Stuff that make you wonder but not own thread worthy

[JesterFace]

Are there some little thing that make you wonder, whaaaat? but it's not enough to create own thread for it?

This could be a place for those little things. =)

I felt like I have to mention these....
In 'Aquiel', Aquiel starts packing and tells Geordi she's leaving.
How exactly, how are you going to leave and how far do you think you can get?

another....

In 'Emergence' there is theta flux distortion building around the Enterprise and ready destroy she ship.
Why didn't no one notice the problem?
Explanation: Scanners weren't desingned to detect theta flux distortion.
What? Shouldn't scanners be designed to detect.... well, everything? That's like what they do.

 

[Finn]

Are there some little thing that make you wonder, whaaaat? but it's not enough to create own thread for it?

This could be a place for those little things. =)

I felt like I have to mention these....
In 'Aquiel', Aquiel starts packing and tells Geordi she's leaving.
How exactly, how are you going to leave and how far do you think you can get?

Without rewatching it on Paramount+ (damn ads), when did she say this and did she say it as if she was leaving immediately or as soon as the D gets to a starbase like in every other episode? Maybe take a shuttle with one of the pilots on board? I'm sure it happens time to time....

 

[JesterFace]

Without rewatching it on Paramount+ (damn ads), when did she say this and did she say it as if she was leaving immediately or as soon as the D gets to a starbase like in every other episode? Maybe take a shuttle with one of the pilots on board? I'm sure it happens time to time....

I think she said "I'm getting out of here" and Geordi said that running away isn't the answer.
It appeared that she was just going to leave right there without telling anyone, except Geordi.
I doubt they would have just let her go because the investigation was still going on.
Curious that no one suspected that the dog might have been the alien thingy they were looking for.
That's TV entertainment for ya I guess....

 

[at Quark's]

Are there some little thing that make you wonder, whaaaat? but it's not enough to create own thread for it?
In 'Emergence' there is theta flux distortion building around the Enterprise and ready destroy she ship.
Why didn't no one notice the problem?
Explanation: Scanners weren't desingned to detect theta flux distortion.
What? Shouldn't scanners be designed to detect.... well, everything? That's like what they do.

In our day, scanners can't detect everything either. I don't suspect an infrared scanner is capable of picking up radio signals - it's simply outside its sensitivity range. Or pick up something else entirely, like radioactivity or sound. While I would expect 24th century sensors to be very much more advanced than our sensors today, I still wouldn't expect them to be able to pick up everything. Like those parasites that weren't picked up by the standard sensor suite either, only by specialised 'interphasic scanners' in Phantasms or the invidium that contaminates the ship in Hollow Pursuits. In fact the computer informs us in that episode that 'There are fifteen thousand five hundred twenty five known substances that cannot be detected by standard scans.'

I think the other mystery Geordi mentions is more interesting 'and yet there is a mention of it in the sensor log'. This is never explained - how did the ship creating a conscious intelligence also result in magically gaining the capability to detect that with the sensors if they weren't designed for that? Were the sensors improved upon in some way?

 

[JesterFace]

In our day, scanners can't detect everything either. I don't suspect an infrared scanner is capable of picking up radio signals - it's simply outside its sensitivity range. Or pick up something else entirely, like radioactivity or sound. While I would expect 24th century sensors to be very much more advanced than our sensors today, I still wouldn't expect them to be able to pick up everything.

That was kind of weird, sensors didn't detect anything dangerous but after the jump to warp there was an explanation what had happened.

 

[Oddish]

I still maintain that the Best of Both Worlds, when viewed as a Riker episode, seems quite odd.

Consider the progression...
Riker receives another offer of his own command.
An admiral lets Picard know that Riker is hurting his career, and needs a good hard kick in the rear end for his own good.
Picard emphatically administers the kick.
Before this can be resolved, Picard is abducted.
Riker receives lessons in the realities of command from Guinan, Troi, and possibly others. I think Troi's admonition should have occured in private... but Riker did need to hear it.
Riker demonstrates that he is a proficient, capable commander who CAN make the big decisions. He saves Earth, not by doing what Picard would do, but by doing what he wouldn't.
The natural final step of this progression, the ultimate indication of Riker's growth as a person and a leader during this episode, is to step up and take the Big Chair he has thoroughly demonstrated he belongs in.

What we got, on the other hand...

I expect I will return to this topic a lot (and NO, not about that thing on Voyager I won't shut up about; it has its own active topic).

 

[at Quark's]

SHELBY: We'll have the fleet back up in less than a year. I imagine you'll get your choice of any Starfleet command, sir.
RIKER: Yeah... well, I don't know about that. Somehow I have this nagging feeling that if I pick one of them commands, I won't be having any exciting adventures each Tuesday at 20:30 pm anymore.

 

[Oddish]

PICARD: "And the show won't be able to hold onto you, me, and Data. That also explains why he helped save the planet and he'll still be stuck at lieutenant commander for 25 years."
RIKER: "Right."

Yeah, I understand it. Sometimes Trek does weird for weird's sake, sometimes they have a reason. This was the latter.

 

[Vger23]

I always kind of wondered about the history of the Ferengi. The 1st season of TNG paints them as a mysterious, virtually unknown and potentially carnivorous race. Later series (and even TNG seasons) obviously severely retcon that. But, I've always wondered what the in-universe rationalization would be.

 

[Finn]

Their focus were elsewhere. I have absolutely no issues about the Ferengi showing up in Enterprise.

 

[JesterFace]

About Riker not taking his own command.
Maybe and perhaps he was happy where he was, the best ship and the flagship of the fleet.
He might have had hopes that things with him and Deanna would develop into a relationship over time, that wouldn't happen if he was in command of another ship lightyears away and chasing other attractive officers.
Did the events of TBOBW scare him a bit? At one point he had ordered a collision course with the Borg cube and only last second interruption by Data prevented him to order a crash with the cube. Was that too much for him?
Sure, he was ready to command by Starfleet but perhaps he had some doubts?

 

[trekshark]

Their focus were elsewhere. I have absolutely no issues about the Ferengi showing up in Enterprise.

Especially since, if memory serves, no one in the Enterprise episode ever heard their name. They were just "new alien species we've never met before" and if the next meeting wasn't for decades or more any description Archer put into the records for "unknown aliens #5" would have easily been overlooked unless someone after the next meeting with a hobby of looking through old records also saw the new records and put two and two together.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

What happened to poor Riker that was so stressful he gained weight and developed an addiction to "Enterprise" holo-programs? Was it Data's death, maybe?

 

[Mojochi]

What happened to poor Riker that was so stressful he gained weight and developed an addiction to "Enterprise" holo-programs? Was it Data's death, maybe?

Apparently captaining the Titan might not have been all it was cracked up to be for him. I've always supposed that the reason we can assume he went so long as Picard's #1, while turning down commands, was that deep down he never really felt he'd deserved it. His whole career was built on him backing a criminal & participating in the deaths of a crew, & at least until Nervala IV his postings probably relied heavily on Pressman's recommendation being at the forefront of his file. There's a little truth to what Pressman said about "making" Will, at least in those formative years. Being sent to Betazed could easily have been a "Lay low until the dust settles" type of assignment, that got rewarded with a promotion & posting on the Potemkin.

At some point there Will maybe goes into overcompensation mode, by getting ultra-heroic (Like Nervala IV) & becoming something of a fast burner, wanting to rise in rank quickly, & ultimately getting rather strongheaded as the XO on The Hood. It comes off now as if he'd wanted to distance himself from his ugly roots, & reinvent himself. In the end though, he just never really wanted to pull the pin on the big chair for many years, maybe out of guilt, & once he did, we see the kind of psychological difficulties he had. Dude's kind of a fragile ego wrapped in a lot of mock bravado & machismo

As interesting of a somewhat unintentional character arc as that became, I'm actually just as intrigued by the untold story of Tom Riker too. Honestly, they really did a number on that poor guy, when he showed up. He got his life & career stripped from him, & ultimately lost out on the woman he loved to his doppelganger, who actually played the on/off thing with her, until he ended up marrying her.

But worse was that Will outed them BOTH when he confessed about the Pegasus stuff. That might not have gone well for LT. Riker on the Gandhi. It certainly could've really ruined his reputation, & began him on the path of disillusionment in Starfleet altogether. In some ways, I'm more sympathetic to Tom than Will. Will got all the spoils, including the chance to set things right about the Pegasus, & Tom just became the Riker who didn't voluntarily come forward (Though he was probably called to testify)

Tom didn't have any accolades like saving Earth from the Borg to fall back on. He got done dirtier than nearly anybody in the franchise, for having been a noble fellow. Dudes on Star Trek have gone supervillain for less, & all he did was take up with the revolutionaries, & as such is really no different than Chakotay. I really do hope he found his way out of the labor camps. In some ways, that dude really deserves a break lol

 

[Oddish]

Riker's reticence about taking the Big Chair could have had any number of deep-rooted psychological reasons. Problem is, it ran completely contrary to the narrative arc he followed in "Best of Both Worlds".

The first part of the episode focuses on Riker's failure to move on, including encounters with Shelby (who wants his job and shames him for not leaving it), Picard (who gives him a hard kick in the rear end for his own sake), and Troi (who acknowledges that he has gained much from his time on the Enterprise, then urges him to decide what he wants). In other words, the conflict is set up, but we're not pointed solidly at any resolution just yet.

However, when Picard is taken, Riker has to step up and take command. And yes, some lessons have to be taught, courtesy of Troi and Guinan. But when it's over, Riker has convincingly demonstrated that everything Picard said of him was true (he was ready to work without a net), and everything Shelby said about him is false (he didn't just know how to "play it safe", and he could make the big decisions). Logically, the conclusion of the narrative, as it was played out, is that Riker is ready to step out of Picard's shadow and begin forging his own legend.

It just never happens.

 

[Mojochi]

^He demonstrates himself in BoBW to everyone else. What I was saying is that even in doing so, he need not necessarily have proven to shake off his own personal demons, that might be at the root of his passing up command, those maybe not being that he thinks he can't hack it, but that he might think he doesn't deserve it, for his past transgressions & subsequent benefitting from them.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Apparently captaining the Titan might not have been all it was cracked up to be for him. I've always supposed that the reason we can assume he went so long as Picard's #1, while turning down commands, was that deep down he never really felt he'd deserved it. His whole career was built on him backing a criminal & participating in the deaths of a crew, & at least until Nervala IV his postings probably relied heavily on Pressman's recommendation being at the forefront of his file. There's a little truth to what Pressman said about "making" Will, at least in those formative years. Being sent to Betazed could easily have been a "Lay low until the dust settles" type of assignment, that got rewarded with a promotion & posting on the Potemkin.

At some point there Will maybe goes into overcompensation mode, by getting ultra-heroic (Like Nervala IV) & becoming something of a fast burner, wanting to rise in rank quickly, & ultimately getting rather strongheaded as the XO on The Hood. It comes off now as if he'd wanted to distance himself from his ugly roots, & reinvent himself. In the end though, he just never really wanted to pull the pin on the big chair for many years, maybe out of guilt, & once he did, we see the kind of psychological difficulties he had. Dude's kind of a fragile ego wrapped in a lot of mock bravado & machismo

As interesting of a somewhat unintentional character arc as that became, I'm actually just as intrigued by the untold story of Tom Riker too. Honestly, they really did a number on that poor guy, when he showed up. He got his life & career stripped from him, & ultimately lost out on the woman he loved to his doppelganger, who actually played the on/off thing with her, until he ended up marrying her.

But worse was that Will outed them BOTH when he confessed about the Pegasus stuff. That might not have gone well for LT. Riker on the Gandhi. It certainly could've really ruined his reputation, & began him on the path of disillusionment in Starfleet altogether. In some ways, I'm more sympathetic to Tom than Will. Will got all the spoils, including the chance to set things right about the Pegasus, & Tom just became the Riker who didn't voluntarily come forward (Though he was probably called to testify)

Tom didn't have any accolades like saving Earth from the Borg to fall back on. He got done dirtier than nearly anybody in the franchise, for having been a noble fellow. Dudes on Star Trek have gone supervillain for less, & all he did was take up with the revolutionaries, & as such is really no different than Chakotay. I really do hope he found his way out of the labor camps. In some ways, that dude really deserves a break lol

I'm with you there! I'll argue that Tasha Yar had is a bit worse, but Tom Riker is most definitely up there.

Something that just occurred to me right now: the reason so many TNG guest characters like Tom Riker, Ro Laren, and Tasha Yar had their stories left essentially unfinished is because their conflicts were pretty much recycled into bigger characters on DS9 and "Voyager."

Ro Laren was supposed to be on DS9 or Voyager, but the actress wasn't interested; so Kira Nerys and B'Elanna Torres were created to somewhat fill the roles they'd wanted for Ro. Ro's story of falling out of Starfleet and into the Maquis was basically shifted to, and continued in more detail by, B'Elanna Torres. Kira Nerys meanwhile took over as the feisty Bajoran mascot over on DS9.

Nick Locarno never got to redeem himself after that accident, but Tom Paris did. Tom Riker never got to return to Starfleet and continue to advance in command, but Chakotay did. Tasha Yar never got to deploy her ass-kicking, angsty childhood, or sass for the full run of a show, but Kira Nerys and B'Elanna Torres did.

In a way we owe it to those TNG guest stars going MIA, for these great DS9 and "Voyager" ones. But it's still Irritating that we don't get anything on Tom Riker and Ro Laren's fates, and that Tasha remains so screwed in every timeline.

 

[Oddish]

Not every timeline necessarily... just the ones we've seen.

 

[Mojochi]

I'm with you there! I'll argue that Tasha Yar had is a bit worse, but Tom Riker is most definitely up there.

Well, if you're talking about the Yesterday's Enterprise Tasha that got taken prisoner, & spent the remainder of her life rearing a half-Romulan child with her captor, & then trying to escape only to be ratted out by said child, then yeah, that's a worse fate than Tom Riker's 8 year solitary confinement & survival mode, followed by subsequent identity theft.

However, Tasha volunteered for that fate. She really didn't have to go back there to the ENT-C. She knew she likely was going to her (Less meaningless) death, but she should've at least considered the possibility of going back to a fate worse than death too. Whereas Tom Riker? All he really did was act in accordance with the best principles of any good officer on a rescue mission, & fell victim to some misfortune that should've cost him his life, like any other dangerous mission.

That he'd survived it was a real testament to his character. It's what became of him AFTERWARD that's the real tragedy. What should've made him into a truly bitter man was how people who should care about him basically wrote him off, people like Will & Deanna, who we've been respecting this whole time, basically cut him loose to fend for himself after such loss, having no real concern for how their actions might affect him, someone who deserved an amount of their compassion & aid. Just here's a trombone & a new job somewhere else, now sod off. Maybe we'll let Dad know he could expect 2 Birthday cards this year.

Then within a year or so of the poor guy getting his life back off the ground, Will torpedoes the whole thing with that Pegasus scandal, which he, himself seems to have weathered just peachy, but being the Riker who never had the chance to right that wrong, might have been a much harder pill to swallow

I think to myself how I might fair under similar circumstances of basically being a shamed officer on his ship, & I might've ended up going the same route he did

 

[trekshark]

What happened to poor Riker that was so stressful he gained weight and developed an addiction to "Enterprise" holo-programs? Was it Data's death, maybe?

Thing is, he was doing NX-01 holoprograms prior to data's death.