Nits for Star Trek: Voyager episode
Dark Frontier
First, I want to say the transported photon torpedo was a brilliant tactic. However, there were a couple of problems with the way it's executed.
1. The photon torpedo pedestal.
It was beamed over on a pedestal. I'm sure that was very thoughtful of them. It allows the actor in the bulky Borg suit to open the hatch without bending over. And that is the reason it shouldn't have been beamed over on a pedestal (to make it more difficult for the Borg to disarm). Ever seen a Borg bend over and pick up a dime ;-)?
Nit Value: 0.25
2. Disarming the photon torpedo.
Why? Why not transport it back out into space immediately?
Nit Value: 0.25
3. "Do Not Touch"
Since they know Borg technology is inherently dangerous and unpredictable you'd expect them to have a few post-it notes to warn others not to touch items known to be active and mobile (recall events in "Drone"). Of course, you'd expect people to be smart enough not to touch anything that they haven't scanned thoroughly. Yet Janeway handles the sphere like it were a piece of sculpture in an art store and Chakotay watches.
Nit Value: 0.25
4. Adding two years to the mission.
I realize that adding and subtracting years to the mission really has no impact on the shows per se (they get home when the creators decide, no sooner).
However, they've only really been in contact with the Borg since "Scorpion" (season 4 premiere). "Scorpion" is given stardate 51003.7. At the end of that episode Kes tossed them an incredible distance forward, reducing their trip by about ten years and throwing them out of the heart of Borg space.
"Night" (season 5 premiere) is stardate 52081.2, a little over a year after "Scorpion". We aren't through the fifth season yet so it hasn't been two years since Voyager encountered the Borg in "Scorpion".
Since then we had a vortex in "Night" that advanced the ship a little less than two years ahead in its journey and then "Timeless" which reduced the trip by about ten years.
So how do we add two years to a trip in a period of time that is less than two years? Voyager would have had to be on a reverse course every minute since "Scorpion" to get almost two years of travel away from Earth, and the only movement forward would have been "Scorpion", "Night" and "Timeless". You would expect somewhere in all of the episodes since "Scorpion" we'd have heard mention of all these detours being caused by the Borg.
Nit Value: 0.50
5. "Maquis Tricks".
B'Elanna offers a few "Maquis tricks" to mask a warp signature. Wouldn't these have already been tried if the ship had been forced on a reverse course for nearly two years?
Nit Value: 0.25
6. Fiddling with the comm badge.
A nice touch, but it would have been better if Chakotay had said she had recently taken up this habit rather than suggesting that she does this every time. I've yet to see her fiddle with her comm badge till now.
Nit Value: 0.25
7. Doc and his armature.
While the Doc is examining the armature he has the scissors-scalpels operating at the other end, which he seems oblivious to as he waves this in the face of Janeway and Chakotay. It seems once again Trek is forgetting that Doc is an EMH program with user-friendly (?) algorithms for interacting with the crew. Does the efficient functioning of this program really require such single-minded fascination to the point of endangering nearby crew members with an unknown device? At one point Doc is flicking switches at one end while pointing the other end at Janeway and Chakotay. What would happen if one of those switches operates a laser?
It seems Doc's programming has forgotten some basic rules of safety or Doc has been adapting a Three Stooges algorithm to give him a better appreciation of slapstick.
Nit Value: 0.25
8. Benefiting from the suffering of others.
This is a good point to bring up the nit Baerbel mentioned with regard to "Nothing Human". Janeway and crew have certainly shown themselves willing to benefit from Borg technology. Janeway and crew have also made it abundantly clear that they know such technology came to them as the result of the suffering of other species as they lost their identity when they were assimilated into the Borg Collective.
Doc destroyed the Crell hologram rather than continue to profit from information gained from the suffering caused by the original Crell. Yet he is giddy with delight to be handling a servo armature from a medical repair drone (which we see later in the episode being used by a Borg to remove the arm of a recently captured alien). B'Elanna, who preferred death to life brought to her by the information gained from the suffering caused by the original Crell, is eager to get her hands on a transwarp coil (a piece of technology created by a race that assimilates other races to gain technological advantages).
What happened to the ethics and integrity we were expected to believe existed in "Nothing Human"?
Nit Value: 0.50
9. Self-destruction of vital equipment.
Seven announces that the Borg equip their vital technology to self-destruct when their ships are destroyed. This seems to be a wise approach, to avoid giving information to races they might try to assimilate.
However, in "Infinite Regress" we come across a "damaged" vinculum which the Borg try to recover.
Why wasn't Seven surprised to find that it hadn't self-destructed, or is the core unit that handles and integrates the Borg communication system considered a "vital technology"?
Nit Value: 0.50
10. "No threat"?
During the briefing in Astrometrics Janeway asks if there are any dangers on their present course. Seven announces there are three Borg cubes on a parallel course nine light years away. This is within sensor range and certainly the Borg Block could have been expected to provide real-time information to all Borg through their vinculums, so why should they consider the three cubes "no threat" when they are within range of detection, have destroyed a Borg ship that would have sent its coordinates, and have to contend with the faster-than-warp transwarp drive of the Borg?
Nit Value: 0.50
11. 'Cloaked' ion storm?
Anyone noticing how often this phenomena appears as a plot device? It caused the problems in "Once Upon a Time". It was the cause for a minor bit of conflict in "Counterpoint". Now it shows up in "Dark Frontier" as the cause for extensive damage to a Borg Sphere (aka "Fort Knox").
Given the frequency and the destructive power of these ion storms it seems reasonable to wonder how these things manage to 'sneak up' on warp-powered starships. "Once Upon a Time" certainly makes it clear these are a sub-light speed phenomena. Counterpoint makes it clear they can be avoided.
So are they cloaked ;-)?
Nit Value: 0.25
12. What's up with Tuvok?
Tuvok asks if Kathryn thinks the Sphere is damaged enough to allow them to get the coil. Wait a minute. Isn't Tuvok the Tactical Officer? Isn't it his job to analyze the records? Shouldn't Janeway be asking him whether the sphere is damaged enough or not?
What makes this even more glaring is the fact that Tuvok was in the briefing in Astrometrics and looked over the records along with Janeway. So why didn't Janeway assign this task to her Tactical Officer?
Nit Value: 0.25
13. 'Sneaking up' on a Borg ship.
Kathryn's plan is to plot a course that doesn't attract the attention of the Borg Sphere. This is before B'Elanna offers her "Maquis tricks". Just how did Janeway imagine them 'sneaking up' on a Borg ship? There are no blind sides in space. You can't hide behind one planet after another when they aren't 'looking'. You can only warp up to them, being obvious in your approach the whole time.
Rather than offering a 'plan' with such a glaring problem wouldn't it have been better to ask someone how they could get closer without being detected and then announce a plan?
Nit Value: 0.25
14. Janeway, Seven, and the Raven's records.
Janeway asks Seven for her opinion after the senior staff meeting. Why not during the meeting? Wouldn't she and her senior staff benefit more from discussing Seven's opinion? In fact, Seven never explains why she refrained from offering an opinion and no one at the meeting thought to ask the resident Borg expert for her opinion.
Janeway points out that the Raven's records have yet to be analyzed, more than a year after they were recovered. No one explains why this task was left to Seven without a delivery date. They are encountering the Borg ("Drone", for example). Janeway has complained that the Borg have added two years to their trip. And Janeway acknowledges these records as the most complete collection of notes on the Borg, making the Hansens "experts". Janeway even knows the Raven followed the Borg at close range for at least two years.
So why has she waited more than a year to have those records properly analyzed?
Nit Value: 0.50
15. Making work for Neelix.
Poor Neelix. They told him to download these vital records to padds that Seven can read. No one seems to have told him she could access the database directly from just about any console.
Nit Value: 0.25
16. Borg/Federation contacts.
"Q Who" occurs on stardate 42761.3. Q claimed this was the first time the Borg had encountered humans. The Hansen log starts with stardate 32611.4, ten years earlier than "Q Who". "Generations" predates the first mention of the Borg by Star Fleet officers even more.
It is unfortunate that the continuity editor has decided to ignore these inconsistencies. It now appears more and more likely that "Q Who" showed Star Fleet's flagship captain and senior staff were woefully ignorant of their own history, probably caused by someone not providing any data on the previous Borg encounters/experiences in the ship's database.
Revising the timeline is never a good idea.
Nit Value: 0.25
17. The Raven's Mission
Consider the mission proposed for the Raven. A husband, wife, and their child are approved by a Federation Council to surreptitiously study a space-faring race known as the Borg. At this time the only thing known about the Borg is that they destroyed Sauron's and Guinan's people ("Generations"). Is there a reason for a Federation Council to approve an inherently dangerous mission that includes a young child and involves spying on the Borg, kidnapping the Borg, taking readings on the Borg, and tagging them for further study?
This might look just fine when performed on iguanas and carp. But Borg are an intelligent species. Kidnapping a sentient is a crime ("Allegiance"). Tagging them is assault. Spying is considered a serious crime in most societies.
Is this the kind of activities which the Federation Council on Exobiology approved? An approval that included the involvement of a child? Did anyone stop to wonder what happens to the child if the parents are caught in the act?
Apparently the answers are Yes, Yes, and No, in that order.
Now imagine anyone suggesting the same course of action to 'study' humans. Think the Federation would understand the kidnapping and tagging of humans while they slept? Not according to "Allegiance".
This is yet another example of Voyager presenting a message that sentients can treat sentients as animals and the Federation (and thus the viewer) approves of such treatment.
Nit Value: 0.50
18. Stardates.
Seven's father reports that the Federation Council on Exobiology approved his mission on stardate 32611.4. In the first scene with little Seven we hear him say they leave "tomorrow". In the following scene we hear Seven's father report the stardate as 32623.5 and claim, "We've been tracking stray readings for nearly eight months now".
Clearly we are expected to believe the time between 32611.4 and 32623.5 is about eight months.
In "Timeless" Kathryn's log is heard just as they are about to enter the slipstream. The time on her log reads "52143.6". The stardate Doc gives Harry for Seven's death (which occurred a few minutes later) is "52164.3" Harry backdated the message he sent by four minutes.
So we know the difference between 52143.6 and 52164.3 is somewhat more than four minutes.
The difference in the Raven stardates is 12.1, representing eight months. The difference in "Timeless" is 20.7, representing about 10 minutes.
Where do these writers come from?
Nit Value: 1.00
19. Seven's beautiful brown eyes.
In the "oops" category we have charming Seven as a young lass. Cute as a button and with such lovely brown eyes.
What's that you say? Seven as an adult has pale blue eyes?
"Ooops".
<and if this looks amazingly like the "Tom's beautiful brown eyes" nit from "Thirty Days" give yourself a gold star. I cut and pasted the text>
Nit Value: 0.50
20. Following the Borg.
While Voyager follows the Borg at Warp 2 I noticed the stars were not drawn out into their multi-coloured warp appearance. Instead they are points of light slowly moving (consistent with an impulse speed).
Nit Value: 0.25
21. Scanning the Borg Sphere.
When they arrive, Janeway orders a scan of the Borg Sphere.
Scanners are active forms of detection, requiring a release of energy to detect something (like radar). Sensors are passive forms of detection, like earthquake detectors.
Scanners give away your presence to anyone who can detect energy. Sensors do not give away your presence because they do not put out energy.
So if Janeway is trying to keep her presence a secret she's giving her secret away by scanning the Borg Sphere.
Nit Value: 0.25
22. The simulation.
The first question is why there are no security personnel from Voyager except Tuvok? Aren't these guys trained for this sort of thing?
The second question is why Janeway is on this mission. She's only acting as a bodyguard for Seven, a job that is obviously hazardous. Whatever happened to the rule that first officers must prevent the captains from beaming into obviously hostile situations (remember "Encounter at Farpoint"?).
The third question is, why is Harry using a tricorder to find the shield generator? The holodeck knew where to place it and they have the schematics so why hasn't this location been memorized to speed up the process?
The fourth question (a two-parter) is why is Tuvok telling Harry where to place the charges? Wasn't this part of the mission briefing before the simulation started? And why is Harry the demolitions expert here? Isn't there anyone more expendable in security trained in the use of explosives?
The fifth question is why is Seven wearing heels on this away mission? Are these things really approved for such missions?
The sixth question is about the speed these people move. They're 12 seconds too slow yet none of the away team run, trot, or even move particularly quickly.
If this is the best Voyager can offer in the way of an away team then perhaps Tuvok ought to start up his obstacle course training again.
Nit Value: 0.50
23. The Transwarp coils are offline.
Seven announced that the transwarp engines were offline before they started the simulations. She stated they'd be out for 72 hours. Yet when she is in the simulation, she announces the transwarp coil is offline after fidgeting with the device. This is confusing.
Nit Value: 0.25
24. The Escape Route.
Why didn't Seven and Janeway step into the area affected by the transponders to be beamed out? Why didn't Tuvok and Harry carry a set of transponders for their escape?
Nit Value: 0.25
25. "If the Borg attack..."
Janeway claims she needs Seven on the bridge if the Borg attack. Does that mean Voyager does not need it's captain, tactical officer, and chief engineer if the Borg attack?
Nit Value: 0.25
26. The competency test.
Anyone notice how effective whining is when it comes to getting on an away mission?
B'Elanna used it on Chakotay in "Extreme Risks" when she was cut from the team because she was unable to keep her mind on the job.
Now Seven uses the same trick on Janeway to overcome the worries of Chakotay, Doc, Neelix, etc.
While whining certainly shows a desire to go, it does not demonstrate an ability to get the job done. Janeway stresses this is a delicate mission allowing no margins for error. Does that sound like a job for a whiny, distracted individual who is outside the chain of command?
Nit Value: 0.25
27. Keeping information from the Captain
Why doesn't Seven tell Janeway about the queen's threat? Why does she keep the information secret? Why doesn't she tell Janeway this is a trap? She claims she thinks of Voyager as her collective, and that she would give her life for the ship. Janeway later gives these statements credence. Yet Seven never tells anyone she's been in contact with the queen or what the queen said. What part of her life experience taught her to keep vital information from the collective? Later in the show she tells the queen how to adjust the shields to adapt to the alien attack, thus helping the Borg assimilate yet another species. Why does she provide this information to the queen while withholding equally vital information from Janeway?
Nit Value: 0.50
28. Taking a drone for study.
I've already nitted the ethics of this decision. But here I'm nitting the process used. We know from "Infinite Regress" that the regeneration chamber records the times when it is used. It is also reasonable to assume that whatever connections are made for regeneration purposes are also monitored to ensure that the drone gets enough of whatever it needs to regenerate.
So removing a drone from a regeneration chamber should cause some unusual readings yet the Borg seem oblivious to it.
Furthermore, when a drone comes out of the regeneration chamber it is active. Yet this drone was beamed out of its chamber and remained 'asleep' yet standing. No explanation is given for this. If the drone is removed from the booth it should be alert, and if drugged it should not be standing.
And a transporter beam removing a drone should be detected and considered a threat.
Nit Value: 0.25
29. Things that make you go "hmm".
When Janeway and Chakotay realize Seven was receiving signals from the queen Janeway orders Chakotay to continue reviewing the logs and to organize an engineering team to help. This conversation occurs in Janeway's quarters.
While giving those orders Janeway grabs her coat, puts it on, and heads out the door, leaving Chakotay in her quarters (the doors close after she leaves).
Why did Chakotay stay in Janeway's quarters when he has orders that do not require the use of the Captain's Quarters?
Nit Value: 0.25
30. To dream the impossible dream.
The details of the rescue mission are bad enough (to find one life form amongst billions with no certainty that the transwarp signature of the Sphere can be traced and using up the transwarp coil to effect the rescue apparently several days after the Sphere left the area and with every reason to believe Seven has been turned into a drone).
What gets the nit, however, is the amount of technology that surfaces in a very short period of time (transwarp drive for the DF, multi-adaptive shielding, narrow-beam transporters).
If you recall, the logs were "collecting dust for a year". Yet Janeway complained that avoiding the Borg added two years to the trip home. If you recall, the premise of "Night" was their boredom. If you recall the problem in "Drone", they needed to prepare to confront a Borg ship.
All these opportunities and Janeway allowed the field notes of "experts" go un-analyzed till now? She never followed up on Seven analyzing them or allowed Seven to put her off for a year while these events were taking place?
Does this come under "negligence", "incompetence", or "dereliction of duty" on the part of Janeway?
As for analysis: in the past when the crew want to know something they ask the computer. Why doesn't anyone tell the computer to scan the logs and field notes for any mention of technology that would be useful against the Borg (I'm sure specific parameters could be established for the search)? Instead, the analysis looks more like a trip down memory lane, with readings from "Dear Diary". Seven locates only the bio-dampeners.
Nit Value: 0.50
31. The rescue team.
Once again Janeway abandons her ship to run off on a mission. Chakotay neglects his responsibility to keep the captain from going on dangerous missions and Tuvok doesn't remind him.
But worse than this, both Tom and Doc are assigned to the same mission, one that may take "days, maybe weeks". Last I checked these two are the only two who know anything about medical procedures. So Janeway is stripping from Voyager her captain, tactical officer and all the trained medical personnel the ship has for a rescue mission that could take "days, maybe weeks".
What is someone supposed to do if a conduit blows up in their face? Broken bones, burns, radiation exposure, electrical shock, etc?
Janeway even goes so far as to suggest the DF might need "tactical support" (i.e. Voyager might have someone to fight) when they get back, yet leaves no trained medical personnel on Voyager to handle whatever casualties that might cause during the battle.
Nit Value: 0.50
32. "If I could talk with the aliens..."
Just what universal translator did Seven use to communicate with the aliens? The Borg don't entertain guests and Seven is not connected to Voyager's computer. Nor has she been assimilated into the collective ("I am not Borg" sez she). So how did she suddenly learn to speak their language?
Nit Value: 0.25
33. "There is no 'me'. There is only 'us'"
After the 10026s have been assimilated Seven and the queen engage in a bit of metaphysics. Seven makes a statement about herself, using the pronoun "me". The queen turns around and says "there is no me. There is only 'us'".
Has she so soon forgotten how she greeted Seven? "I am the Borg".
Seems this singular/plural identity confuses even the Borg.
Nit Value: 0.25
34. Finding the Sphere.
Tom announces he has a "fix" on the sphere's location, claiming it's 200 light years ahead.
How did he do that? They couldn't even detect the trail until they entered the conduit. And the sphere has returned to Borg Central. Furthermore, sensors etc do not extend out 200 light years and certainly lack the ability to distinguish one ship out of all those Borg 'skyscrapers' at such a range.
Nit Value: 0.25
35. "Presenting Species 5618..."
They present an image of a fit male, nude except for the bikini briefs. Question: why would the Borg be prudish enough to cover over genitals with bikini briefs? And why wasn't a female of the species also presented? In fact, why present an image of a male for Seven who knows perfectly well what humans look like?
Nit Value: 0.25
36. All previous efforts to assimilate humanity failed...
A cryptic statement, to say the least. Humans have been assimilated. There were the missing colonies along the neutral zone in "The Neutral Zone" and "Best of Both Worlds Part I". True, the efforts to assimilate Earth failed in "Best of Both Worlds Part II" and "First Contact", but even assimilating Earth would not assimilate humanity as so many humans live elsewhere.
And since Earth is part of the Federation, there are all those other sentients to assimilate before the Federation could be absorbed.
Nit Value: 0.25
37. The queen's gambit.
The queen tries subterfuge, claiming they've captured the rescue team. Seven points out that if this were true she would sense them through the collective. Yet Seven isn't supposed to be connected to the collective. She told the 10026s she is not a Borg and believed she had fooled the Borg when she helped the 10026s escape. And if Seven could sense the collective wouldn't the queen know this before she tried her ruse? Seven is threatened with assimilation, the keyword that usually indicates whether a sentient is a part of the Borg collective or not. If not assimilated Seven should not be able to detect anything through the collective.
Nit Value: 0.25
38. Tom targets the chamber.
After Janeway joins Seven and the queen, Janeway checks in with Tom. Tom announces the chamber is targeted.
Yet how can that be? Last we saw Tom he was in tow by a Borg cube, captured. Anything fired would be held by the same tractor beam and go nowhere.
Nit Value: 0.25
39. The dispersal field.
Ho hum. The queen gives in to the threat of being hit by a photon torpedo by releasing the tractor beams on the DF. Yet when they try to beam Janeway and Seven out the queen has a dispersal field blocking the transporter beam. Do we all really need to hear Janeway threaten to kill them all again just to get the dispersal field turned off? And if the queen is willing to die before turning it off why free the DF? Why not simply destroy it before it can fire (it's a threat, right)?
Nit Value: 0.25
40. The painfully slow resolution continues on...
Okay, so the dispersal field is up and Seven decides to help the captain by turning off the field. The queen adapts and turns the field back on again and then orders the drones to assimilate Seven and Janeway.
Wait a minute. Didn't the queen release the DF when threatened with destruction? She knows one command from Janeway will bring down that destruction, and she knows Janeway would rather die than be a drone. Is this really the time for the collective wisdom of the Borg to risk destruction of a queen for the sake of brinkmanship?
Nit Value: 0.25
41. ...and on...
The queen having ordered their assimilation, Seven tells Janeway to shoot at the control node and destroy the queen's ability to give out orders. Janeway promptly does this and the drones freeze.
Why didn't Seven say this earlier? And are the Borg so complacent that such a vital piece of equipment has no backup?
Nit Value: 0.25
42. The pursuing cubes.
Though the cubes do not move fast enough to enter the DF's conduit why should this be a problem? This episode shows the residual signature lasts for days and the cubes could use their own transwarp coils to pursue the DF. Yet they allow the diamond to pursue the DF alone.
Nit Value: 0.25
43. B'Elanna's hesitation.
Kind of them to explain what a photon spread does to a transwarp conduit. A refresher course for "Night" (destruction of a vortex that acted like a worm-hole by using a photon torpedo explosion), and "Counterpoint" (destruction of a worm-hole caused by exploding photon torpedoes). So why is B'Elanna hesitating in executing her orders and questioning her commander in a combat situation where seconds matter?
Nit Value: 0.25
44. Borg hesitation.
Speaking of hesitation, how many seconds passed between the time when the DF returned to normal space and the time when the debris from the Borg ship appeared? The Borg were moving at transwarp speed and were within the maximum distance permitted a tractor beam when the DF returned. Theoretically the Borg are still moving at transwarp speeds while we watch the DF return to normal space, during the conversation between Chakotay and Janeway, during the time Chakotay gave orders for a full photon spread on the conduit, while B'Elanna asked why and Chakotay explained it, right up until the photons hit the conduit. I counted 25 seconds.
So why did the Borg hesitate before reappearing? The chase sequence in the conduit showed the Borg ship less than five seconds behind the DF.
Nit Value: 0.50
Summary:
--------------
Because "Dark Frontier" was presented as a two-hour episode I've split the nits rating according to whether the events occurred in the First part or the second.
Nits 1-27 belong to Part I.
Nit Value for "Dark Frontier, Part I": 9.75
Wulf's Nitpicker Rating for "Dark Frontier, Part I": 0.25
Nits 28-44 belong to Part II.
Nit Value for "Dark Frontier, Part II": 4.50
Wulf's Nitpicker Rating for "Dark Frontier, Part II": 5.50
Wulf's Overall Nitpicker Rating for "Dark Frontier": 5.75 out of 20
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