Nits for Star Trek: Voyager episode
Course: Oblivion
Bear the following in mind as you read the nits:
Teleplay by: Bryan Fuller and Nick Sagan
Story by: Bryan Fuller
Story Editors: Bryan Fuller and Nick Sagan
1. The problem.
The problem is the new engine is causing de-cohesion of matter at the molecular level. It affects the surrounding areas. That would mean it affects the core and the matter/anti-matter injectors and the dilithium crystals etc. So the engine should either explode or fail to function at all, since all of these things are finely calibrated to keep the engine running.
This is an unavoidable nit as the show would be over quick if the engine blew up as a result of this phenomenon.
Nit Value: 0.50
2. Taking the core offline.
Janeway asks B'Elanna if she took the core offline. B'Elanna says it didn't work. Assuming she meant that she took the core offline and the problem didn't stop, I have to ask why the captain wasn't informed her engines were being taken offline and reasons given when the deed was done.
Nit Value: 0.25
3. B'Elanna and the Doc.
Why didn't B'Elanna call out a medical emergency? Did she think being huddled on the floor shivering to be normal? When she saw her cheek move wouldn't that have been a good time to let someone know she needed help? During the rest of the show no one struck by the illness demonstrates irrational behaviour <except Janeway>. So why B'Elanna?
Nit Value: 0.25
4. A little bio-mimetic gel and voila...Voyager.
Stretching credulity to the breaking point, we are expected to believe the ship itself is a bio-mimetic copy of the original.
I didn't know ships had DNA to be sampled ;-).
I suppose that explains a Seven of Nine with active Borg implants.
And functioning dilithium crystals...and the anti-matter...
I don't think so !
Too bad, really, the show was going along so well till this point.
Nit Value: 5.00
5. Janeway's irrational decision.
Despite being told she's a bio-mimetic copy, despite being told they will all die unless they can return to the Demon planet. Still Janeway insists on going to Earth. Later, Chakotay points out home isn't Earth. Yet Janeway's monomania ignores the facts to pursue a suicidal goal of going to Earth.
Nit Value: 0.25
6. Telling the crew.
Apparently Janeway decides to gather people to tell them. They are all in the cafeteria, which has been reorganized as a makeshift medical wing to hold the sufferers. There aren't more than twenty people in the room. Wouldn't it make more sense to use the Public Address system to tell everyone all at once?
Nit Value: 0.25
7. Five weeks to the Demon planet.
Since no speed is ever given for the enhanced warp engine we have to wonder about distances. We know Janeway and crew saved two years in "Night", saved ten years in "Timeless", and saved 15 years in "Dark Frontier". That's about 36,000 light years since the start of this season, not counting normal movement and all the distance traveled between "Demon" and "Night".
It should be noted that the radius of the Milky Way is just under 40,000 light years.
When you add the boost from Kes ("The Gift") that saved them some ten years you have a total of about 48,000 light years. Add in five years of normal travel (~1,250 light years a year) and you have over 55,000 light years traveled towards home. Even subtracting the two years Janeway claims they've added trying to avoid the Borg (mentioned in "Dark Frontier") and you still have 52,500 light years traveled.
So, from an initial distance of 70,000 light years they've 27,500 light years left (ie they're in the Beta Quadrant).
Using "Hope and Fear" as a guide, they were 60,000 light years from home. Since then they've traveled one year at normal speed (1,250 light years), and traveled 36,000 light years through "Night", "Timeless", and "Dark Frontier". This places them 22,750 light years from home. Add the two years Janeway mentions in "Dark Frontier" and they are still only 25,250 light years from home (ie still in the Beta Quadrant).
Now let's look at the duplicate Voyager's progress. As "Course: Oblivion" opens they're two years away from Earth. From Tuvok we know they've traveled just over ten months since the Demon planet. That means they've been flying for almost three years. Since "Hope and Fear" occurred shortly after "Demon", we can assume they were more than 60,000 light years from home. There is no evidence the duplicate Voyager got the boosts from "Night", "Timeless", and "Dark Frontier". Assuming they used the enhanced warp engine the whole time we are left with an average speed around 20,000 light years per year of travel.
During the briefing they announce they are five weeks away from home, roughly one tenth of a year. So at that time they were about 2,000 light years from the Demon planet. Yet the real Voyager has traveled nearly 38,000 light years since its encounter with the demon planet.
So how did the real Voyager manage to show up to try and rescue the duplicate Voyager? By all calculations they should be about 36,000 light years or more apart.
Ooops! ;-)
Nit Value: 2.00 <stop messing with the passage of time and distance>
8. Exact duplicates?
While I'm at it...if these duplicates are exact, why hasn't any of the original crew developed this enhanced warp engine? The duplicates admit they weren't even sentient until Voyager arrived in "Demon", yet they managed to improve the warp engine so the trip home would take three years total.
Wonderful stuff this bio-mimetic gel: duplicates people, starships, Borg technology, nanoprobes, holds together under enhanced warp speed, and apparently also creates geniuses out of non-sentient life forms.
Where do I get some?
Nit Value: 0.50
Summary:
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Nit Value for "Course: Oblivion": 9.00
Wulf's Nitpicker Rating: 1.00
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10 - Nit Value = Wulf's Nitpicker Rating
Note: Never assign the writers the task of editing their own manuscript. It doesn't take a bio-mimetic genius to realize they are only going to make the same mistakes and assumptions while editing as they did while writing.
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