Why didn't they just scan for human lifesigns to find Riker? Haven't they done that before?

Picard didn't seem too worried about the Enterprise being detected from the planet's surface. I would think that the ship is so big it could be seen with the naked eye.

Hey, is that horny hospital employee that helps Riker escape (for a price) Lillith from Fraiser?

Yep, it's Bebe Neuwirth. I hear she tried to hook up with Captain Morgan Bateson from Cause and Effect.

I love this episode. Among the obvious homages to films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, does the ending remind anyone of Close Encounters of the Third Kind? I wonder what became of Mirasta Yale.

I love this episode too, Murray. I can watch it over and over. It's such a good science-fiction story, and the triangle of Durken, Mirasta and Krola works so well. Mirasta the idealist adventurer, Krola, the frightened holder of the status quo, and Durken, who needs to balance the two, is a very well-developed, thoughtful character.

Or does "code blue" on Malcor III mean "Quick, this guy’s depressed! Get him some Prozac, STAT!"
The creators did a good job of creating alien-sounding words for heart, kidney and ribs in this episode (they use "cardial organ" and "costal struts" in the teaser, and "renal organ" later in Act 3), but curiously, when they’re wheeling Riker’s gurney into the emergency room in the teaser, one of the doctors uses the phrase "code blue," a decidedly Earth hospital term. And when Krola orders the head of the Sikla medical facility to revive Riker using drugs that might kill him, the doctor refuses because he has sworn an oath to "do no harm," the exact phrasing of the Hippocratic Oath.
Yeah, I mean, with those Malcorian hands, he can’t exactly give ‘em the finger
By the time Riker wakes up and speaks with the Malcorian doctor in Act 1, he no longer has his comm badge. So how does he communicate with the Malcorians?
They’re "anti-gun"
It’s a good thing the paranoid Malcorian doctor didn’t fire Riker’s phaser while looking at it in the corridor in Act 1! Speaking of which, why didn’t anyone fire it until Krola did in Act 5?
Doctor: "And you say these are all ‘birth defects,’ Mr. Jakara?"
Riker: "That’s right."
Doctor: "And what of this friend of yours over here with these overly large protusions growing ------------------from the chest? Are those birth defects, too?"
Riker: "Uh, well, no, that’s Jeri Ryan."
After the Malcorian doctors discover Riker’s "birth defects," they deduce that he may be an alien. I guess Malcorians have 100% strong, absolutely PERFECT genetics! If such a person with abnormal traits, or without normal ones were born on Earth, birth defects are exactly what they would attributed to. Were the original conjoined twins born on Earth thought to be extraterrestrials? Or the first infant born without limbs?
They should’ve made sure the hospital desk was stocked with donuts
After the doctors make this deduction, the head doctor tells the nurse to post guards in front of Riker’s room. But the next time we see the hospital, groups of people are huddling about, gossiping about the "alien," and there are no guards at Riker’s door!
Was his mission to score with an alien female?
In Act 2, Picard and Troi explain to Mirasta in Ten Forward how highly trained specialists so surface observations of pre-warp societies. Is Riker a specialist? Is he even highly trained? Who Watches the Watchers and Frame of Mind did show him learning the customs of the societies he infiltrated, but I would hardly call those sessions highly intensive training. And do three onscreen missions out of 7 seasons make him a specialist? How long was Riker and the Enterprise on this mission? Isn’t this the kind of mission that can take many weeks, or even months?
Picard: "We are from the United Federation of Planets. We come in peace."
Mirasta: "Chancellor, I’m sorry, but the warp engine was a complete failure."
Picard: "Uh, this is all an illoooooosion! (Shakes and waves hands while slipping out of the room) ---------------Wooooooooooo….you will all forget this moment….."
Shouldn’t the Federation make contact with a society after they have achieved warp flight? Picard does so in this episode, even though the Malcorians have not even built a warp engine yet. What if their warp engine was faulty, and didn’t work? The Vulcans made contact with Earth only after they detected the Phoenix at warp in ST First Contact, and that makes far more sense.
Wait until he sees Michael Jackson
Something about Chancellor Durken’s stunned reaction upon first seeing Picard got me thinking: Don’t the Malcorians have special FX makeup, science fiction, masquerade parties, etc.? Probably the first thing you’d say upon meeting a Klingon or Malcorian would be, "Whoa, awesome makeup, dude! You going to a Halloween party, or something?" Durken, however, is shocked.
You know Riker. He wanted to look more impressive to the alien babes when he had it stashed in his pocket
Why didn’t Riker carry a hand phaser instead of a phaser gun on the planet? Wouldn’t it have been less conspicuous? Also, what ever happened to signature guns by the 24th century? Did they fall out of style? Wouldn’t making phasers on such missions keyed only to the authorized user prevent others from firing it, as Krola does toward the end of the episode?
Maybe Malcor III is composed mostly of blonde women from Beverly Hills?
How in the world can a society on the verge of warp drive still believe it is the center of the universe? A society at that level of technological development cannot possibly still believe this. Zephram Cochrane first used warp drive in 2063, in ST First Contact. Gallileo first used telescopes to observe the moons of Jupiter rotate around it and conclude that the Earth revolved around the Sun in the early 17th century, 400 years ago, and over 460 years before Cochrane’s first flight. So the Malcorians can create warp drive, but not telescopes? Or was the Malcorian astrocentricity referred to in this episode metaphorical, referring to the belief that they are the only life in the universe?
Durken’s right. Malcor III’s isn’t ready for first contact.
And is it common for a society to go from a level of technology characterized by no space travel to a warp-speed technology level? Shouldn’t there be an intermediate level, say a space shuttle or sub-light-speed level? (And don’t tell me that they might already have this, because there’s no way a society with satellites and space travel could think it’s the center of the universe.)
I guess Lanel noted and logged all the differences between human and Malcorian anatomies in the prior scene
At the end of Act 3, when Riker tries to escape following his tryst with Lanel, and is beaten, the female doctor feels his side and determines that the injuries to his renal organ have been aggravated, and that he’s bleeding internally. She can tell he has a bleeding kidney just by feeling his side, without even removing his clothing, despite how different human and Malcorian anatomy was established in the teaser?
Riker: "Captain, my observations indicate that the Malcorians will react very badly to contact with -------------alien life."
Picard: "Then we will have to forget about first contact with them, I’m afraid."
Riker: "Shame. They have some very impressive accomplishments. The end of famine and
racism. Advanced medical technology. The cure for baldness…"
Picard: "Like I said, we’re there, Number One! Set a course now!"
In Act 4, Picard tells Durken on other planets, the question of full disclosure would not be an issue, but that everything their surveilance told them about Malcor III told them that people would almost certainly react negatively to their arrival, and that even surveilance might be interpreted as an act of aggression. But wait a minute! If this is true, and their Starfleet surveilance indicated that everyone would react negatively to their arrival, then wouldn’t that have eliminated the prospect of first contact in the first place? Why then, did Picard or Starfleet deem it okay to make contact with Mirasta and Durken?
It was almost as bad as first contact with that race with heads shaped like open hands. The farsighted Earth ambassador took one shake, and it was all downhill from there
Also, Picard tells Durken that disastrous first contact with the Klingon Empire occurred "centuries" ago, and led to decades of war. Well, one and a half. McCoy told Kirk in Day of the Dove(TOS) that the Federation and the Klingons had been enemies for 50 years. If they were enemies ever since they first made contact, as Picard’s comment to Durken indicate, then first contact between them occurred 149 years prior to this episode.

How in the world can a society on the verge of warp drive still believe it is the center of the universe?

I don't think that he ment literaly, as in they though that the whole universe revolved around them. I think he ment that thought they were the only planet blessed with life on it. In the same way that a scientist today might talk about how his work is greeted with hostility from the flat-earthers doesn't mean that they really believe that the Earth is flat.

Well, I speculated as much.

So why don't those Federation observers have a doctor in case of injury or a house that they can use as an address? When Riker needs to mention a Doctor's name he says Crusher and when he gives an address it turns out to be an eating establishment. Then again, why didn't the Enterprise just beam some of the observers up to the ship, instead of beaming down a rookie like Riker? Since contact is already planned, why do they still need cultural observers on the planet?

Why didn't the observers go from hospital to hospital asking if they had a Rivas Jakara there?

The Malcorian doctor tells them to work 29 hours a day, which seems like an odd number. Possibly it could just be a Malcorian expression, like when on Earth someone says, "I want you to work on it 25 hours a day, 8 days a week." However, if the Malcorian day is 29 hours long, then why did they divide their day into an odd number of hours instead of an even number?

After Krola shoots himself, a woman picks up a phone, behind her are some buttons which might be too small and/or close together for Malcorian hands.

Well, I hope Mirasta Yale is prepared to switch from the Malcorian day of 29 hours to the Federation day of 24 hours. (No wonder Startleet seems to have mostly Humans on their ships. Aliens from planets with longer or shorter days can't make the adjustment.)

-Picard says the first contact with the Klingons was disastrous and led to years of war, yet "Broken Bow" (ENT) doesn't indicate any type of disastrous first contact. In fact, the Enterprise (NX-01) crew helped the Klingons!

But the Klingons seemed none too happy about it. Remember: "What did he say?" "You don't want to know."

However, if the Malcorian day is 29 hours long, then why did they divide their day into an odd number of hours instead of an even number?

Simple. The Malcorian day is 28 hours long, and the doctor used their equivalent of our "work 25 hours a day" expression.

I can't help but wonder what happened to the "make love to me" woman...was she carrying Riker's offspring?

Only those who live in the Chicagoland area will undertstand my next bit of humor...the guy with the glasses & mustache reminds me of the "Empire Carpet" salesman...I kept waiting for a chorus of women to come out and sing: "588-2300...EMPIRE!"

LOL John... never thought of that before!

Funny thing is, I think I have a tape of this episode from when TNG aired on UPN 50, and that commercial is on it!

Also, since Broken Bow(ENT) established that first contact with the Klingons occurred in 2151, that means that at the time of Day of the Dove, humans and Klingons had known one another for 117 years. So if they'd only been enemies for 50, that would make Picard's statement even more inconsistent.

Also, Picard's discussion about FC with the Klingons pertained specifically to the decision to do surveilance first. As opposed to what? As opposed to simply approaching a planet and hailing them, perhaps? Maybe. But what does that have to do with what happened in Broken Bow(ENT)? The "disaster," if you want to call it that, didn't occur because humans went to Kronos and started sending unsolicited greetings to a culture whose reaction they couldn't predict, and the result stemmed from ignorance of their culture; it occurred because one of them came here. So how does that specifically lead to, or pertain to the importance of the policy of surveilance prior to first contact?

Why didn't the Enterprise use that "Duck blind" thingy that was used in "Who Watches the Watchers?" to observe the inhabitants?

FUNNY THOUGHT: Perhaps the answer is, with that guy looking like the "Empire Carpet" man, the Enterprise wanted new wall-to-wall carpeting with a free Bissel rug shampooer.

P.S. And free polyfoam padding!

Why didn't the Enterprise use that "Duck blind" thingy that was used in "Who Watches the Watchers?" to observe the inhabitants?
Luigi Novi: I'm not sure if you asked this only to make the subsequent joke, John, but Riker's base of operations was a city, not a mountain area.

No, really...it was a serious question. However, I'm sure with the holo-technology, they can make the "duck blind" look like one of the buildings in the city.

FUNNY THOUGHT: How many people are in the city?
5,882,300 (588-2300)

Some possible answers:

1. The Malcorians were too advanced to set up a duck blind. The Mintakens were very primitive, and thus didn't have the technology to detect them. Perhaps the Malcorians did.

2. Not all worlds are observed so closely. I doubt that every pre-warp civilization encountered becomes the subject of anthropological study. Riker was down to help determine the sociological ramifications of First Contact, something that requires more than mere surveillance.

3. The Malcorians are a recently-discovered society. To my recollection, we're not given much information on how long the Malcorians have been under watch, except maybe a mention of "several years." Perhaps when the Malcorians were discovered, they were so close to achieving warp flight that setting up a duck blind didn't seem necessary.

John A. Lang: They can make the "duck blind" look like one of the buildings in the city.
Luigi Novi: I'm not following. If the duckblind is in fact not one of the buildings in the city, what is it? An open field or park? On a planet like Malcor III, why not simply use one of the city's buildings as a base of operations.

When the 9/11 terrorists used Union City as a base of operations, they didn't build a treehouse and disguise it as a building. They simply used one of our buildings, as they presumably did in the other NJ cities and five states that they used.

The kind of surveilance they'd do on Malcor III would be totally different than the surveilance on Mintaka III. On Malcor III, they could survey the society using TV, radio, newspapers, the Internet, reference books, etc. Not so on Mintaka III or the Baku planet, where they don't have those resources. To observe the Mintakans or the Baku, they'd have to observe individual Mintakans or Baku directly and visually, and needed the duck blind for that.

It's easier to walk the streets of Mintaka III, because the population is presumably denser, and easier to disappear. But in small closed communities like Mintaka III, a surveyer would not only stand out, but influence the culture with his/her presence, which is why the used this option in Who Watches the Watchers(TNG) only when it became an emergency rescue mission.

Luigi---that's what I meant...I just worded it wrong. I apologize for any confusion.

I hate to ruin the element of surprise for the creators, they really do try, however, I KNEW the man that was wheeled into the hospital was Riker.(Before they showed his face)

I don't remember if this was brought up before the Big Kerplooey NC went thru a couple years back or so but I just finished watching this on DVD and noticed that in the scene where Picard and the Chancellor have the toast the Chancellor caught on pretty quickly about tipping glasses for toasts and that when Picard first filled both glasses the liquid looked to be about an inch from the top but when the camera angle was shown over the Chancellor's left shoulder his glass suddenly had less liquid in it before even one sip was taken!

On reflection, this episode is a great concept that would work on any sci-fi, not just Trek (and probably has been used repeatedly on other sci-fi, but the fact that the Trekverse is so established helps us to understand both points of view rather than just the "primitives" on the planet). I think it would even work as a Trek feature film.

Only thing is...the title's already gone!

George Coe (Durken) was on a few early episodes of "Saturday Night Live" as a featured player and played Byers' dad on "The Lone Gunmen" (not that you'll ever see that episode again, however). He is also the judge that sentences Emilio Estevez in "The Mighty Ducks."

George Hearn (Berel) was Sweeney Todd in the film version of the Broadway show (I think he also did it on stage).

Michael Ensign (Krola) was Benjamin Guggenheim in "Titanic," and appeared in three other "Trek" shows--"The Forsaken" on DS9, "False Profits" on Voyager, and Stigma on "Enterprise."

I recognize Michael Ensign from the classic (well, I think it's a classic) License to Drive, where he played the evil bus driver in the opening dream sequence, and then the driver's ed teacher in the real world.

Luigi Novi --- July 03 2001

Picard: "We are from the United Federation of Planets. We come in peace."
Mirasta: "Chancellor, I’m sorry, but the warp engine was a complete failure."
Picard: "Uh, this is all an illoooooosion! (Shakes and waves hands while slipping out of the room) ---------------Wooooooooooo….you will all forget this moment….."

... ROTFL!!!

Thank you, Mr Novi, for one of the best laughs ever! (Sincerely.)

It does make you wonder, though: why not press ahead with first contact even if the species doesn't quite get warp technology right at the first try? It's a bit of a stretch, of course, but with the intent to seek interstellar travel, surely the species is proving a willingness to accept that others might be out there doing so already, isn't it?

Sorry if that's confusing...!

Thank you very much, Eight, I'll be here all week.

I don't know why but I had the urge to watch this ep again. The more interesting nits have already been taken by Phil and the fine people on this board but why was Riker on this mission? It's unknown whether or not he really is a "specialist" in first contact but he's already the first officer of the flagship, so why put him on a mission that would conflict with that posting? Executive officers in the military don't do undercover surveillance at the same time; perhaps earlier in their career but not once they reach a certain rank and position.

When Picard and Troi beam down and meet Mirasta, Troi volunteers the information of Picard being from Earth and that it is 2000 ly away. She mentions her home planet but not how far away it is, why is that?

Some of the buildings from "Angel One" make another appearance in this episode

I was curious just what differences there are between Malcorians and Humans and how it relates to how they have sex. William "Wam Bam Thank you Ma'am" Riker has never been one to hesitate at the opportunity to wow the local female populace but when the Hospital employee demands that he make love to her he seems down right nervous and stammers how there are differences. one really has to wonder just what was making Mr. Riker so nervous

This episode also had me wondering, if there were teams of researchers that had been established for years on the planet, why didn't Riker ask some of them to be contacted? Picard said they were looking for Riker so it sure would have helped when Riker was asked if they should contact anyone, he said "yes contact Mrs.blatherscite, I am currently staying with her family." they they call Mrs. Blatherscite and she vouches that Riker is neither a an alien or a weather balloon.

The Malcorians must have FTL communications capability, or have the probe return to Malcor after checking out the Garth system, or they'd have to wait years for the telemetry.

I'd also assume they have manned-space flight capability in the vicinity of their planet, and they would eventually equip one of their ships with warp drive.

Makes me wonder if some Federation worlds developed warp drive in the 1980s and 1990s equivalent time period.