Hey, I never noticed that before....

[Timo]

Best case: Scotty beaming down to build a hardware patch for the pergium reactor in "Devil in the Dark."

Also worst case: what's the level of Scotty's incompetence if he can't get a simple pump right? Basically, those ought to be black boxes, with input and output specs. Is a pergium reactor perhaps especially corrosive in terms of what gets pumped? Or cooled by liquid sodium or whatever? Why would the patch fail in a matter of days otherwise?

Worst case: Spock and McCoy (!) modifying photon torpedo hardware in Star Trek VI. It was hugely obvious that they were giving Kelley a scene rather than keeping his character in plausible activities.

OTOH, just as with the final beam-down where the main heroes get to stop the assassination all on their own even though Kirk's ship is stocked with competent redshirts, it's also a case of the usual specialists being fundamentally untrustworthy. Scotty is up to his elbows in combat repairs; if Spock asks him to send his trusted lieutenant Gabler up to help with the torp, this potential traitor may well blow up the whole starship.

"Doing what the enemy can't possibly expect" is a great excuse for all sorts of plot idiocy... Especially in Trek, where the enemies are exceptionally imaginative and/or omniscient, and the range of potential actions available to our heroes is nothing short of infinite or absurd.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FormerLurker]

Also worst case: what's the level of Scotty's incompetence if he can't get a simple pump right? Basically, those ought to be black boxes, with input and output specs. Is a pergium reactor perhaps especially corrosive in terms of what gets pumped? Or cooled by liquid sodium or whatever? Why would the patch fail in a matter of days otherwise?

IIRC, it wasn't the "Pergium Reactor" so much as the reactor for the Pergium Mine. Significance? It powers the mine. Life support for the offices and crew areas; life support for the mine itself. Of note here, everyone went down into the mine in shirtsleeves, no airlock or special gear, so Pergium is stable and (allegedly) non-toxic. Also power for the mine itself; equipment and all. Shut down the reactor, the mine goes dark. Potentially, everybody dies. The pump Scotty has to jerry-rig is a patch because Enterprise doesn't carry replacements for that model, as stated. The pump is probably one of, or even the, most important components of the reactor, as it is what makes the reactor able to function. I'd need to know more about the reactor itself to define how.

 

[Henoch]

Best, Best Case: Scotty retrofits the Romulan Cloaking Device on the Enterprise while Spock is nowhere to be found (yet).

 

[Timo]

Spock did have his hands full at the time.

If Jett Reno can install a stock pump to replace a failing heart, what's Scotty's excuse for not finding one to serve a random reactor? Pumps aren't that complex conceptually. It takes him mere hours to build flintlocks that supposedly will work fine for centuries to come; creating two pieces of piping to properly fit a preexisting pump to a preexisting system should be a breeze. Or did one of Scotty's actually competent little people handle the flintlocks while the man himself was recovering from his arduous command experience?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FormerLurker]

That all depends on what the pump is actually supposed to do. The importance of the pump is made paramount in the script, but what does it actually pump? Scotty stated that he had nothing on hand that was designed to work with the mine's reactor, and that anything he rigged would eventually fail, sooner rather than later. While still logistically undefined, that says to the audience that the pump's job is so critical that unless the replacement is one that's actually compatible, it can't do the job properly and will itself need replaced, and soon. It's a Maguffin, but one that matters.

 

[Henoch]

Yep, real complicated :

 

[Timo]

That all depends on what the pump is actually supposed to do. The importance of the pump is made paramount in the script, but what does it actually pump? Scotty stated that he had nothing on hand that was designed to work with the mine's reactor, and that anything he rigged would eventually fail, sooner rather than later. While still logistically undefined, that says to the audience that the pump's job is so critical that unless the replacement is one that's actually compatible, it can't do the job properly and will itself need replaced, and soon. It's a Maguffin, but one that matters.

It's the combination that makes little plot sense. Sure, the requirements for the pump might be exceptional: perhaps the liquid to be pumped is really bad on all machinery? But if Scotty can create a repair that will last for X hours, the obvious thing to do would be to create fifty of those, and to plug in the next one after the previous one fails.

In order to actually create a ticking clock, we need to establish

a) that the jury-rigging is actually doing cumulative harm to the system and can't be perpetuated, and
b) that KIrk can't power up the colony by completely alternate means, such as running a cable from his starship, and
c) failing both of those, that Kirk can't protect the miners by alternate means, such as evacuation or erecting of shelters that cut down on centralized power needs.

But we can have the suspense without those, too. Kirk does say he can evacuate the mines - but immediately follows that with "if you take as much as a coffee break from your mining, zillions will die horribly", which doesn't seem sensible at all. Why put pressure on Vandenberg there? Especially with a claim that doesn't make sense at all. The mine was putting out more than ever, with the discovery of this new pergium vein. Demand couldn't have jumped up to match yet.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yep, real complicated :

We have no idea what’s inside...

 

[Henoch]

We have no idea what’s inside...

Could be made of "special" materials (non-replicator) with microporosity, electromagnetic flow tubes, etc. Doesn't look like it has any moving parts.

 

[Maurice]

Yep, real complicated :

Does an iPhone look complicated at anything but a microscopic level?

 

[publiusr]

That’s a good point.

BTW smart phones look like mirrors...the body language in their use outrage some.

Newspapers, though containing less info, look more expansive...arms are open, and the instant cubical barrier makes the user look less self absorbed.

 

[Noname Given]

Oooh fancy jewelry...

I've never seen that episode

That was the first Star Trek episode I ever saw (on NBC in 1969). I was six and it was the episode that hooked me on Star Trek and made me a fan.

 

[Commishsleer]

It's the combination that makes little plot sense. Sure, the requirements for the pump might be exceptional: perhaps the liquid to be pumped is really bad on all machinery? But if Scotty can create a repair that will last for X hours, the obvious thing to do would be to create fifty of those, and to plug in the next one after the previous one fails.

In order to actually create a ticking clock, we need to establish

a) that the jury-rigging is actually doing cumulative harm to the system and can't be perpetuated, and
b) that KIrk can't power up the colony by completely alternate means, such as running a cable from his starship, and
c) failing both of those, that Kirk can't protect the miners by alternate means, such as evacuation or erecting of shelters that cut down on centralized power needs.

But we can have the suspense without those, too. Kirk does say he can evacuate the mines - but immediately follows that with "if you take as much as a coffee break from your mining, zillions will die horribly", which doesn't seem sensible at all. Why put pressure on Vandenberg there? Especially with a claim that doesn't make sense at all. The mine was putting out more than ever, with the discovery of this new pergium vein. Demand couldn't have jumped up to match yet.

Timo Saloniemi

50 miners killed and Vanderberg decides to call Starfleet. If 1 miner under my watch was killed by a monster mining would be abandoned until Starfleet arrived. I don't care how greedy you are. It not worth someone's life. In RL Vanderberg would be in gaol for man slaughter under OHS in my country for not abandoning the mine site.
And if he'd done it Mother Horta would have left them alone and no-one else would have died.

I don't think we needed any time constraint at all. Just Kirk would look foolish if he didn't solve the problem. The irrational miners were all he needed to create a sense of urgency. He had to solve the problem to avoid more of them being killed.

 

[Timo]

I agree with the underlying logic of Kirk needing to manipulate Vandenberg - but why to this end? If the man is already needlessly killing his workers, why demand that he keep on when Vandenberg's own line there is that he's concerned for his people?

Kirk wants to study the problem (and then perhaps kill the monster). Vandenberg wants to kill the monster, even if it calls for him sending out his men armed with wrenches and toothpicks. If Kirk wants to protect both the men and the monster, his dishonest line here should be "Don't worry, Mr. Vandenberg, my men will kill the beast and use the slow roast setting for that no less. You just watch. Oh, and we'll get the pump, too." - not "I don't want to evacuate you, because pergium is more important than your lives".

As for evacuating, it was never a realistic prospect for Vandenberg. Nowhere on Janus VI would be safe, as evidenced by the theft of the pump.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Noname Given]

50 miners killed and Vanderberg decides to call Starfleet. If 1 miner under my watch was killed by a monster mining would be abandoned until Starfleet arrived. I don't care how greedy you are. It not worth someone's life. In RL Vanderberg would be in gaol for man slaughter under OHS in my country for not abandoning the mine site.
And if he'd done it Mother Horta would have left them alone and no-one else would have died.

I don't think we needed any time constraint at all. Just Kirk would look foolish if he didn't solve the problem. The irrational miners were all he needed to create a sense of urgency. He had to solve the problem to avoid more of them being killed.

The colonists may feel a sense of "This is our world, we can handle our own problems..." - at least at the start. I don't think it was ever stated when (IE After how many deaths) Vandenberg put in a call to the Federation/Star Fleet for help - the episode just began at the point when the 1701 was about 4 hours from arrival. In TOS it was a BIG Galaxy - and it took time to get to a location.

 

[FormerLurker]

The colonists

 

[Noname Given]

What? It was still a mining colony.

 

[Timo]

I guess it's a valid gripe about terminology: those who operated the Rigel XII outfit were never called "colonists" or "settlers" (Mudd uses the latter word early on in the episode, but not in reference to the miners), while those who worked on the "long-established colony" of Janus VI were called "colonists" by the heroes.

How many there were on Janus VI, we never quite learn. Perhaps the colony had people other than miners (and their unseen but presumed wives - Mudd wouldn't have skipped the opportunity!), and possibly also other interstellar exports besides the minerals, etc. Generally, a "colony" in Trek engages in farming and breeding, though, and lesser outfits are "outposts" or whatnot...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timo]

...As regards the dialogue, there's some ambiguity there at least.

Spock: "Within range of our sensors, there is no life, other than the accountable human residents of this colony beneath the surface."

This could be read as there being "human residents of this colony" at various locations, with only those "beneath the surface" being relevant to the lifesign scan. Perhaps the surface looks like Southern California (and in the 2250s used to look like Southern Ontario), and there are thousands of farmers up there?

Sure, the single reactor provides "heat, air and life support" for the whole colony, but perhaps the latter two are only relevant for parts of the colony?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[ZapBrannigan]

For fifty miners to die, and the operation keeps running, there would have to be a huge mining crew down there. Much bigger than the episode had the budget to portray. It would be a city's worth of guys, at least. A big city. And Kirk's search as portrayed would be hopeless.

On this subject, I think the line of dialogue that put deaths at fifty was a mistake. It came out of the need to "portray the situation as serious" (a la Galaxy Quest), and they overdid it. If two had died before Kirk showed up, the episode would not need to change another single thing, and the scale of things would make more sense, as would the continued mining operations.