By Johnny Veitch on Sunday, November 15, 1998 - 11:26 am:

This nit is also in "Where Silence has Lease". At the end of this episode the Enterprise leaves for the Morgana Quadrant. Where`s the Morgana Quadrant? The galaxy is divided into only four quadrants: Alpha Quadrant, Beta Quardrant, Gamma Quadrant and Delta Quadrant. There`s no Morgana Quadrant.
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By Murray Leeder on Sunday, November 15, 1998 - 01:55 pm:

Well, place names are confusing things. Maybe this Quadrant refers to something else entirely, like a quarter of a sector. Maybe it was named before the Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta system was decided upon. Maybe it was named by an alien race, and the Federation didn't both changing it. Maybe it's sort of like how Hudson Bay is really an inland sea.
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By Triggins on Wednesday, December 23, 1998 - 12:16 pm:

The terms for sector and quadrant were pretty much interchangable until the Price according to the Star Trek encyclopedia.
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By Christopher Waulken on Saturday, April 10, 1999 - 05:46 am:

The Morgana Quadrant is the site of DollyWorld and the Planet of the Kissing Bandits. :)
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By Chris Ashley on Friday, April 16, 1999 - 10:58 pm:

Alternate (and not serious) plot summary: Troi gets pregnant, but can't remember who the father is because she slept through the whole thing. (Troi: "I feel.....?") Picard calls a staff meeting to discuss this (Picard: "Who did it?" Riker: "Don't look at me." Worf: "Kill it!"), but before he can make up his mind what to do the baby grows up, goes to school, and gets his own starship.

I'm not sure who to credit, but I didn't write it.
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By Murray Leeder on Saturday, April 17, 1999 - 08:32 pm:

Where did the alien get the male DNA?
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By ScottN on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 02:32 am:

Murray, there is no such thing as Male or Female DNA. There *IS* such a thing as a Y chromosome. Your question was like asking "Where did they get the water atoms". Chromosomes are made up of genes, which are made of DNA. DNA is neither male nor female.
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By Murray Leeder on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 01:31 pm:

Yeah, yeah, I know. I took Biology 30. That's what I meant - where'd it get the Y chromosome from?
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By KAM on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 08:41 am:

Is the Y chromosome that thing that makes people ask questions?
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 08:49 am:

Just as the Enterprise leaves for `audet IX the ball of light arrives and decides to board. So why didn't the entity decide to go onto the Repulse?

They are supposedly traveling to `audet IX, but the stars in the windows of both Ten-Forward and the Observation Lounge don't move. Even though they are traveling at impulse, shouldn't there be some movement?

Why do they call it the Observation Lounge, anyway? All you can see is the back of the ship and where you have been. Perhaps Ten-Forward should have been called the Observation Lounge?

Why is Wesley even on the ship, anyway? If his mom was offered her new position while still on the ship, shouldn't she have taken Wesley with her then? The other possibility is that she was off on vacation, or something, by herself when offered the job, which seems a little out of character for her. (I know, I know, the real reason is that Gates MacFadden was either fired or had quit, but Will Wheaton was still on the show. However, I am a Nitpicker, I don't deal in reality!)

If this Plasma Plague is so deadly, then why risk the safety of the entire ship transporting it to Science Station Tango Sierra? Why not just detach the saucer and use the Stardrive section for the actual transport? (Because then Ian and Counselor Troi would have been left on the Saucer section and there would be no threat to the ship.) Better yet, why not build some ships specifically designed for transporting hazardous materials?

If these viruses are so deadly then why haven't doctors been working overtime to create cures and/or vaccines for these plagues? Why do they need to shuttle a supply over to a science station so it can look for a cure? If a planet is already suffering from a plasma plague, why not take a sample of the virus on the planet and try to come up with a cure for that specific plague, instead of shuttling 512 incurable viruses to a science station? ("Science Station Tango Sierra to the planet Rachelis. We have some good news and some bad news. We haven't found a cure for your plague yet, but we have cured the Klingon Death Sniffle!")

When Picard is making his log entry about Hesterdel having been on the ship for 14 hours, it sounds like Picard calls him "Hesterdelt".

When Pulaski hands Troi the baby, there is some device attached to the back of Troi's hand, although I don't remember seeing anyone place it there, and later while still holding the baby the 'tag' has mysteriously disappeared. (When first I saw it, I thought of those little wrist straps that hospital patients have to wear.)

Wesley tells Guinan that some crewmembers think she is from Novacron. Boy, those El Aurians are tight lipped, they don't even like to tell people what planet they come from.

Time's Arrow seems to make Guinan a liar by having her meet Captain Picard in the 18th century instead of on the Enterprise. However, what Guinan says is she didn't "know" the captain until she came on the Enterprise. It is possible to interpret that as being different from having met the captain. Also she might have just forgotten she met him. It was 500 years ago and she was suffering some life threatening injuries and who knows what kind of medicine the 19th century doctors may have given her?

Dr. Pulaski says that she is uncertain what a symbol means in the disease manifest and data, I mean, Data has to tell her that it means a virus had been genetically altered. First off, shouldn't Doctor Pulaski know this? (I suppose it is possible that the laws allowing people to genetically tamper with viruses have been altered so that some 'eager beaver' isn't allowed to do this anymore, but still it was only about 70 years ago that some of these alterations had been done. Also in the episode Unnatural Selection it is revealed that Pulaski wrote the book Linear Models of Viral Propagation which is still used in viral research.) Secondly, isn't the point of using symbols to make identification simpler?

Hesterdel says that the eichner radiation wasn't present when he examined the containment area earlier, but Troi was pregnant and gave birth while he was examining the area. So why didn't Ian give off the eichner radiation then? Why can't they put up some kind of shielding for eichner radiation? How come the computer did not locate the source of the eichner radiation before Data and his tricorder?

Actually this whole viruses growing out of control puzzles me. Aren't viruses lifeforms? Don't viruses need food in order to grow? If the viruses grow too fast won't they just exhaust their food supply and die?

There is a reference to the Obi system. Is that near the Wan system?

Well, those windows do have shades! In this episode Troi pushed a button and a window shade covered the window over Ian. I think this is the only time I've ever seen this. (Of course, it might be convenient if the ship had an automatic window coverings in times of battle or when they are going to crash into a planet like in Star Trek Generations)

The rate at which the child grows is inconsistent. First the child gets older faster, then slower. If the alien wanted to learn so much about humans, why not read the computer files, locate information on a suitable colony planet and go there? A colony planet is likely to be far more normal and typical than making a Starfleet officer on a starship, pregnant. And then why have the child age so fast? Because they didn't want the kid to be a recurring character that's why, but nitpickers don't deal in reality. The alien was making some ridiculous choices. And aren't there any married couples on the ship?
In the ship's nursery, Troi says, "He's a very tactile child, he likes to touch and feel everything."
Even as small talk that sounds ridiculous. It's normal for kids to be like that, and the writers seem to assume viewers wouldn't know what "tactile" means. And besides, if Star Trek is supposed to be so daring why didn't they have the kid do one of those cute-but-naughty things kids are famous for? Poking a finger at Troi's chest and asking, "what are those?" But no, they couldn't be daring, could they?

Ian was interested in learning about the ship and its people. When he realized that he was the source of their problem, why didn't he ask to be put in a shuttlecraft, away from the ship, until they reached their destination?

Dr. Pulaski, YUCK! I hate her! And she had no right to treat Data the way she did! Bad way to introduce a new member of the crew! From here on I hated her!

I realize they needed a threat to the ship, but in my mind, they could have just left out the entire Troi pregnancy thing! It was boring!

When Deanna discovered she was pregnant, Worf suggested an abortion. Somehow, that one got by that self appointed media watchdog, the Rev. Donald Wildmon and his American Family Association. According to the AFA, they did not monitor syndicated programs at the time. I abhor all these censorship groups and self-appointed media watchdogs. If all media caved into their demands, we would be watching "Brady Bunch" reruns 24/7 instead of challenging shows like "Trek", "Law and Order," and "Oz". NBC, however, IS caving, re: "L&O" and "Seinfeld"

I think Guinan lied about how she knows the Captain. Plus, since Picard doesn't know she already met him at this point, she probably doesn't want anyone to know she actually met him four hundred years ago ...

I made this point elsewhere thinking it was this episode (but it wasn't) so here it goes in the right place:

I must say that I found a part in this episode unbelievably funny. When Picard is explaining to everyone that Deanna is pregnant. It went something like this:

PICARD: Counsellor Troi is pregnant

No-one flinches so Picard realises that he must make clear the implications of this statement!!

PICARD: She's going to have a baby
RIKER: A baby?!?!

LOL, Out To Lunch - you make an interesting point: were the creators dumbing down for the viewers, or has 24th Century society undergone a demedicalisation phase so great that even simple concepts are above them? (yet others, such as all those scientific technobabble, are well understood by even the most technophobic of technophobes??!)

[just kidding... sorry to labour the point everyone... I get the joke... well timed too...]

Sven, could be.

More likely though, Riker is just a bit dim!

It may have been mentioned in the TNG Guide (wich I havn't read) but during the meeting regarding Troi's pregnancy Riker at one point says something like "Let me get this straight, Deana was impregnated by what..?". During this he gestures with both hands in front of him, then the camera changes and now his right hand is completely flat on the table.

Riker is acting really strange during this meeting. If I didn't knew better I would say he and Troi was a couple. When he said "Not to be rude, but who is the father?", I could almost hear him add "because I now it's not me!"

Isn't it a bit rude of the senior staff to debate whether they should initiate an abortion, whitout even asking Troi how she felt.

Pulaski apparently believes this pregnancy to be important for the captain to hear. She nevertheless made an additional examination and after that took Troi to 10-Forward without even noticing Picard.

When Picard is on his way to 10-Forward he enters a torbulift just as Wesley exits it. Apparently Wesley didn't go to the bridge for anything important because he imidiately turns around and follows Picard to 10-Forward. A bit bored with off-duty time?

Data is an android and has read several databases on pregnancy and the forming of life, in technical terms, (although he managed to get some practical training in "The Naked Now) he nevertheless ask Troi whether she can access the childs thoughtprocess. He should know that mother and child is only connected through the embilical cord and the blood therein, and thus can share their thoughts.

If the specimen in module L-7-3 is growing and threatening to break it's containment they should have used the transporter to destroy it like Picard did with the Tox Uthat in "Captains Holiday".

Regarding Datas question to Troi, it should ofcourse be "and thus CAN'T share their thoughts"

Troi however is a Betazoid & can communicate telepathically with other Betazoids (& even Riker on occasion.)

I've always considered Troi's telepathical abilities to be a one-way-street, meaning she can send messages to other humanoids and even sense their emotions, but unless the recipient answered, either telepathically or verbal, she wouldn't have any access to the recipients thoughtprocess, since she is only half-betazoid.

But if Data wasn't aware about this, or if I'm wrong, then Datas question is valid.

I wanna go back to the original subject of Ian being a boy. Someone earlier asked where did Ian get the male DNA, or shall we say, the Y chromosome. Considering that Ian was exactly what Dianna was, half human and half Betazed, then Ian should be a girl. The Y chromosome comes from the father, as also the second X chromosome that determines the femaleness of a baby. I believe I read somewhere that this episode was originally written for the cast of the Motion Picture, when it was originally going to be a series, and that Ilia was going to have a girl. THat would have made more sense. Why then have Dienna have a boy, when it's not possible?

"The Child" and "Devil's Due" were stories originally written for the abandoned "Star Trek-Phase II" series in 1977. There were 13 stories originally commissioned, these were the only two that were eventually filmed by any subsequent Trek series.

At one point in this episode, Picard calls sickbay looking for Pulaski and finds she is in ten-forward. Then Riker and Picard discuss who should go find her before Picard goes.

First, why didn't they call her directly? (Although I missed the preceeding minute, maybe it was explained.)

Second, why did anyone have to go? It would make more sense for Picard to summon Pulaski to his ready room considering he intends to chew her out.(of course, he needs to go to ten-forward to discover Troi is pregnant...)

Just how much time has elapsed between "The Neutral Zone" and this episode? Riker had NO beard or mustache in "The Neutral Zone"...NO 5:00 shadow...not even a HINT of facial hair. Yet in this episode, he's got a mustache & beard. Eugenics, maybe?

By the way....I can identify the non-corporeal lifeform that got Troi pregnant...it was ME (after I die). My "life energy" will float thru space until the 23rd century until it finds Troi & get her pregnant. EAT YOUR HEART OUT, GUYS!

How is that a nit? We dont' know how much time has passed

Let's try & figure it out....

The stardate for "The Neutral Zone" was 41486.0.
The stardate for "The Child" is 42073.1

I believe it takes longer than a month for a beard & mustache to grow like the one Riker has.

I wouldn't know. I'm clean shaven.

Nope, it depends on the person. My mustache grows in fully in a couple of weeks. My beard only comes in patchy, but I've seen people grow thick beards in a month or so.

Thanx, ScottN.

Just a quick note, I'm already uneasy about not seeing Gates McFadden in season 2 on DVD. She is quite lovely.

Agreed. I always thought she was better looking that Marina Sirtis...

McFadden...better looking than Sirtis? HA! That's a laugh. McFadden better looking than Muldaur is more like it. BTW...I still can't figure out how they were able to use the cameras on Marina Sirtis without the lenses steaming up. SIRTIS IS HOT!

It's the red hair, John.

I agree. That's the feature I like about McFadden too. She rates a 9 in my book...with Sirtis at 10.

The birth of the child TRULY IS AMAZING!

It came without Troi removing the lower half of her uniform...in other words, the child passed thru her pants! I guess the prop department couldn't "afford" to use a BLANKET to cover up the lower half of Troi's (Sirtis') body.

NANJAO: There's a revamped theme for the beginning of the 2nd season.

TOP TEN REASONS WHY CRUSHER LEFT THE ENTERPRISE IN SEASON 2:

10. That "Shut up, Wesley" incident. (Datalore)
9. That Felicium debate really got her steamed (Symbiosis)
8. That....woman...Jenice...GRRR! (We'll Always Have Paris)
7. Crusher was steamed about the way Picard handled things at Aldea (too slow in her opinion) "When the Bough Breaks"
6. The medical staff was too large. Dr. McCoy NEVER had this many people.
5. Picard questions her loyalty and almost has her booted off the ship. (Encounter at Farpoint)
4. Picard's bedside manner was attrocious (Arsenal of Freedom)
3. Picard didn't spank her tush like Sonny Clemonds did. (The Neutral Zone)
2. Picard didn't kiss her on the holodeck (The Big Goodbye)
1. Picard made no moves at her in "The Naked Now"

John A Lang: My "life energy" will float thru space until the 23rd century until it finds Troi & get her pregnant. EAT YOUR HEART OUT, GUYS!

I'm very, very impressed, John A... especially since Deanna Troi won't even be born until the 24th Century!!

9. That Felicium debate really got her steamed (Symbiosis)
More than you think, John. Go to here and scroll down to Beverly Crusher's Hidden Shame

Whoops! Just checked the link. Scroll UP.

OK..24th century, Sven.

The point is...SHE'S MINE! (Hands off!)

OK...Most of Betazed activities are done naked. So, why didn't Troi go to bed naked? (With a BLANKET covering her upper torso, to keep the PG rating, of course)

The only answer is BLANKET SHORTAGE!

Umm...all I recall if the naked wedding thing. Where did you get the idea they do everything naked?

Troi comes from a sexually permissive culture. And seeing that some Earth women go to bed naked, why not extra-terrestrial women too?

But that's not a nit. What does sleeping naked have to do with being sexually permissive?

Accent on the some, John. Disappointing as it must be to contemplate, some of us single female types feel more comfy in nightclothes.

And I don't see that Betazoid culture is so much sexually permissive as it is sexually open - ie. they aren't bothered about expressing their affection at weddings etc., but it doesn't follow that they then feel the need to get naked at every opportunity. (They certainly seem to be upset when forced to strip in 'Menage a Troi'...)

I read somewhere that the idea of nude activites was the ORIGINAL idea for the Betazed culture but was ex-nayed at the last minute. I could be mistaken. Perhaps I'm thinking about the Deltans.

I agree that it's probably a comfort thing. As a part time nudist myself I can say that some people who love being naked to do certan things (and have no body-shame about being seen naked) also like being clothed for other activitys (activitys that they could do nude like sleeping and watching TV) for comfort.

Kudos to the special effects dept.
The embryo footage was REAL embryo footage (not CGI) and the birth of the baby was done very well (despite the nit of Troi still having her pants on) The creators remembered the umbilical cord!

I personally am an agnostic, and I find it interesting that Mr. Farrand, who is evidently a very Christian person and whole-heartedly devoted to his faith (and more power to him, if it makes him happy), is so critical of the plot in The Child. In the first Nitpicker's Guide, he claims that Troi couldn't possibly have a male child sans father, because boys are dependent on the Y-chromosome inherited from their father. I guess he never took this into account when the virgin Mary had Jesus. If it's acceptable in her case, why couldn't it happen to Troi? True, there's a little Godly intervention in Mary's case, but who says that Troi couldn't be Touched By a Nonspecific Deity? We're never given a clear definition of the "energy being". I'm not by any means questioning Mr. Farrand's faith, but rather his reasoning; if it's true in one case, why shouldn't it be applicable in another?

First of all, it's in the second NextGen Guide, not the first.

Second, Phil was no more "critical" of this point than of any other point. The passage he writes for this point for Plot Oversight #2 is not the longest for this episode, let alone in the book, and the language he uses in it is the same polite, good natured, non-pejorative language he uses throughout the book. He writes:
---"Presumably humans and Betazoids share something of the same genetic makeup. Yet, during the discussion over Troi's pregnancy, Pulaski states that the offspring is exactly the same as Troi in every way and that the child is a boy. Now, here on good 'ol planet Earth, each human carries two chromosomes to determine sex. Females carry two X chromosomes, and males carry an X and a Y chromosome. Since Troi is a female, she would carry an XX configuration. Yet Troi's child--who is the same as Deanna in every way--is a male! Presumably his configuration is XY. Where did he get the Y chromosome?"
Hardly what I'd call "so critical."

Lastly, Christians like Phil regard the virgin birth as an act of divine intervention. Star Trek is a science fiction show, and does not assume the existence of supernatural premises in its stories, nor did this episode make the assertion that Troi’s pregnancy was divine in nature.

Personally, I agree with you that Phil’s argument is flawed, but not because I feel he is being inconsistent, but because he presumes that humans and Betazoids have the same XX/XY configurations. He says, "presumably humans and Betazoids have something of the same genetic makeup." He is free to presume that, but presumption doesn’t a conclusion make. I also notice that he says "something of the same makeup," but then ignores the possibility that chromosome configuration just may not be part of this "something." On Earth, male seahorses bear the child, so it’s not impossible for aliens to have different setups regarding genetics and heredity. His statement that Troi must be an XX configuration is an assumption.

Nice points, Freya and Luigi.

IIRC, the Y chromosome is relatively unimportant. Its main function is to trigger the production of testosterone, which causes the testes to develop. The testes produce more testosterone, at which point the process becomes self-sustaining.

Given that the entity causes the baby to grow to fast, it would seem trivial for it to trigger testosterone production as well, either deliberately or as a side effect of the accelerated growth process.

There are actually women who have XY chromosomes, because the process I described above did not work properly.

I've never heard of an XX male, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happens, perhaps because the mother's hormones were affected by stress or by medication.

It's been a while since I've read about seahorses & I can't find any books on it at the moment, but I'm not sure if the term 'bears' would be accurate. IIRC the female seahorse lays her eggs in a male seahorse's pouch, I'm not sure if they are already fertilized or not, and he carries (incubates?) them until they hatch.

As for the chromosome question, the transexual Tula said in an interview that most transexuals have an XXXY chromosome.

According to Do Fish Drink Water? Puzzling and Improbable Questions and Answers by Bill McLain, "The male seahorse becomes pregnant and nourishes the young until they are born."

Data's question above could also have been a bit of a small-talk effort on his part (he already makes these, he just doesn't know he's doing it (see Starship Mine for what I'm on about)). Moreover, it's quite possible that Betazoids do become aware of their unborn children's thoughts sooner or later, but that Data's question really was asking Troi specifically, not about Betazoids (of which she's only half anyway, just to add to it) in general. (When you ask a pregnant friend if she's been having any morning sickness, for example, you mean her specifically, you're not asking if it's a symptom of being gestationally predisposed.)

Luigi, I wasn't trying to express myself in a harsh manner, or be unduly harsh towards Mr. Farrand's works. I like his stuff; I assume we all do, or we wouldn't be here. Maybe I came off a tad untoward, and I apologize if that was the case.

Okay, I'll accept the bit about the questionability of Troi's genetic make-up; we don't know WHAT could be swimming around in her proverbial gene pool (although she probably has something in her that would make her compatible with human chromosomes; her father was human, and there must be enough similarities between humans and Betazoids for successful breeding to occur. Otherwise it would make no sense ).

There are two problems in this case: the vague handling of interspecies mating and the passing on of genetics on the show, and the questionable biology involved in a woman who is presumed to have a similar genetic design as a human giving birth to a male child sans father. Theoretically, we shouldn't be able to have all of these human/alien hybrids running around because of the questionable compatibility of both the physical anatomy and the genetic make-up of said hybrids' parents. It shouldn't be possible, but well, there it is.

Interesting comment about the transexuals, Kam! However, that extra Y chromosome amid a sea of Xs would mean that the being is predominantly female in make-up, presumably with most of the physical bits and pieces (so to speak) that go with the territory. So...what does that say about Ian Andrew Troi? Would we have been in for a surprise had he hit puberty?

Yeah, I took it to be more naivete (or stupidity) on Data's part when he asked if Troi could read her kid's mind. Maybe he did have the Betazoid aspect in mind, but it didn't come off that way. It was more silly than anything (by the way, my mother thought this was the stupidest episode of Trek she's ever seen, and she actually likes it; she grew up on the old series).

Freya Lorelei: Luigi, I wasn't trying to express myself in a harsh manner, or be unduly harsh towards Mr. Farrand's works.
Luigi Novi: I know. That's why I myself put smileys in my post.

Freya Lorelei: We don't know WHAT could be swimming around in [Troi's] proverbial gene pool (although she probably has something in her...
Luigi Novi: Oooh! Urgh! Must...resist urge..to make...off-color joke...must maintain...site's...PG-13 standards...

Freya:...It was more silly than anything (by the way, my mother thought this was the stupidest episode of Trek she's ever seen, and she actually likes it; she grew up on the old series).

Funnily enough, this ep was constructed from a script for the scrapped Star Trek: Phase II project; in other words, it was - almost - a Classic ep. (So was 'Devil's Due'.)
So maybe we should be very glad that that particular series never got off the ground...

Kerrie: Don't forget that there was a writer's strike in the summer of 1988, delaying production of all films and TV series. Next Gen, whose second season was delayed over two months, probably needed a story real quick, so they dug this one up (why not, it was already bought and paid for.)
There was a book, published in 1996, which was written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, all about "Star Trek - Phase II" - The Lost Series (the book's title.) It goes into great detail about the production, the stories they were going to use, and why it was aborted in favor of a movie. One thing I found fascinating was that, in spite of having an entirely new Enterprise, they were going to use TOS uniform designs, to save money.

I found a huge nit in this episode. There are a few cue cards sitting around behind Troi in the Briefing room sceene. Almost justifies the 100 bucks I paid for the DVDs.

(Or is it posible that a 24th century starship uses white pieces of posterboard so Picard won't forget that his orders are.)

There have been claims that the original script that became "The Child" was heavily derived from the Space: 1999 episode "Alpha Child," even to the extent of lifting dialogue from the latter. But Marvel's The Avengers comic series in the early '80s also used a similar plot line. The superheroine Ms. Marvel, an Avenger at the time, becomes inexplicably pregnant and goes through maternity in a matter of days. She gives birth to a boy, who quickly becomes a man. We eventually learn he's this joker Marcus from a pocket universe, who used Ms. Marvel to come to Earth so he can fix some spacetime problem that threatens him. But when the Avengers destroy the gizmo he's built to prevent this and he has to go back Ms Marvel goes back with him so he won't be alone and because she's developing feelings for him, romantic feelings. Uh, yeah, right. Pretty icky huh?

The way I read it back in the 1970s when they were developing Star Trek Phase II (which never happened and eventualy became Star Trek The Motion Picture) The Child was one of the scripts they had written was is one, except it was Ilea who was pregnant. During this season the Writer's guild went on strike they brought out the script and turned it into this episode.

Here's my 2 pence on the whole Y chromosome thing.

People above have been right on the whole. It is literally impossible to reconstruct the Y chromosome from the X chromosome, because the Y chromosome has one unique gene not found on the X chromosome, called 'SRY': this essentially determines maleness and its abscence will lead to femaleness.

HOWEVER, this only applies to mammals. Birds actually have the reverse situation: male birds are XX, females are XY. And many insects have a situation where the females are ZZ and the males are Z. The whole X/Y thing is not universal even among Earth species; why should Betazoids have the same genetic makeup as humans?

Of course, this goes back to the 'how can there be human/alien hybrids' debate as if Betazoid genetics are THAT different to human ones, Troi's existence would be impossible (Cue sound of John A. Lang bursting into tears).

Deanna Troi will ALWAYS be in my heart.

Warning: too much Troi can be bad for your heart.

NANJAN: This, along with "Devil's Due" is a script originally written for "Star Trek: Phase II". It would have had Ilia in the Troi role.

Seymour Cassel (Hester Dealt) has been around for a while. You may remember him from the John Cassavetes Film Collection ("Faces," "Minnie and Moskowitz"), as Dick Tracy's sidekick Sam Catchem in the 1990 film, or in character parts in some recent films like "Rushmore," "The Royal Tennenbaums," and "Stuck on You."

As you may have guessed, R.J. Williams (Ian) is a talented child actor, providing the voices of Kissyfur on "Kissyfur" and Kit Cloudkicker on "Talespin." He also played the young Magnum P.I. in two episodes of that series.

He was a child actor. Now he's a teen actor. He'll be 16 next month.

Evidentally, Ian wasn't the only one going through rapid aging... since The Child was produced 16 years ago... talk about perfectly casting a part.

And apparently he did Kissyfur before he was born. Now that's talent!

Ack! Okay, I should've said 26, not 16. He's not a child actor. He's a fully-grown adult.

I'd like to know why TPTB added the scene in which D. Troi presses the button to darken the oval window (or pull the shade) in Ian's bedroom. It's dumb! The Enterprise is light years from any sun...no light is going to come into the room when the ship is that far away from a sun! So...why darken the window?

Deanna Troi...the vanishing woman

When the camera focuses on the dying / dead Ian, One moment, D. Troi is kneeling next to Ian's bed, the next minute, she's gone, then a minute after that, she's back again!

Sometimes you're empathic, sometimes you're not

What happened to Deanna's empathic / telepathic powers? At one point, she asks Riker, "Were you there all along?" Didn't she sense Riker...seeing that Riker was once her IMZADI?

I must note that Wesley's uniform is different from Season 1's uniform

(Funny red headings inspired by Luigi)

Well John, regarding your second nit, remember, Troi was in the middle of CHILD BIRTH at that time! Maybe she was to focused on squeezeing that baby out of her (with her pants on) to sense that Riker was there!

This episode marks the first appearance of Whoopie Goldberg as Guinan on Star Trek The Next Generation.
(One of the very few brights spots of this episode),

This is also O'Brien's first episode as Transporter Chief.

There are a few cue cards sitting around behind Troi in the Briefing room scene.
Maybe they were expecting Marlon Brando as a guest star. Brando was known for not memorizing his lines, prefering to use cue cards instead. He performed this way at least as far back as the 1971 production of The Godfather.

Earlier than that, Adam. He did that in On The Waterfront & probably in earlier films.

TPTB should've given Gates McFadden whatever she wanted to appear in Season 2.(IMHO)

Near the end of the episode "dead Ian" transforms back into a ball of light. Watch Troi as the ball then floats over to her: she continues to look straight ahead long after the ball has drifted into her cupped hands. When the entity floats away from her later, it's the opposite: she continues gazing into her hands even after it has left!

By the way, try as I might, I couldn't spot the cue cards.

""The Child" and "Devil's Due" were stories originally written for the abandoned "Star Trek-Phase II" series in 1977. There were 13 stories originally commissioned, these were the only two that were eventually filmed by any subsequent Trek series." - Adam Bomb


Although, interestingly enough, the fantastic (IMHO) fan-series Star Trek: New Voyages, did adapt another one of the Phase II plots into an episode entitled "World Enough And Time," for which they got George Takei to guest star.

Hopefully the rest of the Star Trek Phase 2 episodes wouldn't have been as boring as The Child was! Devil's Due gives us some hope for that, as does the New Voyages episode that Andrew discribed.

Here's a question - how did Pulaski get on board the Enterprise without Picard, or at the very least Riker meeting her as she transferred over?

She's the new Chief Medical Officer, not some fresh from the academy ensign!

And if this plague needs the Enterprise there as soon as possible to pick up the samples, why are they travelling at a mere warp 6 and not warp 8 or 9? And why don't they transmit the plans for the containment pods to the Repulse, get them to replicate some of them, and them ship them back over, to decrease the total time required to manufacture them.

Here's a question - how did Pulaski get on board the Enterprise without Picard, or at the very least Riker meeting her as she transferred over?

She's the new Chief Medical Officer, not some fresh from the academy ensign!

Technically you are correct - a newly arriving crewmember should report to a senior officer when they arrive for duty.

Given the situation (a medical emergency) and that this is a very senior officer the rules may be relaxed somewhat. Presumably Picard and Riker have no problems with the new CMO jumping straight into the job before seeing them in such a situation.
It should also be noted that Crusher didn't report to Picard when she first turned up on the Enterprise - even though Riker had to, instead she went straight to work. From this we may conclude that CMO's may not be required to report for duty - possibly because they are outside the chain of command.

And if this plague needs the Enterprise there as soon as possible to pick up the samples, why are they travelling at a mere warp 6 and not warp 8 or 9?

Warp six is given as the sustainable cruising speed of a Galaxy class starship. If they were projecting a travel time of longer than a few days, then they may be better served constantly travelling at a lower speed for longer. Than they would be moving faster, but having to stop at some point to allow the warp core to cool down.

This is, after all, only the beginning of season 2. So it is probable that the ship is not yet capable of maintaining the high speeds seen in later series - not least because Geordi has only been Chief Engineer for a matter of weeks at most and has yet to tweak the engines.

Re Worf suggesting an abortion getting by the censors, maybe because it was basically a throw away line and Troi did have the baby. Tho i must admit I was surprised to hear the suggestion in a US show from the late 80s.

When Picard goes to shout at Pulaski (if that's how you spell it) for being in Ten Forward, he hasn't bothered to check the duty roster, for all he knows she isn't on duty yet and so is perfectly entitled to be in ten forward. Also how does he know that someone hasn't been hurt as turns out to be the case in a way.

Lastly your right about Pulaski's treatment of Data being way out of line, despite other characters insisting she was nice and caring they never actually bothered to show it on screen quickly making her a second Wesley. Also she was being rude to Data who the producers had spent a whole year bigging up and making him (in my opinion) one of the shows best characters.

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quote:

Hopefully the rest of the "Star Trek Phase 2" episodes wouldn't have been as boring as "The Child" was!

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Has anyone else here has seen the New Voyages (i.e., the fan series version of Phase II) version of "The Child"?

It's on youtube for anyone that hasn't and is curious.

Is that a different story than the one that TNG produced?

New Voyages is a fan continuation of the original series. It's a sort of virtual season 4. I'm under the impression the story lines they're using are based on what Phase II might have been.

They've had Trek actors guest star in episodes, although I don't want to spoil who.

In this episode, it's a different story in some areas but similar in others. It still has the crewman getting impregnated by an alien entity with a baby that ages quickly but what happens next is different. I'd say more but I don't want to spoil it.

You'll probably want to watch the episodes that come before to get an idea of what's happening as they do have continuity with previous episodes.

I know what New Voyages is. I was just asking about that one episode.

After I made the above post, I went there and watched most of the episode. Great effects, but the bad acting and the slow pace turned me off of it.

Picard got very lazy when it came to the last four log entries in this episode.
They were all listed as 'supplemental', instead of numerical entries. 'Supplemental' can be used if the report is about something that's happened close to the original entry, but one log entry is 14 hours after Troi gives birth and another is over a day. They should have both been numerically listed.
I see a big container in the cargo hold and an even bigger door behind it. I don't understand why they couldn't just use a tractor beam to push the specimen case into space and keep the crew safe when one specimen began to grow and mutate.
I hated the illogic of the early TNG episodes!

Blame the Writer's Guild for going on strike, Steve. This script was from an aborted 70's revival. They could touch it up, but it could not be altered in any serious way until the strike ended.

After which, the had to get things going in a rush, to make up for the lost time the strike caused. That's probably why a few inconsistencies crept in here.

Someone mentions how there was a litter of puppies on the ship that the kids got to play with, but the puppies we saw with the kids are several weeks old. There's no way that litter was just born.
Why is the planet called 'audet IX ? Why is the apostrphe even there? Why isn't the 'A' capitalized?
They also mention a place called the 'Rachelis system'. It makes me wonder if the writer had a friend named Rachel Audet and snuck her name into the script!

Keith Alan Morgan on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 08:49 am: Just as the Enterprise leaves for `audet IX the ball of light arrives and decides to board. So why didn't the entity decide to go onto the Repulse?
Maybe it sensed something about the Enterprise that made it more suitable for it's purpose.

Why is Wesley even on the ship, anyway? If his mom was offered her new position while still on the ship, shouldn't she have taken Wesley with her then? The other possibility is that she was off on vacation, or something, by herself when offered the job, which seems a little out of character for her.
Wesley is an acting Ensign, with duties of his own.

If this Plasma Plague is so deadly, then why risk the safety of the entire ship transporting it to Science Station Tango Sierra? Why not just detach the saucer and use the Stardrive section for the actual transport? (Because then Ian and Counselor Troi would have been left on the Saucer section and there would be no threat to the ship.) Better yet, why not build some ships specifically designed for transporting hazardous materials?
Starfleet prefer multifunction vessels.

If these viruses are so deadly then why haven't doctors been working overtime to create cures and/or vaccines for these plagues? Why do they need to shuttle a supply over to a science station so it can look for a cure? If a planet is already suffering from a plasma plague, why not take a sample of the virus on the planet and try to come up with a cure for that specific plague, instead of shuttling 512 incurable viruses to a science station?
They need to be prepared for possible mutations caused by interaction between different viruses.

When Picard is making his log entry about Hesterdel having been on the ship for 14 hours, it sounds like Picard calls him "Hesterdelt".
It's actually Hester Dealt - two names! (Maybe his parents intended to name him Heston, and someone made a mistake!)

Wesley tells Guinan that some crewmembers think she is from Novacron. Boy, those El Aurians are tight lipped, they don't even like to tell people what planet they come from.
They prefer to listen!

Rodbadge - Maybe it sensed something about the Enterprise that made it more suitable for it's purpose.
Ball of Light: Hey, there's a camera crew on that ship. I'll go there! ;-)

Wesley is an acting Ensign, with duties of his own.
The important word being "acting". He's not officially Starfleet, just some kid (and probably a minor) that the Captain has decided to allow him to work as if he was Starfleet.

Starfleet prefer multifunction vessels.
Sad, but true, sad, but true...

They need to be prepared for possible mutations caused by interaction between different viruses.
Bwha...?
Federation Doctor #1: Heyyyy!!! Why don't we combine these fatal diseases from two planets on opposite sides of the Federation?
Federation Doctor #2: Why not? What's the worst that can happen?

I should hope that in the future we wouldn't have fools as incompetent as the current people in charge of the Center for Disease Control.

It's actually Hester Dealt - two names!
Hard to tell when listening.

They prefer to listen!
Maybe Kelsey Grammer should have been cast as an El Aurian? "Hello, I'm listening." ;-)

Wesley is an acting Ensign, with duties of his own.
The important word being "acting". He's not officially Starfleet, just some kid (and probably a minor) that the Captain has decided to allow him to work as if he was Starfleet.

If I remember correctly, he was supposed to join his mother on Earth, probably after she found a place to live and settled down in her new job, but the mission to ferry the plague samples had delayed that reunion. After the mission, he was the one who requested to remain on the Enterprise because that was where he felt he belonged.