Actually, two nacelles: one at the top, one at the bottom. A bit difficult to see, but they are there; the entire CGI model has been shown to us in nice five-views, such as here: https://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/Starfleet/Prometheus_USS_Prometheus02.htm If Starfleet is building ships that split, with just a few dozen crew overall, an obvious explanation would be that this is a means of protecting said crew by sending uncrewed sections to battle, controlled from the single crewed one. The top bit, with most of the portholes and with the bridge and the sickbay, would then be likely to serve as a standoff control platform while the two sections with the big engines did the fighting, wholly uncrewed (as shown). Little need to put big engines on the section that won't be doing much flying on its own. Conceptually the ship is fine; the execution leaves a bit to be desired, including a confusing MSD and a bit of disagreement between the hull registry and the one on all the computer screens. Would we need to hear the in-universe design rationale spelled out for us? The end result is clear: a ship that can be flown in combat by just a few people, hence a ship that can be plausibly taken over by fewer, and then taken back by even fewer. The other plot convenience, of the EMH being better than a "This is Janeway" hail, we can blame on the heroes having to rely on utterly alien tech. Who knows, perhaps the builders of that commnet had never intended for it to transmit anything that isn't self-coherent and self-repairing (not to mention full of bells and whistles and optional ad-blockers and other stuff the makers and their customers had come to expect of all comms)? Timo Saloniemi
The ship seems very easy to fly and to give orders too but so is pretty much anything Starfleet does.
I never liked that episode because it screwed up the promise for the series. Voyager was supposed to be lost in space without any contact with Earth and Federation headquarters and here they are, contacting Earth from a 70 000 light years distance as if they were making a phone call from Losa Angeles to San Diego.
I agree, somehow, it completely ruins the plot. Then they screw this up even further by having actual phone calls.
Yep, and very few of those phone calls had the emotional weight to them that you would expect to see from people after being separated for so long, across such a distance, and the crew being presumed lost/dead.
I don't really see how Message in a bottle screwed up the premise of the series. Yes, they had communication with the Federation, but it was a unique, one time only opportunity. Regular communications were only set up with Pathfinder, two years later.
Having developments is "screwing up the premise"? I'd have liked for them to lose their ship at some point, meaning even the title would have been off the mark... Timo Saloniemi
I've always liked this episode. Anyways, It's a comedic episode through and through.Think of it as dark humor if you wish. Part of the humor is the fact that they are carrying on an argument over this wounded Romulan. The Starfleet crewmembers are irrelevant here. They are already dead and gone. We didn't know them, and we shall not mourn for them. They do not impact the tone of this episode. A more reasonable objection might be the serious episodes found in all Trek series where humans are unceremoniously killed, and sometimes left to rot unburied on some planet that will never be visited again, like in To the Death, for example. These unnamed people have never not been expendable, whether it's a comedic episode, action, drama, or otherwise. How does a VFX gaff serve as an example of "sloppy work on the writers' part"? We'r told earlier that it was traveling at "Warp 9.9." According to DS9, those ships can catch up. This is irrelevant however. Why? Because the ship has stopped moving. This means that the other Starfleet Vessels in pursuit are going to catch up to the Prometheus. Why would it be meant to be cut? It's funny. It's supposed to be funny. They don't know what they're doing. The Doc is pretending to be "the experienced one," but he is out of his league. Where does he look for inspiration? Tom Paris. He says "There's a little trick I saw Mister Paris do once. If I can generate a slight overload to the nacelle coils, it'll collapse the warp field." (Whumph!) EMH2: "What happened?" EMH: "I did it. We've stopped. Ah, All we have to do now is find a way to send Starfleet a distress signal and..." (The console beeps.) Hmm.. I never noticed. Though here again, we have a technical gaff being used as an example of "simply sloppy work on the writers' part." I'm not sure I would even call this a gaff. This is like noticing the reflection of a microphone. The director may have known and chosen it as the best option anyway, unavoidable and acceptable as no one would really be able to see it. Where are you getting this? All that he knows(that we are told) is that there is a war going on against the dominion. This is info he could have easily picked up on a daily basis from casual conversation. He also stated that he could roam the ship freely, and that he was being tested and worked on still. This means he has been activated, and walking around the ship for weeks. And if he is like Voyagers EMH, he has access to the ship's computer. It would be more of a problem for him not to know these basic things. Why would he consider the Romulan an "enemy"? Could it be that these same Romulans just boarded his ship, killed the crew, and hijacked it? Further than that, were the Romulans ever not "enemies"? Since the "entire crew" consisted of only 4 people, plus Andy Dick, this is not at all an issue, especially not a writing issue. If it is a problem for you, it would be logical to assume they were removed off screen, as you don't leave bodies just lying around forever. Here you have recognized the obvious, that it was a dedicated comedic episode. Your only stated objection to the comedic tone was irreverant treatment of dead redshirts, not plot elements. plot elements are often outlandish in comedic episodes, like The Magnificient Ferengi, Little Green Men, or even One Little Ship. Just think of some of the outlandishness in those episodes compared to this one. "All of this" in your critique consists of very little substance for Voyager fans to have to overlook. Talking about an autopsy of "what went wrong with Voyager" requires "what went wrong" to be some sort of universal value, rather than simply your value. And lastly(and I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet), the "big event" of contacting Starfleet, earth, etc, and all the emotions and drama that goes with that, does not take place in this episode, but in the next episode, "Hunters," where the crew receives letters from home. This is the actual contact with home. It's a serious episode, very emotional, very "gritty and realistic." This is where Janeway learns of her fiance, and Chakotay and B'elanna learn the fate of the Maquis, and Janeway gets a message from Starfleet that she can't fully piece back together. And all of these things are even further explored in future episodes. So if you went looking for the serious episode where Voyager finally makes contact with their families, and all the repercussions that might bring, you chose the wrong episode. A comedic episode should be judged as a comedic episode. You cannot find an incident in the first few minutes that you don't find appropriate for a comedic story, then proceed to critique the entire remaining episode by a different standard, that would not otherwise apply. And many of these critiques are simply mistakes on your part, such as Starfleet catching up, or the EMH knowing about the war, or these Romulans being "enemies." Two additional critiques were technical issues that might be so minor as to not even show up on IMDB's trivia section where watches switch wrists, and combadges disappear. We are only left with the objection to the redshirts existing as dead men in a comedic episode. Fair enough, although I disagree on that point.
MIAB is clearly tongue-in-cheek. I never took any of it seriously. The whole crew didn't die to create tragedy but to allow the EMH's duet. And the Romulans were only there to contribute to the comic effect.
I rewatched the episode for a fresh perspective. Andy Dick is well cast as EMH2, handling sardonic mannerisms and technobabble with aplomb. But there's no major on-screen chemistry between him and Picardo. I think that's what threw me off. If there was a Prometheus-based spinoff, Andy would have been a shoo-in. I did like how EMH2 brings up the qualities of the young and the qualities of the old (EMH). The Prometheus is a fantastic battle ship, and excellently used for its sole outing on screen. One can't do separations every week, but it sure is nice to see separation technology enhanced for this experimental class starship. And voice activated where the computers on each segment can quickly figure out target details just by anyone screaming the name of the intended targets. AI has gotten real good. Only 4 people were trained to fly it? Based on the ship's capabilities, were any needed? And what was the crew complement told, 20? We saw two bodies covered in cocktail sauce - the good tangy kind - but nobody else. The story does have a few conveniences for plot timing, especially with the Hirogen, but the verve and spirit of the piece make up for it. The B'Elanna/7 and EHM2/EMH1 scenes parallel in terms of exploring personality quirks. Nice reuse and redress of the Trek V The Final Frontier bridge set. EMH2 can't have sex, as if the audience reeeeeeeeeeeeally needed such a scene in this story (it's not like they're competing against "Spin City" for pity's sake), though I'd swear that the interchange about the breath being as much a simulation as the neck being breathed on was as hilarious as it might have been the culmination of a double entendre. The attempt to create a EMH using the same existing ship hardware couldn't overload the minuscule amount of data being transferred and compiled. Also, there's bound to be more data after the likes of Gray's Anatomy and Leonard McCoy so what is up with the silly callbacks when there's 100 years' worth of advanced research Harry and Tom are doing themselves out of? Maybe if Dick was in the room he'd set them straight. You know the old story about, Tom Dick and Harry? Nicely poignant drama at the end where it's revealed Starfleet wrote off the ship 14 months ago. Nothing is overplayed and not even downplayed. There's no saccharine sopping maudlin dopey drama. It's a scene just done right. And too much melodrama was used to try to incite emotion for the EMH under a dubious "we're going to torture you, moohahaha" scene. Just copy the program routines onto a spare disk and be done. And it's not a program in of itself that degrades; power fluctuations in any of the computer hardware executing the code to produce the end result, poorly written software causing a memory leak (no or inadequate garbage cleanup routines, etc) that cause erratic issues over time. Pico Fermi prevailing, I still rolled with it. But the Romulans were pretty much generic stick figures and even the commander's discussion to change course to go play checkers with the Tal Shiar felt underwhelming, if not expected. It's an interesting plot point and hints at something bigger, but it all felt so casual and throwaway. At least everyone says "technology", which is eminently refreshing given the last decade of overuse of the hipster lingo monosyllabic "tech". But it's the 1990s, sci-fi was for nerds back then. I still believe the episode could have had a little more oomph, but it's not exactly bad. Any disappointment is due to the curtailing of so much promising material. Rating: B+
Pretty sure, although it's possible I missed something. I watched it a few weeks ago and noted a distinct lack of it hitting the floor.
Well, In "Drone" we have the transporter that transports itself (which is just stupid), maybe they also have the mobile emitter that "emulates" itself, IE the emitter would be a holographic projection by itself!!!
If that's what happened then it's simply a costume gaff, or a vfx mistake, like when people have the wrong pips, or their badge in the wrong place, or a laser coming from a torpedo tube. who cares?