What amazes me is the level of trouble they went into to create implausible whodunnit elements.
The forensics baffle the mind: for the first time, a phaser leaves clearly visible remains of the victim, and it's stated that a high setting (level ten is two steps above make-disappear-entirely!) would have to be sustained for ages to achieve that. And then you have to cut the puddle from the floor, rather than scan it with a tricorder! And still you learn nothing useful.
The reviewing of logs is also painfully inefficient and unprofessional. It could have been done better in the 1980s, long before expert programs that could search for key phrases and other cues. At the time of the airing, it already looked archaic and anachronistic.
And what happened to all that "gunpowder residue in your hands" type analysis on who really fired the phaser, to internal surveillance logs on personnel movements, to futuristic lie detectors (hell, LaForge once claimed he was one!)?
In this episode, our heroes deal with the mystery of the week as a criminal/forensic one from the start. They generally don't, as space is full of mysteries with no criminal element to it, and whodunnits are statistically rare. But here they do tackle the issue, and fumble big time. As already said, they don't interrogate their suspects, they don't limit their movements, they don't appoint investigators or require those to share findings. Worf in particular is massively useless here, even though this could be his moment to shine without unduly endangering the drama.
Timo Saloniemi
