completely blew it out of the water. (2) Why'd the entire Romulan ship
disappear at the end? And how'd Our Heros rescue everyone from the Romulan
ship *after* it disappeared?
*shrug*
-Iain Odlin
--
------------------------- Iain Odlin, od...@reed.edu -------------------------
10 Crosby Street, Level 3, Portland ME 04103
-- Reality is what bumps into you when you stand still with your eyes open. --
Joel Kent Baxter
>
...
>with a technical solution not deducible from story.* This is by far my
>biggest complaint with "Timescape." The ending is a cheat! They go back in
>time and change history. (For when history begins, see Asimov's "The Dead
>Past.") If this were the only episode of ST I'd ever seen I'd only be mildly
>outraged at the deus ex machina, but we've been told repeatedly in other
>episodes how inadvisable this is. It is contrary to the entire ethos of the
>ST universe, and bad drama as well. It is a solution that if applied broadly
>disallows *any* threat to be taken seriously. A crewman falls into the warp
>core-- well, go back in time a few minutes and tell him to be more careful.
>The Klingons assassinate Gowron and install a militant leader who makes war
>with the Federation... no biggy, just go back a ways and stop the murder. Et
>cetera, et cetera. It just drives home how often ST fails to consider the
>implications of the actions shown. (And as I suggested in another post, if
>they're going to do it, they should do it right.)
>
Well, I agree with all of the nits that have been picked so far about this
episode; there were enough incongruities and plot-pinholes to keep me from
really enjoying it. However, it never occurred to me to question the whole
integrity of the rescue attempt. Aside from the fact that it would take a
real ethical giant to veto the escape out of "principle" after actually
seeing the end result of the whole mess (i.e., the Enterprise explosion), the
peril itself was the result of interference from <outside> the "time" that
the Federation folks are so anxious to preserve. So this was basically
another case of fixing the tampering, rather than being the "tamperers".
BTW, I'm getting really sick of the word "continuum". Anyone else?
JB
Timothy W. Lynch
>:WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for "Timescape", this
>:week's TNG episode. If you don't get out now, you may not be able to prevent
>:being spoiled.
Most of Kenneth's points are valid or inarguable, so I'll just respond to a
couple of 'em.
>:Second, it's not entirely clear to me whether the aliens had freedom of
>:movement or not once time froze. I think the implication is that they did,
>:given that (1) the male one did so when it attacked Geordi, and (2) the
>:female one wasn't in the path of the Romulan disruptor in sickbay, but if so,
>:it seems a little too coincidental that the female was anywhere *near*
>:sickbay once everybody we know came aboard.
>She also opened her eyes after Troi passed her by; her expression seemed
>to me to indicate that she had been feigning motionlessness.
I think that's the idea. If the impression had gone the other way, then her
being out of the weapon's path would be a major goof, but as it is all it
does is muddy the waters a bit.
>One wonders
>if she came aboard deliberately to ensure the stoppage of the energy
>transfer-- perhaps before her compatriot decided to fire on the E-- or was
>just brought aboard as part of the transfer. (The last part of which was
>incredibly quick, btw.)
My bet is that she was brought aboard as part of it.
>:Too much Asimov late at night, I guess...
>Speaking of Asimov, the Good Doctor wrote that for a very long time no-one
>(ie, Campbell) thought a science fiction mystery could be written, because
>the writer would not "play fair" with the reader, and resolve the mystery
>with a technical solution not deducible from story.* This is by far my
>biggest complaint with "Timescape." The ending is a cheat! They go back in
>time and change history.
I disagree that it's a cheat _in this particular instance_. Given that the
cause of the problem had to do with mucking about in the timestream to start
with (even if the Ent. didn't do it), and that a direct result of the catas-
trophe was screwing up local time in a fairly wide area, it's at least arguable
that preventing _that_ damage to the continuum is more important than not
interfering with history, particularly history that's only a few hours old.
Yes, if this sort of solution were applied broadly the results would be
dramatically awful -- that's true enough. However, given that time travel and
time problems were directly related to the source of the problem in the first
place, here I think it's at least partially justifiable.
Just a devil's advocate...
Tim Lynch
Kenneth Jubal DeMonn
:I disagree that it's a cheat _in this particular instance_. Given that the
:cause of the problem had to do with mucking about in the timestream to start
:with (even if the Ent. didn't do it), and that a direct result of the catas-
:trophe was screwing up local time in a fairly wide area, it's [...] arguable
:that preventing _that_ damage to the continuum is more important than not
:interfering with history, particularly history that's only a few hours old.
In rewatching (the second half of) the show, I noted somewhat more concern
for the integrity of the continuum than I had caught the first time; but it
still seemed a secondary worry. Indeed, it was never clearly established that
the time-discontinuity fragments were in fact much of a threat: once they
became aware of their existence the runabout had no trouble avoiding them
even while traveling at a healthy clip toward the Enterprise. Nor was their
extent or duration (possibly temporary) ever detailed. However, given that
Star Trek characters tend to worry about such things, this seems a plausible
explanation, even if the fate of the Enterprise was the primary focus of the
on-screen action. Aside: it is also never made clear whether the aliens were
going to sacrifice the Enterprise for the greater good of our time frame,
or were simply interested in their own (including their young's) survival.
:Yes, if this sort of solution were applied broadly the results would be
:dramatically awful -- that's true enough. However, given that time travel and
:time problems were directly related to the source of the problem in the first
:place, here I think it's at least partially justifiable.
Well, only if you consider the destruction of the Enterprise a problem. ;{)
At any rate, I grant you (and the other poster who suggested they were just
returning time to its proper state) that this is an allowable rationale, but
I'm still not totally happy with it; and trying to decide just which *is* the
"correct" timeframe could turn out to be some Heavy Philosophy indeed.
:Tim Lynch
I am an android..
]Review by Tim Lynch <tly...@juliet.caltech.edu>
]===============================================
]
]WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for "Timescape", this
]week's TNG episode. If you don't get out now, you may not be able to prevent
]being spoiled.
]Now *that* was bizarre.
yep..
]
]Ooooookay. Finished? Good. Now, let the comments begin.
]
]
]remarks to this bit.) I also particularly enjoyed Riker's problems feeding
]Spot ("all of a sudden there's this hissing ball of fur coming at my
]face..."), but that may be a product of being awakened all too many times by
]hissing balls of fur coming at MY face at 4 in the morning.
I liked it when Riker tossed a phaser to Crusher when she offered to feed
Spot for him. "Here. You'll need this.."
]Second, it's not entirely clear to me whether the aliens had freedom of
]movement or not once time froze. I think the implication is that they did,
]given that (1) the male one did so when it attacked Geordi, and (2) the
]female one wasn't in the path of the Romulan disruptor in sickbay, but if so,
]it seems a little too coincidental that the female was anywhere *near*
]sickbay once everybody we know came aboard. It's not a big deal, but it's a
]little _too_ neat.
Maybe she moved after time slowed down and then froze when Troi came in.
]That said, everything else worked swooningly well for me. Everybody acted
]appropriately and intelligently, Geordi's removal from the action made
]perfect sense, and Picard got to make a smiley-face in the middle of a
]warp-core explosion. What else could anyone ask? :-)
]So, some shorter points and I'm off.
]
]-- Say, how'd everybody end up on a runabout, anyway? That's the first we've
]ever seen of them on TNG -- where did it come from?
Maybe they borrowed one? Or does Starfleet now require at least one runabout
on large starships now?
]NEXT WEEK
]The season finale. "The Borg are back, and Data is in trouble ... hey na,
]hey na..."
"We are Borg. We are bored with Cubes. We want something more expressive. We
will become artistic. Critics are irrelevant."
--
|Pat Chester (aka: claypigeon) wol...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu|
|People's organizations rarely stay that way... or even begin as such. |
|I only speak for myself. If I *did* speak for UT, would anyone listen?|
|Save Humanity: Drop a Colony on Barney the Dinosaur #Token PAG#|
gary l. schroeder
>BTW, I'm getting really sick of the word "continuum". Anyone else?
Actually, the phrase "time-space continuum" is irksome when used with
such reckless abandon. The word that makes me cringe _every_ flippin'
time I watch TNG or DS9 is...."diagnostic". "Diagnostic" has to be the
most over-used word in the Federation. If you doubt it, see if you can
make it through an episode of either show _without_ hearing it. Betcha
won't.
"Captain, the plasmic turkey carving knife is jammed."
"Geordi, run a Level One diagnostic on the knife and see if there's
any residual tachyons that might be causing the sub-space jam."
--
--------------
Gary Schroeder
schr...@bnlux1.bnl.gov
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Gregory Thorwald
>In article <1993Jun22.1...@afit.af.mil> $HO...@ss2.sews.wpafb.af.mil writes:
>>
>>Sector ### (What exactly is a sector, anyway.)
>>
>
>I want to know what "subspace" is!
>
>--
>Amy Eckert
>aec...@diana.cair.du.edu
>Graduate School of International Studies/College of Law
>
I think "subspace" is what you see when you are in outer
space and look down because subspace is what is _under_
space. :-)
Greg
Fazia Begum Rizvi
>In article <1993Jun20....@leland.Stanford.EDU> jba...@leland.Stanford.EDU (Joel Kent Baxter) writes:
>
>>BTW, I'm getting really sick of the word "continuum". Anyone else?
>
I think if I hear "life-force entity" one more time, I'll scream. :-)
ad astra
-Faz
--
Ms. Fazia Begum Rizvi
st...@jetson.uh.edu
University of Houston
*Caution* New .sig under construction. We apologize for any inconvieniences.
cop...@physc1.byu.edu
> In article <1993Jun21.1...@bnlux1.bnl.gov>, schr...@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder) writes...
>>In article <1993Jun20....@leland.Stanford.EDU> jba...@leland.Stanford.EDU (Joel Kent Baxter) writes:
>>
>>>BTW, I'm getting really sick of the word "continuum". Anyone else?
>>
>
> I think if I hear "life-force entity" one more time, I'll scream. :-)
>
or "phase", or "resonance"/"resonate" or "e-m band" or "tachyon" or...
I'm sort of glad O'Brian's off the ship now. I used to get tired of
hearing "pattern buffer".
Kevin Karmann
on 06-25-93 14:09<=-
DL> Hmmm, I seem to remember in the DS9 premiere that it was the big E
DL> that delivered DS9's runabouts. I suppose that means the big-E is big
DL> enough to carry them. Maybe they had a spare on board from
DL> somewhere or borrowed it from the conference (i.e. big-E drops off
DL> guests at conference, moves on; attendees catch up in runabout).
They might just carry one all the time. After all having a Runabout
might just come in handy in situations where the shuttles or Captain's
Yacht might not be useable.
Kevin
... My other vehicle is a Galaxy Class Starship ...
v...@vax1.mankato.msus.edu
communications where their faster than light. I'm still not sure though.
Youssef Masrour
Gee, do you suppose it could be just a convenient fiction?
--
Youssef Masrour ab...@freenet.carleton.ca
Orleans, Ontario