By David Rod on Wednesday, March 3, 1999 - 05:11 am:

"Earth, what do you call it"?

"We call it Theta Eight"!

I crack up every time I hear this. It makes Worf sound like such a moron. Great moment.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Friday, April 23, 1999 - 07:26 am:

The Away Team enters the transporter room and O'Brien tells them to wait because it's such a narrow access point. Which made it sound like the size of the safe area affected the transport, not the weather conditions of the planet. Doesn't the transporter utilize pinpoint accuracy? (I guess not, considering how many times they beam down to a planet, then take a leisurely walk to get to where they were supposed to beam to. No wonder Dr. McCoy, Dr. Pulaski, and Reg Barcley hate using the transporter.)

Just after entering the Royale, Data says, "Without Communications, we should beam back immediately." Without communications, how could they? (A possible conversation - Data: "We've lost communication with the ship." Riker: "Well we better have O'Brien beam us back up. Break out the Semaphore flags.")

At the blackjack table "Texas" puts his cowboy hat on Data, later Data starts to leave and "Texas" reminds him to return the hat, and Data's reaction indicates that he forgot he had it on.

Isn't it lucky the Away Team only had three people? Any more or less and they wouldn't be the "trio of foreign investors" who buy the hotel and end the story. (Well, I suppose if the Away Team had 1 or 2 people, the Enterprise could have beamed down enough people to make up a trio. Although 4 or more and they could still be stuck down there.)

In Colonel Richey's room, Worf takes two books out of a drawer and calls them "curiosities." What does Worf consider everything else they've encountered "normal?"

While Data's flipping the pages of the book is a cute and time honored 'speed reading' gag, the problem is he would only be able to see the words on the outer half of the pages, since the pages don't spread apart enough for him to see the inner half.

Riker tells Data, "The possibility of rolling a 6 is the same as rolling a 7." Well, it depends on how you look at it. While it is true that each number can be reached by one of three number combinations, because there are two dice a 6 has five chances of being rolled, while a 7 has six chances. A 6 comes up when you roll one of the following combinations 1 & 5, 2 & 4, 3 & 3, 4 & 2 or 5 & 1. A 7 will come up if you roll 1 & 6, 2 & 5, 3 & 4, 4 & 3, 5 & 2 or 6 & 1. So it could be a mistake or not.

This last time that I saw this episode, when Riker bought the Royale, I thought, 'Does this mean the hotel staff will have to change their uniforms to look more like the new owners uniforms?' (Sucking up is universal.)

This episode does bring up an interesting question though. If you had to spend the rest of your life, re-enacting the events of one novel, which novel would it be?

The question this episode brings up for me is: Why? For the love of God, why?

Nit. The title is "The Royale".

I'm sorry you didn't like it, Lea. I thought it was a great episode!

I too thought this episode was a lot of fun, the thing it makes me wonder though, what happens if someone else finds the planet and beams down or takes a shuttle down to investigate the Royale? Will they be stuck there forever too? Or will they be free to come and go as they please because the novel plot was ended?

I wondered if Starfleet had sent a team of archaelogists to study the planet. Maybe even have them in EVA suits walking around the planets surface to see if they can find the source of the machine.

This ep was supposed to be funny, right? Kind of a black comedy?

Because when they find poor Richey, and then read in his journal to the effect that aliens had stuck him in a pulp novel, but 'the plot was so bad' he just couldn't take it anymore...well, I was on the floor. I thought I was watching the most imaginative Trek comedy plot in decades...and then I noticed that no-one on the Away Team was even smiling.

I saw this episode and the one right after it, Time Squared, as the two back-to-back "Twilight Zone" episodes of TNG. I liked them.

Data says the starshippart they find is hit with a 24th century weapon. The crew finds this strange, but why didn't they consider the fact that another race in the 21st century could posess these type of weapons.

So Data is familiar with the term "hit me" but not the term "cardcounter". Strange.

Even though the communications of the ship can't reach the awayteam Troi's empathic skills can. Why don't she then use her telephatic skills to send them a message. True they can't answer her, but at least the ship can send information to the awayteam.

Funny line. When Riker says that colonel Richie died in his sleep Worf remains true to his Klingon heritage and answers "What a terrible way to die" (or something in that direction)

Isn't is a bit strange to name a spaceship after an ancient greek mythological whirlpool, or was the namepicker in NASA a big fan of Homer?

::Even though the communications of the ship can't reach the awayteam Troi's empathic skills can. Why don't she then use her telephatic skills to send them a message. True they can't answer her, but at least the ship can send information to the awayteam. :: Teral

Actually, Riker can answer her. "Encounter at Farpoint" and "Skin of Evil" established that they share a psychic rapport, and in the former, Riker was able to talk back to her.

Just to respond to Allen McDonnell...

The way I looked at this episode was that the novel would just repeat itself from beginning to end if the Away Team had walked back into the building; in effect, starting at 'page one' all over again. The reason Col. Richey couldn't get out was because he could never get to the end of the book; he couldn't win enough money to break the bank and buy the casino. Since the Away Team does (lucky they brought Data along, eh?) 'finish' the novel, they must leave before it can begin again from the beginning (sort of like rewinding a movie after you're done watching it). But if they went back in a second time they'd have to win the $12 million all over again, etc...

This episode reminds me of "A Piece of the Action" (TOS)

FUNNY THOUGHT: WHAT IF the book found by the aliens was "Playboy"? That'd make this a VERY interesting episode indeed!

FUNNY SCENE: Everyone's confusion when the phone rings. Worf was the best choice to answer it. The whole thing was hysterical!

Great Line: "It was a dark & stormy night" Picard reading the first line to "Hotel Royale"...somebody on the writer's staff must be a "Peanuts" fan. This is the way Snoopy's book always starts. I believe there is an ACTUAL NOVEL that begins that way too. I can't recall the title though. (It ain't "Hotel Royale")

God, I love the internet. Just found this...
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Yep. I don't recall the exact details, but for years a Bulwer-Lytton memorial contest has been held to see who can come up with the worst opening line to a work of fiction.

Personally, I'd be interested to see a version of this ep in which the Away Team had to negotiate their way through a good novel - ie. one in which the plot held a few surprises.

I might be crazy, but I'm almost positive that "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle, the fabulous young-adult novel that got me hooked on science-fiction to begin with, has as its opening line, "It was a dark and stormy night." I don't have a copy of the book, or I'd check. Can anyone confirm this, or is my memory of that line erroneous?

No, Desmond, you're perfectly sane (for the moment, anyway. )

A Wrinkle in Time does indeed begin with those exact words. Only those exact words, mind you, which is how L'Engle probably got away with it.

And ep notwithstanding I'm guessing she'll be the last to really use it seriously. Even if the author of a real-life Hotel Royale was dense enough to try, his editor likely would point it out PDQ.

Why does Colonel Richey have an Apollo 17 mission badge on his spacesuit????

A family heirloom perhaps?

HOLY RAIDERS OF THE LOST PROP!
Tex loses his glasses somewhere. He doesn't have them on at the end of the episode.

I noticed that, too, John, after just now watching it, this time on DVD. I also noticed that at the end when Mickey D shoots the bellboy in the back there's no squib effect to indicate the bullet entering the coat because there's no hole created when the bellboy's shot, in true old Hollywood fashion. I found it funny that the bad guy's name is Mickey D, which as we all know is also the nickname for McDonald's. I never knew it was called that at the time way back when I first saw this ep, which, btw, is one of those few eps that always seem to be on and I remembered only bits of it.

One or two more things that could more or less be nits, I guess. The Royale novel was badly written with dialog straight out of a Mickey Spillane novel and the characters' dialog indicated that, but the hotel has a computer (or at least monitor) on its front desk counter, which of course didn't exist in the 1940's. Computers, that is. Not only that but the novel's publishing date was ever mentioned so I was wondering when it was and why everyone wore late 1980's clothing and hairstyles! Yes, I know Season Two was 1988-89, but Richey left Earth in 2037 and unless they have an 1980's revival then (not unlike in Back To The Future 2, come to think of it) there should've been different styles of clothes and hair. And yes, I also know there's the little thing called a show's budget, but dadgummit I'm still a nitpicker!

There is nothing at all that indicates that the novel necessarily takes place in the 1940's. Remember that Richey left Earth in 2037, so the novel could have been set in what from his point of view is the present. Also, the old Texan mentions having a car built in the 1990's. The book could be set in the late 20th Century or early 21st, and the hotel is meant to be a throwback to the mid-20th Century. Either that or it is just that poorly written (a convenient excuse for inconsistencies, I guess). Also, computers did technically exist in the 1940's, just not desktop personal computers.

I'd like to know what became of Richey's corpse and effects. The book, his journal and his uniform are all relics of the 21st Century, and the body should be given proper burial, either by the Enterprise or his descendants, after all these years. Did they leave all that down there to be squished by the planet's natural atmosphere?

The piece of the Charybdis that was brought aboard actually had a NASA symbol on it, not an Air Force symbol. I think Richey's uniform indicated membership in the US Air Force.

Finally, it's not a given that should more humans visit this planet, the Hotel Royale and its lame storyline will reappear and trap them. After the team beams up, we see a computer screen with a diagram of the area of breathable air on it, and that area is shown collapsing. Otherwise, wouldn't the machine leave the hotel up, waiting on someone else coming into it?

Chris Diehl: Did they leave all that down there to be squished by the planet's natural atmosphere?
Luigi Novi: They had to. Their priority was finding a way out of there. Getting the relics out of there would only have been given priority if they were in a secure situation where they could freely come and go.

The planet's surface is minus 291 Celsius? So after you reach absolute zero at minus 273, and all atomic motion stops, it keeps getting colder because atoms--what?--back up?

Picard tells the away team to proceed with caution. So they all go through the revolving door. Ever hear of a scout?

Data again displays his gambling naivete: the basic blackjack strategy is not to reach 21, but to stay in the game while the dealer busts. And when he tells the woman, holding 13, that the odds favor standing, I assume he's counting cards. Otherwise, he's right only if the dealer shows 2 through 6.

"Texas" is no smarter. The a priori odds against a "5-card Charley" are prohibitive (his "astronomical" is an overstatement), but Data already knows his first four cards. If they total 11 or less, it's a sure thing.

Keith (long ago): Riker tells Data, "The possibility of rolling a 6 is the same as rolling a 7." . . . it could be a mistake or not.
:: No "could be" about it. Your "each die" analysis is the ONLY correct one. Of 36 possible combinations, there are 5 ways to roll a 6 and 6 ways to roll a 7. No wonder Riker relies on bluffing at poker.

Of course, if a probe was sent through the revolving door (which had no building attached to it), we would have a 10-minute show. Picture it. "Sir, we lost contact with the probe." "OK, that's what probes are for. We'll call this in to Starfleet, tell them not to go in there." Enterprise flies off. Odd that the supposedly-backwards 20th Century US Air Force (as shown in Stargate) was more careful about going through a weird door than Starfleet's finest centuries later were.

Now, while I accept that beaming out the away team has priority, once the team was successfully beyond the revolving door, Picard could ask for the coordinates of Richey's room from Data, then beam up both the team and Richey's corpse and stuff. There's a transporter in the cargo bay (it is used in Datalore). Even if it could only receive inanimate objects (it sent Lore and a tree out), it could bring up the contents of the room while Transporter Room 1 brings up Riker, Worf and Data.

Finally, when they try to walk out of the hotel, their shadows are seen walking through the frosted glass of the revolving door, walking around the doorway and coming back in. Was there a force field keeping them from walking all the way out? Did they all change their minds in the doorway? If the idea was to show them walking back in as they walked out, it failed.

There are a few other nits I should have mentioned before.

1. Why are the gaming tables in the same room as the main desk? Wouldn't it be hard for the clerk to check people in and out and handle complaints with the noise of the casino? I know casinos put slot machines close to the entrance, but wouldn't the lobby be a separate room? It's almost like they were too cheap to build another room, like a TV set designer designed the place.

2. 12.5 million dollars seems a bit skimpy for a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, even if it's one of the old-school Vegas casinos. Maybe it's not doing well, since it seems not to be hopping with gamblers or guests. That leads to my next nit

3. So, why were the foreign investors so interested in owning the Royale? It doesn't look all that great, or like it's making a lot of money. Do people really travel thousands of miles to drop what may be for them a small sum to buy a poor little place like this? Just give us a line or two of dialogue to establish why they wanted the place in the book. Personally, I can imagine a few reasons, but some are not all that savory. Speaking of buying the hotel, is it really a matter of handing the clerk, not the manager or the owner, the cash and that being that? They don't get the deed or even a reciept, they never meet the owner and make an offer, and no possibility for anyone to make a counteroffer.

4. Why did Riker ask Picard about the ending of the book? Wouldn't Data be a better choice, since he had obviously read the book all the way through, and it wasn't guaranteed that Picard would have found this lousy book in the computer, and read it or a summary of it. Of course, if Data told Riker the ending, he would not have mentioned the investors' reputation for generosity.

5. Why craps? Why not have Data play poker, a game he obviously knows how to play, to win the cash? Of course, if they played slots or cards, Data couldn't manipulate the game and guarantee victory.

6. How don't they know what room service is? Do all hotels in the 24th Century have in-room replicators and nobody ever wants a meal cooked by a person? Guess I answered my own question. Even leaving that aside, should Data have been the one to misunderstand it? It's almost as egregious as when he mistook "homemaker" for a form of constuction worker.

7. Why hadn't Data understood what a card counter is? He must have studied gambling when he learned to play poker, and I'm sure whatever he read would have a section about cheating. His ethical programming would bar him from using it, even though it did not stop him from effectively loading the dice later.

I'm sure a lot of this can be covered by the fact that this was all based on a bad book. Boy, does that cover a lot of sins, huh? Sort of like Bones not wiring Spock's brain correctly.

2. 12.5 million dollars seems a bit skimpy for a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, even if it's one of the old-school Vegas casinos. Maybe it's not doing well, since it seems not to be hopping with gamblers or guests. That leads to my next nit

3. So, why were the foreign investors so interested in owning the Royale? It doesn't look all that great, or like it's making a lot of money.

They said it was a poorly written pulp novel, one would expect the book's plot to make as much sense as a daytime soap opera.

Joe Walsh: I go to parties, some times until four; It's hard to leave when you can't find the door; . . . Life's been good to me so far . . .

Chris Diehl: Why not have Data play poker, a game he obviously knows how to play, to win the cash?
:: Because casino poker is played against other players, not against the house (except for shills). So, no deep pockets.
BTW, card counting is not cheating per se. (But counting with a computer is.)

Thanks for the info on my nit, TJ.

1. Why are the gaming tables in the same room as the main desk?

Actually, this is not uncommon in casinos.

5. Why craps? Why not have Data play poker, a game he obviously knows how to play, to win the cash?

The problem with poker is that you have to win $12.5 million from other players--not from the house. Such well-heeled players are not likely to be hanging around, even at the Royale. Another problem with the overall premise is that casinos have betting limits at the tables (generally $500 to $2000 per hand, though higher limits are available) specifically so that someone cannot continually double up and break the bank after 19 consecutive passes.

And besides, we've seen that Data is not the best player at poker. Riker beats him all the time (or maybe Data just lets Riker win.)

Then again, that is how he won all of his money in Time's Arrow.

Perhaps they chose craps because the book "The Royale" dictated that the "visitors" purchased the place by winning a heap of cash after a round of craps...and as we all know Riker & the others HAD to go "by the book" or they'd never be able to leave.

Isn't it extremely coincidental that the book had THREE foreign investors?

Why craps instead of poker? Because Gene Roddenberry wanted to reuse his reshaping the dice gag from an earlier story/movie/pilot he had done in the '70s. (The name of which escapes me at the moment, unfortunately. The Questor Tapes, maybe?)

When Col. Richey was alive, were the foreign investors part of the recreation?

Ugh. Scary thought. What if the recreation recognized Richey as one of the foreigners but wouldn't let the scenario run to its completion because the others were missing.

Yes KAM, the dice scene was in The Questor Tapes.

Thanks. Been too long since I've seen it.

Steven Richey in helicopter crash. This is an odd but true story that was on Channel 14 (Evansville) last night. http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=1801661&nav=3w6nMSk9

Well obviously the he can't get trapped on some planet

D'oh!

The late Noble Willingham (Texas) was, appropriately enough, Walker, Texas Ranger's buddy, C.D. Parker on that show.

Sam Anderson (Asst. Manager) recently played Breckin Meyer's father-in-law (too bad for him) on the terrible ABC sitcom "Married to the Kellys." He has spent his career playing doctors and FBI agents if you check out his filmography.

The aliens took the book and recreated the environment perfectly. They even went so far as to offer room service in the hotel.

Data reads the same book, and then moments later, has no clue what the term "room service" means. If the aliens got it from the book, then Data should have as well.

Maybe the aliens were able to understand unfamiliar terms by pulling the concepts from the astronaut's mind. After all, there couldn't be enough detail in the book to create the whole hotel from scratch: they must have filled in the blanks with the astronaut's own conception of the novel's setting. Data couldn't do that.

I guess we can just say it was "bad writing".

uh-oh! Dont tell the Voyager haters, but---Impulse at the end!

Difference: Enterprise isn't trying to get home from 70000 light years away.

Addendum: On a voyage that will take 70 years at maximum warp.

THE Enterprise please.

Good point. Nitpicky, but then Hey! We're Nitpickers!!!!

Name just one person on Star Trek The Next Generation that ever called the ship just "Enterprise".

Thats what the ship was called on that second rate prequal series.

John-Boy, re-read my post. I WAS AGREEING WITH YOU!!! I then made a joke about it.

ok sorry

Interesting situation of the present changing with our future since the episode was written:

Notice the debris at the beginning has the NASA logo that was in use at that time in the 80s-90s.

However strangely enough this logo changed BACK to the older logo of the circular star field with the red chevron and the circling space craft sometime in early 2000's

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/iss_anniversary_front/images/logo.jpg

Something the writers would havent predicted in the late 80s early 90s... the RETRO revolution after the millenium.

Make that last message.. something the writters WOULDN'T have predicted.

His ethical programming would bar him from using it, even though it did not stop him from effectively loading the dice later.

I thought that Data said that the dice were already imbalanced so as to make winning less likely; meaning the casino used loaded dice to increase the profit margen for them and he corrected it.

Two things, first, I'm amazed that the link Ccabe gave still works...

The other things is maybe there were investors in the story, but Richie couldn't leave with them as he wasn't one of them...

The elevator in the Hotel Royale that the crew takes only has one set of doors... much like the Enterprise... hmmmmmm,

I'm amazed that it still works, too.

Imagine if the novel had been The Shining, and Riker and Co. found themselves trapped in the Overlook? How would they have gotten out of that one. Would they have to escape the same day Danny and Wendy Torrance did? Would they have to confront the possessed Jack Torrance? Hmmmm...

Lucky for them it was a book with some sort of resolution. Imagine if Old Boy had been carrying a copy of "Under water basket weaving for Dummies".

Wil Wheaton comments on his podcast that the original script, before being re-worked by the producer, was a fantastic and Twilight-Zone esque script, with the Colonel as an important guest character. Wheaton remarks that his character transformation parallels that of the script itself- it took a healthy, vibrant, and interesting character and reduced him to s shriveled husk. :-)

Between this and the Diane Duane account of the changes in the Where No Man Has Gone Before script, it's a sad and bizarre fact that TNG's early seasons were presented with some absolutely superb stories- which were repeatedly taken by higher-ups and re-written into watered-down echoes of their former selves, cementing the 'poorly written with a few exceptions' reputation that TNG's first couple of seasons- the first season especially- are often saddled with.

I thought I would put forth my comments on this episode. Regarding what Andrew said about Wil Wheaton's podcast, how this show, as well as a few others, were originally intended to be comepletely different? I was not aware of this when I complained about the first and second seasons of TNG a while back.

And for some reason, I thought that it would be wise to group ALL the episodes from each season together as being equally bad. This is obviously not the case, as I have already said that I liked episodes such as "Too Short A Season" and "Q Who?"

So, in regards to what this particular episode became, it was originally going to have Col. Stephen Richey be a living breathing character that was somehow kept alive in this world that the unknown alien intelligence had created for him on this planet. However, at some point, he was reduced to a dusty skeletal husk that had been dead for almost 300 years, after the "higher-ups" got a hold of the script and re-wrote it and watered down not only Richey, but apparently many other characters from first and second season episodes. That was really an eye-opener when I first found out about it, that's for sure!

Anyway, as for what the episode itself was as it was aired, I thought it was alright, comparitvely speaking. The Star Trek CCG had cards for "Revolving Door" and all three of the Royale Casino games. It even made personnel cards out of Mickey D. and eventually, the Bellboy. And there was also a "Dead In Bed" dilemma regarding Col. Richey's remains, which as the game text read, would "kill one personnel currently in stasis". Interesting stuff.

I thought it was cool when Riker said "He must have died in his sleep" and Worf mused "What a horrible way to die." That really spoke volumes about his culture, how Klingons all wanted to die in glorious battle and dying of old age or in one's sleep would bring dishonor to their families and houses. I also remember how Kozak died in DS9's "The House Of Quark" and how that would have totally dishonored him if the truth had ever become known. Thankfully Quark and Grilka agreed to keep it a secret. And the treacherous D'Ghor was discommendated from the Empire as well. That was pretty satisfying!

I also liked how Riker, Worf, and Data were FINALLY able to exit the Casino out the Revolving Door after they had fulfilled the "badly-written pulp novel"'s ending by assuming the role of the "foreign investors", winning the jackpot, buying the hotel, and spreading the rest of the money around. I liked that the episode had a positive (and amusing) ending.

As for "The Questor Tapes" TV pilot movie from the early 70's which Phil mentioned in the Guide? I sure wish it would get a DVD release, but it doesn't seem very likely. It sounds kinda cool!

When we first see the spaceship wreckage that says 'NASA' on it, I wonder if fans freaked out and said, "Oh, Nooooo! It's V'Ger! The Entrerprise-D has found V'Ger's origin point and this is a sequel to STTMP! Aaahhhh!"
At the end, Picard mentions how the event is still a mystery, which is convenient, so that the writer didn't have to explain 1. how did Richey's ship get so far from Earth. 2. Who attacked it with 24th century-level weapons. 3. How the wreckage could orbit the planet for almost three centuries. 4. Who are the aliens on the planet. 5. Are ther aliens still alive and why don't they copmmunicate with the away team or the Enterprise.

The synopsis calls Richey's mission 'one of Earth's first deep solar system travelers' - what's a deep solar system traveller? That should be 'interstellar', since the goal was the leave the solar system, not just 'go deep'.

There was a missed opportunity after the Away Team entered the elevator, which Worf called a 'turbolift'. They should have had a short, funny scene as they tried to use voice commands to make it move, until Data figured out you had to use buttons on the panel to operate the elevator.

MarkN - " I found it funny that the bad guy's name is Mickey D, which as we all know is also the nickname for McDonald's.

Actually I was expecting Mickey D to be Mickey Dolenz.

How is it that Picardcan hear the same voices of the characters in the book as the Away Team interacts with the same people? He was supposed to be reading the Federation com[puter version, not watching a video? The book on the planet can't give any specific voices for the characters, so what is he listening to on the ship?

Not only that, but how did Picard catch up the same point in the book when Riker, Data and Worf are living through it? Shouldn't Picard have been way, way back near the beginning, or at least only about a third of the way through?

1. how did Richey's ship get so far from Earth.

The unknown aliens brought it there, causing the death of its crew in the process, with Richey being the sole survivor.

3. How the wreckage could orbit the planet for almost three centuries.

That poses no problem, it only has to be high enough above the planet's atmosphere. We have satellites that will be orbiting Earth for millions of years for exactly that reason.

The synopsis calls Richey's mission 'one of Earth's first deep solar system travelers' - what's a deep solar system traveller? That should be 'interstellar', since the goal was the leave the solar system, not just 'go deep'.

Richey's mission was not interstellar, it probably was to explore one of the outer gas giants. That's why the Enterprise's crew was so surprised to find it so far from the Sun. It was the unknown aliens that had brought it there, for reasons known only to them.

How is it that Picardcan hear the same voices of the characters in the book as the Away Team interacts with the same people?

Picard is not reading an audio book, he is reading a text book on his viewscreen. The voices he hears come from the planet itself, relayed by the away team's communicators.

Picard hearing the voices; that was the only way he could hear them, but I don't recall a scene where Riker said, "I'll keep the comm-line open so you can hear what's going on."

Regarding Richey's ship, I'm pretty sure I heard some say that it was supposed to travel beyond the solar system, not travel within it.

NANJAO It might be a good idea for Starfleet ships to include at least one full telepath in their crews. Even when normal communications will not work, they could keep in contact with away teams the way Troy could read Riker's emotional state when he was out of contact with the ship.

Why was the assistant manager apparently surprised that Riker, Data and Worf were the foreign investors? He was the one who checked them into the hotel under that very identity.

Picard's expression as he is listening to the awful dialogue between the bellboy and Mickey D is just priceless.

Imagine if the novel that the aliens based the hotel on had been The Shining.

The obvious comment to make would be "Here's Johnny!", but that line is not in the book.

Imagine the Away Team fighting off Jack Torrance.

"All work and no play makes Data go haywire." *bzzzt bzzzt*

Again, a scene from the movie, not the original book, and would not apply here.

Lots of bad blood was spilled in the writing of this episode from its scribe, the late Tracy Torme. Who was quite dissatisfied (to say the least) with the final product. A few words from director Cliff Bole are included as well. More on that here.

Unfortunately, once a writer sells a script to a movie or television sow, that's when said writer loses sole control over it. The movie or show can make whatever changes they see fit. All a writer can do is take his or her name off the altered script.

Did someone post the original script somewhere, so we could have a look for ourselves?

Dunno.