Nits for Star Trek: Voyager episode
Latent Image
1. Reconstructing Harry.
Either the imaging system is very prudish, or Harry has undergone some radical surgery. After Harry's musculature has been added to the image the clothing appears. However, there are some aspects of the male anatomy that never appear. I know, it's a family show. But a tighter angle that doesn't show the torso below the waist would have avoided this nit.
Nit Value: 0.25
2. Janeway's physical.
Janeway gives the definite impression that she is averse to the idea of having an annual physical, to the point of not letting Doc complete it. Why? Is this supposed to be the role-model for 20th century women?
Nit Value: 0.25
3. Doc's persistance.
Having just been told by Janeway that his diagnostic will be scheduled, Doc asks 7 to perform it. Why? Doc is a computer program. Since when did he develop impatience to the point of not abiding by the captain's decision?
Thus B'Elanna and Harry are thrust from yet another scene to make way for 7of9.
Nit Value: 0.25
4. "Memory Lane"?
When confronted with the fact that but a few hours earlier someone or something had deleted his recent memories, Doc suggests he and 7 take a tour of his photo album from 18 months earlier.
How is this supposed to solve the question of who deleted the short-term memory of the Doc earlier in the day? Where is 7's trademark "that would be inefficient"? Why isn't she suggesting they check the security logs to see whose access ID was used to delete Harry's images? Why aren't they running that diagnostic on Doc to see why his program failed to download the memories?
Nit Value: 0.50
5. Stardate 50979.
Why did Doc happen to pick that date? He doesn't have Harry's image to examine to make a guess as to the date when the operation occurs. He doesn't recall discovering that Harry had an operation. He only has 7's word that he said "18 months ago". And yet, coincidentally, he just happens to pick a date when the pictures were deleted and upon restoration provides valuable clues.
Nit Value: 0.25
6. Images Deleted?
Why is the computer incapable of reconstructing the images it claims are deleted, without 7's intervention? Given the quality of the images which 7 manages to produce from these "deleted images" why didn't the computer display them when asked? If the computer is unable to perform this task unassisted, how reliable is the computer when it comes to running the ship?
Nit Value: 0.50
7. Dismissing tampering.
After Doc recalls what happened, he meets with 7, Janeway and Tuvok in the conference room. Tuvok suggests the image of the alien was the result of tampering, but Doc claims the holo-buffers would have shown signs of tampering had it occurred. This image was deleted to the point where the computer could not reconstruct it unassisted. It didn't know who had deleted it. So why is Doc ruling out tampering? How can anyone be sure the signs of tampering wasn't part of the image which could not be reconstructed? Isn't this something that falls under Tuvok's expertise, as head of Security? Shouldn't Tuvok examine it and announce there was no tampering, rather than trusting in the word of a medical hologram who is already showing signs of faulty memory?
Nit Value: 0.25
8. If greater than, if less than, but never equal to.
One line of code would have avoided this episode. I wonder how many programmers have run into the problem where they have two qualifying tests: if x < 100 then?, if x > 100 then?, and only during testing do they realize they've forgotten the third qualifying test: if x=100 then?
One would wonder, given the sophistication of computer testing, not to mention 300 years of computer programming development since our time, how the lack of the third qualifying test was missed.
One might also wonder, given the fact that two different people are never exactly alike, how Doc's scans failed to produce a slight difference in the chances of survival of the two injured individuals. Given the sophistication of the scanners, certainly a .0000001 difference should have shown up on one of the readings, thus sparing Doc his dilemma.
The problem with giving Doc moral dilemmas is that it always points back to some negligence on the part of the programmer for not anticipating something so obvious. One would think testing the prototype would resolve these kinds of problems before the unit is installed.
Nit Value: 0.50
Summary:
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Nit Value for "Latent Image": 2.75
Wulf's Nitpicker Rating: 7.25
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10 - Nit Value = Wulf's Nitpicker Rating
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