Who Likes 'Relics'?
- Thread starter Chief Medical Officer
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I've always thought of it as a solid episode. Didn't know there was a significant amount of criticism for it.
Of course, another redshirt buys the farm. Poor Scotty has that hanging over his head, too, I'm sure.
In engineering, he gets drunk with power and forgets his place. It has been a while, after all...
His appearance here left such an impression on me that for a while, when I thought of the reboot '09 movie character, I kept picturing Relics Scott instead.
In engineering, he gets drunk with power and forgets his place. It has been a while, after all...
His appearance here left such an impression on me that for a while, when I thought of the reboot '09 movie character, I kept picturing Relics Scott instead.
Recently watched 'Relics', looked forward to seeing Scotty again, me being Scottish.
Any Starfleet Officer worth his salt would be falling over themselves to have a senior officer of the most famous Starship in Federation history aboard, they would know Scotty's contribution to Federation history (little things like, oh i dont know, saving the world maybe?!) and its technological advances such as Transwarp...
LaForge, in particular should be idolising this man, as undoubtedly he would had to have learned Scotty's equations and theories at the Academy and would have been inspirational to aspiring engineers to continue to push the boundaries of science...It would've been like meeting Einstein!
Yet they treated him as some stray dog they picked up and looked to drop him of at the nearest convenient point...
I find it strange Picard would not have contacted Starfleet to report that a revered former officer (a Captain, no less) of Scotty's stature had been found alive and well in such unusual circumstances and aided his return to concerned loved ones that may have mourned his assumed demise.
Also, whilst perhaps not a serving officer Captain Scott still outranks everyone on the ship and should have been treated with a great deal more respect and not an inconvenience like some old forgetful grandfather!
I get the point of the episode. Scotty is used as a metaphor for things moving on and time catches up to us all etc...
I just thought it wasn't well done.
Any Starfleet Officer worth his salt would be falling over themselves to have a senior officer of the most famous Starship in Federation history aboard, they would know Scotty's contribution to Federation history (little things like, oh i dont know, saving the world maybe?!) and its technological advances such as Transwarp...
LaForge, in particular should be idolising this man, as undoubtedly he would had to have learned Scotty's equations and theories at the Academy and would have been inspirational to aspiring engineers to continue to push the boundaries of science...It would've been like meeting Einstein!
Yet they treated him as some stray dog they picked up and looked to drop him of at the nearest convenient point...
I find it strange Picard would not have contacted Starfleet to report that a revered former officer (a Captain, no less) of Scotty's stature had been found alive and well in such unusual circumstances and aided his return to concerned loved ones that may have mourned his assumed demise.
Also, whilst perhaps not a serving officer Captain Scott still outranks everyone on the ship and should have been treated with a great deal more respect and not an inconvenience like some old forgetful grandfather!
I get the point of the episode. Scotty is used as a metaphor for things moving on and time catches up to us all etc...
I just thought it wasn't well done.
I love it. It's one of my favorite episodes. I personally think it succeeds on the levels you believe it fails. It felt sincere. They could've had everyone hero-worshipping Scotty throughout the entire episode but that's not realistic. Look at what zephraim cochrane accomplished and he got on everyone's nerves rather quickly. And scotty's struggle with feelings of irrelevancy are real and relatable. In the end he saves the day, thus proving he's not so irrelevant after all. Very inspirational, IMO.
They didn't want Geordi to be a MarySue fanboy.
I'm currently watching it again for the first time in years. Scotty really is being a pest. Lol
This isn't the JJ-verse, Scotty didn't invent Transwarp beaming here. And the Enterprise D saved the world (and more) so many times that I doubt they'd be THAT impressed. We don't really know how famous Scotty should be. I would imagine Kirk and Spock probably got most of the glory. And speaking of Spock, he was alive and well at the time (as was Bones who didn't have people falling over him either), so it's not like he was the only person from the old Enterprise alive.
Picard probably did report it, just because they didn't include a scene where he does so doesn't mean it didn't happen. And we don't know if Scott has any concerned loved ones to return him to, especially after 75 years. At the time of his disappearance he was going off to live alone at a retirement colony, without any concerned family. The only family I know of Scotty having is a sister, niece and nephew. The nephew died in Wrath of Khan and the niece supposedly hated him. Maybe the sister would be concerned but it's very possible she's no longer alive, or maybe she was PO'd about her son dying under his care. Who knows. Maybe Scott did look up his family and found they were no longer alive, contacted them to say "Hi, I'm still alive" or whatever, but much like showing Picard report the finding of Scotty it wasn't important to the episode. Not everything has to be shown on screen. The better ending for the episode was to see Scott flying off in his own shuttle to go on a few adventures instead of heading for the retirement colony. Having him returned to Earth to live with his extended family isn't nearly as fun of an idea. Scotty belongs in space, with a ship.
I agree. Also, this was a sentimental episode.
Scotty put Geordi and the rest of the TNG crew to shame. Here was this colorful character in a ship full of stiffs. If I were a crew member on board the Enterprise, I would have enjoyed sitting down with Scotty with a few drinks in hand to listen to his tales. Geordi could have learned a thing or two from Scotty, like getting a personality.
The story of this ep was well told. Scotty may have been old, but he was anything but a relic. The crew of the Enterprise might have viewed Scotty as an annoyance, but Scotty showed that he still had a lot of life and adventure in him.
I am a big fan of scotty, so I was thrilled to see him in a TNG episode. I don't think they treated Scotty unfairly. As someone previously said not everyone in the future is a starfleet history buff. I am not even sure it is required of anyone who isn't at least an officer. If the ordinary crewman is anything like say a private today, he probably doesn't care about anything that isn't closely related to his function. Anyway, they couldn't just make an episode about Scotty walking around and getting accolades from every one. They had to use him in a plot, and the plot they came up with was as good as anyone else.
This episode could just as well have been a metaphor for, how too often in the real world, old folks are unappreciated and discarded by younger people and younger family members.
In that sense, how the TNG crew treated Scotty was realistic. The ep did a good job. Geordi thought he knew better than Scotty. Maybe he did. But he could have been more tactful towards Scotty. Geordi and the crew missed an opportunity. Scotty was for the most part was unappreciated. It was sad but in the real world that is often the case.
It was good that Scotty was seemingly able to find a happy ending.
In that sense, how the TNG crew treated Scotty was realistic. The ep did a good job. Geordi thought he knew better than Scotty. Maybe he did. But he could have been more tactful towards Scotty. Geordi and the crew missed an opportunity. Scotty was for the most part was unappreciated. It was sad but in the real world that is often the case.
It was good that Scotty was seemingly able to find a happy ending.
My opinion of this episode varies a lot. Last time I saw it I thought it highlighted the (unintentional) flaws in the Next Gen characters. They came across as massive c
s in the way they treated Scotty. Geordi in particular was not someone I'd like to associate with.
As for the classic Enterprise bridge inaccuracies, it was easily good enough
I may have been young when I first saw it, but I was completely fooled and had no idea they'd only built that little section of the set.
s in the way they treated Scotty. Geordi in particular was not someone I'd like to associate with.As for the classic Enterprise bridge inaccuracies, it was easily good enough
I may have been young when I first saw it, but I was completely fooled and had no idea they'd only built that little section of the set.
Yeah, Geordi acted like a tool, but I can also see where he was coming from. He was on a tight schedule with the captain expecting a job to get done and Scotty couldn't take a hint and get out of their way. I believe Geordi had said he'd take Scott to engineering once they were less busy but he showed up anyway. Scotty's heart was in the right place wanting to help but he didn't really grasp the idea that his engineering expertise was a bit out of date. They probably could have written it better so that they didn't act like such d-bags but it was what set up the human drama of the episode. I find it more interesting than a fan-wank episode where everybody's just fawning over Scotty and he saves the day as expected. They set it up so that you're not sure if he can save the day and the conflict from earlier makes it a sweeter victory when he does. He got to prove himself as opposed to just show off.
Who was the equivalent crewman aboard the USS Missouri during the surrender of Japan? Don't know without looking it up, and even then not knowing a damn thing about him besides his name? Yeah, that would be why.
Aside from Kirk and probably Spock, it's doubtful any of the other crewmen aboard Kirk's Enterprise was (relatively) common knowledge.
I love that episode. The appearance of Scotty in the beginning with the old transporter noise was just magical. Any misremembering of Scotty can be attributed to transporter technobabble.
Scotty was an engineer on one of at least a dozen or so starships over one hundred years after warp drive became practical and put into use. He wasn't the 23rd Century equivalent of Einstein. Not sure where that idea came from.
I share that feeling. He may be seminal as an engineer (then again he may not) but that would make him famous to engineers, and hardly to anyone else.
I like Michael Jan Friedman's novelization of "Relics" far more than the actual episode. The episode is, for me, something of a misfire, and the novelization at least tries to fix the episode's major failing -- they found a Dyson Sphere, and they do absolutely nothing with it. My feeling on "Relics" is, "You wasted a Dyson Sphere on a b-plot. You could have spent six episodes on a Dyson Sphere. And you relegated it to damn b-plot."
Yes, they go inside in the episode and there's some false drama that's confined to the ship when they do, but there's no exploration whatsoever of this Big Damn Object. Friedman at least sends an Away Team to the surface, where they don't do much of anything, but it's something!
On top of that, most everyone acts wildly out of character, and the ending amounts to shoving Scotty out the door at the earliest opportunity. I don't expect the crew to fawn over Scotty -- to be honest, he and the "Gang of Four" were not characters I really cared much about one way or the other -- but they don't have to be jackhats.
I know the episode's beloved but, for me, "Relics" is a misfire.
Yes, they go inside in the episode and there's some false drama that's confined to the ship when they do, but there's no exploration whatsoever of this Big Damn Object. Friedman at least sends an Away Team to the surface, where they don't do much of anything, but it's something!
On top of that, most everyone acts wildly out of character, and the ending amounts to shoving Scotty out the door at the earliest opportunity. I don't expect the crew to fawn over Scotty -- to be honest, he and the "Gang of Four" were not characters I really cared much about one way or the other -- but they don't have to be jackhats.
I know the episode's beloved but, for me, "Relics" is a misfire.
I don't mind Relics as such but as above, the novelisation has more going for it than the episode. Just as well that Kirk wasn't dragged into it as envisaged or suggested. Though it's non-canon, I did like the idea in Ship of the Line by Diane Carey, that Scotty ends up having a hand in the Sovereign-class design.
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