Something odd in "Brothers"

[Vanyel]

The boys were on board the Enterprise.

The dialogue seems to confirm it with the word programmed:

RIKER: Well Mister Potts, why don't we start at the beginning?
JAKE: We were at the arcade, sir. I brought this balloon with me, filled with red pillion dye. You see, Willie is always making fun of me. I figured I'd get him back.
TROI: Hey, hey, slow down.
JAKE: We programmed the game for an ordinary laser duel. You know, twenty one points. Four points for a
RIKER: I'm familiar with the game. Go on.
JAKE: We went out to the forest behind the east arcade. I told Willie that his laser pistol looked kind of funny, almost like a real one. When I went behind the trees, I put the balloon into my vest, and then
RIKER: So you made your nine year old brother believe that he'd killed you?
JAKE: Yes, sir.
RIKER: And then he ran away?
JAKE: Yes, sir.
RIKER: And while he was hiding he ate the fruit of a cove palm.

The whole incident seems to have happened in a limited capacity holodeck. That's my take anyway. When the show was made arcades were still around, home video gaming systems hadn't driven them out of business yet. So for the audience to understand, the arcade would be a place where kids could go play games, including laser tag. I take the term "East Arcade" as either a mistake in writing or just the name of the arcade.

My observation is that this would be the perfect situation for a ship to have manual controls. A physical, non computer controlled way to manually shut down the warp core. It would have worked here, unless Data shut off life support to Engineering, and in Hollow Pursuits. Perhaps the manual shutdown would re-establish the forcefield keeping the antimatter in out of the reaction chamber and shut off the valve or injectors for the matter stream. As the core ran out of fuel the ship would fall out of warp. There could even be a physical way to vent the warp plasma from the nacelles. to help bring the ship out of warp.

Yes, poisonous plants and animals should be sealed off from the general public. And if you are going to have poisonous things on board, it might be a good idea for the medical supplies of the ship to include the antidote.

 

[Timo]

I can't bring myself to think that a laser-tag holosimulation with poisonous fruit in it would be either a preferable or an intended interpretation...

So the kids were playing a game? With laser pistols? That's your programmable machinery right there. That's what's at the "arcade", down on the planet. And when you go beyond the arcade and into the wild nature, that's where programming ceases to have effect, and the harsh reality of how the real world works takes over.

The writer goes to the trouble of specifying that there's a shore leave planet involved. Claiming that the incident with the recreational activity is not associated with the shore leave planet requires extraordinary proof!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Vanyel]

The boy ran away. The simulation didn't have the Cove Palm. The boy ran to one of the ships arboretums on board the ship and got the fruit there, or came across the fruit in an unlocked science lab and ate it. Remember in early episodes young children had made it into the Conference Room, so an unlocked science lab should not be out of the question.

If you're going to allow shore leave on a planet and the planet was inhabited then a cure would be available on the planet. That would make sense. The inhabitants would keep the necessary supplies on hand. Also to know about the Cove plant, the planet had to have been thoroughly scouted before the Enterprise arrived to know the plant exists and how to treat it. For your scenario to work the planet must be uninhabited, the first landing party scouts out and secures an area, later a place for children to play is created. The children are then not monitored to keep them away from dangerous plants or animals and are allowed to run wild around the area. That doesn't make sense.

 

[Timo]

The boy ran to one of the ships arboretums on board the ship

Even though he never said he left a room or entered another? He ran through corridors where people would see him? And then he reached what by his standards amounted to safety in a public arboretum which was deliberately supplied with poisonous plants?

Sounds like way too many complications, compared with the scenario of this all happening down on a planet that was specifically mentioned. Eliminate the ship and her holodecks, and you eliminate the adults who could have interfered, and a dozen other inconvenient variables on the side.

If you're going to allow shore leave on a planet and the planet was inhabited then a cure would be available on the planet. That would make sense. The inhabitants would keep the necessary supplies on hand.

Why would that make sense? Most poisons today have no antidote. And Federation medicine struggled to save the kid, with means unavailable aboard their flagship. What hope would backward natives have in dealing with this?

If the poisonous plant was aboard the ship, then of course the ship would be stocked with the antidote, or then the plant spaced at earliest convenience or locked in a laboratory kids can't access. That's what you do in controlled environments. But reverting back to the story where there is no controlled environment makes it all so much easier to understand.

Also to know about the Cove plant, the planet had to have been thoroughly scouted before the Enterprise arrived to know the plant exists and how to treat it.

That would be a first. The heroes never do "thorough scouting" in any of the other shore leave adventures. OTOH, it doesn't take "scouting" to learn that the poisonous plant that just downed the kid is locally known by the name cove palm... All it takes is a question, after the fact.

For your scenario to work the planet must be uninhabited, the first landing party scouts out and secures an area, later a place for children to play is created. The children are then not monitored to keep them away from dangerous plants or animals and are allowed to run wild around the area. That doesn't make sense.

The planet is inhabited if it has arcades. It doesn't need securing. It just needs responsible kids. Irresponsible ones run into one of the limitless dangers of a planet (as opposed to the limited or zero dangers of a starship or a simulation).

Whether that makes sense or not is not really an issue. It's what happens in the real world. Kids die all the time because "securing" is an impossible concept.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DonIago]

Having just seen the episode, my impression is that the kids were playing Lazer Tag (or what-not) outside, and when the prank happened one of them ran off to an area that probably wasn't as strictly supervised and ate a fruit he shouldn't have.

Hell, maybe he was trying to kill himself; I don't think that possibility's addressed...

But really, how many of us went to summer camp and got poison ivy even in supervised areas? Nature's not 100% safe boys and girls.

 

[Vanyel]

"Responsible kids", isn't that a oxymoron? On a planet the kids should be kept under close supervision, a perimeter set up to keep them out of danger because kids are by nature irresponsible. Hell we had a much older kid steal a shuttle craft earlier in the series. Yes it would be a first that security was taken seriously, but all shore leaves we've seen are to either inhabited planets and when it is not inhabited, we see no kids.

The play area would have to cordoned off someway, you wouldn't want a kid walking off so far the ships sensors would have to find him or rescue parties in shuttles and some groups on foot with tricorders. Easier to set up force fields - they keep things out and in - than let the kids run free into the wild.

The planet's inhabitants, if it's inhabited, would know how to treat the cove plant parasite because there is a cure or at least a treatment available; there wouldn't be shore leave if it was a prewarp civilization, and a post warp civilization, allied or recognized by the Federation and/or with good diplomatic relations by the Federation would have either themselves developed a cure, or been helped by the Federation to develop one. If it's a Federation World or colony, again a cure would be on the planet. I say the cure or treatment would be there because the Federation Starbase has one available.

So planet must not be inhabited, previous expeditions must have found the dangers of the Cove plant and the Federation developed a cure. Knowing that the cure was not on board the Enterprise, the shore leave area should not have been near a grove of Cove plants. Or the play area sectioned off or the plants sectioned off. As I stated above it would be the play area that would be sectioned off after being explored.

The internal security during non combat situations the E-D seems very week, relying more on the self control of the crew and civilians than actual locks and restricted access. Like I mentioned, one teen stole a shuttle, and pair of what seemed to be preteens were playing in the conference room. Also the 20th Century guy was able to use the ships internal communications to contact Picard and the ship's computer gave him Picards location without actually asking it to do so. So yes I can see the child running out of the arcade, finding a place to hide which can be done by removing your communicator (did the kids even have one?) and finding the cove plant fruit and eating it either knowing or not knowing the danger involved.

 

[Timo]

On a planet the kids should be kept under close supervision, a perimeter set up to keep them out of danger because kids are by nature irresponsible.

That "should" doesn't apply to any of Star Trek, though. Or to much of the real world, either (we're on a planet, we don't and can't keep our kids safe). Certainly kids not just in TNG but in TOS and DS9 are free to confront the terrors of the universe. Why would this one episode be an exception?

If they get into danger, that's nothing more than evidence that there is danger. Which is good evidence that the environment is not artificial.

As for "cures" existing, we know they generally don't. That's a plot point in many a Trek adventure where it falls upon the CMO to invent one. Again, that which ought to be has nothing to do with that which is, or else we would have a cure for cancer, a working anti-ballistic missile system, and a universal agreement on how to raise kids.

removing your communicator (did the kids even have one?)

We have never seen a guest or a civilian provided with a communicator. Wesley only got one when he got official status as the bridge mascot: in "Justice", he carries none down to the shore leave planet (which incidentally is only cursorily surveyed, far from safe and secured either by the heroes or by the natives, and not part of the interstellar community except as a welcoming shore to have leave on).

Timo Saloniemi