The Omega Glory's Good Points
- Thread starter ZapBrannigan
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Sorry, couldn't resist!
Ha!
Two words: explosive decompression.
Probably wouldn't be anywhere near enough to purge contaminants of any sort from the ship: some would cling to surfaces, and Kirk really doesn't want to report back on clingons having killed his prize crew.
Besides, can a Constitution tow another Constitution at warp? We don't know whether Kirk's ship could tow anything at warp - the case of the Botany Bay is ambiguous on issues of speed, or distance traveled per time allocated.
As for "flaws of omission", I think TOS could use way more of those. Most of the episodes handfeed us long enough to suck much of the fun out of the viewing.
Timo Saloniemi
Besides, can a Constitution tow another Constitution at warp? We don't know whether Kirk's ship could tow anything at warp - the case of the Botany Bay is ambiguous on issues of speed, or distance traveled per time allocated.
As for "flaws of omission", I think TOS could use way more of those. Most of the episodes handfeed us long enough to suck much of the fun out of the viewing.
Timo Saloniemi
There was reference to the Enterprise taking the Constellation in tow before all hell broke loose, so it's probably possible one heavy cruiser can tow another.
One ship towing another at impulse in interstellar space is practically useless.
We're assuming they just left the Exeter behind because all we see is a stock shot of the Enterprise's departure. But they might have remotely activated the Exeter's danger/quarantine beacon until Starfleet dispatches a salvage crew. Or maybe they destroyed the Exeter if they felt it couldn't be decontaminated.
One ship towing another at impulse in interstellar space is practically useless.
We're assuming they just left the Exeter behind because all we see is a stock shot of the Enterprise's departure. But they might have remotely activated the Exeter's danger/quarantine beacon until Starfleet dispatches a salvage crew. Or maybe they destroyed the Exeter if they felt it couldn't be decontaminated.
I remember them dumping the Surak, Spock's command during the years between STIII and IV, into a star after it was contaminated during "The Doomsday Bug" three-parter published by DC Comics.
Except, amusingly, in the "Doomsday Machine" case, where towing the Constellation out of the range of the local communications- and machinery-damping effect would have made a world of difference.
I'm sure something was done to the Exeter sooner or later. What mystifies me more is the events leading to the episode. Why is Kirk there at Omega IV to begin with?
It doesn't sound as if he would be looking for the Exeter. Sulu reports "Object ahead!" and then "Another vessel in orbit!" which prompts Kirk to raise an alarm. If he expected to find the Exeter, he wouldn't be alarmed by the discovery; if he expected starship-threatening dangers, he would already be on alert, and would feel safer after finding the ship intact. Rather, it seems the fact that there are other spacecraft around anywhere is alarming because Kirk sees no reason to think those could be friendly ones... At least if they are ominously silent.
Indeed, Kirk soon confirms that he never thought the Exeter would be in any trouble. She was supposed to be "patrolling this area" six months prior. Now, the real question is, why is Kirk also patrolling the area?
I mean, the Exeter obviously hasn't reported back on anything in those six months, as she has been stranded here. Starfleet isn't worried about that, though: starships apparently can remain silent for long periods of time before any action is warranted. Lack of alarming reports is sign of everything being fine; lack of reassuring reports, the same. But by that token, Starfleet should assume that the Exeter has already done Omega IV and the neighborhood. What business does Kirk have there?
Kirk is specifically approaching Omega IV. Why is that part of "patrolling", if that's what Kirk is doing? Why approach a random planet? More exactly, why would Starfleet waste starship resources by sending two ships at six-month intervals to do such approaches on random planets, when one should already suffice?
Timo Saloniemi
Since we don't know where the Enterprise was coming from nor where it was headed, the distinct possibility exists they were cutting through the area.
Who knows why they would stop? Do a survey on a previously unknown Class-M world? Exeter may have been patrolling the general area but space is still huge and I doubt a single starship could cover every cubic inch of any area of space.
Which doesn't answer anything. At the time they had no way of knowing the cause of the dampening effect or its extent. So again towing by impulse is useless in interstellar space because anything slower-than-light goes nowhere agonizingly slowly.
Even Captain Tracy's original purpose on the planet puzzles me. He talked about something like "arranging a survey with the village elders", but what was that all about? You can never quite tell what a "normal", non-Trelane, non-dikironium cloud-type landing party procedure is. Did Tracy and party skulk around in the bushes at first, like Kirk & Co. did in The Apple? Or did they just beam down and boldly stride into the village?
Could have been a good episode. Lots of good shots, Morgan Woodward is great. Terrible jingoistic episode. Being a fellow Canadian I wonder how Shatner felt reading it.
I can easily imagine Woodward's Captain Tracey strutting into the Komm village with his landing party and announcing "I, for one, welcome ourselves as your new galactic overlords."
Yes, and that's not the Enterprise's job in any case.
That would be my choice; there's nothing worth risking a decontamination attempt. You can build another ship, but to risk lives over a vessel (mind you, this is not a "risk is our business" situation) would be irresponsible.
1. The Exeter scenes in the teaser are pretty cool, much like "The Tholian Web." I especially like the bit where the play-back log ends with the doctor falling out of the chair, and then you see his remains on the floor.
2. Morgan Woodward was so good at becoming someone else, I went through childhood not putting him together with Simon Van Gelder.
3. Captain Tracy is tough as nails and amoral despite being "one of our guys." It was a dose of gritty naturalism in a series usually more prone to romanticism. Getting outdoors and shooting in sunlight added to the real feel.
4. Kirk doesn't win his first two fistfights, which must have surprised the character and astonished Shatner.
5. Kirk and Spock are not thrown into the typical, highly-escapable prison that TV heroes of the period were used to-- they have real trouble getting out.
6. Kirk doesn't use a cheesy romance ploy on Cloud William's girlfriend.
7. Good use of "that fight music" by Gerald Fried.
8. Spectacular close-up on a communicator at the climax of Act IV. You can see everything.
9. Shatner's dramatic reading of the Preamble. Some fans are appalled, and as I recall David Gerrold trashed it in his book The World of Star Trek, but from a purely theatrical standpoint, it was a high-intensity spoken-word showpiece. In other words, quintessential Shatner.
Perfect post. I like points 1, 2 and 3 but in particular...I completely had the same experience with point #2.
I have always enjoyed this episode.
Good points. And it doesn't hurt that Tracy has about six inches and maybe 40 lbs on Kirk. The punches looked short, crisp and well timed and the way he absorbed Kirk's roundhouse and came right back lent to the believability that the Exeter's Captain truly enjoyed mixing it up in close.
In TNG's Starship Mine, Enterprise-D is subjected to a "Baryon Sweep" to eliminate accumulated baryon particles from her hull. The process is deadly to all organic life, according to Memory Alpha, so I would assume that if this procedure existed in the 23rd century, it could be possible to decontaminate the Exeter with it.
But the infection can be dealt with: just being on the planet brings about some contrary infection which, in the aggregate, gives people time enough to build up an immunity and carry on with their lives. After a couple of hours people were safe enough; the episode's explicit about that.
It might take time to work out which biowarfare agents are needed to produce a stable, survivable balance, but that's surely not an insurmountable problem, particularly when the evidence is that the planet is, remarkably, not specifically dangerous if you get infected long enough.
It would certainly be a powerful anti-intruder defense if Starfleet deliberately contaminated all of its starships with the Omega Malady and then gave all its legitimate personnel immunity...
But it's probably far easier to scuttle a single starship than to give immunity to all those people who need it in order to interact with that starship in the future. Especially when the only known way to give the immunity is to ferry the people to Omega IV! The Exeter would be operationally useless if the Ambassador of Backwater III or the evacuees from the Doomed II colony could not come aboard without crumbling to dust.
Timo Saloniemi
But it's probably far easier to scuttle a single starship than to give immunity to all those people who need it in order to interact with that starship in the future. Especially when the only known way to give the immunity is to ferry the people to Omega IV! The Exeter would be operationally useless if the Ambassador of Backwater III or the evacuees from the Doomed II colony could not come aboard without crumbling to dust.
Timo Saloniemi
That TNG ep came to mind for me as well. Since the Exeter itself is perfectly undamaged, and quite expensive, I say for certain they would figure a way to salvage it.
First they would beam microbiology investigation robots aboard to identify the bug.
If the robots can't find the bug, then maybe it expired and isn't there anymore, or maybe it's highly elusive. It might be necessary to beam over biological experiment packages to see if lab-grown living human tissues can catch anything.
Before long there would be an answer: either you find the bug and figure out how to decontaminate the ship, or you become sure the bug ran its course and died off.
Broom-and-dustpan robots would be sent aboard to bag up all crew remains individually. Then maybe the bags are beamed from the Exeter to a decontamination chamber so they can be safely returned to the families.
You can't write off a top-of-the line Starship if there's any alternative.
Tough questions. I'll try (succeeding is another thing
) to present an explanation:Starfleet was concerned about the loss of the Exeter but didn't want to go public "One of our prestigious starships is missing for reasons entirely unknown." Not a good thing to start a panic because an alien attack could have been the reason.
So the Enterprise was re-assigned patrolling the area, hoping she might find some clues. When Kirk put the ship on alert status, was that a red alert or just yellow or else?
IIRC Uhura usually opens hailing frequencies when another vessel is spotted in the area, but that Kirk jumped straight to alert status could indicate he was expecting the worst (He said "I hadn't heard of any trouble" but was he really just overcautious?).
Bob
Afterthought: Given Tracey's instability regarding his character maybe Starfleet feared the worst and considered the possibility he might have changed sides. Not the kind of stuff you want to feed into the rumor mill and maybe Kirk had been instructed not to talk about such a scenario.
Suffice to say, that Starfleet probably wasn't too excited that Kirk returned with Tracey being alive...
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