"Storage Wars: Starfleet's Finest"
The "quantum" nomencalture suggests that artifacts are stored in a non-matter state, but the materialization effect suggests that it's not in a classic transporter buffer. The simplest explanation to me is that all the computer banks Picard and the archive Index were walking along were the storage for all the artifacts, which are called back into material form as needed. Heck, the back room full of Picard's stuff could have been bare moments before he entered, and the Index called up his room's default or previous state knowing he needed the workspace.
Moving on with my tech observations:
- I can't wait till we get a better look at the Starfleet tugs, and there's been a fair amount of discussion of them already. What resonated to me is how we're finally seeing the Franz Joseph-esque arrangement of tug an cargo modules realized. Also, the highlight hull color is a rust red, which hasn't been seen before in TNG-era starship design - the Sovereign class has darker grey paneling here and there, but not a contrasting color like red. Does it signify the ships' Martian origin? Or were they just built so quickly that LaForge forgot to apply Rust-eze to some of the parts?
- We've seen media interviews in Trek before, but I think this is the first time we've seen an entire camera crew. Usually it's just the reporter themselves plus a wearable camera or portable doodad. Also, why are the camera (?) drones buzzing around like that? The shots we see from the kitchen TV are from typical locked-down camera angles. Even the push in to Picard's face was done from where we don't readily see a drone. Wouldn't it make more sense to set up a holographic field to capture EVERYTHING, and then for the news crew to edit down from there?
- Further use of holography as a mirror, as established previously in DSC. And is the reporter's lip gloss applied by app, or is she wearing something that is effectively commanded to change color by bluetooth?
- 900 million Romulans were to be evacuated by 10,000 warp ferries. Obviously this DOESN'T necessarily mean that each ferry would carry 90,000 Romulans each in one go... They probably made some relatively simple calculations about where they would have to go, how long it would take a ship at a certain warp speed to get there and back and how big a ship of the needed speed they could build by a certain deadline to effect an evacuation before the supernova hit Romulus. Add to that the logistical preparation of both the evacuating population and destination site(s), and the need to sustain them along the way, and you balance everything out to start designing and building ships in waves that would start the evacuation as soon as they were ready to go. Also, I'm sure the Romulan Empire wasn't standing idly by and was doing their own thing in concert with Starfleet's plan.
- Mars is still on fire fifteen years after the attack. I'm guessing they don't mean that the atmospheric event that started it is still active, but that there's stuff happening like
underground fires which can take years to die out even on Earth. However they were terraforming Earth probably lay down a lot of organic infrastructure for people to build on that could be unknowingly flammable.
- One wonders if the Index program is pre-EMH. Her flickering effects suggest they are more utilitarian and less flashy, and she doesn't directly touch anything (though she isn't called to).
- I'm guessing that if there was a plaque under the Calypso shuttle in Picard's archive room, it would read "Dedicated to the only Captain who EVER used their Captain's Yacht for ANYTHING". Or maybe he just liked the design.
- And if there's a model of each of his commands, why isn't the USS Verity there?
- Speaking of flickering, Dahj's phone's holo interface is relatively flicker-free, except when the image of her mom conveniently goes janky as if she's talking to a computer program... OTOH, the phone's interface is moving around with her hand whenever you see her hand, but it's pretty static when we look over Dahj's shoulder at her mom, no matter how she moves.
- So how exactly does Dahj die? The assassin apparently cracks a tooth and spits on her, but also the gun. She (and the assassin) start melting right away, but the liquid also apparently sets off the gun to blow up BOTH their melting bodies.Was that the intent?
- So the "police" (Starfleet security, no? Who gets jurisdiction for an explosion on the Headquarters campus?) find Picard, and just send him home unconscious? How did they get him there? And why did they drop him on a couch instead of upstairs? You'd think they'd put him an a hospital for observation, or at least until he woke up!
- The Daystrom Institute is in Okinawa, Japan. Having BEEN to Okinawa, I can confidently say that cliffs such as the one the Institute is built over are rare. It's not a large island.
Anyways, the Daystrom Institute has been a catch-all for "place where the smart people go to do smart things with technology", and this one is specifically for "Advanced Robotics", so there may be
other campuses here or elsewhere where they can dig up old tech on other planets or create murderous computers or whatever.
- The Japanese kanji actually does say "Daystrom Institute of Advanced Robotics", but I do question if the grammar is correct from my limited experience with the language.
- They keep B4's components in a box and apparently that's the only one they have in the lab. What about Lore? You'd think they'd find a place there for his body - and not reactivate him under any circumstance, ban or not.
- I'd like to take a moment here to express how relieved I am that the various sound effects are era-appropriate, if a little dated. Unlike DSC, where someone was probably given a ZIP disk full of Star Trek SFX cues and told to use whatever they want, here it seems the sound designer was at least instructed to use only the stuff from the TNG folder. All the computers, force fields and even the one non-pull-openable door use the correct TNG effects, and it's great. The Romulan segment had few existing cues that I could make out, but that's more forgivable IMO.
- Among the collection of tools on the robotics desk are a bunch of 20th century calibrated pipettes, used to measure liquids for scientific application. One wonders what kinds of fluids are being exchanged in this lab to warrant them.
- Dipping a bit ahead to the next episode clip seen on Wil Wheaton's "Ready Room" show, the VFX guys went through all the trouble of making a new CG model of the Enterprise -D to use presumably for both the opening shot of this episode and for the holo-display in SFHQ's lobby... But then they have to use THAT version of the Enterprise alongside it. And with a notable janky flicker between the images too, instead of a smoother transition! One can only hope that it's a temporary art installation.
Mark
