Oooookay, tonight's episode is real Old School, and light on tech. Which may be saying the same thing twice.
So, what to pick for closer examination?
1) Spock's doodle on the Red Things is identical to an official Starfleet graphic on them, even though paranormally sketched two months in advance of the actual sensor readings. And I mean identical - it's not just a graphic on the Red Things, it's the graphic, with the same weird additional elements, some sort of aiming or scaling aids consisting of two semicircles. So Spock had a vision of a Starfleet graphic, rather than of the red things?
2) Pike is confronted with the fact of the Spore Drive existing, and we can't tell whether he knew! I mean, he takes it in the stride, but only because his Awesome rating is somewhere in the high nineties; at the end of the barrage of the eldritch information, he just goes "If it worked against the Klingons, by all means go ahead". So we'll have to wait for additional dialogue to define how classified the Drive really is.
3) Tilly toys with handheld antigravs and VR glasses, but what's that with her "personal shield"? She isn't wearing a TAS belt, but what is she wearing?
4) When our heroes beam down, the ship is oriented the TOS way, portside down. Is there a tech reason for that, perhaps?
5) The low-tech place, built out of the contents of a single flying church and the gear of a few infantrymen, expands to a mighty global'ish series of settlements. The heroes zoom in on the original site and the original church, thanks to the radio SOS. The most amazing bit is the one where they find all-new stained-glass windows! I mean, how does the community proceed with creating all-new stained glass? Transforming the original bits with 100% efficiency by "simple" (hot and complex!) melting won't work. But creating additional flat glass panes like that is an industry unto itself...What items found inside the flying church would facilitate the industry?¨
6) Pike gives the standard transporter-tech-for-dummies explanation to Jacob, with the "transfer to energy" bit even though "energy-only beaming" in early TNG is super-rare, phased matter, yadda yadda. My question is, do the current tech writers believe in the energy stuff or not?
7) If a small lump of once cubic centimeter or whatnot sucks like tons, the big rock sucks like millions to billions. Still not enough to create the pull we saw, though. But we can plead extra weirdness with fries and Coke here easily enough. So, what so suddenly displaced these radioactive rocks in the first place (and, from the sounds of it, for the first time in a million years or so)? Back in "Brother", the hero ship pushed the asteroid into the pulsar, or Detmer made it sound like that at least. Here, they may have destablized the ring. Is this true Quantum Leap, then, with Sam chiefly having to solve self-inflicted problems?
8) Yes, yes, we know Tilly acts more or less concussed even when she's not. But here she strongly indicates she doesn't know every crew member aboard personally. So, more than 130'ish people aboard now?
9) And the Franz Joseph UFP Seal returns.
Timo Saloniemi
So, what to pick for closer examination?
1) Spock's doodle on the Red Things is identical to an official Starfleet graphic on them, even though paranormally sketched two months in advance of the actual sensor readings. And I mean identical - it's not just a graphic on the Red Things, it's the graphic, with the same weird additional elements, some sort of aiming or scaling aids consisting of two semicircles. So Spock had a vision of a Starfleet graphic, rather than of the red things?
2) Pike is confronted with the fact of the Spore Drive existing, and we can't tell whether he knew! I mean, he takes it in the stride, but only because his Awesome rating is somewhere in the high nineties; at the end of the barrage of the eldritch information, he just goes "If it worked against the Klingons, by all means go ahead". So we'll have to wait for additional dialogue to define how classified the Drive really is.
3) Tilly toys with handheld antigravs and VR glasses, but what's that with her "personal shield"? She isn't wearing a TAS belt, but what is she wearing?
4) When our heroes beam down, the ship is oriented the TOS way, portside down. Is there a tech reason for that, perhaps?
5) The low-tech place, built out of the contents of a single flying church and the gear of a few infantrymen, expands to a mighty global'ish series of settlements. The heroes zoom in on the original site and the original church, thanks to the radio SOS. The most amazing bit is the one where they find all-new stained-glass windows! I mean, how does the community proceed with creating all-new stained glass? Transforming the original bits with 100% efficiency by "simple" (hot and complex!) melting won't work. But creating additional flat glass panes like that is an industry unto itself...What items found inside the flying church would facilitate the industry?¨
6) Pike gives the standard transporter-tech-for-dummies explanation to Jacob, with the "transfer to energy" bit even though "energy-only beaming" in early TNG is super-rare, phased matter, yadda yadda. My question is, do the current tech writers believe in the energy stuff or not?
7) If a small lump of once cubic centimeter or whatnot sucks like tons, the big rock sucks like millions to billions. Still not enough to create the pull we saw, though. But we can plead extra weirdness with fries and Coke here easily enough. So, what so suddenly displaced these radioactive rocks in the first place (and, from the sounds of it, for the first time in a million years or so)? Back in "Brother", the hero ship pushed the asteroid into the pulsar, or Detmer made it sound like that at least. Here, they may have destablized the ring. Is this true Quantum Leap, then, with Sam chiefly having to solve self-inflicted problems?
8) Yes, yes, we know Tilly acts more or less concussed even when she's not. But here she strongly indicates she doesn't know every crew member aboard personally. So, more than 130'ish people aboard now?
9) And the Franz Joseph UFP Seal returns.
Timo Saloniemi
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