Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Violations"
Timothy W. Lynch
WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
Um...what in the world was that?
I don't know *what* the hell it was, but I don't think it's what I expected.
Maybe I'll figure it out by the end of the synopsis. Read on, MacDuff:
The Enterprise is ferrying three Ullians to an "archaeological" mission of
sorts. They're telepathic, and retrieve other people's memories. The
eldest, Tarmin, is frequently huffy, overbearing, slightly pushy about his
talents [attempting to convince both Beverly and Worf to have themselves
probed, for instance], and extremely talented. At a dinner, he humiliates
his son Jev's lack of experience. Jev leaves, with Troi following to make
sure he's all right. They discuss the strategies for dealing with
overbearing parents [Troi does, after all, have some experience in these
matters...], and then part on friendly terms.
As Troi gets ready for bed, however, she has a memory flashback: poker chips
falling, Will asking her "have you stopped thinking about us?", and her
attempts to fend off some advances. Suddenly, the scene turns violent--and
Riker changes into Jev. Vision-Troi screams--and the real Troi slumps to the
floor in a coma.
The next morning, Bev's still unable to bring her out of it, and has no clue
what might have caused it. Thinking that perhaps the Ullians might have
unintentionally carried something harmful on board, Riker goes to discuss the
matter with Jev. He's rather blunt about his suspicions, however, and
brusquely leaves once Jev fully agrees that all three of them will cooperate.
That night, Riker talks to Deanna and tells her to wake up soon; Beverly
orders him to bed.
Then, as Riker's in his quarters, he has a flashback: An emergency of some
sort in Engineering, involving an isolation door coming down and trapping an
ensign on the other side. Suddenly, the ensign accusing Riker of "you killed
her!" turns into Jev, and starts appearing in various locations.
Vision-Riker looks around, frantic; and the real Riker slumps to his bureau
in another coma.
The next day, Beverly's ruled out any known medical cause [the only illness
that leaves traces similar to what she's found also has other side effects
which have not appeared]. She puts Geordi to work searching for other
possible causes of the electropathic activity she's found--and since the
activity was located in the thalmus [the memory center], she suggests Picard
once again question the Ullians.
Tarmin is indignant, but all three again offer their full cooperation in the
matter. Beverly scans Keiko, who had a memory retrieved by Tarmin days
earlier, and finds no trace of any abnormal activity. As Geordi's search
also turns up empty, Bev searches for other causes--and then she has a
flashback. It's nearly twenty years earlier; she and Jean-Luc are on their
way to see Jack Crusher's body. Jev slips in and out of Picard's position
as they approach the body--and as the coverlet is removed, Beverly sees
Jev/Jack open his eyes and stare back at her. Vision-Beverly screams: and
by the time Geordi and Data report to her, she's slumped at her desk in yet
another coma.
Picard orders Geordi and Data to search the records of the previous planets
visited by the Ullians during this mission, and then asks the Ullians to
voluntarily confine themselves to quarters temporarily. Jev suggests probing
the now-revived Deanna [she remembers being scared and upset, but not what
frightened her] to prove their innocence. Tarmin refuses to have anything to
do with it, and Picard demurs, but Inad convinces him that they deserve that
much of a chance. As Geordi and Data find correlations between comas on some
of the planets and the Ullians' visits to them, Jev probes Troi, who relives
the events of three nights previous--except that this time, the invader of
her memories is not Jev, but *Tarmin*.
Tarmin is monitored by both Jev and Inad, and Jev apologizes to Picard for
his conduct, saying that what he has done is a grave crime in their society.
(Tarmin is claiming innocence.) Data and Geordi, meanwhile, find from the
last two planets' information that Tarmin was not on one of those worlds when
several unexplained comas broke out. Jev goes to say goodbye to Deanna, but
her kindness towards him causes him to lose control. He again invades her
mind, this time coupling it with a physical assault--but Data and Worf show
up in time to stop him. Tarmin, deeply grieved by his son's actions, tells
the three victims [all now awake] that Ullia's best physicians will help them
back on the road to full recovery.
There. I hope that's everything. Now, let's see what I can figure out.
I think I had my hopes set too high. I know one of the writers of this story
("Pamela Gray"--not her real name); in fact, she wrote an earlier TNG episode
as well, although under yet another name. I've been hearing a lot about
"Past Perfect" for over a year now--and this isn't what I was expecting to
see. I just don't know. (I will be very curious to find out how much of
the original PP survived to here, and how much of "Violations" came in from
rewrites.)
One definite problem with the presentation: by making sure we knew from the
teaser onward that Jev was the bad guy, a lot of momentum was lost. There
are many hints here and there along the way to set up Tarmin: beyond his
arrogance and pushiness, there's his prodding of everyone to get their minds
probed, and *especially* his "sometimes, with a beautiful woman, I cannot
help myself [from being so forthright]". Had we just been given that, then
the whole show would have been more of a puzzle, rather than an exercise in
frustration at how they haven't figured it out yet. (No, I don't think this
makes the crew idiots; it was obvious to us because it was set up that way.
Their actions seemed reasonable enough.)
However, two *good* things about the presentation come to mind. First, the
visions themselves were well put together: dark, surreal, sharply cutting
from one thing to another...simply maddening, all told. There's definitely a
place for creative use of wide-angle lenses, and this was one of them. [BTW,
the setting for Bev's flashback was particularly good--both she and Picard
*looked* a good 18 years younger!] Second, there was a real...structure...to
the plot, in that each of acts 1-4 ended in a vision [Troi, Riker, Bev,
Troi-redux]. Something about that definitely worked.
Something else about the flashbacks bothered me, however--it was *too*
ambiguous. It's not made particularly clear how much of the memory-fragments
were affected by Jev's interference. Is everything exactly as it was
presented up until he takes someone's place, or were changes made earlier?
And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
And what sort of emergency was happening in Engineering that we never heard
about? I think there was definitely room for some ambiguity, but this was
too much.
[I was concerned, incidentally, about the treatment of Riker in Troi's
flashback. The first time through, I thought he was being presented as
almost assaulting her w/o Jev's interference, and that's a very worrisome
thing. If we go by "everything was fine until Jev literally enters the
picture", however, the real memory ends with Troi pushing Riker away after
the one kiss--and presumably, Riker then agreed [grudgingly :-) ] that it was
a bad idea. I think it could have been presented slightly more clearly than
that--while I'm all for giving these guys more character flaws, having Riker
be a rapist is *NOT* at all on the list.]
But, again, there was a good ambiguity of sorts to counter this. While it's
pretty clear that Jev's actions are conscious, willing acts, it's left very
much in the air just how premeditated they were, and just how much he was
consciously aware of them afterward. Certainly, his conduct during the
investigation seemed one of genuine concern, not of "let's be a good boy and
throw them off the track". He might well have been suppressing his *own*
memories of the thing--ironic, that. His motives are a little bit unclear as
well, but one can make good guesses.
Characterization was, for the most part, pretty good. Not much was done with
Picard, which is a pity; I agree with Bev in that he probably WOULD have some
pretty intriguing memories to play with. One thing I also wanted to see was
Picard's initial reaction while Troi is "replaying" her memory-flashback
for Jev: since her words indicate at first that *Will* is the one doing the
assault and not one of the Ullians, I think a suitable reaction is in order.
Worf's memories might also have been interesting, particularly of Khitomer
(although it might be a bit difficult for Jev to stick himself in there
plausibly). But what we did see worked well enough. (Actually, I'd amend
that--one thing bugged me. For Deanna only having been in a coma for a day,
Riker's reaction in sickbay seemed considerably overboard. Maybe after
several days, but they've had situations like this before. Whatever.)
On to some other things--shorter ones.
Scientifically...well, this *is* TNG. The Data/Geordi discussion about
memory, while wonderful for the two characters, was basically false
technobabble. [RNA? For *memory*? Not the way I remember learning it.
Little things like synapses tend to be important...] The thalmus, though,
does have a significant function in memory, so that part was all right. [My
wife thinks that it might be crucial in processing short-term memory into
long-term, but she wasn't sure. Me? I'm no biologist. :-) ]
Meaningless treknology department: well, we had film evidence a ways back
that 1000 stardates was a year ["Galaxy's Child" taking place "a little over
a year" after "Booby Trap" fits the picture there], but here we have evidence
that 1 stardate equals a day. [Troi's been out three days.] I think this
leads us to the theory that it's a day *during* the course of a show, and
that 1000 SD is a year overall. Man, those between-show stardates have to be
mighty fast. :-)
Random thoughts:
--I liked Geordi's quote about "For some reason, I have NO recollection of
how I spent my last birthday."
--Deanna's story about how she copes with her mother, and how it doesn't work
a bit, was nicely done as well.
--My word, there *is* another doctor on the Enterprise! I actually thought
rather highly of Dr. Martin in the little we saw of him--wonder if we'll be
lucky enough to have him recur.
--Music was mostly unremarkable, although I thought the music during the
flashbacks was nicely eerie.
--FX: nothing new to report here.
And finally, the ending. I liked the final scene up to Tarmin's line about
helping the victims recover from "this particular form of rape". The minute
after that was pure proselytizing: violence is within us all, it can consume
us if we don't keep watch on it, Earth used to be very violent but grew out
of it, etc. I care very much about the issue of rape (as anyone remembering
the Spock-Valeris discussion early last month can readily remember), but this
was simply talking at us. I couldn't help being reminded of the ending of
last night's "Dinosaurs": "Say no to drugs--and stop preachy sitcom endings
like this one." :-)
Well, I think I'm about done here. It was...interesting, and it was well put
together in several ways. But somehow, it missed me. I'm mostly left saying
"um...well, yeah, but...er...well?" [Any comments about how that's an
improvement over my usual state will promptly be ignored. :-) ] So, I guess
it's numbers time:
Plot: 7. Straightforward, but solid.
Plot Handling/Direction: 6. The handling of the main plot was considerably
less, but the very snappy and eerie direction of the flashbacks
themselves brought it back up.
Characterization: 8. Not bad at all.
TOTAL: 7--but I'm actually rounding *down* half a point for general
ambience. Maybe I'm just grumpy. Either way, it's a 6.5.
NEXT WEEK:
The Enterprise sacrifices itself for a genetically perfect society?
O-kayyyyyy....
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students)
BITNET: tlynch@citjuliet
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Felicitous Natal Terran Rotational Cycle."
--Data, hypothetically...
--
Copyright 1992, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
Matthew Gertz
>[Followups set to r.a.s.current.]
Spoilers...
>Something else about the flashbacks bothered me, however--it was *too*
>ambiguous. It's not made particularly clear how much of the memory-fragments
>were affected by Jev's interference. Is everything exactly as it was
>presented up until he takes someone's place, or were changes made earlier?
>And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
>naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
>mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
Troi says later on that it was "a few years ago." I assume that it was
during the early part of the second season.
>(Actually, I'd amend
>that--one thing bugged me. For Deanna only having been in a coma for a day,
>Riker's reaction in sickbay seemed considerably overboard. Maybe after
>several days, but they've had situations like this before. Whatever.)
Deanna was unconscious for three days, is it explicitly stated that Riker
visited her on the first day? Even if it was, I'd be pretty concerned if
someone as close to me as Troi apparently is to Riker had been in a coma
for even a somewhat smaller amount of time. This was one of the few scenes
that actually seemed worthwhile to me (despite its understated reference
to "Shades of Gray" ... bleah!).
Actually, that's not true... there were a LOT of scenes that seemed worthwhile
to me... I just didn't care for the context and plot (I use the term loosely)
which bound them together.
--
Matt Gertz, mwge...@cs.cmu.edu
Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
--
Matt Gertz, mwge...@cs.cmu.edu
Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
Timothy W. Lynch
>In article <1992Feb7.0...@cco.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>Spoilers...
>>And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
>>naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
>>mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
>Troi says later on that it was "a few years ago." I assume that it was
>during the early part of the second season.
True--but they seemed well beyond that phase of their relationship by then.
I'm confused.
>>(Actually, I'd amend
>>that--one thing bugged me. For Deanna only having been in a coma for a day,
>>Riker's reaction in sickbay seemed considerably overboard. Maybe after
>>several days, but they've had situations like this before. Whatever.)
>Deanna was unconscious for three days, is it explicitly stated that Riker
>visited her on the first day?
Riker slipped into a coma the night following Deanna's--Picard makes it clear
that it was one coma per day. It was definitely a day at the most.
>Even if it was, I'd be pretty concerned if
>someone as close to me as Troi apparently is to Riker had been in a coma
>for even a somewhat smaller amount of time. This was one of the few scenes
>that actually seemed worthwhile to me (despite its understated reference
>to "Shades of Gray" ... bleah!).
Maybe--there hasn't been enough lately to convince me that they really *are*
all that close, I suppose. Sigh.
>Actually, that's not true... there were a LOT of scenes that seemed worthwhile
>to me... I just didn't care for the context and plot (I use the term loosely)
>which bound them together.
That's about my reaction, although mine wasn't as strong.
Tim Lynch
Colin Smiley
> [Followups set to r.a.s.current.]
>
> Scientifically...well, this *is* TNG. The Data/Geordi discussion about
> memory, while wonderful for the two characters, was basically false
> technobabble. [RNA? For *memory*? Not the way I remember learning it.
> Little things like synapses tend to be important...] The thalmus, though,
> does have a significant function in memory, so that part was all right. [My
> wife thinks that it might be crucial in processing short-term memory into
> long-term, but she wasn't sure. Me? I'm no biologist. :-) ]
In a lot of the other SF that I have read, RNA has to do with learning
and memory on the chemical level. My science is weak on this, but my
Science Fiction is not :-). In many short stories and a few novels, SF
authors have used something akin to an RNA drip into your arm to give
speed learning. A good example is Larry Niven. See his material set
in the "State" Universe for examples (Better yet, read the short
story "Rammer"). As I understand it, to get RNA learning, you have
someone plug an RNA iv into you, and you watch a high speed learing
tape. The feeling you have is that you actually knew the material,
but the tape is just reminding you of it (a deja vu type thing).
I used to know some science behind this when I was in High School,
about a million years ago, when I was interested in finding a way to
get all that learning stuff over with quickly :-).
niloC
--
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
jef...@koala.berkeley.edu
>[Followups set to r.a.s.current.]
>
>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
>Um...what in the world was that?
One of the most intruiguing shows to date, I think.
>However, two *good* things about the presentation come to mind. First, the
>visions themselves were well put together: dark, surreal, sharply cutting
>from one thing to another...simply maddening, all told.
I thought these were the highpoint of the episode, and more than made up for
its clear deficiencies in giving away Jev's role (which deficiencies I didn't
note completely until reviews such as this. It would have been better for us
to have suspected his father.
>the setting for Bev's flashback was particularly good--both she and Picard
>*looked* a good 18 years younger!
Someone else noted that Picard with thin hair looks like Dr. Smith from
Lost in Space. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! (unfortunately they're right!) But just
what WAS that thing on Picard's right temple? It was like he was doing a
test-run for becoming Locutus or something.
(OR, maybe that's what Guinan's connection to Picard was: He's actually
an android from the future (i.e. a much more refined model than Data.) That
would explain in part his "stoicism" (recall Spock's words in Reunification
II), his unwillingness to take life, and indeed Data's prominent place in
the crew (which I think is a bit high for what can only be considered an
experimental machine). Thus Guinan is the android-Picard's "keeper" or
"software engineer," helping him make decisions in areas where his program-
ing is deficient or where he has insufficient information.
Oh - and maybe that explains his reticience (sp) in allowing Dr. Pulaski
to give him a new heart -- maybe he's a sort of bio-droid and she wasn't
supposed to know...
Think about it...
I wish we could have gotten a longer look at Jack Crusher -- that has to
be one of the shortest roles in television history!
>Something else about the flashbacks bothered me, however--it was *too*
>ambiguous. It's not made particularly clear how much of the memory-fragments
>were affected by Jev's interference. Is everything exactly as it was
>presented up until he takes someone's place, or were changes made earlier?
>And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
>naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
>mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
>And what sort of emergency was happening in Engineering that we never heard
>about? I think there was definitely room for some ambiguity, but this was
>too much.
...
I liked these flashbacks as a way of learning about the characters, let alone
as to their role in the plot. I think it would be very interesting if we had
a few memory recollections in each episode (verbal/dialogue or visual). They
are a "cheap and easy" way of fleshing out the characters, and (especially
if ambiguous enough) would provide a lot of fuel for discussions here.
>[on Picard's unwillingness to undergo the memory recall process]
>Picard, which is a pity; I agree with Bev in that he probably WOULD have some
>pretty intriguing memories to play with.
See, I told you he was an android!!!
Oh, on the RNA memory thing -- I recall reading a paper about two years ago
which theorized that the micro-strands of protein found in brain cells
(neurons) are actually the means by which memories are stored. Of course,
proteins are created from RNA templates. Nothing was mentioned about this
in a molecular bio class I had last semester, and I haven't heard anything
about it since.
________
Jeffski
________
John S. Novak III
>[Followups set to r.a.s.current.]
>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
>One definite problem with the presentation: by making sure we knew from the
>teaser onward that Jev was the bad guy, a lot of momentum was lost. There
>are many hints here and there along the way to set up Tarmin: beyond his
>arrogance and pushiness, there's his prodding of everyone to get their minds
>probed, and *especially* his "sometimes, with a beautiful woman, I cannot
>help myself [from being so forthright]". Had we just been given that, then
>the whole show would have been more of a puzzle, rather than an exercise in
>frustration at how they haven't figured it out yet. (No, I don't think this
>makes the crew idiots; it was obvious to us because it was set up that way.
>Their actions seemed reasonable enough.)
Blarg. I have to agree with you here-- between the writer and
the director, I think we could have kept the ending in much more
doubt than it was. It was just... sloppy, all the way through,
IMO.
From the beginning, I would have downplayed Jev's motives (his
father would have been insulting, but Jev would have downplayed
it himself. I mean, Jev wasn't supposed to be stupid-- he
telegraphed his motive to everyone at the gathering...!)
From the beginning, I would have had Tarmin acting a bit more...
strangely. I think the comment he made to Beverly might have
been done better, and perhaps a truly _rapt_ look on his face as
he was probing anyone else's mind (I have this vision of Tarmin
continually licking away flecks of moisture from his lips-- the
real reason being that he was putting _all_ his concentration
into the retreivals, the false reason being that he enjoys being
in peoples' minds.)
>However, two *good* things about the presentation come to mind. First, the
>Something else about the flashbacks bothered me, however--it was *too*
>ambiguous. It's not made particularly clear how much of the memory-fragments
>were affected by Jev's interference. Is everything exactly as it was
>presented up until he takes someone's place, or were changes made earlier?
>And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
>naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
>mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
>And what sort of emergency was happening in Engineering that we never heard
>about? I think there was definitely room for some ambiguity, but this was
>too much.
I _think_ I got it figured out.
Troi-- started to go different when Riker moved from talk to
action. I just never saw rape as Riker's style (although if this
were in the format I wanted it to be, ie 'Dallas' format, this
would have _real_ possibilities!)
Bev-- Started to go different when Jack opened his eyes. BTW, am
I dense? What was the electronic doo-dad on Picard's head?
Riker-- Might not ever have departed from the actual. Sealing
someone off in a radiation-bathed soon to be vaccuum chamber of a
starship would be enough to give ANYONE nightmares for a long
time running. I got the impression, also, that this was a memory
from the Borg cliffhanger.
This is primarily guess work, and impressions, and basically
IMHO.
>But, again, there was a good ambiguity of sorts to counter this. While it's
>pretty clear that Jev's actions are conscious, willing acts, it's left very
>much in the air just how premeditated they were, and just how much he was
>consciously aware of them afterward. Certainly, his conduct during the
>investigation seemed one of genuine concern, not of "let's be a good boy and
>throw them off the track". He might well have been suppressing his *own*
>memories of the thing--ironic, that. His motives are a little bit unclear as
>well, but one can make good guesses.
I _think_ (again, just IMHO) that the idea was indeed to portray
the dreams as Jev consciously wanted them to be. I thought the
idea was to frame Tarmin for mentally raping her, which is in
effect what Jev himself did. What confooses me is hy Jev
appeared in the dreams at all. I think it would have been much
more effective, both for us and for Jev's scheme, for him to have
left _Tarmin's_ memory in Troi's mind from the beginning, and let
her remember the episode completely from the time she woke up.
Then, since Tarmin would be the obvious suspect, he wouldn't be
allowed to inspect her, and his wife would do so instead. She
wouldn't believe until she saw it, but when she did...!
Independant confirmation from two different points, neither of
them Jev. Much neater.
>Characterization was, for the most part, pretty good. Not much was done with
>Picard, which is a pity; I agree with Bev in that he probably WOULD have some
>pretty intriguing memories to play with. One thing I also wanted to see was
>Picard's initial reaction while Troi is "replaying" her memory-flashback
>for Jev: since her words indicate at first that *Will* is the one doing the
>assault and not one of the Ullians, I think a suitable reaction is in order.
I was wondering about that, too. I can almost _see_ Picard's
face as she said it. One thing that makes me believe that Troi's
memory skewed from reality as soon as it turned violent is simply
because Riker wasn't in the brig by the end of the episode.
>Worf's memories might also have been interesting, particularly of Khitomer
>(although it might be a bit difficult for Jev to stick himself in there
>plausibly). But what we did see worked well enough. (Actually, I'd amend
>that--one thing bugged me. For Deanna only having been in a coma for a day,
>Riker's reaction in sickbay seemed considerably overboard. Maybe after
>several days, but they've had situations like this before. Whatever.)
Deanna is a partial psi herself. Perhaps she has some natural
resistaance. Also, Jev may have let her out of the coma sooner
because she was part of his plot-- he needed her awake. It
seemed to me that Riker was put into the coma because he was
irritating Jev. I don't know why Beverly fell into it. Maybe
Jev afraid of her figuring something out. Or maybe you're right,
and he was acting for his own pleasure as well. Or is just plain
stoopid.
>On to some other things--shorter ones.
I myself both liked and disliked the scenes with Geordie trying
to track down any non-medical causes of the comas. I liked the
approach he took, where he displayed a thought pattern very
similar to the one I use when I'm going a-bug huntin' through the
codes for some of my computer simulations for my engineering
classes, or in lab.
I did _not_ like the clumsiness with which he dealt with the
computer interface. I can deal with the isiot 'talk to the
computer in the air' setup for the benefit of the viewing
audience, even though all the engineers I know _much_ prefer to
deal with something visually oriented. I can't accept him making
the same stoopid blunders every time, like asking for _every_
source of something, and them asking for a sequential list, and
then stopping after four items and asking, 'Dah, how many of dose
tings _are_ dere?' to which the computer cheerily responds
'eight hundred niety-four thousand, seven hundred and thirty two
point one four one five nine two six.' Silly bunt.
>Random thoughts:
>--I liked Geordi's quote about "For some reason, I have NO recollection of
>how I spent my last birthday."
>grin< Geordi, Geordi, Geordi. Didn't program the old Visor to
record, did you?
>And finally, the ending. I liked the final scene up to Tarmin's line about
>helping the victims recover from "this particular form of rape". The minute
>after that was pure proselytizing: violence is within us all, it can consume
>us if we don't keep watch on it, Earth used to be very violent but grew out
>of it, etc. I care very much about the issue of rape (as anyone remembering
>the Spock-Valeris discussion early last month can readily remember), but this
>was simply talking at us. I couldn't help being reminded of the ending of
>last night's "Dinosaurs": "Say no to drugs--and stop preachy sitcom endings
>like this one." :-)
A-greed!
Allan Schaffer
>
>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
Personally, I think that both you and Mr. Kanamori (especially the latter,
but then he hasn't enjoyed anything Star Trek since "Spock's Brain") are
being a little hard on this one -- I thought it was fascinating.
>However, two *good* things about the presentation come to mind. First, the
>visions themselves were well put together: dark, surreal, sharply cutting
>from one thing to another...simply maddening, all told. There's definitely a
>place for creative use of wide-angle lenses, and this was one of them. [BTW,
>the setting for Bev's flashback was particularly good--both she and Picard
>*looked* a good 18 years younger!] Second, there was a real...structure...to
>the plot, in that each of acts 1-4 ended in a vision [Troi, Riker, Bev,
>Troi-redux]. Something about that definitely worked.
Total agreement -- the flashbacks had that "memory" quality to them.. Kindof
abstract, lots of repetition of the important parts, etc.. Well done.
>Characterization was, for the most part, pretty good. Not much was done with
>Picard, which is a pity;
True. I was hoping he'd have a Borg flashback, myself -- with one of his
Borg counterparts suddenly turning into Jev..
>--I liked Geordi's quote about "For some reason, I have NO recollection of
>how I spent my last birthday."
I'm surprised Data didn't say, "Commander, you started the day by.."
Allan
--
HI, I'm a replicating signature virus! Join in the fun and copy me into yours!
asch...@polyslo.csc.calpoly.edu Bad cop! No donut!
Christine White
>[Followups set to r.a.s.current.]
>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
John S. Novak III writes:
[text deleted]
Bev-- Started to go different when Jack opened his eyes. BTW, am
I dense? What was the electronic doo-dad on Picard's head?
I took it as more than one memory overlapping. Let me rephrase that.
I thought it had something to do with her remembering Picard as one
of the Borg. And the memory, as can happen in dreams, somehow got
"linked" to another stressful memory (her husband's death).
Then again, as someone else suggested, it may have been one
of those high tech bandaids. Except Picard's movement's and speech
patterns struck me as rather "Borg-like".
-- Christine
James P. Callison
>In article <1992Feb7.0...@cco.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>[Followups set to r.a.s.current.]
>>
>>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
>>*looked* a good 18 years younger!
>
>Someone else noted that Picard with thin hair looks like Dr. Smith from
>Lost in Space. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! (unfortunately they're right!)
Actually (just having seen "The Rocketeer" last night) I noticed that
Timothy Dalton is the spitting image of Patrick Stewart. Especially if
you compare Dalton in "Rocketeer" to Stewart as Dixon Hill...hmm...
Perhaps he could play Picard's evil twin brother who defected to the
Romulans, Skippy Picard of Romulus.
:-)
>But just
>what WAS that thing on Picard's right temple? It was like he was doing a
>test-run for becoming Locutus or something.
Perhaps the memory was corrupted. Or maybe it was some sort of medical
device (if Crusher was dead, he was probably injured, as well. The implications
seem to be that it was a fairly catastrophic occurrence.)
>(OR, maybe that's what Guinan's connection to Picard was: He's actually
>an android from the future (i.e. a much more refined model than Data.) That
>would explain in part his "stoicism" (recall Spock's words in Reunification
>II), his unwillingness to take life, and indeed Data's prominent place in
>the crew (which I think is a bit high for what can only be considered an
>experimental machine). Thus Guinan is the android-Picard's "keeper" or
>"software engineer," helping him make decisions in areas where his program-
>ing is deficient or where he has insufficient information.
>
>Oh - and maybe that explains his reticience (sp) in allowing Dr. Pulaski
>to give him a new heart -- maybe he's a sort of bio-droid and she wasn't
>supposed to know...
But he did get the new heart, and she was the one who performed the surgery...
James
James P. Callison Applications Analyst UCS/AUS, University of Oklahoma
JCal...@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu /\ JPCa...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor
DISCLAIMER: I'm not an engineer, but I play one at work...
"Did you see his eyes? He's got crazy eyes! He's a lunatic. I'm telling
you, we're going into the wilderness being led by a lunatic. He's
standing behind me, isn't he?" --Mitch Robbins, "City Slickers"
Allan Schaffer
[Violations Spoilers]
>I thought these were the highpoint of the episode, and more than made up for
>its clear deficiencies in giving away Jev's role (which deficiencies I didn't
>note completely until reviews such as this. It would have been better for us
>to have suspected his father.
I'd have to disagree -- if they hadn't revealed who the villian was, then
each of the professional critics here in ras.current would be screaming,
"It was -soooooo- obvious who the villian was!" It was, IMHO, much better
to get rid of the forced drama of "whodunit", and let us watch the
-characters- interact in trying to figure it out.
>But just
>what WAS that thing on Picard's right temple? It was like he was doing a
>test-run for becoming Locutus or something.
My guess: some sort of medical healing device. He had, as you remember,
just led an away party that Jack Crusher was killed in, so it
would follow that Picard may have been injured as well.
>(OR, maybe that's what Guinan's connection to Picard was: He's actually
>an android from the future (i.e. a much more refined model than Data.) That
>would explain in part his "stoicism" (recall Spock's words in Reunification
>II), his unwillingness to take life, and indeed Data's prominent place in
> [...continuing psychobabble deleted]
Wow, I must say you have a healthy imagination -- or at least a good source
of weed. :-> Don't forget that Picard has gone through a mind-meld with
both Sarek and Spock, and they probably would have noticed.
Andrew Pearlman
I was wondering if anyone else noted the absolutely horrid technical flaw in
this episode. Some I can forgive, because, well, the writer is just using
his/her imagination. But this one was bad.
Crusher was wondering if the telepaths had brought along some kind of
organism along with them. Nothing detectable is wrong with Troi, including
no organism. So what does she do? She decides to look at the transporter
trace.
Pardon me for wondering this, but since when is the transporter trace going
to say anything the medical scanners wouldn't have picked up?
"Sorry, this case is really bad. Better move out of medical to the transporter
unit."
Andy Pearlman
Jeremy Louis Billones
>[Violations Spoilers]
>Crusher was wondering if the telepaths had brought along some kind of
>organism along with them. Nothing detectable is wrong with Troi, including
>no organism. So what does she do? She decides to look at the transporter
>trace.
>Pardon me for wondering this, but since when is the transporter trace going
>to say anything the medical scanners wouldn't have picked up?
Maybe there was an organism when they beamed up, but it's died since then.
Example: you beam up with the flu, give it to everybody else, but get better
before you get examined. The folks in Sick Bay wouldn't find anything on
you, but if they checked your trace they'd say "Aha! They had the flu!"
Jeremy Billones bil...@rpi.edu or jbil...@jarthur.claremont.edu
He waded through the ankle-deep debris and shreds of crumpled paper on the
table on which Saavik was curled asleep, clutching a mangled page in her
hand. The words were malformed, torturously carved, but they were legible
and correctly spelled: SPOCK NOTGO MY NAME IS SAAVIK.
Andrew Pearlman
>apea...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Andrew Pearlman) writes:
>
>>[Violations Spoilers]
>>Crusher was wondering if the telepaths had brought along some kind of
>>organism along with them. Nothing detectable is wrong with Troi, including
>>no organism. So what does she do? She decides to look at the transporter
>>trace.
>Example: you beam up with the flu, give it to everybody else, but get better
>before you get examined. The folks in Sick Bay wouldn't find anything on
>you, but if they checked your trace they'd say "Aha! They had the flu!"
Um, this violates medical science badly. Organisms tend to do one of 3 things:
Get killed off fast, cause lots of problems and stick around, or kill the
person. In addition, Troi would have had all sorts of antibodies floating
around if she had killed some sort of organism off.
They would see that certain substances were up and conclude, "Aha! They had
the flu!" This is something they can check for today. If nothing else,
Crusher should have said:"I don't think this is going to pan out, but it
is worth checking."
I was also sort of annoyed about Data's treatment in the script. I think
the show would have jumped a couple of levels, if the telepathic alien
had convinced Data he couldn't be the suspect, at least not until the
conclusion. Maybe by befriending Data :-)
Andy Pearlman
Robert J. Granvin
>Timothy W. Lynch writes:
> What was the electronic doo-dad on Picard's head?
An electronic hair-loss inducer.
Not only have people in the 24th century lost the vanity about hair, but
some people even choose to dispose of it.
Or maybe it was some sort of punishment for changing from AT&T to MCI.
No? :-)
--
Robert J. Granvin Southern Minnesota Wing Confederate Air Force
Public Information Officer 612/922-2382
r...@sialis.com || rjg%siali...@uunet.uu.net || ...uunet!rosevax!sialis!rjg
Sean C. Duncan, Idiot
> mwge...@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz) writes:
>>In article <1992Feb7.0...@cco.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>
>>Spoilers...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>>And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
>>>naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
>>>mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
>
>>Troi says later on that it was "a few years ago." I assume that it was
>>during the early part of the second season.
>
> True--but they seemed well beyond that phase of their relationship by then.
> I'm confused.
I took it as wrapping up the little bits we assumed were happening between
Riker and Troi in "Menage a Troi." Riker had his beard then, and I thought
that Deanna had a change of heart and this was a little wrap-up. Who knows...
I'm more interested in what the hell was on Picard's head.
> Tim Lynch
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sean C. Duncan, | -------- * s...@einstein.bgsu.edu
Long-haired Compu-geek Philospher | /__ scdu...@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
Western College, Miami University |internet:<___ sd01...@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
|
"Destroy a computer today.The mind| BITNET:<---------- * scdu...@miavx1.BITNET
is a terrible thing to waste." | \___________ sd01...@miamiu.BITNET
...............................................................................
Windsor A. Morgan
>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
>Random thoughts:
>--I liked Geordi's quote about "For some reason, I have NO recollection of
>how I spent my last birthday."
Come to think of it, neither can I :-).
>--My word, there *is* another doctor on the Enterprise! I actually thought
>rather highly of Dr. Martin in the little we saw of him--wonder if we'll be
>lucky enough to have him recur.
Well, I am glad there is another doctor shown (is this the first
doctor since Dr. Selar was shown to exist?), but he didn't *say* too
much, did he? The casting person could have put in that pretty nurse
who appears every once in a while (she was in 'The Game' last time I
saw her). <---- No, I'm not trying to be sexist or anything; it's just
that *she* says almost nothing usually too.
I would have liked to see Dr. Martin actually saying more and doing
something therapeutic (are at least *trying* to).
Well, actually, I would have liked to have seen a non-Human (*really*
non-Human, none of this bumby-browed nonsense, but humanoid is okay)
as the doctor.
--
'Verily, there be no leader as wise as the Vision!'
Windsor Morgan (wmo...@stsci.edu OR N...@PSUVM.BITNET)
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, MD 21218
Horowitz, Irwin Kenneth
>In article <1992Feb7....@cco.caltech.edu>, tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>> mwge...@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz) writes:
>>>In article <1992Feb7.0...@cco.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>
>>>Spoilers...
>>>>And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
>>>>naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
>>>>mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
>>
>>>Troi says later on that it was "a few years ago." I assume that it was
>>>during the early part of the second season.
>>
>> True--but they seemed well beyond that phase of their relationship by then.
>> I'm confused.
>
>I took it as wrapping up the little bits we assumed were happening between
>Riker and Troi in "Menage a Troi." Riker had his beard then, and I thought
>that Deanna had a change of heart and this was a little wrap-up. Who knows...
>
>I'm more interested in what the hell was on Picard's head.
>
Prior to the start of the episode "The Drumhead," there was an explosion in
the engine room, causing the radiation shield door to come down. Now there
are some differences...first, no one was hurt in that accident (perhaps Jev
merely blocked Riker's recalling that they actually SAVED that ensign?).
Also, I don't recall if Geordi was on duty when that occurred. But if he
was (or if it wasn't specifically mentioned), then I would propose that this
would be a good choice for the background of this memory sequence.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irwin Horowitz |
Astronomy Department |"Whoever heard of a female astronomer?"
California Institute of Technology |--Charlene Sinclair, "Dinosaurs"
ir...@iago.caltech.edu |
i...@deimos.caltech.edu |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Janis Maria Cortese
>
>>[Followups set to r.a.s.current.]
>
>>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
>
>
>John S. Novak III writes:
>
>[text deleted]
>
>Bev-- Started to go different when Jack opened his eyes. BTW, am
>I dense? What was the electronic doo-dad on Picard's head?
>
fracas killed Jack Crusher. Your later comment about a high-tech
bandaid is very likely.
>I took it as more than one memory overlapping. Let me rephrase that.
>I thought it had something to do with her remembering Picard as one
>of the Borg. And the memory, as can happen in dreams, somehow got
>"linked" to another stressful memory (her husband's death).
>
>Then again, as someone else suggested, it may have been one
>of those high tech bandaids. Except Picard's movement's and speech
>patterns struck me as rather "Borg-like".
>
>-- Christine
Remember, these memories were taken out of Beverly's mind, and she was
just about to see the body of her dead, beloved husband and the father
of her child when they were recorded into her long-term memory. She was
likely dazed as all hell and not really paying attention to anything
that day. (Recall that she was also very Borg-like, unemotional and
bland for what she was about to do, and walking in lock-step with Picard
down that long hallway. These things are all unlikely; Bev was
remembering things strangely that day.)
Regards,
Janis C.
Janis Maria Cortese
>In article <1992Feb7....@cco.caltech.edu>, tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>> mwge...@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz) writes:
>>>In article <1992Feb7.0...@cco.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>
>>>Spoilers...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is easy,
>>>>naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early in their
>>>>mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at least a year.
>>
>>>Troi says later on that it was "a few years ago." I assume that it was
>>>during the early part of the second season.
>>
No reason it has to be. Why couldn't Riker have had a beard while he
was still going with Deanna? Maybe he shaved it off when he got
assigned to the big E because he heard that the Captain was a pain in
the ass and might not like something so casual on one of his crew, and
then grew it back when he realized that Picard didn't mind.
Regards,
Janis C.
Timothy W. Lynch
>tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) said..
>>
>>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
>Personally, I think that both you and Mr. Kanamori (especially the latter,
>but then he hasn't enjoyed anything Star Trek since "Spock's Brain") are
>being a little hard on this one -- I thought it was fascinating.
I thought bits of it were. I just don't think the construction worked as
well as it might have. (After catching a bit of it last night, though, I
do note it's holding up well. It may end up being revised upwards in June.)
>>Characterization was, for the most part, pretty good. Not much was done with
>>Picard, which is a pity;
>True. I was hoping he'd have a Borg flashback, myself -- with one of his
>Borg counterparts suddenly turning into Jev..
Brr. What a thought...
Tim Lynch
Timothy W. Lynch
>Timothy W. Lynch writes:
>>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information for this week's
>>TNG episode, "Violations". Those not wishing to violate the sanctity of an
>>unspoiled mind would be advised to not read this just yet.
>>One definite problem with the presentation: by making sure we knew from the
>>teaser onward that Jev was the bad guy, a lot of momentum was lost. There
>>are many hints here and there along the way to set up Tarmin: beyond his
>>arrogance and pushiness, there's his prodding of everyone to get their minds
>>probed, and *especially* his "sometimes, with a beautiful woman, I cannot
>>help myself [from being so forthright]". Had we just been given that, then
>>the whole show would have been more of a puzzle, rather than an exercise in
>>frustration at how they haven't figured it out yet.
>Blarg. I have to agree with you here-- between the writer and
>the director, I think we could have kept the ending in much more
>doubt than it was. It was just... sloppy, all the way through,
>IMO.
"Sloppy". Hmm. That sounds a tad stronger than my impression of it, but
that's the general sense I was trying to convey, I think. Something just
didn't quite get assembled...
>From the beginning, I would have had Tarmin acting a bit more...
>strangely. I think the comment he made to Beverly might have
>been done better, and perhaps a truly _rapt_ look on his face as
>he was probing anyone else's mind (I have this vision of Tarmin
>continually licking away flecks of moisture from his lips-- the
>real reason being that he was putting _all_ his concentration
>into the retreivals, the false reason being that he enjoys being
>in peoples' minds.)
That latter sounds a little like overkill (if you make it too obvious,
then people suspect it's a bluff from the start :-) ), but definitely playing
up Tarmin and down Jev would have been an improvement.
Interestingly, this "who's doing it" angle has nothing to do with the original
story as I know it. More on that in a later post.
[When did the memories get altered?]
>I _think_ I got it figured out.
>Troi-- started to go different when Riker moved from talk to
>action. I just never saw rape as Riker's style (although if this
>were in the format I wanted it to be, ie 'Dallas' format, this
>would have _real_ possibilities!)
I suspect it was right after the kiss and Troi's first, quiet "stop". I
imagine that the reality there was Riker backing off, and Jev went on ahead.
>Bev-- Started to go different when Jack opened his eyes.
Jev was bouncing around the scene well before that. I think only the core
elements of that memory were real at all.
>BTW, am I dense? What was the electronic doo-dad on Picard's head?
A bandage of sorts, I imagine. Jack had enough of a head injury that it
wouldn't surprise me for Picard to have had the same.
>Riker-- Might not ever have departed from the actual.
Probably not very much, no. Jev just came in at the end and played up the
worst aspects of it.
>I _think_ (again, just IMHO) that the idea was indeed to portray
>the dreams as Jev consciously wanted them to be. I thought the
>idea was to frame Tarmin for mentally raping her, which is in
>effect what Jev himself did. What confooses me is hy Jev
>appeared in the dreams at all.
I think his intent while "helping" Troi towards the end was to frame his
father, but his first attack seemed almost instinctive. I don't think Tarmin
is what was on Jev's mind then--I actually still wonder if he was even
completely aware of what he was doing when he wasn't actually committing the
act.
If he was simply trying to set up Tarmin, your scheme would be a lot
neater, but I don't think that was the whole story.
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students)
BITNET: tlynch@citjuliet
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"I see your hunger for a fortune--it could be better served beneath my flag!
If you've the stomach for a broadside--come aboard, my pretty boys!
I...will take you, make you, everything you've ever dreamed."
--Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, "Pirates"
Timothy W. Lynch
>>>>Spoilers...
[on when Troi's flashback takes place]
>>>>Troi says later on that it was "a few years ago." I assume that it was
>>>>during the early part of the second season.
>No reason it has to be. Why couldn't Riker have had a beard while he
>was still going with Deanna? Maybe he shaved it off when he got
>assigned to the big E because he heard that the Captain was a pain in
>the ass and might not like something so casual on one of his crew, and
>then grew it back when he realized that Picard didn't mind.
The beard doesn't necessarily put them on the Enterprise, but Troi's
"we can't...*not while we're serving on the same ship*" does. Troi also
refers to it as "a few years ago", which means even if they were both on a
ship a long time back, it's not that either.
I think early second season is probably the intent, although it's suboptimal,
to be sure.
Tim Lynch
Janis Maria Cortese
Gotcha; I had not remembered the bit about serving on the same ship.
Oh, and Tim? I still think that your total recall of the episodes is
spooky as all hell -- do you work for the CIA (as if you'd actually say
yes . . . ) ? With your memory, they'd love you!
Regards,
Janis C.
Matthew Gertz
It is clear from the scene that this was after they were no longer "an item."
("Not while we're assigned to the same ship." "Do you still think about *us*?"
-- pardon my paraphrases.) Also, they were clearly on board a ship (as could
be seen by looking out the window), in a room which quite looks like Riker's
on board the Enterprise, rather than on Betazed or Haven or whatever.
I don't recall that it was ever stated that Troi and Riker ever served
together on a ship, though it is clear that they knew each other on Haven.
If Riker and Troi actually "served" together on another ship, it is
clear (vis-a-vis their reaction in "EaF") that it wasn't on the Hood. If
it wasn't on the Enterprise, and if my above logic rules out the Hood, then
most likely it would have been over eight years previous to the "present
date." Riker would have most likely not been an XO; Troi would've been
similarly reduced in responsibility as well, so I can't see how it would've
wrecked the chain of command (the argument presented most often against
the captain and XO having relations with crewmembers, esp. in TOS) for
Troi and Riker to fool around ("Not while we're serving on the same ship...")
(of course, maybe she just didn't feel like it, and wanted to let him down
nicely, but Troi is generally more forthright.)
A lot of circumstantial evidence, I'll grant you, but it seems to me that
*that* particular scene took place on the Enterprise.
David Mears
> And just *when* do Troi's and Riker's flashbacks take place? [Bev's is
> easy, naturally.] Troi's seems from the conversation to be very early
> in their mission on board, but Riker already has a beard--so it's at
> least a year. And what sort of emergency was happening in Engineering
> that we never heard about? I think there was definitely room for some
> ambiguity, but this was too much.
>
> All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
When I saw Riker's memory, I very quickly thought of the explosion that
was alluded to in The Drumhead. Until someone shows me why that wasn't
the reference being made, I'll assume it was.
David B. Mears
Hewlett-Packard
Cupertino CA
hplabs!hpda!mears
me...@hpinddf.cup.hp.com
Mark Runyan
>Crusher was wondering if the telepaths had brought along some kind of
>organism along with them. Nothing detectable is wrong with Troi, including
>no organism. So what does she do? She decides to look at the transporter
>trace.
>to say anything the medical scanners wouldn't have picked up?
Consider for a moment. There was no indication of a detectable organism
in the telepaths, but that would only hold if the organism existed or
left some indication of its existance at the time that Dr. Crusher did
the check. By going to the transporter trace, Dr. Crusher was checking
to see if the trace (a historical record) contained the indications
that she was looking for. Further, by comparing the trace to the current
conditions, she could also determine whether there were any significant
changes in the telepaths.
So, while the trace isn't going to say more than the medical scanners, it
will provide a historical record which can be valuable if current medical
records don't show anything.
Mark Runyan {r.a.s. random rationalizer}
Mark Runyan
>>apea...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Andrew Pearlman) writes:
>>
>>>Crusher was wondering if the telepaths had brought along some kind of
>>Maybe there was an organism when they beamed up, but it's died since then.
>Get killed off fast, cause lots of problems and stick around, or kill the
>person.
Um, your catagories appear to limited to parasitic organisms, and known
ones at that. It is possible (in Star Trek) for a parasitic organism to
draw what it needs and leave the body, and the body could recover without
anti-body reaction. Especially if the parasitic organism is one of
the various energy critters that tend to crop up. Consider the
techno-babble given by Dr. Crusher about the situation in the brain of
the victims, an energy parasite seemed like a possibility.
Of course, if you don't chose to accept that Dr. Crusher was checking
historical records to see if a clue existed, but was instead planning
on using the transporter trace as some sort of body map that the
medical scanners couldn't give her, then there isn't much I can do to
convince you otherwise. But I suggest that interpretation is not the
only one that explains her statements.
Stephanie Jones
dark...@camelot.bradley.edu (John S. Novak III) writes:
>
>What was the electronic doo-dad on Picard's head?
I thought that Bev's memory of IDing her husband's
body had gotten mixed together with her memory of
Picard's capture by the Borg. The doo-dad reminded
me of the electronic implants he had when the Borg
captured him.
Stef
st...@apple.com
Richard McCombs
> In article <1992Feb10.2...@cco.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (T
> >cor...@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese) writes:
> >>>> mwge...@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz) writes:
> >
> >>>>>Spoilers...
> >[on when Troi's flashback takes place]
> >
> >>>>>Troi says later on that it was "a few years ago." I assume that it was
> >>>>>during the early part of the second season.
> >
> >>No reason it has to be. Why couldn't Riker have had a beard while he
> >>was still going with Deanna? Maybe he shaved it off when he got
> >>assigned to the big E because he heard that the Captain was a pain in
> >>the ass and might not like something so casual on one of his crew, and
> >>then grew it back when he realized that Picard didn't mind.
> >
> >The beard doesn't necessarily put them on the Enterprise, but Troi's
> >"we can't...*not while we're serving on the same ship*" does. Troi also
> >refers to it as "a few years ago", which means even if they were both on a
> >ship a long time back, it's not that either.
> >
> >I think early second season is probably the intent, although it's suboptimal
> >to be sure.
> >
> >Tim Lynch
>
> Gotcha; I had not remembered the bit about serving on the same ship.
>
> Oh, and Tim? I still think that your total recall of the episodes is
> spooky as all hell -- do you work for the CIA (as if you'd actually say
> yes . . . ) ? With your memory, they'd love you!
>
If I have total recall of TOS, does that mean I'm spooky?
I probably should have made this Followup-To: poster as I'm straying
from r.a.s.current and I don't get r.a.s.misc
Internet(MX aware mailers): ri...@ricksys.lonestar.org
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Michael Rawdon
>Personally, I think that both you and Mr. Kanamori (especially the latter,
>but then he hasn't enjoyed anything Star Trek since "Spock's Brain") are
>being a little hard on this one -- I thought it was fascinating.
Don't you just love hyperbole?
--
Michael Rawdon raw...@cabrales.cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI
You can watch them die, live on TV.
- The Box, "Live On TV"
Richard Blewitt
>In article <1992Feb7.0...@cco.caltech.edu>, tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>
>> Scientifically...well, this *is* TNG. The Data/Geordi discussion about
>> memory, while wonderful for the two characters, was basically false
>> technobabble. [RNA? For *memory*? Not the way I remember learning it.
>> Little things like synapses tend to be important...] The thalmus, though,
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to pick up on this one. I
gagged and choked when I heard this line. Don't they have any
biology technological advisors?
>In a lot of the other SF that I have read, RNA has to do with learning
>and memory on the chemical level. My science is weak on this, but my
All this shows is that a lot of SF writers need to take some courses
in biology. RNA is *NOT* the storage place for learned memory.
>Science Fiction is not :-). In many short stories and a few novels, SF
>authors have used something akin to an RNA drip into your arm to give
>speed learning. A good example is Larry Niven. See his material set
Well that's a stupid premise. I could see putting in some sort of
neural stimulant to help speed learning, but RNA doesn't cut it,
cause it won't get into the cells.
>someone plug an RNA iv into you, and you watch a high speed learing
>tape. The feeling you have is that you actually knew the material,
>but the tape is just reminding you of it (a deja vu type thing).
This is really mind-bogglingly stupid. I'm all for speed learning,
but give me a workable premice.
Well given this stupid episode, "The Masterpiece Society" and the
first episode of season 2, I wonder if I am the only biologist left
who still watches the show. The writters must be members of PETA
and the Jeremy Rifkin fan club given the anti-biotech nature of
them.
Rick
--
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The generic .sig Rick Blewitt rble...@ucsd.edu