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Old 09-26-2021, 05:34 PM
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Nate the Great Nate the Great is offline
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September 23rd, 1991, "Redemption Part Two"

It feels good to be caught up again.

The Episode

[Kurn's Bridge]

They really tried to squeeze too much into this episode. Why is Worf with Kurn instead of Gowron?

PICARD: The Romulans have been attempting to destroy the Klingon-Federation Alliance for the past twenty years.

Really? I thought the Romulans were in an isolationist period until a couple years ago. I think they're referring to the Khitomer Massacre in 2346 that orphaned Worf, but that raises further questions. It was previously believed that the Romulans entered the isolationist period after the Tomed Incident in 2311. But then again, the Romulans attacked Narendra III in 2344, the act that directly led to the Alliance.

For the sake of argument let's retcon out of existence the isolationist period (which is hard, since the Tomed Incident will be referenced a few more times in canon). In this case it seems silly to specify "twenty years" at all since the alliance has only existed for twenty years! Picard could just say "since it was created"!

SHANTHI: But how would you overcome the Romulan cloaking device?
PICARD: My Chief Engineer has developed a system that should nullify that advantage. Each ship will send out an active tachyon beam to the other blockading ships. Now, in theory, any cloaked vessel that attempts to pass between our ships must cross that beam and be detected.

Space is big, really big. This tachyon detection grid just doesn't work. Even if we argue that Romulan cloaking fields extend hundreds of times farther than their ships (dubious at best, but IF), you'd still need thousands of ships to cover the entire Romulan/Klingon border. And then of course, you'd need to extend the grid across the Romulan/Federation border too, plus whoever is on the far side of Romulan/Klingon space (the Breen?).

Plus I'm dubious that a starship can be equipped to receive the tachyon beams from other ships.

Now let's turn to "Face of the Enemy" that implies that Starfleet maintained the grid for at least a year after the war. Even if you somehow buy that Starfleet eventually implemented an automated planetside equivalent of the starships (again, dubious, but at least it evokes the asteroid outposts from "Balance of Terror") would the Klingons agree to it?

RIKER: Starfleet is stretched pretty thin across the quadrant. There are only about twelve ships within a day's travel of this position.

We're given every reason to believe that the Civil War has been going on for a long time now (stardates indicate nine days, yeah right). Frankly Starfleet has had plenty of time to get half of the fleet to the Klingon/Romulan border whether or not they were anticipating the tachyon detection grid.

LAFORGE: The only other ships available are either in spacedock for repairs or still under construction. Most of them don't even have full crews yet.

I wonder if any are still repairing damage from Wolf 359. I'm confused at Geordi bringing up the crew thing. So what? Transfer staff from the starbases to the ships! I think you can run the starbases on a skeleton crew for a little bit, nobody's attacking them.

Furthermore, tachyon detection grid or not, every remotely-operational starship should've been staffed by now.

PICARD: Mister La Forge, can you implement your tachyon detection grid with twenty ships?
LAFORGE: It's possible, but the more ships, the bigger the net we can throw.

Facepalm. I'm dubious that twenty ships could cover a sector, much less the whole border.

PICARD: Will, I want you to command the Excalibur. Her crew was reassigned when she put in for repairs.

Let me wring my fists again about no other Constitution-class ship getting the -A, -B, etc. designations for their namesakes.

Memory Alpha designates this Excelsior as NCC-26517, Ambassador-class. This is the same ship later to be commanded by Captain Calhoun in the New Frontier novels.

DATA: I am confused. Why have I not been assigned to command a ship in the fleet, sir?

Well, Data, first of all you're not in the Command division, you're in the Operations division. Unless you go back to the Academy and change divisions you'll never captain a ship unless it's in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Second of all, this episode doesn't have the runtime to do the story of your first command properly (and it doesn't). Third of all, now is not time time to be thinking of your career, just like we really didn't have time for Riker's against back in "The Best of Both Worlds." Fourth of all, you should be spending your time figuring out how to get the most out of the tachyon detection grid. Need I go on?

WORF: You drink with our enemies?
KURN: How many are Gowron's men? How many are Duras? Does it matter? When we meet in battle, we will fight to the death, but here, here we're all warriors, all Klingons.

I get the sentiment, but once again, we don't have time for this kind of nonsense in an episode that's already stuffed with too many plotlines!

HOBSON: Frankly, sir, I don't believe in your ability to command this ship. You're a fellow officer and I respect that, but no one would suggest that a Klingon would make a good ship's counsellor or that a Berellian could be an engineer. They're just not suited for those positions. By the same token, I don't think an android is a good choice to be captain.

Now's not the time Hobson! This is the first time you've met Data and you're already biased against him. That's called racism, Hobson.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we don't have time for this subplot! Shove it to another episode! And it's weird that Sela will refer to this in "Unification" without clarifying that she was commanding forces against him in the coming battle.

Only mention of the Berellians. And although the Klingon/counselor thing is pure racism (against an ally, no less), you have to admit it has some merit. K'Ehleyr (I'm annoyed that I still have to look up how to spell that every time) is one of the more mellow Klingons we've seen, and even she didn't seem like counselor material.

O'BRIEN: We're crossing into Klingon territory, Captain.
PICARD: Signal the fleet to maintain yellow alert until further notice.
O'BRIEN: Aye, sir.

How long can a ship maintain Yellow Alert without the crew falling apart, I wonder.

DATA: Why are the backups not functioning?
HOBSON: There wasn't enough time to test all the backups before we left the yard.

So...test them en route? There's no time for this, etc. etc.

PICARD: On screen. Tasha?
SELA [on viewscreen]: No, Captain. I am Commander Sela. The woman you knew as Tasha Yar was my mother.

Odd phrasing. You know this woman as Tasha Yar, but on Risa she's known as X, among Klingons she's known as Y, she was really born Z, etc.

And really, Sela's backstory should've been an earlier episode. We don't have time for this.

TROI: Sela could have been cloned.
CRUSHER: Or had her appearance surgically altered.
PICARD: But why? What possible advantage could there be to the Romulans?

Insert Nemesis joke here. If this was truly a Romulan plot, it seems like rather a short-sighted one. A clone would be detected fairly quickly. Why spend all those resources for a plan that would be foiled in a matter of hours?
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