No0t long ago, I saw a rerun of an old Star Trek: TNG, in which the Enterprise crew finds three people who were cryogentically frozen centuries earlier. One is a housewife, one is a country & Western singer, and one is some sort of business tycoon.
Near the end, the Enterprise comes upon some mysterious destruction and a Romulan ship. Picard communicates with the ROmulan ship, and despitte the Romulan captain’s inscrutableness, it’s obvious he has no more idea what happened than Picard.
The reason for the destruction seemed top be unresolved at the end of the episode. My questions:
Was an explanation given at some point, an explanation I missed?
If not, was it ever explained in a future episode?
I never read any of the Star Trek novels but I remembered reading the back cover to one that the story involved the ruthless business man. It seems the Federation was at a loss as how to negotiate with the Ferengi, so this guy was brought in to help with the negotiations.
I don’t know that it was shown out of order. It would have been finished before the writing strike, and I thought it was aired at the end of season 1, before any other Borg episodes.
The real continuity problem was that the next two Borg episodes, ‘Q Who’ and ‘The best of both worlds’, present a picture that is somewhat inconsistent with the Borg, even a lone scoutship, having been anywhere near the romulan neutral zone at that point in time, since they were encountered first “near system J-two-five,” two and a half year’s journey at maximum warp away from federation space (because of Q’s interference,) and then everyone being surprised that they appeared on the fringes of Federation space a year and a half later.
My guess is that they had some sketchy ideas outlined for the Borg and wanted to foreshadow them in ‘neutral zone’, and then got different ideas, couldn’t make them fit, and so decided to not worry about the continuity with the Neutral zone. “Maybe it was the crystalline entity or someone else.”
Yep. Zev got it right. The writer’s strike through off the follow-up episodes, and then they changed the concept. Gee, a continuity error in Star Trek. Who’d would’ve thunk it?
It’s called Debtor’s Planet, and it’s pretty good I think. The problem is, the Federation doesn’t understand the Ferengi mindset, so they bring him in.
Well, Phil Farrand’s Nitpicker books compiled the mistakes, though they’re easy enough to spot. A classic one is Picard’s shock when “Hugh” says “I will not”, as though a Borg drone saying “I” is massively unexpected. And this despite the fact when Picard himself was assimilated some years earlier, he casually said “I am Locutus of Borg.”
That is because the Borg treated Picard differently than any other being they had assimilated. The Borg wanted Locutus to be their mouthpiece to the Federation. How many other Borg had names rather than designations?
since we’re talking about abandoned/altered storylines in Trek:
in DS9, the first time we see the vorta, it’s a female who has telekinetic powers (she shoots some purple energy ball out of herself, which can knock people down). Then, the idea is completely abandoned. No other vorta has special abilities. Was she just a one-off designed by the Founders, or do all Vorta have this ability, but never use it? Or is it just the females (since we mostly see male vorta)? Or --gasp-- did the writers decide it was a crappy idea and give it up?
in TNG, Picard and an assortment of races (Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian) discover an ancient message hidden in their genes (which also ‘explains’ the ability of ST humanoid species to interbreed). The actress in that mesaage was almost certainly the same woman who later plays the head Dominion Founderette in DS9, and the makeup is certainly suggestive of the founders’ later look. Are the Founders supposed to BE that ancient race (presumably, they became changelings over the course of 4 billion years, and also decided they wanted all of their “children” to fall into line)?
It was the same actress (Salome Jens) but they’re not supposed to be the Founders. It’s just a coincidence.
You might also be interested to know that in the TNG episode Startship Mine, the head badguy is played by Tim Russ, who would later go on to play Tuvok in Voyager.
And Jeffrey Combs has played about nine thousand different characters on Star Trek, among them Weyoun, Brunt, Shran, Tiron, Penk and Krem.
My biggest problem with the episode is when Picard explained to the business man that there is no money in th federation. There is no explaination as to how the federation economy works. Then later in DS9 plenty of things are bought and sold with “money”.
Right. Most of the commerce is between non-Fed people (or between Feds and non-Feds). One would assume that, inside the Federation, there is no need for money (just as, say, there is no need for children to pay every time they get a glass of milk from the family refrigerator … but they do have to pay once they go to school, to the convenience store, etc.). One wonders where the Starfleet Officers get the Latinum they use to gamble at Quark’s, etc., though…
It’s still not clear how property, exchange of goods and services, etc., works in the Federation. One imagines that instant access to any food or object via a replicator would blunt your drive to acquire and hoard things. It’s like the internet, but for objects–why bother having a giant library at home when you can instantly call up any information you need on-line at any time, and the get rid of it just as fast? When that’s an option, you just keep the books that hold major sentimental value, or that you refer to on a daily basis, etc. So, with replicators, you only actually hold onto things that hold great personal value (antiques, like Sisko’s Willie Mays card, or gifts from friends, whether replicated or not) or everyday staples (your razor, your everyday clothes and shoes, etc.).
Some hints of Fed life, though–we know that there are “transporter credits.” When Sisko was first in the academy, he transported from San Fran back to New Orleans for dinner every night, and Jake mentions about him using up his transporter credits. So one assumes that the basics of life (to a very high standard of living) are met for each citizen, that certain things (transporter use, perhaps non-food replicator use) are rationed, and other things … ? How does Sisko’s dad handle the business side of his restaurant? Do customers pay? Do they turn in govt. ration coupons? How does he get his supply of non-replicated foodstuffs (seafood, veggies, etc.)? How did Picard’s family handle the winery? Does everyone have to go to the govt. to have their business ideas approved and funded?
Of course I understand that on DS9 most of the trading is shown going on at Quark’s but it still doesn’t make sense without some explaination. Is the Federation Communist? Is everyone given a replicator? Is everyone forced to work or can you sit at home, replicate some White Castles and doobage and play video games all day? How do you get a home? Is it assigned to you without rent or mortgage? Do you have any say in your life? It seems to me that without commerce or money the government would have to control every aspect of the lives of the citizens. Is that Rodenberry’s idea of a utopia? Seems to me to be a plot device without much thought behind it.