What is an "ion pod?"

[Jeri]

^ "...that ought to be just about right..." - James Kirk, "Tomorrow is Yesterday."

[cgervasi]

ahkyahnan wrote:

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It should never have been acceptable under any Alert condition for a crewman to end up dead in an abortable operation, and Kirk should've been in hot water as soon as Finney was presumed dead.”

My understanding is that the ion pod doesn’t have any communications equipment. The CO communicates with the officer getting ready to enter the pod with an estimate of when he’ll have to jettison it. “I don’t think I’ll have to jettison for the next five minutes or so.” Or “Make it quick, this storm is looking bad.” The CO is responsible for estimating how long preparing the pod will take, waiting at least that long, and sounding a red alert prior to jettison. The person in the pod can hear the klaxons, but doesn’t have any other communication with the rest of the ship. He’s hurrying through a manual procedure, so he can’t use a communicator easily. Starfleet failed to provide any kind of handsfree communication.

This is a poor system that would probably have been improved by TNG and would probably not be allowed in a civilian job. But in a TOS-era Starfleet job, this risky operator-judgment-intensive procedure was seen as acceptable.

[T'Girl]

Kirk communicates with Finney while he present in the pod, warning him that a red alert and a ejection might be coming soon. Given that a red alert is the signal for Finney to get the hell out of the pod, it's reasonable that both a light signal and a klaxon would be present inside the pod.

[Destructor]

cgervasi wrote:

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This is a poor system that would probably have been improved by TNG and would probably not be allowed in a civilian job. But in a TOS-era Starfleet job, this risky operator-judgment-intensive procedure was seen as acceptable.

It's really ridiculous any way you cut it. Why would someone need to be INSIDE the pod to take measurements? You are asking for trouble? Given that the whole case hinged on something that was never well explained (what the pod was, why someone had to be inside it, why it had to be jettisoned, why Finney wasn't given enough time to get out, why bridge camera records weren't the very first piece of evidence consulted, etc), it just throws this ep on the pile of 'bad Trek episodes', which is a shame, as it wouldn't have taken much effort to make the central conundrum the same without having such a contorted, hard-to-explain scenario at the core of it.

[plynch]

Destructor wrote:

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. . . it just throws this ep on the pile of 'bad Trek episodes', which is a shame, as it wouldn't have taken much effort to make the central conundrum the same without having such a contorted, hard-to-explain scenario at the core of it.

It is great fun. Cogley's overacting, his love of books, Finney's voice, "Heloo CAP-tain." Flawed, yes. Like me and many other things. But not a bad Trek episode in my opinion.

Peace to all.

[cgervasi]

Destructor wrote:

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it wouldn't have taken much effort to make the central conundrum the same without having such a contorted, hard-to-explain scenario at the core of it.

I agree. I would have preferred a little more info into the incident that triggered all this, which is esp appropriate in science fiction, and a little less court drama.

[scotpens]

plynch wrote:

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It is great fun. Cogley's overacting, his love of books, Finney's voice, “Heloo CAP-tain.” Flawed, yes. Like me and many other things. But not a bad Trek episode in my opinion.

I wouldn't call veteran character actor Elisha Cook Jr.’s performance “overacting,” considering he was playing a lawyer who's “well-known for his theatrics.” Besides, he had a cool-looking jacket.

[Destructor]

cgervasi wrote:

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I agree. I would have preferred a little more info into the incident that triggered all this, which is esp appropriate in science fiction, and a little less court drama.

I didn't mind the courtroom drama, but given that it hinged so heavily on technicalities, they could have made those technicalities less obscure.

[Captain Robert April]

scotpens wrote:

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I wouldn't call veteran character actor Elisha Cook Jr.’s performance “overacting,” considering he was playing a lawyer who's “well-known for his theatrics.” Besides, he had a cool-looking jacket.

It's also probably one of the very few times he wasn't playing someone who would normally be on trial himself.

He played a lot of gangsters in his time.

[T'Girl]

Destructor wrote:

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what the pod was

The pod did something that the Enterprise was incapable of. If the Enterprise was capable of taking the reading without the pod, there would have been no pod.

why someone had to be inside it

The readings could not be taken remotely. this thread has gone though a number of possibilities.

Spock can monitor most of the sensors from the bridge, but not the ones from the pod. Sulu can fire the phasers from the bridge, but there is still a phaser control station elsewhere. Scotty can do a lot from the engineering panel on the bridge, but there are still jeffries tubes, engineering rooms and spaces through out the ship. Finney was in the pod because somebody simply had to be.

why it had to be jettisoned

Kirk said he had to jettison because of the storm.

why Finney wasn't given enough time to get out

Given that he actual did get out, apparently he was provided enough time..

why bridge camera records weren't the very first piece of evidence consulted

But the records were altered by Finney, possibly by Finney prior to his entering the pod. Consulting the cameras would have produced no truth.

[Timo]

I doubt Kirk would have bothered to check his own bridge cameras for verification that he pushed buttons in a specific order. He knew he had pushed them in the right order, after all. And the prosecution already opened its case by establishing that the computer had indicated Kirk pushed those buttons in the wrong order; visual evidence would be superfluous (if dramatic) and showing it early on would really just make the court think that there was some reason to doubt the words of the prosecution.

I guess the more interesting question is why cameras around the ion pod were not checked. The 1960s audience might not have expected them to exist - and indeed TOS doesn't indicate that there would be cameras everywhere. Just remember how Scotty had to rig extra visual recording gear for the Martine/Tomlinson wedding... But the 21st century audience would certainly assume that the ion pod, or at least the corridors close to it, would be under visual surveillance. Now, Finney would definitely have made sure that surveillance didn't thwart his dastardly plan. But if the defense thought that the visuals on bridge activity were wrong or tampered with, but couldn't prove anything, they'd certainly go through the ion pod camera material with a fine comb as well, looking for discrepancies or oddities they could use for propping up their faltering case.

(Of course, there'd probably not have been any cameras in the pod itself, if we assume that no other remote technology was available, either. If Finney had to manually operate stuff there for treknological reason X, the only way to get visuals out would obviously have been by midget draft artists and carrier owls.)

Generally speaking, I'd think the whole ion pod affair would ring true to those who were familiar with 1960s or preceding military technology. Lone assignments where men risk their lives in servitude to stupid pieces of machinery were and are very much part of the military life, especially so in hostile environments such as the sea or the air. What might bother the audiences is that a high-ranking officer was lost, in a job that to their experience should have been assigned to an expendable enlisted.

Timo Saloniemi

[johcomp]

I think the reason they lost communication was because it was an Ion-Pod 4, and Finney was standing on the antenna, shorting it out! They weren't due a rubber bumper for it until more stock was delivered to the nearest Star-Base.

[scotpens]

^ Love your avatar. I always knew Capt. Kirk had great legs!

[A beaker full of death]

Green Shirt wrote:

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That was probably the most unexplained, therefore confusing plot points in all of TOS. But of course, nowhere near rivals the entire Alternative Factor episode.

Really? If ever there was something that didn't need explaining, it was the ion pod.
Need I add it's a fucking FTL spaceship. You're not supposed to know how it works, because we don't know how it works.

[StarryEyed]

A beaker full of death wrote:

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Really? If ever there was something that didn't need explaining, it was the ion pod.

Only if all the fans are lawyers.

Nothing person Beaker, but you are obviously out of your element. If the pod contains sensors AND