Season 1 weirdness: "The Last Outpost"

[LogicDeLuxe]

CommanderRaytas wrote:

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I think it is a question of credibility. It's the kind of blunder that drags me out of the episode and reminds me of the fact that this is a show made by, uh.... people who are not European.

That's nothing in comparison of certain LEXX episodes with a map of Europe with very odd boundaries: http://littlelexx.net/phpBB3/viewtop...p=10066#p10066

Pavonis wrote:

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Garbage in, garbage out. Data only knows what the databanks tell him. If the databanks are in error, so he will be, too.

I think, a federation ship's data base size would be comparable to the entire internet of today. Thinking of that, Data might be a victim of Wikipedia sabotage.

[CommanderRaytas]

That map of Europe is hilarious, hehe.

Besides, come on, the writers will sometimes make deliberate mistakes, surely, but those will always be made to prove a point, and they'll be less arbitrary. This looks like a blunder of people who simply didn't know any better....a classic case of didn't do the research. I don't see the point of fucking up trivia for no good reason. But that's just me. Other people will be bothered by other things.

[Timo]

Well, who knows which flag of Germany Data was commenting on? The colors would have been black, white and red for half a century (plus the same colors yet not in tricolor layout for an infamous decade later on). Perhaps they went to black, yellow and red at some point. Say, in the late 1980s or early 1990s when the Germanies reunited in the Trek universe... Or then at some point just before WWIII.

Our only limitation there would appear to be "One Small Step" where Ares IV sports the familiar flag in the 2030s. Although really being able to tell takes some effort:

http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albu...llstep_146.jpg

Timo Saloniemi

[CommanderRaytas]

Honestly, I don't even remember this... hence the "really?" bit of my first reply to this thread. I mean that, generally, this kind of mistake annoys me, and I start ranting.

If he got the colours wrong, it's a blunder, unless the writers were trying to make a point. If they were, then it must have been an obvious one. If it wasn't obvious, it was probably a mistake.

So...yeah. Stuff like that make me go all CALL A WAAAAAMBULANCE, because I am horribly pedantic. Maybe they didn't even get it wrong and I ranted for nothing.

[yousirname]

'Lonely Among Us' has some jaw-dropping Season 1 weirdness at the end, when Picard hears that one of the ambassador delegates has killed and tried to eat one of the other faction. Picard suddenly decides that he needs some sleep after all, leaving Riker to deal with it. It's played for laughs in this weird, tonally-inappropriate way - ha, ha, Riker! That rascally Jean-Luc's skipping out and you have to deal with investigating this murder and attempted cannibalism!

[Nerys Myk]

CommanderRaytas wrote:

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The problem with the Ferengi is that you can sense they were supposed to be menacing and mysterious, when in fact they were just kind of silly (even though they did manage to dupe the Enterprise's crew on a few occasions, if memory serves). Early TNG, people were all "wow, the Ferengi, no-one knows anything about 'em", but when you examine DS9 chronology, you have to wonder if the Enterprise simply didn't have access to space internet.

Actually they seem to know alot about them.

Captain's log, stardate 41386.4. We are in pursuit of a starship of Ferengi design.

They know what their ships look like.

RIKER: Anything on that design, Data?
DATA: Nothing specific, sir. As you know, Ferengi technology is estimated to be generally equal to our own.

They know their tech is roughly equivalent to the UFP.

RIKER: Which reports do not conflict?
DATA: That the Ferengi are, well, the best description may be traders.
PICARD: What kind of traders?
DATA: A comparison modern scholars have drawn from Earth history likens the Ferengi to the ocean-going Yankee traders of eighteenth and nineteenth century America, sir.
RIKER: From the history of my forebears. Yankee traders.
DATA: Who in this case sail the galaxy in search of mercantile and territorial opportunity.
RIKER: And are those scholars saying the Ferengi may not unlike us?
DATA: Hardly, sir. I believe this analogy refers to the worst quality of capitalists. The Ferengi are believed to conduct their affairs of commerce on the ancient principle caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.
RIKER: Yankee traders. I like the sound of that.
DATA: Well, sir, I doubt they wear red, white and blue, or look anything like Uncle Sam.

They've a pretty good idea what Ferengi society is like.

[CommanderRaytas]

Thanks for the info, but I was actually only trying (and obviously failing) to make fun of how in the pilot, they were supposed to be dangerous and mysterious, when in the end, they turned out to be neither.

[Squiggy]

Pavonis wrote:

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Garbage in, garbage out. Data only knows what the databanks tell him. If the databanks are in error, so he will be, too.

Yes, but "realistically" his databanks should be at least as good as Wikipedia.

[Nerys Myk]

CommanderRaytas wrote:

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Thanks for the info, but I was actually only trying (and obviously failing) to make fun of how in the pilot, they were supposed to be dangerous and mysterious, when in the end, they turned out to be neither.

Well they pretty much blew it on every level: Make up, costume, body language. None of which said "Serious threat".

[Lance]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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Well they pretty much blew it on every level: Make up, costume, body language. None of which said "Serious threat".

I think it's a great shame that the Ferengi design got watered down. Some of the early proof concepts (pointed ears and more pronounced-looking fangs) do actually look pretty fearsome.