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Episode
132
Contagion
The Enterprise has a rendezvous with its ailing sister ship, the Yamato. Sadly, it explodes and Picard takes up its mission. But the Enterprise starts suffering some of the same symptoms of the Yamato – pre-explosion. Also, they are in the Neutral Zone. And there are Romulans. And a planet with technology thousands of years ahead of the Federation and Starfleet. And still that is not everything. Tons to talk about when we put Contagion in the Mission Log.
In defense of the cold boot: It is possible for technology to allow people to “advance” to the point where simple/basic knowledge becomes forgotten. It is a parallel to the splint discussion between Dr. Pulaski and the other doctor. This can be seen in our world, where technology has obfuscated skills such as map reading and check writing.
This is not a “turn it off and turn it back on” solution. It was, admittedly portrayed that way because it happened very quickly, but the solution was “a complete shutdown, a wipe of all affected memory [including the Yamato logs], and then *a reload of systems from the protected archives*.”
That sounds more like “restore from backup” than “reboot system” to me …
I think it’s important to remember that Riker said to tell the Romulans how to fix their ship, and then let’s get out just in case they can’t fix it.
It is worth mentioning that “Yamato” was a starship in the anime sf series “Space Battleship Yamato,” seen in the U.S, back in the 80’s, under the title “Star Blazers.” In the English-dubbed version, tho, the name of the ship was changed to “Argo,” a name that reappeared in “Star Trek Nemesis” for the dune buggy that Picard drives.
When Picard is on the Romulan vessel, the computer voice sounds like it’s repeating “Captain Picard!” over and over.
Ok few things…
1. The Reboot issue. If they had done that right off that would have been incredibly stupid. Their system is on the fritz, it runs everything, and if they reboot there is as much chance that it doesn’t come on or they get attacked mid reboot as it does anything else so Geordie not thinking to do that until it is shown to actually work in some capacity is realistic… however him taking so long to figure out what happened with data and extrapolating was not.
2. Picard/Wesley discussion completely out of place regardless of how you try to spin it.
3. On top of 2. I think it is hilarious that reading and the line by Picard when he hears how the Yamato blew up, “Wait… That’s Impossible” as though he was so miffed at the fact that his ship might blow up without his command.
4. Riker saying “Wait we can help them” and “Picard saying let’s get out of here” makes perfect sense considering Picard doesn’t know they’ve fixed the problem. All he knows is that the transporter got him home and the other ship is about to blow up.
5. The Romulans were awfully trusting this episode. They didn’t question at all Riker shouting at them to blow up the probe.
6. The writing ignored the previously established way to deal with the Romulans which is that you don’t make the first move because they look for that as an excuse. If they can’t find that excuse they tend not to act first. Picard targeting them and powering phasers gave them this excuse which Picard would not have done.
The computer was funny as heck in this episode, I think that’s Ken’s work? Bravo. I definitely agree with the comments about Dr. Pulaski in this episode. The system failures really tested her skills as a Chief Medical Officer, and she definitely rose to the challenge. The Geordi in the malfunctioning turbo-lift scene was also really great.
I just have to say that I find the idea of the Iconian gateway extremely fascinating. How does it work? What are those destinations that you see? Are they close by or far away across the galaxy, or even to other galaxies? If they are, what powers the device, that it can connect over such vast distances without, like, draining a whole sun for power? Is there a database of destinations and are those that you see just a selection, or is that all there is? These are just some of the questions that keep me up at night… well, not really, but it’s still fun to think about.
Hey guys just remember this episode because the Iconian Gateway will come back up again in Deep Space Nine Season 4 in an episode called “To The Death”
In regards to finding the Enterprise’s mainframe humorous. Mainframes are still being used in the 21st century and they likely will still be used in the 24th, in one form or another.
The replicator might have created an artificial plant…. just a thought
I thought the moment where Troi grabbed Riker’s arm was great. I actually backed up to see if I missed the moment when she grabbed him but all we actually see is Troi removing her hand from his arm in the blurry background.
On another note, it’s so strange to see so many comments. Since the beginning (my beginning) it’s been just a small club of tardy misfits commenting on the retroactive posts. It was cool participating in a conversation happening in different times. Now I’m just lost in the crowd. Shout out to USS Surefoot for commenting on almost every episode like I did- sometimes you have to give your opinion even when it’s just a shout into the void.
Keep in mind it ALL gets read, no matter what. I for one am really grateful that our listeners go back and fill in the comments months, even years, later. That’s the whole idea behind Mission Log – that the conversation keep going.