Kirk’s Comment in Elaan of Troyius
- Thread starter Spock's Barber
- Start date
What is a space lake?
True, she'd basically be a well programmed robot if that was the case!
However, if you go by the theory that her knowledge was just "deeply suppressed" by Nomad rather than wiped then it not only solves the "hyper schooling" that would otherwise have to take place but also means that we get our old Uhura back in one piece. Yay!
The way I’ve always interpreted it.
We really have no way of knowing what Nomad was capable of though. Maybe Uhura's memory loss was a freak occurrence? If that was the case, then Nomad would not be able to reverse it, since he lacked the data to explain why it happened in the first place!
Keep in mind that Nomad made some mistakes, so his explanation may not be correct. He may have disabled pathways and/or connections in the brain that enabled access to memory, without actually erasing the memories. Then, Uhura's training period just reestablishes the connections and allows rapid progress back to her normal state.
Or maybe it's like when a hard drive is erased. The ones and zeros are still retained at a reduced amplitude. The standard procedure for reading will not see the data, but specialists can measure the magnetic fields and reconstruct the data. This is why erasure of sensitive data must be done with multiple write/erase steps to truly erase the information. So, while Uhura can't access the memories at first, the retraining procedure just strengthens the data that is stored and brings it back to a usable level.
Then, we can also assume that McCoy used some medical equipment and special techniques to make the brain respond better to the above methods. Nomad, might not be aware of those methods.
Anyway, it is probably some sloppy writing that creates the problem in the first place. So, we have to come up with something that explains Uhura becoming 100 % back to normal in a very short time span.
Or maybe it's like when a hard drive is erased. The ones and zeros are still retained at a reduced amplitude. The standard procedure for reading will not see the data, but specialists can measure the magnetic fields and reconstruct the data. This is why erasure of sensitive data must be done with multiple write/erase steps to truly erase the information. So, while Uhura can't access the memories at first, the retraining procedure just strengthens the data that is stored and brings it back to a usable level.
Then, we can also assume that McCoy used some medical equipment and special techniques to make the brain respond better to the above methods. Nomad, might not be aware of those methods.
Anyway, it is probably some sloppy writing that creates the problem in the first place. So, we have to come up with something that explains Uhura becoming 100 % back to normal in a very short time span.
The thing is that the Uhura that we have to know up until that point is not the same one that we see afterwards! she can't be! We are all a product of our experiences and memories. So unless they had a way to not only re-educate her but reinstill her own personality it feels a bit off in a way somehow!
JB
I agree, JB! But like the others have said, it couldn't have completely wiped her out. Too bad the writer of that episode had NO SENSE OF SCALE WHATSOEVER!
It could have been like a short term memory loss that left her long term memory ok but she wasn't able to function without rehab. And that would have been clear if the episode was better.
I thought only a small area of knowledge was wiped out. Nomad was only interested in "music" which I assumed he "took" from Uhura along with some secondary language skills that are tightly associated with singing. Nomad probably accessed her current/recent knowledge first, then worked backward into her memories. Nomad was interrupted by Scotty, so, he didn't finish the memory scan, hence her keeping her earliest language memories. Her technical knowledge and other memories were intact, she just didn't keep the English language memories. Her singing skills may have been permanently changed or even wiped out. Did we hear her sing/hum anymore after this episode?
Star Trek V? Wasn't she singing and humming during her fan dance on Nimbus III?
I think it's when multiple ships are on the same two-dimensional plane, as if they're floating on a lake.
Kor
John Meredyth Lucas went big when he wrote:
- "The Changeling"
- "Patterns of Force"
- "Elaan of Troyius"
- "That Which Survives" (teleplay)
But it’s not as if the
existence of all sentient life
was ever at risk in one of his scripts: that would be absurd.
Nomad didn't know what he was doing. The intricacies of the human brain were far beyond his mechanical understanding. He was just wrong when he said she was wiped clean. She just had temporary amnesia.
Unfortunately, the episode doesn't say that, and it plays as if the script writer didn't know it. It plays as if Uhura's entire corpus of knowledge amounted to a few simple lessons.
If you want to interpret that in the worst way, then that is the episode's big Chauvinist moment. The thing about a woman having conflcting impulses (as we all do) is nothing next to that.
Not completely. Uhura still retained her command of Swahili—the imperialist Chapel admonished her for using that language—suggesting that the wipe wasn’t complete.
In other words, perhaps whatever intangibles that made Uhura unique were retained, including knowledge and skills developed at an early age, somehow escaping the effect of Nomad’s beam. At least that’s how I’ve reconciled this baffling development.
Please insert eye-rolling emoji here
Yeah, because Chapel was teaching her English so she could function on the ship; she obviously already knew Swahili.
I see what you mean about those other 3 but for Changeling it's just all over the place.
Nomad can shoot the power of 90 torpedoes but it's shocking when one doesn't hurt it?
It killed billions of people in the teaser and who knows how many others and Kirk is upset about his son the doctor?
It doesn't just hurt Scotty, it kills him! The resurrects him into the Scotty Zombie!
It doesn't just read Uhura's mind, it erases it! But they can totally get her back in a week, no problemo!
All I can say is WTF?
But time for confession, I have to admit as much as I have problems with the whole thing, I caught myself at work the other day when I found a mistake from another office saying Error Error Faulty!
I can see how the admittedly gratuitous (and decidedly unserious) imperialist remark could be distracting, but putting that aside for the moment, Uhura knew Swahili, despite having her memory wiped. My original conjecture was intended to account for that.
It’s over the top, all right. Lucas’ hyperbole notwithstanding (I mean, Spock mind-melded with a machine, for all love), it has a lot of good moments. This was the best of the talking-a-computer-to-death scenes for my money. In universe, all those deaths and the near invincibility of Nomad are problematic. Would the tag sit better if Nomad had destroyed a lifeless planet? Sure. But nine billion people weren’t really killed, so I can write off the needless exaggeration.I see what you mean about those other 3 but for Changeling it's just all over the place.
Nomad can shoot the power of 90 torpedoes but it's shocking when one doesn't hurt it?
It killed billions of people in the teaser and who knows how many others and Kirk is upset about his son the doctor?
It doesn't just hurt Scotty, it kills him! The resurrects him into the Scotty Zombie!
It doesn't just read Uhura's mind, it erases it! But they can totally get her back in a week, no problemo!
All I can say is WTF?
But time for confession, I have to admit as much as I have problems with the whole thing, I caught myself at work the other day when I found a mistake from another office saying Error Error Faulty!
When you were saying that thing at work, did you change the pitch and speed of your voice?
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Blame Jackson Roykirk. He spent his teen years in a Pennsylvania mining town and got to take engineering in college because of the generosity of a Vulcan woman who sold the basis for Velcro technology and then paid for his tuition with the money. He was bound to create a weird space probe. 
When all your spaceships are on the same plane and oriented the same way, like they are boats floating on a great big lake.
That's one "head canon" retcon I can't quite agree with.Blame Jackson Roykirk. He spent his teen years in a Pennsylvania mining town and got to take engineering in college because of the generosity of a Vulcan woman who sold the basis for Velcro technology and then paid for his tuition with the money. He was bound to create a weird space probe.
Kor
I think it was the original intent of the producers but they chose not to make a direct onscreen reference.
Shots like that are part of the reason why, even today, I think physical model photography will always top CG hands down. You can't beat the tangible sense of that model feeling like a real physical object, because it actually was, something that looks like it exists within the same interactive visual narrative space as the rest of the show. And I feel like, in TOS-R it's pretty bad at times, but in modern blockbuster movies it's often even worse. For all the strides in digital effects technology, I feel like our fictional cinema worlds are feeling less and less real, more and more like cartoons with actors in them. I find CGI takes me out of the reality of any situation faster than anything else can. Nothing can beat physical effects. Nothing.
I totally agree with this, and it was one of the reasons (among many) I loved Rogue One so much. Back to Star Trek; I thought the CGI of Voyager, DS9 and the Defiant was excellent. But physical models mm ight have looked even better. Not to worry! I bet they're coming back into vogue.
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