Spoilers for TNG S04E14 Clues
!The Enterprise encounters a planet inhabited by an isolationist species who uses a fake wormhole to knock people out so they can somehow mask their presence. OK, I’m with it so far.
This trap fails on Data who revives the crew and the aliens say they need to destroy the Enterprise to stop people finding out about them. Picard points out that if the Enterprise is destroyed Starfleet will come looking for them. Again, so far so good.
The aliens agree to let the crew live if they can wipe everyone’s memory and order Data to never say what happened. This memory wipe takes 24 hours so they modify the computer records to make everyone think a day hasn’t passed and they were actually out for 30 seconds. Then they do it again when the crew realises after finding some unforseen clues, so now at least 48 hours has passed. This is where it lost me.
I can understand them not realising straight away if they’re in deep space and not communicating with Starfleet, but surely they’re going to figure out their chronometer is 2 days off eventually and go back to try and figure out what went on?!<
I have a vague memory of Data stating in that episode that he was re-syncing ships clocks because “the anomaly” had a temporal something-or-other. The ship experienced 30 seconds, but they were jumped ahead.
Since time is affected by gravity and the differences are magnified by distance (according to relativity), ships clocks must constantly be re-syncing if their standard time is set in sector 001.
Yeah, that was it. The crew didn’t react because a time jump from transiting a wormhole is a totally normal thing for them.
I’m not positive, but I think part of the reason for keeping crew unconscious for so long was to make time to fly the ship far enough from the forbidden planet that it would be a pain to go back for another look. There’s an exchange that goes something like this,
Picard: A random wormhole isn’t that interesting. But we saw a glimpse of maybe a planet? Should we, uh, spend a whole two days to go look again and come back?
Data: That was a sensor glitch! Don’t worry about!
Picard: Yeah that’s way too much hassle. Let’s go ahead and roll the credits.
It’s more of a general ST trope but the whole “Ensigns are the lowest ranks” instead of just being the lowest of the top tier rank on a ship.
Like they are still officers, the majority of a ships crew complement are supposed to be Enlisted Rates but we never see them.
The one where DoucheMcBurger tried to claim Data was starfleet’s property and therefore he should be allowed to study his brain so they could make more datas, and Ryker just folded and prosecuted the case like, “hey, he’s my friend, but I’m going to argue to get his brain fried because I’ll lose my job.”
- Ryker’s assholishness is on perfect display.
- the JAG lady from the station is uterly stupid and fucking incompetent. Basically, in order for the Prime Directive to even be a thing, they would have had to establish a legal test to determine if a species were sentient or whatever. the entire question would have already been settled, and she’d just have to tick off boxes. But naw.
- When Ryker detached Data’s hand, Picard should have had Worf detach his hand as a counter argument (and reattached by Crusher.) 3B) when Ryker turned Data off, Picard should have shot him with a phaser, (and maybe have Crusher bring him back. maybe multiple times.)
also, in Voyager, there’s the entire Year of Hell story arc that just annoys the hell out of me. Classic example of why time travel should be offlimits to any sci-fi writer or producer. (Exceptions exist, of course. Dr. Who… but then time travel is kinda the point there, and it never takes itself seriously.) it’s just too much of a cop out to be like “Oh. we reset the timeline and it’s all good.” Same with that episode where the planet blew up from something and Janeway gets sucked into the past with Paris. (this is where the romance began, probably. and this shit leads to having salamanders for kids…)
(Trial and Tribulations in DS9 is the rare exception, mostly because it was just a gratuitous nod to one of the best TOS episodes ever.)
IIRC, Riker prosecutes Data because if he opts not to do so, they will not have the trial and Data will immediately become the property of Starfleet. He does not want to do it, but is told that if at any point he is thought to be half-assing his duty, they will end the trial and find for Starfleet.
I don’t think they have much experience with races that were built by other races being considered sentient and have been accepted by the UFP, so I can understand a lack of precendent here.
And I would think that if Worf pulled off Riker’s arm, hilarious though it may be, there would be little doubt about the point he was trying to make between the difference in a painful dismemberment and the disassembly of a toaster.
