By Rbert Donahou on Wednesday, October 21, 1998 - 03:39 pm:

What does 11001001 mean? Is it a number, letter, or just a string of 1's and 0's.
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By Murray Leeder on Wednesday, October 21, 1998 - 05:44 pm:

My cousin tells me that 11001001 is binary code for some other number... something in the teens, if I remember correctly.
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By Jack B. on Wednesday, October 21, 1998 - 09:11 pm:

11001001 is binary for 201, significantly higher then the teens.
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By Murray Leeder on Wednesday, October 21, 1998 - 10:15 pm:

I guess I didn't remember correctly.
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By Benjamin Knoll on Wednesday, October 21, 1998 - 11:52 pm:

Hmm... good question. Here's all I was able to figure out about the number:

- 11001001 in base-10 is 201. In base-8 it's 311. In base-16 it's C9.
- The standard Windows ANSI character corresponding to 201 is: É
- 1100 + 1001 is 2101 - the first year of the twenty-second century.
- 1100 + 1001 in base-2 is 10101 which is 21 in base-10. Hmm... so 1100+1001 is 21 in base-10, and 11001001 is 201 in base-10. Coincidence? Most likely.

So in answer to your question, it's probably just a catchy string of 1s and 0s that the creators liked.
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By Nicholas Setzer on Thursday, October 22, 1998 - 07:29 am:

Fellow nitpickers:

11001001 are the names of the binars in this episode!

if you remember their names are:

11 and 00 and 10 and 01, put them together and you get: 11001001.

Presto! you have a TNG title.
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By BrianB on Friday, April 9, 1999 - 05:07 am:

11001001 is the file name Picard and Riker had to access to dump the Binars data storage back to their planet and reboot their home world
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By ScottN on Friday, April 9, 1999 - 11:50 am:

I wonder if the Binars run under Windows 2364tm?
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By Kevin S. on Friday, April 9, 1999 - 06:08 pm:

Why? Are you trying to figure out why they all shut down at end? :-)
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 09:21 am:

The last time I watched this episode, I started thinking about some of the problems that might occur with a space dock as shown in this episode. First, the Enterprise is one big, massive ship and yet it pulls into a 'space garage' filled with other ships, so Starbase 74 must be an incredibly massive object. Secondly, all the ships were floating in the space dock, but doesn't mass attract mass? Wouldn't pulling inside the station be like flying two feet over the surface of a moon? There is mention of "mooring beams", which I assume to be some kind of tractor beam instead of actual metal beams, but wouldn't that eat up power needlessly? Why not have a docking ring like the Cardassians use, or just orbit the station and beam or shuttle people back and forth? In other episodes space dock has been shown as some kind of mechanical 'hand' which wraps around a ship, so why the need to pull a ship inside a station? The only reason I can see for pulling a ship inside a station is that repair work needs to be done on the hull and working outside in space suits would cause problems. (Which brings up the question, is the 'parking' area inside the station filled with an atmosphere?) The only reason the Enterprise is here is for a computer and holodeck overhaul, not to repair damaged sections of the hull, or replacement of some big piece of equipment.

In Datalore, the Enterprise is on its way to have maintenance done on its computer, but they make a brief stop at Omicron Theta. Then they discover the wreckage of the Odin and track its survivors to Angel One, before they head to the neutral zone. So when Quinteros asks why they are late, why does Riker say they were held up at Omicron Pascal? (Isn't Pascal a computer language?)

One thing which really bugs me in science fiction pops up in this episode, names which describe an alien from an Earth point of view. (For instance, in the 50's and 60's, lizardlike aliens would be called Saurons, or Reptars or other names that resembles an Earth word for lizard.) In this episode, aliens who think in Binary and are connected with a giant computer call themselves Bynars and they come from Bynus. Shame on the writer for unoriginality.

Why were Geordi and Data painting in the observation lounge? If Data is painting shouldn't he be in his room and if he is on duty why is he painting?

When describing the parameters of the Jazz joint to the computer, Riker specifies 2:00 am, but doesn't the Enterprise work on military time? Shouldn't Riker have said 0200 hours?

I believe Riker specifies the time period of the Jazz club as the 1950's, but the trio is integrated. Was that normal for Jazz trios in 1950's New Orleans?

When the Holodeck is creating the different women, why do they form at different tables? If it was only little things like hair color that Riker wanted changed, why not just change that? At one point Riker wants the computer to make the woman sultry. How would the computer know what Will considers 'sultry?'

In the episode Ship in a Bottle, a big deal is made about Holodeck characters being self aware, which seemed to be the fact that they know they are Holodeck characters. However, in this episode and The Big Goodbye the knowledge that they are just Holodeck characters doesn't change the characters that much. (Well, Leach appears nervous at the opening of the Holodeck doors and Lt. McNary has trouble with what being a fictional character might entail, but that could just be the computer staying true to what is known about the characters' personalities.) Minuet has no problem with Riker asking her what she is "doing in a computer generated gin joint," and later Picard and Riker, very rudely, speak about what a wonderful simulation she is, as if she wasn't there listening to them, and she at no point appears to undergo any kind of change. (And to tell the truth, I don't know what made her so different from any of the characters in The Big Goodbye, or later Holodeck characters. Was she projecting some kind of pheromones to turn Riker on???)

For some reason I had trouble believing Picard when he told Riker he might have chosen this locale. Maybe if it had been part of a Dixon Hill story, I could see it, but I don't think of him as being that big a Jazz fan.

Wes asks Data to come up to the Bridge. Does this mean that the Conference Room is not on Deck 1, or did Wesley just use the wrong word?

Wesley tells Data that there may be a problem with Engineering. Data tells him to be more specific. Wesley first says that he can't be more specific, then he suddenly becomes more specific. Gee, who's bright idea was it to let an Acting Ensign watch the Bridge?

Why was no one on duty in Main Engineering? Was it this kind of sloppy discipline that led to Geordi's promotion to Chief Engineer?

Geordi asks Wes if the Bynars are running some kind of test program and Wes says he can't tell. Gee, Wes ever heard of asking them? (True, we the viewers know they probably would have said no, but the safety of the ship was at stake and Wes should have asked.)

Did I hear wrong? I thought the computer originally said that the ship would be releasing anti-matter in 17 seconds, but then, after talking for awhile, ordering evacuation, taking the turbolift to the Bridge and programming a course for the ship to take, they suddenly have 41 seconds???

Geordi says that they are the last to leave and Data says, "I hope so." Isn't Hope an emotion and shouldn't Data be the one to be certain that the computer is accurate?

When the Enterprise is evacuating we see Commander Quinteros and Dr. Crusher looking at the console in Starbase 74. Why is a Medical Doctor apparently manning the console during a ship evacuation?

It is stated that Bynus is in the Beta Magellanus system. Does this mean that Bynus is in one of the Magellanic clouds, outside of our galaxy???

When explaining why the Bynars stole the Enterprise, Minuet says, "One of the stars in the Bynar system Supernovaed." Just matter of factly it 'supernovaed.' No big deal, just a little poof and it was gone. Oh well, at least they have another star to read by. Come on now this is a Supernova! Now maybe Bynaus was orbiting a second star and maybe it was on the other side of its sun when the other star supernovaed, but a supernova is one of nature's most powerful explosions. Do you really think a planet and its ecosystem would survive the supernova of a nearby star? (In the book The Constellations by Lloyd Motz & Carol Nathanson the authors wonder that if Rigel supernovaed would Earth be safe, and Rigel is 900 light years away.)

So why didn't the Federation know that one of the Bynars stars was going to supernova? Doesn't the Federation care about the welfare and safety of its members? (Apparently not judging by how the Federation treats its colonies.)
And if Bynaus is not a member of the Federation then why were the Bynars allowed free reign over the Enterprise's computers? Also if Bynaus was a part of the Federation, then why didn't the Bynars examine the Federation's past actions regarding evacuations and aid to those planets in trouble, instead of assuming that the Federation might say no. (Or did they already do that and discovered that the Federation isn't as benevolent as it pretends to be?)

Wouldn't you think that the Vulcans would ally themselves very closely to a world of people which thinks like a computer?

When the Enterprise returns to Starbase 74 after leaving Bynaus, the moon is in the same place that it was when the Enterprise originally came to Starbase 74. Has the Enterprise been away long enough for the moon to make a full revolution, or does it just revolve around the planet really, really slowly?

The Bynars tell Riker that in repairing the holodeck, they have corrected the damage from "a recent probe". Would this be the Jarada Probe? The one that isn't due to strike the ship until stardate 41997, leaving well over six months from the stardate of this episode before there is even a problem? WOW!
(Then again, we have to wonder why Riker et al. were not immediately suspicious at seeing the Bynars working on the holodeck. They were there to refit the main computer, which is an essential system whereas the holodecks are not. Riker should have said to the Bynars, "why are you fixing the holodeck? We can do that ourselves.")

5 duplicate posts by Mark have been deleted by the moderator.

Mark,
Did the post message button stick or something. ;-)

Yes, yes, indeed it did. My apologies. The computer system here at York leaves a little to be desired...

Why is it that the Enterprise is able to back out of Starbase, stop, and then immediately warp out? Especially since another shot shows it turning around.

I've had the following nit (actually a big ol’ hole in the plot) in my head ever since the episode first aired 13 years ago:

Minuet's objective was to distract Riker so he would not know about the ship being abandoned and not leave. It was a failsafe in case something happened to the Binars (which did). There was no plan to distract a second officer or crewperson; it just happened that Picard met up with Riker and Minuet, and she also kept him from finding out that the ship was being hijacked. However, it later took Picard and Riker working together to activate the computer program that saved the Binars. Riker would not have been able to save them if he were the only person left on the ship, but this was Binars' clearly stated plan.

Now that that is off my chest, indulge me for a few moments if you wish while I reminisce and reflect. This episode is one of the best from the first season. It just had so many “ooh-wow” moments from when Star Trek was brand new again: the auto-destruct sequence, abandoning ship, the new holodecks, beaming onto the bridge (no one ever transported to somewhere else on the ship during the original series), and, “Picard: Access,” then the camera panning to the left, revealing the “Weapons Room” sign.

Watching it again for the first time in years, I also recognized one of the underlying themes from the newer Star Trek series: a representation of a fear that computers will overtake humans. The Enterprise crew was taken aback at the Binars' lightning-quick language and how they almost were completely integrated with the computer on their homeworld. In later episodes, the notion of trying to keep computers in their place -- as being slaves to people, not their masters -- is repeated in comments such as replicated food not beating home-cooking, and the recurring computer problems during the early seasons of DS9.

If some ways, the Binars are a proto-Borg race; the Borg being the main thrust to this theme. Mind you, the Binars never came across as bad guys, even during their heist of the Enterprise, but the similarities they share with the Borg in being physically integrated with computer technology are there. Some of the ideas presented with the Binars look as though they could have been expounded upon and made dark and evil when the Borg were conceived.

KAM: Secondly, all the ships were floating in the space dock, but doesn't mass attract mass?

Yes, mass attracts mass. If you put two pencils on a desk next to each other, there is a gravitational attraction between them. However, it requires an ENORMOUS amount of mass to produce the type of gravitational forces we feel on Earth. Even the largest asteroids have negligible gravity.

But you do raise a point: the Enterprise, when it docks, should slowly be pulled towards the starbase's center of gravity. Since they're in space, though, the starbase should be pulled towards the Enterprise! (Much more slowly, since it has more mass, its gravitational acceleration will be less.)

Re: The Title 11001001
in Hexadecimal = C9
and if you know Z80 opcodes, C9 is the code for
'RETURN'
I think of the title as Return....

KAM correctly pointed out that a close supernova would have destroyed the Bynars' planet.

The flip side of this argument is that if the supernova were far enough away to avoid frying the planet (light years at least) then the blast wave would have been travelling through space for years.

With Trek's faster-than-light sensors, both the Bynars and Starfleet should have known exactly when the EM pulse would hit, and would have had years to prepare.

NIT: (IMHO) The search for heavenly bodies continues....Troi is missing.

DELETED LINE: "Get a life, Number One" Picard to Riker at the end of the episode when Riker is pining away at the loss of Minuet who was A HOLODECK WOMAN...Geez, Riker...you got Counselor Troi-babe sitting next to you in all the other episodes and you're upset over losing a holodeck woman? C'mon!

"(no one ever transported to somewhere else on the ship during the original series)"

Actually, Kirk and Kang's wife did. (Just saw the episode yesterday)

SECURITY ISSUE:
You'd think that Starfleet would be a little bit more protective about its Starships....There should be some sort of "lock out/tag out" security devices on the command consoles of the Bridge. I mean, electricians do it today to prevent people from accidently turning on electrical equipment and prevent them from being used while someone is working in the area. And how about automobiles? People take their keys and lock their doors before leaving their cars...why doesn't Starfleet have some kind of pass key for their Starships?

It's the IFOS! Standard on all starships!

Riker taps 3 buttons and then he and Picard perform a DETAILED transport onto different sections of the bridge!

I always suspected the computer listens in on crew conversations and presents relevant options on the console, so it only takes a few button presses to confirm that you want to 'do that thing you just described'.

Yeah, Sophie, that actually makes a whole lot of sense.

Why is the Weapons Room labelled? Very, very convenient for, oh, I don't know..someone wanting to take over the ship.

Speaking of this "Weapons Room," why don't we ever see it again?

In Engineering, right after the countdown begins, Picard and Riker discus their plan. The timer shows that 20 seconds have passed. It seemed like a bit longer than that, to me.

Speaking of elapsed time, it seemed longer than a couple of minutes for Picard and Riker to upload the file.

And...why could Picard contact Starbase 74 using his communicator? I thought it was for intraship communication, and away missions. Don't you have to use ship communications to contact something light-years away?

Speaking of this "Weapons Room," why don't we ever see it again?

Maybe they wised up and took the name off the door?

Then again, all the doors look so similar, in the right circumstances it would be funny to see everyone bumping into each other, looking for the weapons room....

Security guard: 'Scuse me, this is the weapons room, is it not?
Half-naked female officer in her quarters: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!! [whacks guard in the face with the nearest PADD]

Then again, maybe not...

[At this point, it is important to show that Sven has missed out the one fatal flaw in his reasoning: the ship's computer can tell the guards where to go! Yes! The Machine Tells You What To Do! No need for embarrassing moments like the one described above! Just ask away and let the machine do it for you! - everyone]

The weapons room is to the left. If you go right you'll disturb a naked female officer.

Guard: So I should go left?

Right.

Guard: OK.

I hope I've got the right episode here...

Riker makes a comment to Geordi and Data along the lines of "A blind man is teaching an android to paint" and how it's worth a paper or something! Geordi and Data look stunned by this remark, even hurt.

I imagine Riker is waylaid by two anonymous figures armed with painsticks a little later.

That line always seemed out of place to me.

Good synopses, Sparrow. Personally, I think they should be more succint, like the ones Phil made for each episode in the NextGen Guide vol. II, but good nontheless.

Just one thing: Shouldn't these, and especially the production info, be placed at the top of each page?

Well, sometimes they can be too succint- like for this ep., not mentioning Minuet. Sometimes they'll be just plain wrong- like Trek's website synopsis for "The Big Goodbye" saying that Whalen gets killed. He doesn't, he just gets shot. And Butch always moves these to the tops of the thread- check the other eps.

Durn tootin' I do and I have now done dagnabbit.

giggle...Well, shucks, Sparrow, Butch, Ah think y'all's doin' a fine job, Ah shurly do...

Actually, more in-depth synopses are probably a better idea for this format anyhow. After all, the idea was to bring posters who aren't familiar with the eps up to speed, right?
It's also handy for all of us to have details we can check against when posting/rebutting nits.

Well, thank you, ma'am, that's much appreciated.

The starbase in this episode comes from STIII

I'm sure many starbases use the same layouts and designs. Maybe different admirals have different favorite architects and interior designers. Maybe different starbases have different design themes and schemes. That's something they should explored more.
I wonder if the new Enterprise series will show us Starbase One?

Carolyn McCormick (Minuet) is currently part of Dick Wolf's Stable O' Players, having portrayed Dr. Elizabeth Olivet for over ten years on "Law and Order."

Besides appearing twice on Classic Trek ("Mudd's Women" as miner Ben Childress and "The Mark of Gideon" as Krodak), Gene Dynarski (Quinteros) was Lloyd Bridges' son on a couple classic episodes of "Seinfeld." "MANDEL-BAUM!"

Jack Sheldon (Piano Player) was the infamous voice of many "Schoolhouse Rock" characters, including the Bill, which he reprised for "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." He was also Buddy on the short-lived comedy "Run Buddy Run."

When the Enterprise-D is being evacuated, only 5 out of 6 Transporter Pads are being used....and there's a line of people waiting to beam off!

Wouldn't it be more prudent to fill ALL of the Transporter Pads...especially if there's an emergency?

I mean...SECONDS COUNT!

Also, why not use the stations transporters to beam people off while using the transporters to beam people to the station? That station must have gazillions of transporters, I'd think they could evac the enterprise crew in a single shot if they needed to.

What is wrong with Starfleet anyway?

Every single Starship docked at the Starbase is broken.

God forbid a hostile alien force should attack.

The Starbase would be virtually defenseless.

I was kind of hoping that the binary title of this episode would convert to an amusing or significant number in decimal (such as 47 ), but it's 201.

It translates to hexadecimal 0xC9, which is the the Intel x86 opcode for "RETURN".

Interesting...but I would have thought any hidden message would have been in binary, not hexadecimal, as that's the point of the episode.

Hex is a human way of relating to binary strings. It is easy to convert one to the other, and can be done in one's head, unlike converting to or from decimal. Saying that "0xC9 means Return to an INtel x86" is really saying "11001001 means Return," since the chip deals in binary.

It is easy to convert one to the other, and can be done in one's head
Unless, like me, you are bad at math. I used all my fingers & I still can't count higher than 2 in binary.

The conversion can be done in your head. Counting all the zeroes and ones to follow the binary itself is a little harder. That's why humans think in hex when they have to think in binary

There are 10 kinds of people -- those that understand binary, and those that don't.

(Can't believe this joke hadn't been posted yet!)

I think I did post it on the "Lines You'll Never Hear" board, talking about the Bynar Bible. But you're right, it belongs here, too.

Didn't Callie post it on one of the Jokes & Groaners boards?

Yes, well I even did a search on "10" in this thread and got about a thousand hits...

With everything that is going on, you don't really miss Troi not being in this episode.

I DO!

REINCARNATION ALERT

Ben Childress (Mudd's Women) returns as Commander Quinteros

Speaking of this "Weapons Room," why don't we ever see it again? Maybe they wised up and took the name off the door?

The name was actually on the wall, not the door. (pick, pick, pick) I think this is the only occasion that a room label is on the wall.

I think it's also the only time someone goes to a specific room to get weapons. In many episodes made after this we see weapons lockers all over the ship(as well as phasers in sickbay, apparently.) That makes much more sense for defense of the ship(Wait! Wait, Mr. Jem'Hadar! Let me go to the weapons room before you shoot!)

What is wrong with Starfleet anyway? Every single Starship docked at the Starbase is broken.

Isn't that the purpose of a Starbase, to repair ships? That's why the Enterprise was there.

DS9 never had any ships for defense at all until the Defiant, and after that just that one until the Dominion War. Perhaps the Starbase has a strong defense array, and also has some sort of planet-based weapons.

I believe Riker specifies the time period of the Jazz club as the 1950's, but the trio is integrated. Was that normal for Jazz trios in 1950's New Orleans?

Perhaps the program or holodeck is colorblind, like the Vic Fontaine program(according to Kasidy Yates)

Native New Orleanian here. An integrated Jazz trio in the 1950's in New Orleans would not be all that unusual. It would all depend on the area of the city they were in. For where that club would be likely to be located at that time, it would not be unusual at all.

Thanks.

Why were Geordi and Data painting in the observation lounge? If Data is painting shouldn't he be in his room and if he is on duty why is he painting?

I think he should have been in his room as well, or some other designated area for creating art. While clearly it was the same set as the observation lounge, was it the same room? I believe Wesley asked Data to 'come up here', suggesting he was not on Deck 1, though Wesley could have simply misspoke. Of course, I don't know where else on the Enterprise would have windows like those of the obs. lounge.

Perhaps it was the same room where Picard's painting class took place in A Matter of Perspective?


For some reason I had trouble believing Picard when he told Riker he might have chosen this locale. Maybe if it had been part of a Dixon Hill story, I could see it, but I don't think of him as being that big a Jazz fan.

I agree. To me it didn't seem to fit what we later learn about Picard. Obviously the character was still being fleshed out.(But that's reality.) Perhaps Picard was just being polite?

And...why could Picard contact Starbase 74 using his communicator?

Perhaps the computer is smart enough to tie the request into the ship's communications system.

Refresh my memory: Was Data painting alone, or with others? If the latter, then perhaps that's why he asked to use Ten Forward. Then again, that raises the question of where everyone who wanted to go to Ten Forward did. I suppose they could've held the painting session at night with off-duty dayshift personnel. Or maybe they simply closed it for a day, since people can eat in their quarters, and socialize at other places. It is a big ship, after all.

IIRC it was Data painting, Geordi observing/teaching & Riker wondering what was going on.

It wasn't Ten Forward (we didn't see that until the second season) it was the Observation Lounge, the meeting room behind the Bridge.

Dotter: According to the technical manual the computer is able to appropriately route all communications requests to the proper location in cluding off ship if security protocols are allowing it.

IN answer to this:And...why could Picard contact Starbase 74 using his communicator?

Perhaps the computer is smart enough to tie the request into the ship's communications system

KAM: Thats the way I recall that scene as well.

Way back when, KAM asked
---
Why not have a docking ring like the Cardassians use, or just orbit the station and beam or shuttle people back and forth?
---
Stresses on the docking port latches for a single physical connection (the mooring beams would hold the ship in place for a transfer tube, and according to the tech manual, there's actually a lot of connections that attach in various places, for fuel and raw material transfer, energy feeds, and personal movement, including some over turbolift shafts), and energy/fuel use for shuttles and transporters.

and

--
Secondly, all the ships were floating in the space dock, but doesn't mass attract mass?
---
Considering all ships in the Trek universe have artificial gravity, I don't think it's that big a stretch to say that they can generate a reverse field to offset their own gravitational field, making them gravitationally neutral. The mooring beams and physical connections probably help keep the ships in place as well

---
An integrated Jazz trio in the 1950's in New Orleans would not be all that unusual. It would all depend on the area of the city they were in. For where that club would be likely to be located at that time, it would not be unusual at all.
---
As it's called the Bourbon Street Bar, I would hazard a guess that it's somewhere in the French Quarter. ;)

Why is the room Picard and Riker go to get their phasers called the "Weapons Room" and not "Armoury"?
And I guess the Enterprise hadn't yet been assigned it's quota of Phaser Rifles. Body armour would probably be useful too ;)

Picard and Riker set the auto-destruct system to stop the Enterprise falling into the wrong hands, which is good, but they then waste a few seconds at the engineering console before moving towards the exit, then even more time looking at the screen that's showing the Bynars download to the Enterprise core.

Good thing they didn't have a firefight on the bridge, they may have needed those extra seconds.

The scene should have played in reverse (see the download and speculate on it, set the destruct, run for the bridge).

The Bynar's selected Riker to be their backup plan, but why? Why not Picard as he's the captain and would therefore have full command authority on the Enterprise, or Data as he's the closest to themselves?

Chris Marks - Considering all ships in the Trek universe have artificial gravity, I don't think it's that big a stretch to say that they can generate a reverse field to offset their own gravitational field, making them gravitationally neutral.
I think they did something like that in the Voy ep Fair Haven.

By dotter31 on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 - 6:22 am:

DS9 never had any ships for defense at all until the Defiant, and after that just that one until the Dominion War. Perhaps the Starbase has a strong defense array, and also has some sort of planet-based weapons.

Princess Leia: The Ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure there are no enemy spacecraft in your flight path.


----

NIT:

the computer display for the countdown doesn't look like standard starfleet computer equipment/interface. More like something you'd see inside an 20th century elevator.

Up to this episode in the Star Trek Saga, we had never seen an actual on screen countdown of the self destruct program. Because of that, you really can't say that the countdown in this episode doesn't look like the standard starfleet computer equipment/interface for the self destruct program, since we had nothing to compare it too before this.

Up to this episode in the Star Trek Saga, we had never seen an actual on screen countdown of the self destruct program.

We first see the self-destruct program in Search for Spock, which pre-dates this episode by some 4 years in real time or some 80 odd in ST time.

What about "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

Yes but neither that movie or that episode had an ON SCREEN coutdown to destruction (with numbers). That was the point I was making.

The Search for Spock had a countdown - the Klingon first officer is looking directly at it just before the Enterprise blows up.

The Self-destruct sequence and protocols followed in the ST series post TSFS are all based on what was seen and done in that film.

No they weren't. What was done on TSFS took 3 command officers, on Next Generation, it took two and on Voyager, Janeway could do it by herself.

Which means that on Enterprise, the ship may well have been able to blow itself up! ;-)

...or taken a joint decision of the entire crew. Depending on whether you think in '5th series' terms or '100 years earlier' terms. (Personally, I think that if the former had happened, many fans would have been far happier with B&B...)

Does that mean that DS9 would have required 1 senior officer and one ensign to self destruct? :-) (1.5 command personnel?)

LOL Andrew! I like that logic.
Either that or only the 1st officer on DS9 could set the destruct. think about it, it is a Bajorian station. would make sense that only the ranking Bajorian officer would have authority to blow it up.

That works... eerily well! :-)

I thought so. I figure that way Star Fleet doesnt have any sticky diplomatic issues to deal with, like explaining to the Bajorain Government why their space station was destroyed and then having to explain that it was going to be captured and then the Bajorians would have accused Star Fleet of being wimps and not putting up enough of a fight and Star Fleet would have had to nod in agreement because their policy IS to let the enemy hammer you 47 times before you fire once, then wait 3 more times before you try again, at which point your engineer tells you weapons are off line.

This way all the blame can been kept in house and Star Fleet doesnt have to pay for a space station.

I hated that Quinteros guy. He wasn't friendly or personable, and also, he was completely worthless in a crisis!

I mean, he kept saying things like "it's too late" and "there's nothing you can do". That's total BS, there are many things the crew members could have done to prevent the Enterprise from being stolen, as Phil already mentioned. But if they had done that, there would have been no show!

Anyway, I just thought that Quinteros was a very worthless character. How did he ever become a Commander of a Starbase in Starfleet, that's what I wonder!

It was the least they could do for him after he made that rotten deal with Harry Mudd. Witness relocation program, you see. New name, 80-year cryo freeze, then make him commander of a starbase.

At one point, Quinteros says "your ship is almost clear".

It was still sliding past the window, and the nacelles hadn't even begun to move through the space doors.

That's not very almost to me.

"Commander Quinteros, now that you have been put in charge of the entire ship building effort for the federation fleet, please report your progress"

we are almost done.

"good because the Borg are attacking. how many ships are ready?"

47 done 549 to go.

It appears that only *minutes* pass between when Enterprise warps away from Starbase 74, in orbit around Tarsus Three, and when Riker says they are in orbit around Bynus. How could they have reached Bynus so quickly?

Tarsus Three and Bynus are really close to each other?

Presumably Tarsus Three and Bynus are in different star systems: A Bynar says that "one of the stars in our system" went supernova, and if Tarsus Three was in the same system, surely the Starbase would have noticed the supernova. In which case, they must be light years apart, and at top speed Enterprise takes about 3 hours to travel one light year. Yet the trip lasted no longer than the time it took for Riker and Picard to finish talking to Minuet (2 minutes onscreen), plus about 10 minutes to discover they'd been commandeered, set the auto-destruct, and transport onto the bridge.

* I missed this earlier, but the episode actually specifies that Tarsus Three and Bynaus are in different systems: As KAM notes upthread, it is stated that Bynaus is in the Beta Magellanus system.

So, somehow Enterprise traveled light-years in minutes. Maybe the Bynars have secretly developed transwarp conduits?

* Picard tells the Bynars they have 48 hours to complete their work on the computer, because in "48 plus six" (why doesn't he just say 54?) they have an appointment at Pelleus Five. In 6 hours, Enterprise can cover no more than about two light years, which would be an unusually short distance between star systems (and it's odd that their appointment would happen to be in a system next door).

* Why wasn't the second Bynar pair helping the first from the beginning? What else did they have to do that was more important than saving their world?

* When the lights go out in the corridor where Riker is standing, he asks the computer to explain. The computer replies that unoccupied sections are being closed down in order to clear space in the main computer banks. But that section is occupied, by Riker.

* In "Datalore", Riker was sufficiently familiar with the field of cybernetics to recognize the name Noonien Soong, but in this episode he has never heard of Epstein, "the leading mind in cybernetics".

* After Wesley tells Picard that Riker is on Holodeck Four, he asks Picard "Shall I call him for you, sir?" Is there some reason Picard couldn't use his combadge to call Riker himself?

* During the evacuation, what does Data mean when he says "The Captain is usually the last to leave"? Is he referring to evacuation drills?

* Minuet flatters Riker by telling him he is "very good with people". He didn't seem so good with people earlier in the episode, when he was making fun of a subordinate's disability ("A blind man teaching an android how to paint?")

* After Picard and Riker set the 5-minute auto-destruct, we see them walking down a corridor toward the bridge. Why aren't they running?

* Why couldn't the Bynars just put up a shield around their master computer?

* Riker says that the Enterprise has the only mobile computer large enough to handle all the information in the Bynar master computer. What about other Galaxy-class ships?

* Why couldn't the Bynars transfer the information from their master computer to multiple smaller computers?

* Given that the Bynars could apparently transfer information from their master computer to the Enterprise computer, while the Enterprise was in another star system, why do they need to be in orbit around Bynaus to transfer it back again?

* Why didn't the Bynars give Minuet the file name, instead of requiring Picard and Riker to figure it out? For that matter, why not just leave a note?

* The disaster which struck the Bynars was fantastically unlikely. Out of the 400 billion stars in our galaxy, it is estimated that there is only one supernova every 50 years, and supernovae have occured within 10 parsecs (33 light-years) of Earth, an area containing hundreds of stars, about once every 250 million years.

During the evacuation, what does Data mean when he says "The Captain is usually the last to leave"? Is he referring to evacuation drills?

He is refering to the age old tradition of the captain being the last man onboard anytime a ship has to be abandonned.

He didn't seem so good with people earlier in the episode, when he was making fun of a subordinate's disability ("A blind man teaching an android how to paint?")

Riker was not making fun, he was pointing out the incongruity of the situation.

The disaster which struck the Bynars was fantastically unlikely. Out of the 400 billion stars in our galaxy, it is estimated that there is only one supernova every 50 years, and supernovae have occured within 10 parsecs (33 light-years) of Earth, an area containing hundreds of stars, about once every 250 million years.

Could have been worse, they could have claimed the Supernova threatened the entire galaxy and that they needed to use a man made black hole to •••• it up. I'm glad they didn't do that.

He is refering to the age old tradition of the captain being the last man onboard anytime a ship has to be abandonned.

That probably is what Data was supposed to mean, but it would have been better if he had said "traditionally" instead of "usually". Otherwise, its not clear if he means captains generally or Picard specifically.

Riker was not making fun, he was pointing out the incongruity of the situation.

Maybe "making fun" isn't the right term, but making a joke to a blind man about amazing it is that he can perform an ordinary task, seems off-key to me. Geordi doesn't appear amused by it, in fact it looks like he sort of glares in Riker's direction after he leaves.