Creepy Eyes

It was an episode of "Due South" that launched me on a googling spree on the subject...

The part that sounds wrong about hauling ore to or from Delta Vega is the sheer distances involved in getting it to the user. But perhaps Delta is part of a robotic mining network that involves several nearby star systems, and ore is being taken from Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and the others to the centrally located Alpha Vega for refining before being shipped to civilized space? Perhaps there's some crew at Alpha, too, even if the mines and the ore ships are automated? And perhaps it's for this crew, rather than for random passersby or past or future colonists, that the crew facilities exist on the mining stations?

Timo Saloniemi

 

I would say that Delta Vega is pretty clearly isolated. The Enterprise's mission took her to deep space... the edge of our galaxy... and the whole story rests on the fulcrum that the ship's is "out there" and everyone aboard could die on that distant frontier.

 

Yet Kirk does seem to think that others would follow - and the space around him must be jam-packed with Federation installations if one is so close to where he gets stranded by sheer chance.

If it's not chance, if Delta Vega is Kirk's designated backup site in case anything goes wrong, then Kirk is of course far away from other human beings or UFP sentients. But we never learn quite how far: the loss of warp drive would leave Kirk isolated even if the nearest settlement was just a couple of lightyears away (indeed, impulse speeds would get him to one of those in "years", not "decades" or "centuries", although that may be taking time dilation to account).

Much would depend on how Kirk communicates with home base. Since he makes no attempt to do so at any point of the story, before or after the barrier encounter, we might claim he's out of range. And supposedly Delta Vega would be out of range as well, then, which is sort of odd if it needs to keep running smoothly and report on progress in cracking whatever it's cracking.

Timo Saloniemi

 

You just discovered another plot hole. Congratulations!

I would assume that subspace radio communications are layered, with the simplest, low-power, low-speed telemetery-type "Morse code" radio being the most basic form of communications. This kind of non-visual "tap tap tap" is probably what was used for "survival mode" communications at least as far back as the Earth-Romulan Conflict. This kind of no-frills communication probably takes the least power, and has the most range and the most likelihood of surviving interference and/or jamming. This would explain why "a subspace message will take three weeks to reach Star Fleet" ("The Enterprise Incident") and why "we finally heard back from command base" ("Balance of Terror") and why Spock used "a low energy channel, but it is readable" ("The Immunity Syndrome"). It might also explain why it took so long to hear back from the lost Horizon ("A Piece of the Action").

I always assumed that the higher-quality transmissions with video and lots of data would be more problematic, or at least require more power, an appetite increasing with higher ranges and/or speeds.

At any rate, it's safe to assume that Delta Vega is not near any "Echo 12" buoys so the best they could do would be "tap, tap, tap" and wait a couple years.

As for the Enterprise's communications, I always assumed they were damaged with the main engines since the subspace radio and warp drive seem to work on the same principle. In recent years, I've taken to the Negative Energy Barrier being a dark matter and/or dark energy phenomenon; part of what holds our galaxy together. I started assuming that the Enterprise dropped out of warp once she entered the Barrier because of a negative reaction with the engines, which would likely be affected by such phenomena.

 

When Mitchell seems to notice Spock monitoring him in Sickbay and looks like he is staring directly back - that is creepy. When he brings Dr. Dehner to the mirror and she too has the glowing eyes - that is creepy. It is very effective. It's wierd that something as simple as contact lenses can make such an effective impact.

The episode has some great themes. Man's desire to have the the abilities of God, and how Man could not handle those abilities without becoming evil.

 

For the eye effects, a layer of metal foil was sandwiched between two contact lenses glued together. These were the old-fashioned scleral lenses, the kind that cover the entire front of the eye.

Wiki:

 

There's definitely a lot of creepy aspects to the episode that become lost as you grow very familiar with the story. Taking a long break certainly helps.

I must say that I can't watch TOS very often. I leave myself very long breaks, sometimes over a year without watching a full episode. Why? Because I've seen them so many times. Once I get the blu-ray discs, I'm sure I'll feel the "refresh" and indulge in them again once more. But at this point, it's more like "once in a long while"... kind of like listening to The Beatles.

 

Agreed. I'm watching some of season one on the remastered DVDs and falling in love all over again. I haven't watched them in about a year or so.