Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Relics"
Timothy W. Lynch
Stand clear if ye don't want a taste of 'em.
Now *that's* more like it.
Okay, so it's not "The Inner Light"; no big surprise. What it *was*,
however, was a nice, reasonably quiet, very entertaining show. And about
time, too. More on that after a lengthy synopsis:
The Enterprise picks up a long-running distress call from the USS Jenolan, a
ship that disappeared 75 years ago. They drop out of warp to help, and are
immediately shaken by an enormous gravitational field. Although the source
is not immediately visible, they trace the field to its center, and find a
large metallic shell, 200 million kilometers in diameter, completely
surrounding a star. In other words, they've discovered the first known Dyson
sphere, used to harness the entire radiant energy output of a star for
inhabitants of the sphere's huge inner surface. The Jenolan is located on
the surface of the sphere a short distance away, and they head for it.
Once they arrive, they find the Jenolan crashed on the surface; miraculously,
however, power and minimal life signs are still there. Riker, Geordi and
Worf beam down to it and discover no signs of life. However, Geordi finds
that something very strange has been done with the transporter: the
rematerialization circuits have been disabled, the power is being drawn from
the auxiliary pods, and the pattern buffer is locked into a diagnostic mode.
What's more, there is *still* a pattern inside the buffer, with virtually no
degradation. "Could someone survive inside a transporter for 75 years?" "I
know a way to find out." Geordi re-engages the transporter, and the occupant
re-forms: Captain Montgomery Scott.
Scotty immediately runs to the console and tries to save the *other* person
in the buffer, one "Franklin". Unfortunately, the equipment cannot stand up
to the renewed strain, and Franklin is lost. Riker introduces himself and
Geordi, and Scotty reacts understandably to the name of their ship. "The
Enterprise? I should've known! I bet you Jim Kirk himself brought the old
gal out of mothballs..." Scotty's question about how long he's been missing
is interrupted by Worf's appearance, which in itself tells him it's been
longer than he thought. They return to the Enterprise.
Once there, Scotty and Geordi talk in the transporter room and en route to
sickbay. Discussion of the changes in engineering technique over the last 75
years alternates with Scotty's tale of how the Jenolan ended up there.
Apparently, it was en route to the Norpan colony when warp failed. They then
stumbled on the Dyson sphere and began exploring it. Unfortunately, as they
finished their first scan, their aft warp coil exploded and sent them
hurtling into the sphere, killing all but Scotty and Franklin. When Geordi
calls Scotty's decision to use the transporter to survive "brilliant",
however, Scotty bristles: "I think it was only fifty percent brilliant.
Franklin...deserves better."
Once they reach sickbay, Scotty's told that his wounds should heal in a few
days, and he is then greeted by a newly arrived Picard. Scotty answers
Picard's unspoken question by saying that actually, he never *was* a member
of the Jenolan's crew; he was a passenger en route to retirement on Norpan
Five. Picard tells Scotty that he'd love to hear about Scotty's insights
into the time, then hastily puts Geordi to work on studying the sphere and
leaves. Scotty tries to accompany Geordi to engineering, but is still too
weak, and is instead taken to quarters. He marvels at the quarters' luxury
compared to his era, and attempts to reminisce about the time to his escort.
However, the ensign quickly demurs and returns to duty, leaving a somewhat
pensive Scotty to settle in to this new time.
Some time later, Scotty arrives in engineering (over the protests of ensigns
who insist it's a restricted area), only to be told that it's a bad time for
a tour. "I'm not here for a _tour_, laddie -- I'm here to help!" Geordi
initially is skeptical, but Scotty insists he's still useful and gets to
work. As he settles in, Data tells Picard that the interior of the sphere
shows a proper environment for humanoid lifeforms, but no sign of inhabitants
as of yet. Picard orders that probes be sent.
Scotty quickly proves to be more of a nuisance than a help to Geordi,
however; the last several decades of changes have made safe conditions Scotty
considered threatening, and Scotty also distracts Geordi constantly with talk
of his past achievements. Geordi begins to bristle, but holds his tongue
initially. In the end, however, Scotty begins to give Geordi advice on how
to handle Picard and to be seen as a "miracle worker," and Geordi explodes,
saying that he has a lot of work to do, "...and quite frankly -- you're in
the way!" Scotty leaves in a huff.
He arrives in Ten-Forward and orders a Scotch. Unfortunately, due to his
unfamiliarity with synthehol, he even finds the "Scotch" unpleasant. Data
steps in to help (prompting a remark from Scotty: "Synthetic
Scotch...synthetic commanders..."), and eventually locates some of Guinan's
*actual* alcohol in storage. He serves Scotty a drink of unknown origin ("it
is...it is...it is *green*."), and Scotty takes much more kindly to it.
Some time later, a rather plastered Scotty sloshes his way to the holodeck,
where he calls up the bridge of the Enterprise: the *original* Enterprise.
("No bloody A, B, C *or* D.") He enters and is caught up by the sight of it.
He loses himself in the memory for a bit ("here's to ye, lads!"), then takes
notice when Picard comes to talk. Both talk of their first "real" ships:
Scotty's Enterprise and Picard's Stargazer. They toast them as "old
girlfriends we'll never meet again." Scotty then gets a bit more morose,
feeling that he's just in the way on this ship and in this era. He even
dismisses Picard's suggestion that he study up current technical journals and
start over, saying that he's too old for it. His place, he says, is on the
ship whose bridge he currently sits in: "But it's not real. It's just a
computer-generated fantasy. And I'm just an old man who's trying to hide in
it. Computer -- shut this bloody thing off. It's time I acted my age."
The next day, Picard instructs Geordi to have Scotty work on recovering the
Jenolan's logs, and _asks_ Geordi to go along personally with Scotty to help
him feel useful, a requests Geordi quickly agrees to. As they leave and get
started, Data detects an antenna array not far off, and they head for it.
Upon arriving at the array (which surrounds a portal, possibly the "front
door" into the sphere), they open a channel to it. As soon as they do,
however, the portal opens, and a host of strong tractor beams pull the
Enterprise in, crippling both main and auxiliary power in the process.
This prevents them from actually stopping even once the beams let go; and
what's worse, they're heading directly for the center of the clearly unstable
G-star at the center of the sphere...
Scotty, meanwhile, rails at his lack of success in recovering the Jenolan's
data, calling the ship "just a piece of junk" now. Geordi, realizing Scotty
refers to more than simply the ship, points out that things haven't really
changed all *that* much in the past 75 years, and that were it not for the
structural damage, the Jenolan could be flying even today. Scotty is
skeptical, saying that no one would *want* it today, but Geordi insists that
some might: "Just because something's old doesn't mean you throw it away."
Scotty grins at this and offers a new suggestion about the logs. Geordi
agrees, but then finds he cannot communicate with the Enterprise.
With three minutes until the Enterprise enters the sun's photosphere, the
crew uses the maneuvering thrusters to put them into orbit around the star
(but only just; the distance is a scant 150,000 kilometers from the star).
As repairs continue, Data then begins scanning the interior for life.
Geordi and Scotty, meanwhile, cannot locate the Enterprise at all, but due to
the lack of radiation conclude that it hasn't crashed. Scotty suggests that
it might have somehow gotten *inside* the sphere, and Geordi realizes the
only way to track them is to somehow get the Jenolan's engines working.
Scotty thinks he's nuts, saying that even figuring out where to start would
take a week -- "but we don't have a week, so let's not stand around cryin'
about it. Come on..."
As they begin work, Data finds that the sphere has been abandoned by its
builders due to the star's instability, and that they were drawn in by an
automatic piloting system. Solar flares then begin to increase, and it's
theorized that the Enterprise's shields will no longer be effective in
approximately three hours.
Geordi and Scotty continue their repairs, with Scotty pushing Geordi to take
more risks than the engine specifications (which he *wrote*) will allow. For
whatever reason, their jury-rigs work, and the Jenolan starts up, with Geordi
at the bridge and Scotty controlling the engines. With the Enterprise in
still more trouble (the flares are increasing, they can't shoot a hole in the
sphere, and it would take too long to find an open portal), the Jenolan
tracks the Enterprise to the other side of the portal. Geordi and Scotty
quickly conclude that the Enterprise was pulled in, and Geordi realizes that
it's likely the antenna array is not a communications grid, but an *access
port* that is triggered by the same frequencies as Federation hails.
Scotty suggests that they hang back enough to stop the tractor beams from
locking on to them, then speed in as the door closes and use the Jenolan's
shields as a "foot in the door", holding the portal open long enough for the
Enterprise to escape. Geordi is convinced it's crazy, but agrees. The
shields hold, but only just -- and Geordi quickly tells Picard of the
situation.
As the Enterprise heads for the portal, however, the Jenolan's engines fail
to the point that Geordi and Scotty can't move the ship. Picard,
understanding this, beams them off the ship just as they're within
transporter range, then fires on the Jenolan, destroying it. The Enterprise
banks, and exits through the portal just as it closes.
Some time later, the Enterprise is en route to starbase. Geordi and Scotty
trade stories, and Scotty tells Geordi to enjoy the days of being chief
engineer of a starship, since they won't return again. "Now, lad, I thought
you were gonna buy me a drink in Ten-Forward." "Actually, I had a better
idea."
Scotty comes to a shuttle bay, and finds the bridge crew waiting with the
shuttle Goddard, to be his on "extended loan". It's slow, but it'll get him
where he's going. When asked if he's going to the Norpan colony, he observes
that it's a place where men go to retire. "Maybe someday I'll end up
there...but not yet."
As the bridge crew bids him farewell, Scotty reassures Geordi that the
Enterprise is a fine ship, "and from what I can see, the Enterprise is in
good hands."
"You take care of yourself out there."
"Aye..."
Wheeeew. Well, it's been a few months since one of my full-length synops; I
suppose it was time. Now, let's see what commentary I can come up to
complement it. :-)
As you might be able to tell, I enjoyed this a lot. What you might *not* be
able to tell is that I didn't initially expect to. The early rumours and
reports I'd heard about it (that a transporter accident marooned Scotty in
this time) sounded exceedingly implausible, and it seemed a cheap ploy to me.
Amazingly, they answered those objections -- and in the first five minutes.
As soon as evidence came up that the transporter had been deliberately rigged
for something, I changed my mind. An accident *randomly* keeping someone in
perfect stasis for 75 years is one thing, but a deliberate, desperate
attempt that (clearly) no one could have heard of is quite another; and for
me, it worked quite well. (Those very into Trek technology may differ; I've
no idea, and quite honestly couldn't care less.)
That was one of the two things in the teaser I liked. The other was the very
fact of using a Dyson sphere, and using one *correctly*. Considering all the
times that real astronomical ideas have been (let's be blunt) butchered on
TNG, it was pleasant to see a valid but still speculative concept take center
stage, and to be handled properly. (Even the numbers checked out right, I
think; certainly the distance did.) Besides, I've always liked Freeman
Dyson's more speculative ideas, and it's nice to see them get a little public
press.
On to the main question of the show: how'd they handle Scotty's existence in
the 24th century? Quite honestly, I'd have to say very well. Yes, there was
certainly a decent amount of homage paid to the original series here, both
humorous and not; and that's fine. Much of the show, however, was putting
Scotty in the mold of almost *anyone* taken out of his era and put in TNG's;
to wit, the feelings of isolation and uselessness that anyone would feel that
out of his or her element.
Without having seen any reactions from other people on this show, I'd have to
guess that this tack was a double-edged sword. Those devoted above all else
to one series or the other probably didn't care for the fence-straddling we
had here; they might believe that either Scotty should have been running the
show from the start, or that it's unrealistic to have him be comfortable *at
all* in this time, even at the end. I disagree with both extremes.
In fact, I think this show, both in content and attitude, is in many ways a
testament to the strength of *both* series. TNG has now become its own show
with its own following to the point where it doesn't worry about being
overshadowed by TOS stars ["Unification" began to make that point, I
suppose, but it was also treated as a landmark, universe-shaking Event [TM].
"Relics" was very low-key], and in fact subtly suggested that maybe TOS's
characters *weren't* all gods, based on the apparent lack of recognition paid
to Scotty's past achievements. On the other hand, it's also proof of TOS's
strengths that despite my opinions on the relative merit of the two series, I
did find that Scotty made a lot of the TNG crew look rather remote by
comparison. [Of course, part of that was the point here, but I think it went
further than intended.] At any rate, I think it worked.
This also, as a side-effect, had to be one of the best episodes to find
quotable sound-bites in a *long* time. The highlight among highlights had to
be Data's use of a classic Scotty line ["it is *green*"], but many exchanges
had images or quotes that are likely to stick with you for a while. (I
personally enjoyed Picard's identification of the mysterious green liquid as
Aldebaran whiskey: "Who do you think gave it to Guinan?")
The plot was occasionally getting mired in technobabble, but unlike "Realm of
Fear", here most of it seemed to be for a purpose. Besides, when the focal
point of the show is a pair of chief engineers, you almost expect a lot of
engineering jargon. (My own thoughts about it reminded me of Riker's
reaction to Barclay in "The Nth Degree": "Mm-hmm, yeah, I can see that,"
with absolutely *no bloody idea* of what they were talking about. ;-) )
Beyond that, most of it held together, which is really all I felt was
necessary for a character-driven episode such as this one.
There is one exception to that, however, and one I'm willing to bet was an
editing error. At one particular point, the Enterprise is stuck inside the
sphere with no propulsion except the thrusters. Then, once they're heading
out, they suddenly have 60% impulse power available. While I find it
perfectly understandable that repairs would have proceeded apace and that
they might be up to that level by the show's end, to not even mention that
repairs are *happening* is sloppy. As I said, though, I'm willing to bet
that at least one reference to it ended up on the cutting room floor.
(Actually, there's one other mistake which might be similar. As they're
hurtling toward the star, Picard orders the thrusters used. Great, but what
he does is simply rotate the Enterprise in its place without affecting the
way it's moving. I *assume* thrusters were then used to change the path to
something resembling a very eccentric orbit, but it would be nice if we'd
been told that.)
The show, much more so than "Unification", pointed out to me just how
contrasting the styles of the two series are, and did so without being
disparaging towards either. (I suspect "Relics" did a better job at this
because it actually had Scotty *on board* the Enterprise rather than
interacting elsewhere, and because he was literally dealt with as a fish out
of water.) I'm impressed, quite honestly; I don't think that's easy to do at
all.
A word or two on the set for the TOS bridge: again, I'm impressed. While
I'm certain a couple of shots here were stock TOS footage (and I think I
could identify which ones), clearly not all of them were, and there was an
impressive amount of detail. It almost makes me wonder if this show were
originally suggested by a set designer who'd always wanted to rebuild that
bridge. ;-)
Finally, this is the first time since "The Inner Light" that the *music* has
actually gotten my attention. Jay Chattaway did a great job using the older
themes in new ways; while the Alexander Courage theme is generally used as
some sort of triumph, here it was more often used as a wistful, fond memory.
Nice job.
I think that's most of what I've got to say. A few short takes:
--I'm starting to wonder if we'll *ever* find out the fate of the TOS
crewmembers that don't show up here. If they'd wanted a good way to tell
their fates, this would have been it. "So, what happened to all my
crewmates?" "Well, see, McCoy's an Admiral and surgeon general of Starfleet,
Spock's on Romulus [don't ask], and Kirk is..."
--Hands up, anyone who *didn't* think of a certain scene in "The Empire
Strikes Back" as the Enterprise escaped from the Dyson sphere. "This is no
cave"...;-)
--I hope we eventually get to meet the *builders* of this sphere. It's quite
clearly pointed out that they appeared to *leave* this, not die off in
it--and I want to see them. (It's easy enough to justify why we might not,
though; if they headed to another star and gave it the same treatment, no one
would ever know unless they headed through it on impulse power.) One wonders
if it was even a race we've seen before.
--It's also almost a pity that Scotty didn't show any reaction to the
computer voice; "Nurse Chapel? Lass, how'd ye get in there?" :-)
That's it; I'm definitely starting to ramble. This is the first show of the
season that really fills me with confidence; I hope it lasts. So, the
numbers:
Plot: 9. A couple of small, easily patched holes, but basically sound.
Plot Handling: 10. Minimalist, really, with just enough detail to get
Scotty into the situations he required.
Characterization: 10. Nice.
TOTAL: 10, rounding up for music. And about time, too.
NEXT WEEK:
A horror story gone amok, as crewmembers vanish from the ship, perhaps to be
experimented on...
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"I told the captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour."
"How long would it *really* take?"
"An hour!"
"Och, you didn't tell him how long it would *really* take, did you?"
--
Copyright 1992, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
Patrice Scattolin
>WARNING: The poor bairns below ha' Spoilers in them about "Relics", sir.
>Stand clear if ye don't want a taste of 'em.
>Now *that's* more like it.
>
>Okay, so it's not "The Inner Light"; no big surprise. What it *was*,
>however, was a nice, reasonably quiet, very entertaining show. And about
>time, too. More on that after a lengthy synopsis:
[stuff deleted]
>There is one exception to that, however, and one I'm willing to bet was an
>editing error. At one particular point, the Enterprise is stuck inside the
>sphere with no propulsion except the thrusters. Then, once they're heading
>out, they suddenly have 60% impulse power available. While I find it
>perfectly understandable that repairs would have proceeded apace and that
>they might be up to that level by the show's end, to not even mention that
>repairs are *happening* is sloppy. As I said, though, I'm willing to bet
>that at least one reference to it ended up on the cutting room floor.
I have to disagree. the hole point is that they are stuck right
next to a star with flaires coming at them. It's clear that the proximity
to the star is the element of the danger and keeping to the suspence of the
episode. Clearly the Picard did not need to get the door open to put them
out of danger because as soon as the engines were back on line he could
have gone back to the surface of the sphere whereby just looking for the
exit and get out again.
No in this case it is deliberate not to mention that repairs are undergoing
(although one assumes that they are) to provide an exuse for the ship
being in danger. Avoiding mentionning that repairs are partially executed
removes the need to explain why the ships remains in a dangerous
area even though it can get out of there. (making the star unusual nad
needing scientific experimentation would have partly worked but it would
have screamed cop out).
Without a need for an externAL rescue provided by this important omission,
there is no justification for the Scotty, Laforge subplot and the interesting
drama that results.
Frankly put without this omission there is little to justify the drama or
a interesting story of any kind.
It's too bad because the episode kind of worked well.
--
Patrice Scattolin
pat...@cs.concordia.ca
Concordia University Montreal, Canada
"I am so far north that Santa lives two blocks from me"
ron c carman
>WARNING: The poor bairns below ha' Spoilers in them about "Relics", sir.
>Stand clear if ye don't want a taste of 'em.
>Now *that's* more like it.
>As you might be able to tell, I enjoyed this a lot. What you might *not* be
>able to tell is that I didn't initially expect to. The early rumours and
>reports I'd heard about it (that a transporter accident marooned Scotty in
>this time) sounded exceedingly implausible, and it seemed a cheap ploy to me.
Actually, I was looking forward to this quite a lot. I was
concerned about how they would bring Scotty forward in time,
but it was done quite convincingly...
>This also, as a side-effect, had to be one of the best episodes to find
>quotable sound-bites in a *long* time. The highlight among highlights had to
>be Data's use of a classic Scotty line ["it is *green*"], but many exchanges
>had images or quotes that are likely to stick with you for a while. (I
>personally enjoyed Picard's identification of the mysterious green liquid as
>Aldebaran whiskey: "Who do you think gave it to Guinan?")
Until I saw this one, I didn't realize how long it had been since
we had a quotable episode. My favorite has to be "Synthetic Scotch,
synthetic commanders..."
>(Actually, there's one other mistake which might be similar. As they're
>hurtling toward the star, Picard orders the thrusters used. Great, but what
>he does is simply rotate the Enterprise in its place without affecting the
>way it's moving. I *assume* thrusters were then used to change the path to
>something resembling a very eccentric orbit, but it would be nice if we'd
>been told that.)
I've got one minor nitpick about how the problem was resolved, as
well. Did anyone else notice that the Enterprise beamed Geordi and
Scotty off the Jenolan with her shields still *up*?
I'm quite willing to overlook that in light of the strength of
the rest of the show...
>A word or two on the set for the TOS bridge: again, I'm impressed. While
>I'm certain a couple of shots here were stock TOS footage (and I think I
>could identify which ones), clearly not all of them were, and there was an
>impressive amount of detail. It almost makes me wonder if this show were
>originally suggested by a set designer who'd always wanted to rebuild that
>bridge. ;-)
Absolutely. Even the sounds were near to perfection.
I was quite impressed; and I thought I spotted some
old TOS footage in there...
>TOTAL: 10, rounding up for music. And about time, too.
About time is right! If they keep this up, maybe we can
all pretend 'Man of the People' never happened... ;)
RC Carman
--
/=======================================================================\
| Ron C. Carman || 'What you want is irrelevant. |
| rcca...@mik.uky.edu || What you have chosen is at hand.' |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Wright
In article <1bq8lj...@gap.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
WARNING: The poor bairns below ha' Spoilers in them about "Relics", sir.
|Stand clear if ye don't want a taste of 'em.
|Now *that's* more like it.
Agreed. It probably was the *best* of the slow shows, and although
seemed at times to get lost in techno babble that even Scotty could not
even mutter, it none the less was one of the best TNG shows. The show
seemed to say, look, here's an interesting issue of aging and we can
make is sci-fi. And the great thing was that it made no pretense of
being action oriented. No false starts. James was just a good enough
actor to pull most of this off.
And the best thing about this show was that Troi was not in it.
|On to the main question of the show: how'd they handle Scotty's existence in
|the 24th century? Quite honestly, I'd have to say very well.
I agree that The only thing missing was his reaction to his old life, things
that often are brought up with time travellers. At first, I thought we get
something interesting when Scotty seemed to indicate that he thought James
Kirk of the Old Enterprise was there to rescue him--but the topic was never
picked up again. Wouldn't someone still remind him of McCoy, Spock, or what
about any other person that might still be alive.
|There is one exception to that, however, and one I'm willing to bet was an
|editing error. At one particular point, the Enterprise is stuck inside the
|sphere with no propulsion except the thrusters. Then, once they're heading
|out, they suddenly have 60% impulse power available.
But isn't it nice they save us from another dumb cliff hanger?
--
"There is nothing in the marginal conditions that
distinguish a mountain from a mole hill"
Kenneth Boulding
All comments are mine---(David Wright)
da...@cats.ucsc.edu.
Iain Robert Asplin
No, I think we knew they could get away when Picard asked Data to start
looking for another door that was open. The star was emitting a solar
flare, and that would spread throughout the entire interior area of
the sphere, making danger everywhere.
(OK, so it would be weaker at the edges.... :)
More importantly, however, the Enterprise crew hadn't figured out that
it was Federation hails that opened the doors, unlike Scotty and Geordi
who had. Moreover, we don't know if the door would open the same way
from the inside....
Marc N Barrett
OK, one more...
>--I hope we eventually get to meet the *builders* of this sphere. It's quite
>clearly pointed out that they appeared to *leave* this, not die off in
>it--and I want to see them. (It's easy enough to justify why we might not,
>though; if they headed to another star and gave it the same treatment, no one
>would ever know unless they headed through it on impulse power.) One wonders
>if it was even a race we've seen before.
It occurred to me that this would be a good way to fit the Preservers to
the rest of Trek history. At the beginning of the episode they mentioned that
the interior of the Dyson Sphere could hold the equivelent of 250 Million
Class M worlds!! That is a LOT of people. Clearly, when they evacuated the
thing, an awful LOT of people went somewhere, and may not have gone to another
Dyson Sphere. They may have just settled other worlds throughout the galaxy,
becoming the Preservers mentioned in TOS episodes.
I remember that in one TOS episode, McCoy states "I've always wondered why
there are so many humonoid races in the galaxy." The Dyson Sphere could
partly solve this puzzle, too. If the Sphere is millions of years old, the
evacuees of the Sphere who settled worlds throughout the galaxy would have had
more than enough time to evolve somewhat to the similar-but-somewhat-
differentiated races we see so often in ST.
---
| Marc Barrett -MB- | email: bar...@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------
Michael Rawdon
>In article <1bq8lj...@gap.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>--I hope we eventually get to meet the *builders* of this sphere. It's quite
>>clearly pointed out that they appeared to *leave* this, not die off in
>>it--and I want to see them. (It's easy enough to justify why we might not,
>>though; if they headed to another star and gave it the same treatment, no one
>>would ever know unless they headed through it on impulse power.) One wonders
>>if it was even a race we've seen before.
> It occurred to me that this would be a good way to fit the Preservers to
>the rest of Trek history. At the beginning of the episode they mentioned that
>the interior of the Dyson Sphere could hold the equivelent of 250 Million
>Class M worlds!! That is a LOT of people. Clearly, when they evacuated the
>thing, an awful LOT of people went somewhere, and may not have gone to another
>Dyson Sphere. They may have just settled other worlds throughout the galaxy,
>becoming the Preservers mentioned in TOS episodes.
I thought something among the exact same lines, though I like the idea that
humanoids were some sort of experiment for the Preservers a little better
than that the humanoids themselves were the Preservers.
One wonders where the Borg fit in, since they seem to almost exclusively use
humanoid bodies.
--
Michael Rawdon raw...@colby.cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI
You can watch them die, live on TV.
- The Box, "Live On TV"
edward s. chen
>tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>
>>A word or two on the set for the TOS bridge: again, I'm impressed. While
>>I'm certain a couple of shots here were stock TOS footage (and I think I
>>could identify which ones), clearly not all of them were, and there was an
>>impressive amount of detail. It almost makes me wonder if this show were
>>originally suggested by a set designer who'd always wanted to rebuild that
>>bridge. ;-)
>
> Absolutely. Even the sounds were near to perfection.
>I was quite impressed; and I thought I spotted some
>old TOS footage in there...
>
Four words: "The Mark of Gideon"
The teaser from the episode: Kirk beams to an empty Enterprise, and wanders
around an empty bridge. Guess where the "stock footage" of the empty bridge
came from :-). They did do a nice job with it though. The only blatant
case of scene stealing is the shot of the viewscreen, and the red planet.
I do believe the only part of the set they rebuilt was Scotty's station, the
captain's chair, and Sulu and Chekov's chairs. (along with the red doors, of
course)
<ESC>
--
..You either kiss the future or the past goodbye...
-- Ringo Starr (written by O'Deherty / Velez)
Dennis Lou
In article <1bq8lj...@gap.caltech.edu>, tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
|> --Hands up, anyone who *didn't* think of a certain scene in "The Empire
|> Strikes Back" as the Enterprise escaped from the Dyson sphere. "This is no
|> cave"...;-)
Actually, I was thinking of ST3:TSFS as they were leaving starbase except
they didn't quite do a rotation and they were going quite a bit slower.
The scene was pretty cool, though.
|> Plot: 9. A couple of small, easily patched holes, but basically sound.
|> Plot Handling: 10. Minimalist, really, with just enough detail to get
|> Scotty into the situations he required.
|> Characterization: 10. Nice.
|>
|> TOTAL: 10, rounding up for music. And about time, too.
I would have given a 8.5. Like you said in the beginning, this was no
"Inner Light". :-)
--
Dennis Lou || "But Yossarian, what if everyone thought that way?"
dl...@ucsd.edu || "Then I'd be crazy to think any other way!"
[backbone]!ucsd!dlou |+====================================================
dl...@ucsd.BITNET |Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak went to my high school.
--
Dennis Lou || "But Yossarian, what if everyone thought that way?"
dl...@ucsd.edu || "Then I'd be crazy to think any other way!"
[backbone]!ucsd!dlou |+====================================================
dl...@ucsd.BITNET |Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak went to my high school.
Richard L. Gralnik
courtesy gap for those whose systems don't respect a CTL-L
I decided to wait for Tim's review before posting my own comments on Relics
because Tim usually makes all the comments I would (and more) so why waste the
bandwidth? However, I was surprised about how little of the show I think he
actually reviewed (maybe the 'synopsis' wore out his fingers :-)
Anyway, the first time I watched it I was VERY disappointed. The second time
I was still disappointed, just not as much.
First off, I think they painted Scotty as much more pathetic and lost than he
would have been. I think he would have been much stronger about adapting and
less of a reminiscing old coot. 'I remember...' is a clever way to bring back
some TOS memories, but I didn't recognize half the references (which was probably
the whole idea), and frankly, I wanted more recognizable references (yes, I
wanted the nostalgia. I admit it.) I was also surprised by the failure to tie
up any loose ends on the TOS crew. A simple query to the computer could have
done it and been very satisfying. The holodeck was the perfect place for Scotty
to find out too.
I found the crew surprisingly unsympathetic considering who Scotty is and the
fact that I would at least expect the senior officers to have some idea of
what he'd accomplished.
A major plot hole that really bothered me was why 'Counsellor' Troi never talked
to Scotty. This would have been appropriate and IMHO necessary given the way
they depicted Scotty's reaction to his situation. Then at the end all of a
sudden there's Troi at the send off. "where the hell has she been?" was my
and my wife's reaction, along with, "so what's she doing there now?"
Another 'Where is' goes to Guinan? She could also have helped Scotty close the
time gap since she was probably around StarFleet in the TOS days and ever since.
I mean, who's this 'waiter' in 10 Forward?
I thought the ensign who escorted Scotty to his quarters played the role of
'I don't know you, I don't want to listen to your stories of the good-old-days,
and I really just want to get out of here' youngster was handled very well.
I've done that to my own grandparents, and this made me realize how much it hurt
them much more than any scolding by my parents.
I had to laugh at the way Geordi kept grabbing Scotty's bad arm in that scene
where they just came back from the Jenolan. I kept waiting for Scotty to react
"Ouch. Can't ya' see I've got a wee broken arm laddie?"
Too bad they didn't get Barkley in on this one. "You think you had a tough time
in the transporter...?" Nice detail when they mentioned that Scotty's partner's
transporter signal had degraded 53% and so was unrecoverable. If I remember
correctly, in the Barkley episode they mentioned that a pattern loss over 51% was
unrecoverable. I wonder if Scotty could have a mild case of transporter psychosis.
I was VERY disappointed by the ending. Scotty's going to go off into space all
by himself in a shuttle craft. Give me a break. He doesn't know enough
about current technology to run and maintain it. I thought it would have
been a nice touch for Scotty to go to Starfleet academy to teach Starfleet
history or something. Another example of TNG's episode-in-a-bottle approach
is that they could have put Scotty in touch with the crew of the ship the
Enterprise kept running into in that timeloop episode (the Frazier Crane
ship). Those folks are in the same boat (so to speak) and it could have
benefitted all of them to get them together.
All in all, this is not an episode I would rate highly. Rather I put it
in the might-have-been pile.
Richard
Randall Gee
]In article <rccarm00....@mik.uky.edu> rcca...@mik.uky.edu (ron c carman) writes:
]>tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
]>
]>>A word or two on the set for the TOS bridge: again, I'm impressed. While
]>>I'm certain a couple of shots here were stock TOS footage (and I think I
]>>could identify which ones), clearly not all of them were, and there was an
]>>impressive amount of detail. It almost makes me wonder if this show were
]>>originally suggested by a set designer who'd always wanted to rebuild that
]>>bridge. ;-)
]>
]> Absolutely. Even the sounds were near to perfection.
]>I was quite impressed; and I thought I spotted some
]>old TOS footage in there...
]>
]
]Four words: "The Mark of Gideon"
]
]The teaser from the episode: Kirk beams to an empty Enterprise, and wanders
]around an empty bridge. Guess where the "stock footage" of the empty bridge
]came from :-). They did do a nice job with it though. The only blatant
]case of scene stealing is the shot of the viewscreen, and the red planet.
Oh, But the shot of the Generic Red Planet was great! That must have appeared
in virtually every Star Trek Episode! You know, they'd be orbiting some weird
looking gaseous Generic Red Planer. but when they beamed down there, it was
Earth!
You gotta love it!
-- Randall M! Gee
Matthew Gertz
>Stand clear if ye don't want a taste of 'em.
>Now *that's* more like it.
Ayuh! It was *good* episode, plain and simple. Nothing earth-shattering,
just a lot of fun to watch and listen to. (How many other people out there
where reciting the names of the TOS episodes to which Scotty was referencing?)
Wonderful special effects (and, more importantly, great *sound* effects).
>Amazingly, they answered those objections -- and in the first five minutes.
>As soon as evidence came up that the transporter had been deliberately rigged
>for something, I changed my mind. An accident *randomly* keeping someone in
>perfect stasis for 75 years is one thing, but a deliberate, desperate
>attempt that (clearly) no one could have heard of is quite another; and for
>me, it worked quite well.
Me, too, although I have to say that I was expecting the explanation they
gave (hey, it *is* Scotty, the genius engineer, after all). One question:
we know from "Realm of Fear" that duration can be experienced while in the
pattern buffer. One wonders how Scotty remained sane over all the years...
unless this was rigged somehow, too...
>That was one of the two things in the teaser I liked. The other was the very
>fact of using a Dyson sphere, and using one *correctly*.
Well, while the Enterprise was heading directly for the Sun, we should have
been able to see the inside of the far end of the sphere, instead of just
blackness. Perhaps the view was computer-dimmed because the Sun was so
bright, though. I did like what I saw of the inside of the sphere, though,
including that monster ocean which the Enterprise flew by on the way in
(step aside, Larry Niven)!
>This also, as a side-effect, had to be one of the best episodes to find
>quotable sound-bites in a *long* time. The highlight among highlights had to
>be Data's use of a classic Scotty line ["it is *green*"]
Unfortunately, on my betrothed's screen, it looked yellow ("Never Twice Same
Color")...
>(I personally enjoyed Picard's identification of the mysterious green liquid
>as Aldebaran whiskey: "Who do you think gave it to Guinan?")
That was a wonderful scene... my favorite of the show. When Scotty walked
onto the TOS bridge, with all those hokey old sound effects, I felt a lump
in my throat. They did an amazing job; I could only see a few minor
differences (the Holodeck version looked slightly less thrown-together than
the actual bridge of all those years ago, and the navigation console was
slightly different).
It's a pity that Atsushi claims he removed TNG from his viewing schedule...
I can guess which quote he would've picked ("No bloody A, B, C, *or* D).
>There is one exception to that, however, and one I'm willing to bet was an
>editing error. At one particular point, the Enterprise is stuck inside the
>sphere with no propulsion except the thrusters.
All of the scenes on the Enterprise, when it was in trouble in the sphere,
confused me greatly. First we can't manuever, then we can, etc... every
scene seemed to contradict the previous. You're right, I think some of
this ended up on the cutting floor. Granted, I was on some heavy painkillers,
but I got a little lost in those scenes. This is one of those episodes which
really should have been a full hour, not 44 minutes plus change (I guess
this is slightly better than an 88 minute episode which should have been
only a full hour, i.e. "Time's Arrow" or "Unification.")
>A word or two on the set for the TOS bridge: again, I'm impressed. While
>I'm certain a couple of shots here were stock TOS footage (and I think I
>could identify which ones)
I think just the opening shot of the bridge, and the final one (as Scotty
turns it off). I'm pretty sure the others were all actual set scenes. It
*was* a really good construction job. Seems a shame to waste such a set for
just one episode... :-)
>--I'm starting to wonder if we'll *ever* find out the fate of the TOS
>crewmembers that don't show up here. If they'd wanted a good way to tell
>their fates, this would have been it. "So, what happened to all my
>crewmates?" "Well, see, McCoy's an Admiral and surgeon general of Starfleet,
>Spock's on Romulus [don't ask], and Kirk is..."
*That* would be cheating.
Question: STVI took place about 75 years pre-TNG time, didn't it? This
would indicate that, to Scotty, the events of that movie must seem *very*
recent (i.e. within a month or two of his personal recollection). And
didn't the crew say that the Enterprise and crew was to be retired right
after STVI? Nice bit of continuity...
>--Hands up, anyone who *didn't* think of a certain scene in "The Empire
>Strikes Back" as the Enterprise escaped from the Dyson sphere. "This is no
>cave"...;-)
My hand is up... I actually thought of the Death Star sucking up the
Millenium Falcon when the Enterprise was trapped, and so the escape was
similarly prejudiced in my mind...
>--I hope we eventually get to meet the *builders* of this sphere. It's quite
>clearly pointed out that they appeared to *leave* this, not die off in
>it--and I want to see them. (It's easy enough to justify why we might not,
>though; if they headed to another star and gave it the same treatment, no one
>would ever know unless they headed through it on impulse power.) One wonders
>if it was even a race we've seen before.
If they have beak-like mouths and grossly-expanded joints, watch out... :-)
--
Matt Gertz, mwge...@cs.cmu.edu
Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
Randall Gee
>tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>WARNING: The poor bairns below ha' Spoilers in them about "Relics", sir.
>>Stand clear if ye don't want a taste of 'em.
>>--Hands up, anyone who *didn't* think of a certain scene in "The Empire
>>Strikes Back" as the Enterprise escaped from the Dyson sphere. "This is no
>>cave"...;-)
>
>My hand is up... I actually thought of the Death Star sucking up the
>Millenium Falcon when the Enterprise was trapped, and so the escape was
>similarly prejudiced in my mind...
I, too, was thinking more of the Death Star than of the cave in Empire
Strikes back (although that did cross my mind.) But the whole image of
the large sphere in the middle of space so strongly suggested the classic
Star Wars movies that my friends and I were quoting lines the way through.
"That's no moon.... That's a Dyson Sphere!"
"Why are we still moving towards it!"
"We're caught in a traactor beaam, it's pulling us in.... It's no use;
I'm going to have to shut down.... But they're not going to get me
without a fight."
(This may be getting a bit of topic, but.... what the hey, I like it.)
Mike Lempriere
: [stuff deleted]
:
: And the best thing about this show was that Troi was not in it.
:
: [stuff deleted]
I was wondering if anyone noticed this. She showed up in the final
scene where they send Scotty off with the shuttlecraft, just long
enoguh to say 1 intelligent line -- "bye" then, give him a kiss.
(Must've made Scotty's old ticker work hard!)
I was really disappointed by this. I blame poor writing -- the opportunity
was there in this episode for the counselor to do something.
Remember Gene talking about the counselor's position in the 25th anniv.
special where he describes her role as "human engineering"?
Scotty was completely displaced in time -- most everything he knew was
dead and gone. He would be an incredible control case for comparison
with those who had not skipped that time frame.
The writers should have come up with something for her to do.
At the very least, he would certainly be a candidate for plain-old
20th century counseling!
I wouldn't blame Marina Sirtis for leaving the show, in the same way I
don't blame Denise Crosby for having left. The potential of their
roles is(was) seldom lived up to. It doesn't matter how good of an
actress(actor) one is, if they're never included in the script
Joshua Smith
>>WARNING: The poor bairns below ha' Spoilers in them about "Relics", sir.
>>Stand clear if ye don't want a taste of 'em.
>
>>--I hope we eventually get to meet the *builders* of this sphere. It's quite
>>clearly pointed out that they appeared to *leave* this, not die off in
>>it--and I want to see them. (It's easy enough to justify why we might not,
>>though; if they headed to another star and gave it the same treatment, no one
>>would ever know unless they headed through it on impulse power.) One wonders
>>if it was even a race we've seen before.
>
>If they have beak-like mouths and grossly-expanded joints, watch out... :-)
>Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
My only comment:
I thought it was *very* convenient the Guinana was no where to be found.
Would anyone be suprised if Guinan's people built the dyson sphere
many years ago...........
--
==========================================================================
"Live now! Make now always the most precious time. | Reply to:
Now will never come again!" Picard, The Inner Light| jlr...@bach.udel.edu
==========================================================================
Eric J. Austin
In article <BwIzz...@news.udel.edu>, jlr...@bach.udel.edu (Joshua Smith) writes:
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>
|> Would anyone be suprised if Guinan's people built the dyson sphere
|> many years ago...........
Yes.
Guinan's home world was assimilated by the Borg and the survivers of
her race scattered throughout known space (no, not that "Known Soace",
although...). If her people had build the Dyson sphere they would not
be in that situation.
--
Eric J. Austin EMAIL: eau...@ll.mit.edu
Nicholas C. Hester
In article <1992Oct20.0...@networx.com>, mi...@networx.com (Mike
Lempriere) says:
>
>
>I was really disappointed by this. I blame poor writing -- the opportunity
>was there in this episode for the counselor to do something.
I blame poor writing for this show, period. I found the attitude of
Geordi and the others in regards to someone surviving 75 years in a
transporter (and an older model at that) to be less than enthusiastic.
This episode definately needed to be 2 parts; most of the first spent
rediscovering Scotty's character and him getting used to the 24th
century. Instead, we had an extremely rushed episode, inconsistent
writing where first he's welcomed then passed off like an old sock.
This definately wasn't the Geordi seen in the past.
I agree with everyone else that Troi should've been the one to help
Scotty, though I wouldn't replace the HoloBridge scene.
The second part should have been the E taking time to really explore the
Sphere, not to mention that a better disaster scenario could have been
written, hopefully removing some tech inconsistencies.
I had some hopes for this episode, unfortunately the best parts were
used in the previews for the episode.
I'd have to give this show a C.
___
Nicholas Hester "I'm a virgin...I'm just not good at it."
ia8...@Maine.bitnet -Ramada, "Hot Shots!"
ia8...@Maine.maine.edu
Sandra Cole
anyway...
This is not intended as a review of any sort, just a few random observations
about this episode:
1) Is the flute/recorder Picard was playing the one from the
"The Inner Light"? If so this was a nice touch and kudos
to the writers for this little bit of continuity.
2) In the holodeck, when Alexander told Worf that Worf was
the sheriff and that he, Alexander, was the deputy did
anyone else break into a chorus of "I shot the sheriff but
I did not shoot the deputy"(or should that be "I shot the
sheriff but I wish it was the deputy").
3) It would seem that Worf is only capable of beating the shit
out of holodeck images. Any other time he gets his ass
kicked royally. Why couldn't he have been as effective
against the Ferengi last week?
4) Blessedly little technobabble this time around(thank you
Great Kahuna!)
5) Data in drag.....the stuff of which nightmares are made
of(Worf's nightmares at least:-)
6) Nice symbolic FX shot at the end of the episode.
Smiley
:)I don't thinlk these are spoilers but I'll put in some protection
:)anyway...
:) 1) Is the flute/recorder Picard was playing the one from the
:) "The Inner Light"? If so this was a nice touch and kudos
Yes, I believe it was.
:) to the writers for this little bit of continuity.
Yes, I believe it was. :)
:) 2) In the holodeck, when Alexander told Worf that Worf was
:) the sheriff and that he, Alexander, was the deputy did
:) anyone else break into a chorus of "I shot the sheriff but
:) I did not shoot the deputy"(or should that be "I shot the
:) sheriff but I wish it was the deputy").
Uh... no... :)
:) 3) It would seem that Worf is only capable of beating the shit
:) out of holodeck images. Any other time he gets his ass
:) kicked royally. Why couldn't he have been as effective
:) against the Ferengi last week?
Because it would have violated the second law of plot movements. :)
:) 5) Data in drag.....the stuff of which nightmares are made
:) of(Worf's nightmares at least:-)
And all that whitish makeup Brent Spiner had to wear on his chest... :)
I wonder if he's really hairless, or they had to do to him what was done
to Robin Williams for "Hook".
:) 6) Nice symbolic FX shot at the end of the episode.
Well, it was a nice view, but kind of cheesey...
--
Josh Laff # #
email to: smi...@uiuc.edu _ _ Hello! I am a signature virus!
(217) 384-6249 |#\_____/#| Join the fun and copy mo*#(*&^!>.
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