The problem with this though is that means that the Romulan operatives either willingly went to their deaths, or were being set up themselves. Probably the former, because how can you ensure they don't get a lucky shot off and kill Picard?
If they are really that desperate to keep whatever the secret is a secret they might be willing to sacrifice their lives. If they're fanatics they probably see it as a reasonable approach.
Doubtful. The attack failed because Laris and Zhaban kicked some Romulan ass! (credit to ST'09 Olson!). Again, not everything is a conspiracy.
But this one probably is. And the supposed professional killers did go in equipped primarily to kill themselves: there was no weapon in their arsenal for effectively killing people in a room beyond a door, no attempt at sniping or bombing. And we learned of no reason why the assassins would have needed to resort to anything less than a full nuking of LaBarre: collateral damage was clearly not a concern. Heck, the one caught made no effort to kill Picard, spitting his poison at Zhaban instead. Plus, it was Jurati who killed the Romulan, rather than vice versa. That just wouldn't happen unless conspiracy. Timo Saloniemi
Good point, I hadn't thought of that. Seems like the sort of thing an ad algorithm might do..."Robots? Here's a robot!"
I thought it also highlighted his desire to be included - which we saw again later in the episode, when he saw other crewmembers assuming false personas for a mission and wanted to be included in that, even though he has no idea how to play a role. I think that desire to be included tells us something about Elnor's character, and I'm interested to see how that develops - after all, being raised by the Qowat Milat would have kept him excluded from wider society, while at the same time, being a boy meant he was also excluded from the Qowat Milat, so has he ever felt like he actually belongs anywhere?
Is there any hidden significance to the fact we got a personalised ad scene right after we saw Jurati watching a holo where Maddox is baking cookies rather than accepting the ones the replicator makes?
Elnor also always bakes his cookies right after browsing, confusing the hell out of the network? Timo Saloniemi
Elnor is the next Robau ... He's gonna take on Romulans with his sword, while they have energy weapons. And probably survive!
He's gonna walk into a space battle against a whole fleet of Romulan warbirds, with only a sword and no space suit. And he's gonna win.
EXACTLY. He's a non-entity, having lived his entire life on an isolated colony world, being trained essentially as a warrior nun. It's very clear from the others' ads that Freecloud has enough data on the average citizen to somewhat tailor their ad experience; conversely Elnor's lack of an ad very clearly shows that he has no data (and likely no recognisable identity) from which to glean an appropriate topic for such advertising. (If he'd had access to the FedNet all his life, then can you imagine the brutally honest conversations with the Nuns about his browser history, or about what he's doing in the bathroom with his PADD? )
Just throwing this out there for discussion, as the thought came to mind while discussing Elnor's apparent ineligibility to generate holo-ad revenue... As we've seen on STP, Freecloud -and presumably plenty other locales- are able to glean enough data on Federation citizens from their FedNet presence to be able to somewhat tailor holo-ads specifically for those individuals. Bearing in mind (as some have suggested) the late-C24th holo interfaces would need an element of solidity/haptic feedback for ease of manipulation, it's not unreasonable to imagine that the ads could be hacked to deliver something substantially more deadly than a featherlight holo-punch. Just imagine: The perfect assassin, able to travel anywhere with an ad system in place*, and then vanish into thin air once its mission is accomplished! *In an ideal galaxy I like to think the Federation would have banned such intrusive ads from at least the major worlds, so at least there's some hope of safety without having to live as a warrior nun...
That's why it's important to put your starship's ad-blocker subscription on auto-pay, and to always accept vital updates.
And then he's going to buy drugs. He will, in point of fact, hand them a pillowcase and tell them to fill it with all the drugs.
I don't think Freecloud was intended to be a part of Federation space. It's located in a lawless region located where the former neutral zone once was.
I didn't say it was; merely that they'd obviously been able to glean info on those Federation citizens from the FedNet. But I'd hope that the Federation would at least keep their own core worlds ad-free. @The Old Mixer fair enough, I did contemplate sticking it in TrekTech instead tbh...