I have a theory to explain the crew's strange behaviour in "Temporal Edict."
We know the Gelrakians, despite spear-wielding, are technologically advanced (they have warp-capable space ships).
Cerritos was expected to debark the Gelrakian "honour crystal" and ceremonially return it to Gelrak V. Instead, the Bolian officer accidentally loads the incorrect package from storage, and the honour crystal is left on the ship.
It's my feeling that, as Cerritos approached Gelrak V, proximity to the crystal-heavy planet induced some type of subspace harmonic resonance in the Gelrakian honour crystal which caused it to generate a neurogenic or psionic field whose effect is cumulative over time, and causes those exposed to it to fall victim to their foremost anxieties.
In the case of Freeman, it was questioning her aptitude to command efficiently following the cancellation of her role in the peace conference on Cardassia Prime. "We have to do something to prove to Starfleet that our crew isn't just a bunch of slackers." For Shaxs it was about his ability to effectively secure the ship. For the lower-deckers, and the crew in general, it mostly became about their work demands (except Boimler, but I'll get to that).
I think, whether technologically engineered or simply a natural quality that was discovered and harnessed by the Gelrakians, that this aspect of the "revered" honour crystal is used deliberately by the Gelrakians to get the upper-hand against technologically-advanced adversaries, who show up for round two of first contact with their obviously mineral-rich planet, and fail to honour their prior agreements.
It would also explain why the Gelrakians reacted so strongly to the wood, and scrambled their fleet and invaded so quickly, only to (again, somewhat ceremonially) "crystal graffiti" the ship: This operation was always the Gelrakians' Plan B, because this is not their first rodeo. This might be an historic and ongoing cultural practice of theirs, maybe in response to past invasion or bad experiences of space empire colonialism.
Presumably some ceremonial process, storage system, or special location on the surface of Gelrak V (the equally-revered crystal murder-altar, perhaps?) would have rendered the effects of the honour crystal inert or harmless, once returned as intended.
T'ana may have failed to register the effects of the neurogenic or psionic field, as we know at least some sickbay systems (the five-hour bio-bed) were awaiting some repairs. Or, T'ana might simply have failed to detect it, or had done so off-screen and we never found out because no senior officer cared to explain what happened to the lower-deckers.
But why was Boimler seemingly the only crew member left on Cerritos not affected by this?
Well. The four lower-deckers were actually repairing an otherwise-unexplained phase variance in the brig forcefield at the beginning of the episode. Mariner uses a phaser setting on the forcefield which is higher than they are probably supposed to use for this type of testing. Then after completing these special calibrations, with Boimler as the guinea pig, he actually gently touches the forcefield with an unfamiliar tool to "test the field integrity," and energy from the reaction of the tool with the forcefield knocks him all the way to the back of the cell. This is an unusually strong effect from touching a Starfleet forcefield.
This transfer of extra energy from the forcefield to Boimler, with the phase variance recalibrarions, must have polarized his neurons against the effects of the neurogenic field, thus making him the only one on the ship immune to its effects. Add to that, the extra scheduling structure wasn't giving him as much anxiety as everyone else anyway, due to his proclivities.
All of the clues were there, we just had to unpack a 23-minute cartoon into a 44-minute Star Trek plot, and account for the weird framing of the show.
We know the Gelrakians, despite spear-wielding, are technologically advanced (they have warp-capable space ships).
Cerritos was expected to debark the Gelrakian "honour crystal" and ceremonially return it to Gelrak V. Instead, the Bolian officer accidentally loads the incorrect package from storage, and the honour crystal is left on the ship.
It's my feeling that, as Cerritos approached Gelrak V, proximity to the crystal-heavy planet induced some type of subspace harmonic resonance in the Gelrakian honour crystal which caused it to generate a neurogenic or psionic field whose effect is cumulative over time, and causes those exposed to it to fall victim to their foremost anxieties.
In the case of Freeman, it was questioning her aptitude to command efficiently following the cancellation of her role in the peace conference on Cardassia Prime. "We have to do something to prove to Starfleet that our crew isn't just a bunch of slackers." For Shaxs it was about his ability to effectively secure the ship. For the lower-deckers, and the crew in general, it mostly became about their work demands (except Boimler, but I'll get to that).
I think, whether technologically engineered or simply a natural quality that was discovered and harnessed by the Gelrakians, that this aspect of the "revered" honour crystal is used deliberately by the Gelrakians to get the upper-hand against technologically-advanced adversaries, who show up for round two of first contact with their obviously mineral-rich planet, and fail to honour their prior agreements.
It would also explain why the Gelrakians reacted so strongly to the wood, and scrambled their fleet and invaded so quickly, only to (again, somewhat ceremonially) "crystal graffiti" the ship: This operation was always the Gelrakians' Plan B, because this is not their first rodeo. This might be an historic and ongoing cultural practice of theirs, maybe in response to past invasion or bad experiences of space empire colonialism.
Presumably some ceremonial process, storage system, or special location on the surface of Gelrak V (the equally-revered crystal murder-altar, perhaps?) would have rendered the effects of the honour crystal inert or harmless, once returned as intended.
T'ana may have failed to register the effects of the neurogenic or psionic field, as we know at least some sickbay systems (the five-hour bio-bed) were awaiting some repairs. Or, T'ana might simply have failed to detect it, or had done so off-screen and we never found out because no senior officer cared to explain what happened to the lower-deckers.
But why was Boimler seemingly the only crew member left on Cerritos not affected by this?
Well. The four lower-deckers were actually repairing an otherwise-unexplained phase variance in the brig forcefield at the beginning of the episode. Mariner uses a phaser setting on the forcefield which is higher than they are probably supposed to use for this type of testing. Then after completing these special calibrations, with Boimler as the guinea pig, he actually gently touches the forcefield with an unfamiliar tool to "test the field integrity," and energy from the reaction of the tool with the forcefield knocks him all the way to the back of the cell. This is an unusually strong effect from touching a Starfleet forcefield.
This transfer of extra energy from the forcefield to Boimler, with the phase variance recalibrarions, must have polarized his neurons against the effects of the neurogenic field, thus making him the only one on the ship immune to its effects. Add to that, the extra scheduling structure wasn't giving him as much anxiety as everyone else anyway, due to his proclivities.
All of the clues were there, we just had to unpack a 23-minute cartoon into a 44-minute Star Trek plot, and account for the weird framing of the show.
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