Star Trek

[andersonh1]

Yeah, I read about this one. Someone put Omega molecule mines all around the borders of the Federation? Sounds like the writers not only don't realize how impossibly huge the Federation is and how many billions or trillions or quadrillions of mines would be needed, but also that space is three dimensional. If there's a ring of mines, just fly over or under them. And just how many years or decades would be needed to lay these mines? Wouldn't something or someone have set one off already in all that time? The whole idea is absolutely unworkable.

[Sparky Prime]

Yeah, I read about this one. Someone put Omega molecule mines all around the borders of the Federation? Sounds like the writers not only don't realize how impossibly huge the Federation is and how many billions or trillions or quadrillions of mines would be needed, but also that space is three dimensional. If there's a ring of mines, just fly over or under them. And just how many years or decades would be needed to lay these mines? Wouldn't something or someone have set one off already in all that time? The whole idea is absolutely unworkable.

To be fair, there seems to be some confusion over a map they show in the episode. It initially shows the mines as a bubble around Federation space, but when it switches to a top down view, it fades out the mines in the middle to allow the stars/labels within Federation space to be clearly visible, which makes it seem like the mines are on a two dimensional plane. They could have made it clearer if they hadn't completely faded out the mines over the top. But the mines are meant to be spread around Federation space in three dimensions.

At the end of the episode, they zoom out from the Athena parked next to the bubble.... But this visual makes it seem like the galaxy is comedically small. Various celestial bodies are impossibly close together and mis-proportioned. The curvature of the energy field between the mines is also visible, which, if it actually spanned thousands of lightyears, should look more like a flat wall this close to it.

I'm curious if the writers will attempt to explain how the Venari Ral accomplished any of this in the next episode. If they do, I doubt they'll be able to explain it in a satisfying way.

[Ursus mellifera]

At the end of the episode, they zoom out from the Athena parked next to the bubble.... But this visual makes it seem like the galaxy is comedically small. Various celestial bodies are impossibly close together and mis-proportioned. The curvature of the energy field between the mines is also visible, which, if it actually spanned thousands of lightyears, should look more like a flat wall this close to it.

I noticed that, too. It was weird. Isn't the minefield supposed to span multiple star systems?

[Sparky Prime]

I noticed that, too. It was weird. Isn't the minefield supposed to span multiple star systems?

Yeah. They haven't given us any numbers to go off of, but based on the map they show (which is contradictory on multiple points but it's all we have to go on), it looks like Federation space still has hundreds of star systems, spanning thousands of lightyears.

[Sparky Prime]

Rubincon -season finale-

Spoiler

Ake places the cadets in an airlock to hide their life signs as Braka arrives and shoots the Athena until the shields collapse and heavily damages the ship. He takes Ake and Mir and leaves the rest to die when he orders the saucer destroyed, but Reno downloads the Doctor into the computer to create a hologram of their destruction, which damages the Doctor's program. Reno and the cadets get to work on repairs and realize the Doctor is trying to tell them how to stabilize the Omega-47 molecules. Caleb asks Tarima to telepathically find his link to his mother to find where they are.

They're on the captured section of the Athena, that the Venari Ral have trashed. Braka puts on a show trial against the Federation, with Ake as their representation, and Mir as the jury. Braka explains the Federation abandoned his mining colony, and when they finally came to help, his father tried to shoot them down, and were retaliated against. Ake tries to explain Starfleet would never fire on civilians, but he doesn't believe her. Mir pronounces her guilty, mostly for separating her from Caleb, but Caleb arrives and tells her he's happy as a cadet in Starfleet. He then helps Ake explain to Braka that Federation weapons are blue or green, not red, and that his father's attempts to attack ignited their atmosphere, causing their own destruction. Braka looses support from the Venari Ral, so he attempts to detonate the mines, but it doesn't work as SAM has successfully stabilized the Omega-47. The fleet arrives and Braka is arrested and Starfleet returns to Betazed for the planned government ceremony.

They made the plan with the Omega-47 molecules worst. Admiral Vance says that there are hundreds of mines. Not billions or millions or even thousands... Hundreds is apparently all that is needed to wall off the entirety of Federation space. He also says if they detonate, they would destroy 80,000 cubic light years of space. In Voyager, I remember them saying an Omega explosion could range several light years, but this is excessive to expect a few hundred mines to cover 80,000 cubic light years. And they never explain how they were able to set up the field in all that space so quickly.

We actually see the Doctor's mobile emitter! He apparently keeps it hidden inside his jacket. He's still using the one he got while on Voyager. It's looking a little rough after 800 years. Not sure why he hasn't replaced it (except for sentimental reasons). It's now 300 years out of date.

I'm not sure why Braka doesn't pick up that Ake was obviously giving the Doctor a coded order. He just dismisses it as her quoting literature, despite there was zero subtly on Ake's part.

Reno says Caleb is wrong for calling her Captain instead of Commander while she's in command... But Caleb is actually right, despite her rank, she traditionally should be referred to as Captain in this situation.

I liked the use of holograms to make it look like the saucer of the Athena was destroyed. It reminded me of an episode of Voyager, where they installed holo-emitters on the hull to create holographic Talaxian ships to help them fight the Kazon. But how they explain it in this show is dumb, saying the Doctor extended his matrix through the deflector dish. Never mind the saucer section doesn't have a deflector dish, despite still being warp capable, but I would have thought the ship has built-in external holo-emitters. And the Doctor's own matrix? That terminology makes it sound like he was projecting himself, not an illusion of the ship exploding.

I didn't really mention how they used the airlock in the previous episode to mask life signs because I figured it was a one off thing that didn't matter... Then they did it again in this episode. So how exactly does raising the air pressure 0.029% in the airlock hide life signs? They just hand wave this away by calling it a design defect. In the 32nd century, I'd expect the sensors to be well beyond this sort of defect.

Suddenly the Doctor just knows how to stabilize the Omega-47 molecules. They don't explain why. I suppose maybe Seven talked with him about it when they encountered the Omega molecules on Voyager. But without any context in this episode to explain where he got this information from, it seems to just come out of no where.

Also, nothing comes from the Doctor's malfunctions. They really only put it in the episode so that he couldn't directly tell them how to stabilize the Omega molecules, and then resolve it off screen.

When Reno and Caleb leave the bridge to make repairs, she leaves Genesis in command. After sitting in the captain's chair, she says "I think I have to pee." Obviously it's just meant to be funny, but, this line bothered me because it illustrates the problem with tone in this series.

While working on fixing the plasma relays, Reno and Caleb are in a hallway for the airlocks. They didn't build an engineering set for this series, and I think this illustrates why that was a mistake on their part. It just seems silly to see them working an engineering problem on a set that clearly is not engineering or anything related to it. Not to mention, this show is supposed to be about cadets learning to be Starfleet officers. Engineering should be a pretty important part of that training.

The Venari Ral use cables to tie up the Athena... Which is odd when they were using tractor beams in the previous episode. No indication given why they'd use cables instead. I'm guessing it's meant to be some sort of symbolism, but in-universe it doesn't really make sense.

Tarima reading Caleb's mind to find his link to his mother in order to track her makes zero sense. Caleb is human with no telepathic abilities, how would he have a link to his mother Tarima could follow like this?

During the mock trial, Ake tells a number of lies... She says the Federation was developing the Omega-47 molecules as a power source. But Admiral Vance said in a couple episodes that Starbase J-19 Alpha, where the molecules were stolen from, was an experimental weapons research complex. Ake says Starfleet, in its entire history, has never attacked civilians... What about the time Sisko poisoned a human colony in order to capture Eddington? She says the Federation doesn't have a national anthem, but they did in the 24th century, they played in before a baseball game in DS9. She and Caleb both say Starfleet's weapons, at least for the past few hundred years, have been blue or green. But we've seen them use red weapons, particularly the USS Discovery. Now, granted, anything to do with Omega would be classified, and some of it I'm pretty sure are oversights on the writers part, but this doesn't paint Starfleet/the Federation in a positive light when you realize most of her arguments are not actually correct, even if it is probably unintentional on the writers part.

Caleb's reunion with his mother was anti-climatic for being the mystery/throughline of this whole season. I kept expecting... something more to happen but it ultimately went no where.

Like last week's episode, the writing was lazy. Things just happen because they needed it to for the plot, lacking any explanations or consequences. And any explanations they do give are badly researched, if they ever bothered to research at all. Not only do they contradict past Star Trek shows, but they can't even keep things straight with their own story. Overall, disappointing episode for the finale of the first season.