USS Exeter: Why no automated warning?

[Timo]

This episode would seem to establish months. In TNG, the Yamato similarly disappears from the radar for at least the better part of a year, and nobody appears particularly alarmed; in "Where Silence Has Lease", our heroes are only mildly surprised to meet the (fake) Yamato in Nagilum's corner of space, instead of cross-checking their records and finding that the ship was supposed to be somewhere else altogether.

Further, planets of interest appear to be revisited only after several years if not decades; many of Kirk's planetary assignments were revisits, and apparently none took place within a year of the previous one. Starfleet couldn't spare a ship to go look for Roger Korby for years, either...

When you sail into the unknown in the 23rd century (and apparently also in the 24th), you really cannot count on backup or rescue. Tracey was being wildly optimistic, it seems!

Why else would Kirk show up at Omega 4 if the Exeter was already patrolling there?

The "patrol region" could be a pretty vague one. Somehow, Kirk also stumbled onto the (short-ranged, thanks to the DDM jamming everything) emergency call of the Constellation, despite having no assignment of rendezvousing with that ship or looking for her. No doubt Starfleet would prefer to have the "patrol regions" overlap for good coverage, especially since any given one ship apparently doesn't do revisits even to places of significant interest.

Kirk certainly sounds quite surprised that the ship they sight is the Exeter. Indeed, at first, he orders his own ship to red alert at the sight of another starship. What was he expecting? Klingons? Apparently not a fellow Starfleet vessel...

Apparently, Kirk's mission was to Omega IV specifically, as his ship approaches that planet before being surprised by the presence of another vessel. We are never told what this mission might be, though. The first-ever survey of the world, perhaps? Had there been a previous one, Kirk and friends would probably have more knowledge on the natives, and on the disease associated with the planet (or at least parts of it).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One other thing about this episode - can we finally put this to bed once and for all, was that scene about the natives of Omega IV being descended from Earth humans EVER ACTUALLY FILMED, or was it just in the script, and cut from it without ever getting to the screen? If the former, why have we never seen this scene floating around the 'net, in a blooper reel, or on the DVDs/Blu-Rays as a deleted scene?

Me, I prefer the explanation propounded by our own @Nerys Ghemor in her very excellent fanfic:

Spoiler: suggestion

She suggests that Omega IV, along with Magna Roma from "Bread and Circuses" and Miri's planet from "Miri", aren't just copies of Earth, but actually ARE Earth. Meaning, all three are parallel universe counterparts of Earth; the Enterprise having temporarily slipped into each Earth's respective universe because of instability in the fabric of space.

 

[MarsWeeps]

^A spoiler about a suggestion?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Hey, it wasn't mine. I didn't want to spoil somebody else's story.

 

[ToddPence]

One other thing about this episode - can we finally put this to bed once and for all, was that scene about the natives of Omega IV being descended from Earth humans EVER ACTUALLY FILMED, or was it just in the script, and cut from it without ever getting to the screen? If the former, why have we never seen this scene floating around the 'net, in a blooper reel, or on the DVDs/Blu-Rays as a deleted scene?

Because it very likely quite literally ended up on the cutting room floor and was swept out with the trash. This is why there are so few outtakes from TOS surviving today. TV shows didn't preserve their outtakes like they do today.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Just for shits and giggles I'd like to see them try to 'film' that scene - in full-out CGI, trying to actually make it look like it came from the original episode. Is the current state of CGI enough to make realistic depictions of Shatner, Nimoy, et al?

 

[WRStone]

Me, I prefer the explanation propounded by our own Nerys Ghemor in her very excellent fanfic:

The Enterprise encountering parallel Earths is one of those things that sounded neat on the drawing board but doesn't hold much scientific truth.

Looking back, one of the things I'd've done with TOS would be to place it farther into the future. Instead of the 23rd century, make it the 30th. Instead of parallel Earths, make them lost colonies.

Build into the Trek backstory a period of colonial expansion by Earth followed by some kind of major retreat or collapse lasting a couple of centuries. Then the Enterprise is free to encounter any number of planets that were lost colonies, differing from Earth based on how its inhabitants chose to live while cut off.

Dakota Smith

 

[Timo]

...Perhaps "Hodgkins' Law of Parallel Development" is but the latest form of scientific denial about the fact that space has indeed been colonized from Earth (if not actually by Earth) and that the results stand proof of mankind's infinite capacity for evil and stupidity. Every planet that was populated by cultures uplifted from Earth by an outside force turned out to be a disaster similar to the motherworld!

Omega IV could be an Earthling settlement, too. Only, this time the alien abductors did not settle for mere spatial displacement, but sent the victims to the past as well. Although I'd rather think of the Omegans as an alien species that was merely culturally corrupted by a American chauvinist (presumably from the late 20th century, given the 50 stars in his flag) who happened to have access to a time machine.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Maximara]

That always bothered me. A Starfleet Captain so easily and quickly subverted by the promise of eternal youth.

I don't know about "quick"... Tracey spent six months down there, facing the genocidal savagery of the Yangs. Eternal youth would have been a relatively minor concern for him when death lurked behind every sunrise!

Tracey only got excited about his fountain-of-youth theory when Kirk arrived, and mainly because Tracey had gotten so attached to the last Kohms remaining on the planet; any excuse to stay and protect them would do, and "They know the secret of longevity!" is a pretty good one...

Going native in six months is not particularly implausible. Especially if you really wake up to every morning expecting to die, without ever seeing a fellow human again.

Timo Saloniemi

Exactly... He was in command of one of their largest and powerful Starships. But no training or testing could screen what happens to a commander who lost his entire crew of over 400... Factor in everything you just said, Timo, and we have a completely plausible situation.

I felt bad for him.

It was a really good episode (until the very end- I can't even watch that ending anymore. Kinda like not being able to watch Spock's Brain anymore)...

The lost of his entire crew must have effected Tracy. You only have to look to Commodore Decker in "Doomsday Machine" to see another example of how the death one's entire crew can push a Commodore into the Funny Farm.

 

[Maximara]

Me, I prefer the explanation propounded by our own Nerys Ghemor in her very excellent fanfic:

The Enterprise encountering parallel Earths is one of those things that sounded neat on the drawing board but doesn't hold much scientific truth.

Looking back, one of the things I'd've done with TOS would be to place it farther into the future. Instead of the 23rd century, make it the 30th. Instead of parallel Earths, make them lost colonies.

Build into the Trek backstory a period of colonial expansion by Earth followed by some kind of major retreat or collapse lasting a couple of centuries. Then the Enterprise is free to encounter any number of planets that were lost colonies, differing from Earth based on how its inhabitants chose to live while cut off.

Dakota Smith

IIRC there are only two episodes in TOS that actually give something akin to a year: "Space Seed" (1990s + about 200 years) and Squire of Gothos (1804 + 800 years)

If they had gone with "Squire of Gothos "Star Trek would have taken place in the 27th century and not the 23rd.

 

[Maximara]

Accessing another ship's logs, remotely, might have been beyond them in that time period. Or, them might have tried and failed for some reason. There no indication in the episode that they tried.

The Exeter's ship surgeon should have had the ability to independently active a medical quarantine beacon. Also, to initiate a subspace communication to Starfleet Command, notifying them that he had declared a medical emergency.

I would say accessing a ship's logs remotely was not possible in Kirk's time as he had to beam over to the Constellation ("Doomsday Machine") and Defiant ("The Tholian Web") to access their logs.

However that doesn't explain why no warning beacon was activated.

 

[MarsWeeps]

The lost of his entire crew must have effected Tracy. You only have to look to Commodore Decker in "Doomsday Machine" to see another example of how the death one's entire crew can push a Commodore into the Funny Farm.

Tracey sure didn't act like it bothered him much.

He tells Kirk: "My crew, Jim. My entire crew. Gone."

He said it with as much emotion as if he misplaced a pair of boots.

As a followup to the story, I would say that they took Tracey back, did a medical & psychological evaluation of him, found that the disease did affect his brain & judgement, put him in the Federation Funny Farm for awhile and then released him to family care. No charges were filed.

The Exeter stayed in orbit around Omega IV for another 6 months while Starfleet deployed a medical team and discovered a way to neutralize the disease and de-contaminate the Exeter, and then performed a refit similar to what the Enterprise would see.

The Exeter would then get her own TV series. One of the episodes would deal with the new crew investigating an unexplored region of space where some report seeing "ghosts" on the ship and part of the crew being convinced it's the Exeter's former crew haunting them.

 

[Timo]

Decker might have been shaken by the fact that the loss of his crew was his own damn fault. Either he failed to complete a plan that would have made it possible for people beamed down to a planet to survive a planet-eating beast - or then he okayed the harebrained decision to beam down without considering the consequences. Tracey did not contribute to the deaths of his crew as far as we know; he wasn't even among those who beamed back and carried the disease to the ship.

Also, Tracey had lost some 400 fellow crew, six months ago. But he had since witnessed the onmarch of the Yangs, whose death toll was in a whole different ballpark. And while he probably hadn't been eyewitness for most of those deaths, he had seen some (unlike Kirk whenever our favorite starship captain learned of thousands or millions dead). His behavior would seem to match that history.

Timo Saloniemi