True. Though that was done in secret and without the knowledge of the admiralty beforehand, where the embassy thing was a bit more public.
That was never going to happen anyway. Just because B-4 has Data's memories in him somewhere doesn't mean he could turn into Data, any more than Data turned into Lal or Lore when he downloaded their memories. If there are further stories to tell about B-4, they'll be about B-4, not Data 2.0. Since he didn't exist anyway, does it matter?
I believe that it was a justifiable concern considering Spock's resurrection in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was achieved by Spock "downloading" his katra into McCoy before death. Then "downloading" the katra from McCoy into the new Spock body. Plus we have William Shatner's resurrection of the popular Kirk character in the novels he wrote with the Reeves-Stevens. Based on Data's popularity, there could have been a creative decision to bring back the character in the novel series. One of the ways could have been B-4. The editors and authors should be congratulated for their good taste for not choosing to bring back the Data character.
^I only wish B-4 would have stayed aboard... Ditching him seemed about as disrespectful to Data as it would have been to ditch Spot.
I don't see how keeping B-4 aboard the Enterprise would've been a good idea. Mentally, he's a small child, and one with a serious learning disability. He wouldn't have been able to contribute anything to the running of the ship, and the Sovereign class, unlike the Galaxy class, isn't equipped to cope with children or other beings in need of full-time supervision. Particularly since, if he's built the same as Data, B-4 has superhuman strength. The words "danger to himself and others" spring to mind. Best to keep him away from the phasers and warp cores and airlocks ("What does this button do?") and let him live someplace safe and supervised.
B-4 would only remind the crew of Data. He would be of no use and as Christopher said be potentially dangerous.
You know, I've seen this argument made before, and I've always wondered how his going from being Ambassador to the Klingon Empire to first officer on a starship (granted, the flagship, but a starship nonetheless) isn't a demotion unto itself. Isn't this the same as going from US Ambassador to the UK to first officer of a Naval vessel stationed near Iraq? Maybe this was addressed in A Time To... (which is next on my reading list), but it seems to me that he's already accepted a demotion.
Sort of, yeah, but they're also two different services. When he accepted the diplomatic post, his Starfleet status became inactive (or perhaps detached), and joined the Diplomatic Corps. When he gave President Bacco his resignation, he left the DC and Ross reinstated his Starfleet status to active, which put him back where he was when he left Starfleet four years earlier: a lieutenant commander on the command track.
Keith's right -- it's apples and oranges. Lots of people go from political or diplomatic posts into private industry or education. For instance, John Danforth, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, is now a partner at a law firm, while Madeleine Albright, who held the same post and then became US Secretary of State, is now a professor at Georgetown. Are those "demotions?" No, because they're entirely separate careers. Ambassador is an assignment, not a rank or lifelong title. People from various walks of life get appointed to various ambassadorships, do their jobs, then move on to other things. Sometimes they continue to be diplomats or policy advisors, sometimes they sit on the boards of various agencies or organizations, sometimes they join think tanks, sometimes they become professors, sometimes they go into the private sector. So if a former ambassador who came from the military wants to go back into the service, why not?
Spot cameos in "Resistance" where Worf has had to learn to be affectionate toward her and she's lying on his lap purring will he's sitting cross legged on his bed cntemplating T'lana.
^Cool. Sounds like her and Worf are getting along better now than in the TNG episode where he had to take care of her (can't remember which one).
Here's something I don't get. In "On the Spot," Worf says that at least he could always tell Spot was female. However, in an episode, he does say "I will feed him." Was he just trying to spare Data's lack of feelings by not mentioning that Data got Spot's sex wrong? That doesn't seem like the Worf I know.
Worf didn't get close enough to look, at first, accepting Data's initial assumption that Spot was male. Of course, Spot went from being a Somali to being ginger tabby, so there may have been a female Spot II which replaced male Spot I.
Finished resistance this morning after finding it impossible to put the book down for the last few Chapters. It was an enjoyable read, although it felt more like a Voyager story (along the lines of "Unimatrix Zero" and "Dark Frontier") than a Next Generation story. As a result I found Janeway's reaction to Picard's disobediance at the end vaguely hypocritical. As for the new crew members, initially I found T'Lana very annoying, but was pleased to see that she became more tollerable as the novel progressed. Baglitra (sp?) wasn't around long enough to really make an impression, but I found myself wishing for him to be saved (if only because Picard seem to be the only Starfleet officer who ever gets rescued and de-borged). Nave though I did find interesting and was sad to read her death. For the existing characters, I really though this was Worf and Crusher's Novel. BIt was good to see the Doctor shine, especially as she hasn't been give that much opertunity over the years. Her closer connection to the Captin since DIW also work well here to bring her further into the fold. I loved how Sisko's comments to Worf came back to prey on his confidance to be perminatly First Officer. It was a natural reaction considering how it was so closely tied to Jadzia's mortality. For the other two remaining main cast though this did seem a little off. There were time in the story when I forgot eordi was even on the ship! while Picard I though was a little too ready to become Locutus again (I found it as weird and Janeway, Torres and Tuvok's willingness to get assimilated in "Unimatrix Zero") and he seemed to have gone completely the opposite direction to his reactions in ST:FC, as if he was over compensating for that (which might have been the point, but it still didn't ring true with me). All in all, I enjoyed this, but it was nowhere near perfect.