Question about "Clues"

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I honestly never understood the ending o0f this episode, which is why I don't regard it highly despite an otherwise intriguing presence.

So here is why, and it is also my question:

How do they not leave any clues?

The clues that were left, the moss growth experiment, and the internal clock traces from the transporter signature, well those things can't be covered up.. that's why Crusher found them. You can't just eliminate those particular clues for next time?

 

[Timo]

Why not? This time, they'll just falsify records on any fast-proceeding experiments (be they plants or chemical reactions or whatnot) to suggest they were initiated earlier, thus explaining how they have proceeded so far. Amnesia rays on those responsible for the experiments will do the rest, just as on the first round.

All internal clocks can be hunted down and their readings altered; it's just a matter of being sufficiently thorough. And so what if the ship is out of synch with the rest of the universe? That happens to spacecraft all the time, when they travel at relativistic velocities but probably also when they go through wormholes.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

yeah well maybe.. but the nature of those mysteries is that you can't really fix them. You might think you've stated a solution Timo, but by the time you get to that point, this scenario isn't even interesting anymore, and is hardly entertaining as the crux of an episode. Coupled with Picard's disturbing speech which he proposes that Data could be stripped to his wires (this coming from the same man who defended his right to choose with such fervor in Measure of a Man) and you have a really bad episode. an episode where desperate people have to work really hard to explain it away. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

[Shatinator]

Well, I found the premsis and episode quite absorbing and entertaining. Outside of that Flying Spegetti Monster I'm not sure I understand your point. Did you not like the ep or just not agree with it?

-The Shatinator

 

[Vanyel]

The only real problem would be the clocks, which could be explained by the "worm hole" throwing them so may hours (days) into the future. Everything else, like the experiment on the plants, the experiment could have been started so that when the crew woke up the plants would have been growing at the expected rate. Then zap, erase all memories of both encounters.

 

[Timo]

I'd think the episode title already justifies the premise. On the first iteration, the story is about finding a set of unlikely clues. On the second iteration, which we no longer see or need to see, it's about eliminating those clues. Both are difficult tasks, and it's surprising and entertaining that the heroes would engage in both - it's much more typical for heroes to uncover clues than to bury them. It's like we got a whodunnit where the same characters play both sides.

Since Trek has never really been known for its originality of storytelling, I wonder if this type of a clever two-sided whodunnit had been done before in some other genre...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Smellincoffee]

Wasn't it Worf's wrist sprain and Crusher's moss experiment that proved to be the initial puzzles? If they replaced her experiment with moss growth more appropriate for the time period that had passed since she started it, and ensured that Worf's medical treatment would leave no discernible effects, the captain and others would have no reason to go digging into more detailed records.

 

[Hober Mallow]

If I remember the episode right, some of the clues were only uncovered when the crew actively started digging.

 

[Timo]

...Then again, any of those clues the frantic effort uncovered might have been randomly discovered as well, just like Worf's wrist injury was. It wasn't just bad luck that some bells started ringing - it was a statistical inevitability.

Hopefully, the first iteration got high enough a percentage of the bells ringing, so that our heroes could silence them and significantly lower the odds of another round of inquiries. Perhaps they could also agree for Data to be more active in erasing any uncovered evidence and silencing the witnesses (humanely, of course) for the next few weeks?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

my argument is that many of the same clues will come up again, things that simply can't be covered up in30 seconds. Even if they fix the moss thing, they can't fix the internal clocks

 

[Alrik]

^

The thing is, IIRC, it took them an entire earth day to set thing up each time before they were stunned again and sent back through the 'worm hole'. Internal clocks wouldn't be an issue unless they had a reason to look for a difference. If they were successful in erasing the majority of the rest of the clues on their second attempt, than this wouldn't likely become a problem.

 

[Vanyel]

The clock wouldn't be a problem. Riker did mention that they could have been thrown into next week (or some other future time). If that can happen with an unstable worm hole then the clocks being off could be written off, without a second thought, to worm hole jumping ahead in time.

Think of Doc. Brown's first time travel experiment. His clock and Einstein's were in sync. However once Einstein went 1 minute into the future their clocks were 1 minute apart. One minute passes for Marty and Brown but the trip was instantaneous for Einstein, and the same could be said for the crew. They jump ahead in time, their clocks are now out of sync by a few days, no need to really look any deeper, they can expect an unstable wormhole to do that. And it gives them a greater reason to place the beacons telling other ships to avoid the area and to move away themselves without thinking of going back.

 

[Shatnertage]

We know they didn't leave any clues the next time they tried it because the next time we see them they're at Malcor III.

I think the episode is one of Brent Spiner's best--he plays Data as convincingly android, without hitting the usual "not understanding idioms" wall.

 

[Mojochi]

If I remember the episode right, some of the clues were only uncovered when the crew actively started digging.

Exactly. The point behind the episode isn't that they need to erase all evidence of their encounter. The point is, as Picard explained, Humans find a mystery irresistible

They don't have to eliminate everything, just enough to prevent their curiosity from spurring an investigation. It all started with Riker finding Data's behavior odd, at the beginning, followed by Crusher's plants (Which were likely replaced, ultimately)

If Crusher never notices anything odd about those plants, then she never reports anything at daily briefings, or starts looking into medical records, & transporter traces. No one becomes suspicious of Data. Crusher won't find out about Worf's wrist, even if there is evidence that it was broken, because even assuming it still hurts a bit, Worf isn't going to bring it up, unless ordered to report irregularities. He's a Klingon.

No one will be looking into the internal chronometers with a fine tooth comb. So it will likely never be noticed. It is even likely that they were more vigorous in covering up those clues, which would further decrease the probability of anyone, noticing them.

It's all about decreasing probability. Worf might get a pain inhibiting treatment. They might pick a better image for the fake world that got uncovered, in case it gets brought up. The only real concern is Troi's psychotic episode. Hopefully, the Aliens were able to do something to better wipe her memory so she doesn't get freaked by looking in the mirror

The principle of the story is "Curiosity killed the cat" or "Ignorance is bliss" or something. I really like the episode, it's very engaging, & the acting is stellar. Picard may have just been being melodramatic, to intimidate Data, with the "Stripped down to your wires" bit. He was trying anything he could, to get at what Data was hiding

 

[Shatnertage]

Picard may have just been being melodramatic, to intimidate Data, with the "Stripped down to your wires" bit. He was trying anything he could, to get at what Data was hiding

It's one of the few times (in the TV show) that we see Picard really lose his cool. The other I can think of is his "This is all very well and good" response to Jarok in "The Defector." Data's behavior has just totally thrown him for a loop, and he doesn't know what to say.

It really highlights how freaked out the crew is by the mysteries they're discovering.

 

[Mojochi]

It's one of the few times (in the TV show) that we see Picard really lose his cool. The other I can think of is his "This is all very well and good" response to Jarok in "The Defector." Data's behavior has just totally thrown him for a loop, and he doesn't know what to say.

It really highlights how freaked out the crew is by the mysteries they're discovering.

Honestly, I can't imagine anything spooking the crew more than Data putting on an awful misdirection act. Watching Data lie, is as alien as watching Worf cry. They just wouldn't know what to do, any of them

 

[MikeS]

I think the teaser to this episode is a great showcase for Stewart/Goldberg's acting, and is really quite original for TNG.

 

[Silvercrest]

I honestly never understood the ending o0f this episode, which is why I don't regard it highly despite an otherwise intriguing presence.

So here is why, and it is also my question:

How do they not leave any clues?

The clues that were left, the moss growth experiment, and the internal clock traces from the transporter signature, well those things can't be covered up.. that's why Crusher found them. You can't just eliminate those particular clues for next time?

I always like to imagine my alternate ending, which goes something like this:

Picard, making his speech: "Think of this as sort of a test, a dry run." (or however it went)

Aliens: "That is what you said the last three times," and they destroy the Enterprise.

 

[carlmarx]

What I didn't get was why Data couldnt just tell them they were unconscious for a day? Why go to all the trouble to make it look like it was 30 seconds?

 

[Timo]

I guess 30 seconds doesn't stretch medical plausibility: Dr. Crusher would admit to her ignorance on the possible health effects of an exotic wormhole if all it amounted to was a harmless half-minute blackout. Such things happen for various reasons to every one of us...

However, being unconscious for 24 hours and then recovering is medically relatively uncommon. Crusher would start speculating on the possible mechanisms and causes in that case, experts on other fields would be called in to assess the true nature of the wormhole, and there'd be trouble.

Timo Saloniemi