Had we seen this during the first season, we'd probably be praising it to highest heaven. It sports all the classic elements: a personal revelation makes one of the main characters behave in an annoying manner that contributes little to the jeopardy of the week; a gorgeous guest star contributes even less to the jeopardy of the week; a budget-minded expansion of the Trek universe shows a small corner of what's said to be a vast and important location; a few minutes of superfluous and boring star navigation and space battle fill the gaps; and it comes all packed in crappy yet perversely fascinating VFX where psychedelic colors replace competent miniature work.
It's no more or less realistic or exciting an episode than, say, "Man Trap" or "Mudd's Women". It's one of those where we lack a strong villain character - but some of the best Trek is of this type, including ST4:TVH.
Disagree. Humans can easily take dozens of atmospheres - how else could we scuba? Sixty just calls for the proper gas mixture to keep our metabolism going (it's the rough equivalent of diving down half a kilometer, which isn't practical in real life for a variety of reasons, but as long as the pressure inside us is the same as the pressure outside us...). We're versatile critters who already exist under a crushing pressure in conditions of extreme chemical and mechanical stress (aka the surface of the Earth). It sounds perfectly natural that a flimsy lifeform used to the unchanging nothingness of space would be torn to shreds by the horrid threats our skins and skeletons easily shrug off every day.
The part that doesn't ring true is that our heroes would first subject Romaine to reduced gravity in the process of smoking out the Zetars. Why would zero gee be needed for a simple pressurization process?
Did they do it in order to better imprison Romaine's body, so that she could not be wielded as a weapon by the Zetars? Doesn't sound too good: why would zero gee stop Romaine?
Did they think it would further discomfort the Zetars? Illogical, as they were creatures of zero gee to begin with.
Did they want to make Romaine more comfortable in the middle of all this discomfort? Sounds unwise when considering the price of making the Zetars even more comfortable.
Any other ideas? I'm sure that in the past decades, somebody has rationalized this one away, too...
Timo Saloniemi
It's no more or less realistic or exciting an episode than, say, "Man Trap" or "Mudd's Women". It's one of those where we lack a strong villain character - but some of the best Trek is of this type, including ST4:TVH.
Disagree. Humans can easily take dozens of atmospheres - how else could we scuba? Sixty just calls for the proper gas mixture to keep our metabolism going (it's the rough equivalent of diving down half a kilometer, which isn't practical in real life for a variety of reasons, but as long as the pressure inside us is the same as the pressure outside us...). We're versatile critters who already exist under a crushing pressure in conditions of extreme chemical and mechanical stress (aka the surface of the Earth). It sounds perfectly natural that a flimsy lifeform used to the unchanging nothingness of space would be torn to shreds by the horrid threats our skins and skeletons easily shrug off every day.
The part that doesn't ring true is that our heroes would first subject Romaine to reduced gravity in the process of smoking out the Zetars. Why would zero gee be needed for a simple pressurization process?
Did they do it in order to better imprison Romaine's body, so that she could not be wielded as a weapon by the Zetars? Doesn't sound too good: why would zero gee stop Romaine?
Did they think it would further discomfort the Zetars? Illogical, as they were creatures of zero gee to begin with.
Did they want to make Romaine more comfortable in the middle of all this discomfort? Sounds unwise when considering the price of making the Zetars even more comfortable.
Any other ideas? I'm sure that in the past decades, somebody has rationalized this one away, too...
Timo Saloniemi
