HOW DO THESE VOICE COMMAND INTERFACES WORK?:
Barclay has just become "one" with the computer. The bridge crew is aware of this because when they try to access the computer it responds in Barclay's voice. They must come up with a master plan to stop this, but they don't want him to find out. So Worf tells the captain that it is OK to announce the plan because he has turned off the audio.
Woudn't turning off the audio only mean that the bridge crew wouldn't be able to hear Barcly? The computer system must have "listening ports" throughout the ship for voice commands, and Barclay being the computer should be able to listen to their plan.
So why didn't Barclay and Dr. Crusher do the whole play? Has the attention span of Humans degenerated so much that people can't sit through an entire play anymore?
If the Argus Array is such an important telescope then why did it take two months for a repair team to get there?
A Full Spread of torpedoes are ordered, but Full Spread must have a different meaning than I think it does because all the torpedoes were aimed at one little target.
Why did the computer speak with Barclay's voice? Even if Barclay's mind is in the computer when he uses the computer to speak, instead of his mouth, it should sound like the computer. Did Barclay alter the computer's voice synthesizer because he prefers the sound of his own voice?
That Dr. Crusher is a Renaissance woman. Mother, Doctor, Dancer, Engineer, eventually a Captain,.. oh, and she Acts too. (But what she really wants to do is Direct. ;-)
If the Cytherians have really brought the Enterprise to the center of the galaxy, then why is the picture on the viewscreen so dark? With all the stars at the center of the galaxy shouldn't the screen be mostly light with patches of dark?
Let's just hope that one of these Cytherian probes doesn't bump into a Borg ship.
Woudn't turning off the audio only mean that the bridge crew wouldn't be able to hear Barcly? The computer system must have "listening ports" throughout the ship for voice commands.
Worf said that he turned off the audio. The audio system would include outputs (speakers) and inputs (microphones). If he said he turned off the audio outputs than the computer could still listen.
Phil: From his NextGen Guide vol. II; Plot Oversight #1: Troi must be having an off day. After Barclay takes over the Enterprise from the holodeck, Troi attempts to use her psychological and feminine charms to woo him out. When Barclay refuses, she gets huffy and says that Picard will make every attempt to stop him. Predictably, Barclay becomes angry. Now, this woman is supposed to be trained as a counsellor. What good will it do to get the guy upset and less amenable to reason?
This is one of Phil’s more inaccurate observations. First of all, his comments that Troi, in addition to her psychological abilities, uses "feminine charms" on Barclay, and that she tries to "woo" him, are not only sexist, they are untrue. At no time during the scene does Troi resort to sexual tactics in trying to persuade Barclay to stop what he’s doing. She speaks to him only as his counselor and friend.
---Second, Troi does not get "huffy." When Barclay makes it clear that he has no intention of ceasing his activity, Troi turns to walk out, then slowly looks back at Barclay to calmly tell him that Picard will do everything he can to stop him, presenting him the reality of the consequences of his actions. If a person engaged in a hostile situation with authorities will not listen to reason, calmly pointing out to him what the inevitable outcome may be is a legitimate tactic used to persuade him to surrender. This is all Troi does. She does not snap, or lose her cool, or get angry. She is simply being honest in informing Barclay of the reality of the situation because she cares about him and is concerned about the safety of the ship and everyone onboard. NOWHERE in this scene does she get "huffy." She does not make Barclay angry. It could argued from his facial expression when she leaves that he has become upset, but this doesn’t really change anything he does one way or the other, and she could hardly be accused of doing anything to cause any anger. As for "less amenable to reason," in what way was he "more" amenable to reason prior to Troi’s chat with him then after?
And computer, please give me REALLY long arms!
When Barclay goes to the holodeck to create the neural interface, he has the computer create an alphanumeric console for his left hand, and an iconic console for his right. For some reason, though, the computer places these two consoles way too far away from his chair for his hands to reach them.
And if you don’t mind, mind if I have a sip of your drink? And while I’m at it, can I make a pass at your date?
Two things about the last scene of the episode felt odd. First, don’t you think it’s unusual for a guy to walk over to two people playing chess, say, "May I?", and the players to actually let they guy interrupt their game?
The chess scene at the end of the first Harry Potter movie was more believable
Second, when he says, "Checkmate in nine moves," they gasp in surprise, apparently accepting his assertion at face value. If I were those players, I’d be like, "Huh? What nine moves? What are they? Show them to me, Sherlock!"
This episode sorta reminds me of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (TOS) In both cases, both men (Mitchel & Barclay) acquired super-human abilities and didn't want to stop improving.
GREAT MOMENT: Riker's inquiry to Troi about Barclay's "pass"...all Troi does is smile & turn.
Why does Troi refer to herself as Barclay's "former" counselor? Because of the incidents in "Hollow Pursuits"?
Wouldn't she be his counselor again if he needed it?
GREAT LINE: "Uh huh" Riker after Barclay's techno-babble in the corridor. Riker didn't have a CLUE to what Barclay just uttered. He just agreed with it. It's funny.
Love Riker's freshly dyed hair in this one.
One of the reactors in the telescope array is threatening to blow up, which would lead to a chain reaction blowing the whole thing apart, and several others are becoming critical. Barclay in engineering says that the interface is too slow to cope with the changes, sprints along a long corridor (who built these long corridors and not enough turbolifts on the enterprise?) and starts his holodeck-computer-connection.
Now, what interface does he mean? I thought he meant the interface on the telescope itself. After all, the central computer on the telescope was damaged, which controlled all of these reactors. It can't be the enterprise computer who is too slow. So why would the holodeck connection help barclay to avert disaster? And how does he manage to spit out detailed plans for a neural interface and handle the reactors in less than 30 seconds?
Well, we are talking about a guy who figured his I.Q. was somewhere around 1, 500...
The late Kay E. Kuter (Cytherian) was Newt Kiley on the various Hooterville sitcoms of the '60s. He was the Sirah in "The Storyteller" episode of DS9 and was also the Head Calusari in that particular X-Files episode (he vaguely plays the same role as a Latviah Orthodox priest on one episosde of "Seinfeld" too).
David Coburn (Brower) was the voice of Captain Planet.
Oh my God! Kay E. Kuter is dead? Geez! That's sad!
When did this occur?
Last November--pulmonary complications.
MISSING SCENE:
Barclay: Hey kid!
LaForge: What?
Barclay: I'm a computer! Stop all the downloadin'!
Laforge: ...
Barclay: Help computer.
I'm sorry. I saw this ep and that Fenslerfilm PSA was the first thing that popped into my head when Barclay "became" the computer.
So the R in DVD R+ stands for Reginald?
So how does the beam of light exactly work? I mean even if the beams actually are able to read his mind, how does that machine inside the holodeck affect anything outside the holodeck? At some point, I'd assume the machine would end at the holodeck grid.
Ah, I forgot how much fun those red comment lines of Luigi's were ;)
Am I the only one who thought of HAL 9000 when Picard asked Barclay to disconnect himself and Barclay said "I'm afraid I can't do that?"
Actually, I was thinking that when Geordie was in the jeffries tube, talking to 'Barclay'.
The warp effect as the Enterprise travels 30,000 light years in a matter of seconds is one of my favorite scenes in the series. Almost an homage to STTMP's wormhole effect.
The telescope array has 18 or 19 fusion reactors. Doesn't this seem like overkill for an automated station? It's several miles wide apparently, when we see the Enterprise from behind, and the Array is sprawled out, dwarfing the ship, but even a city can be powered by a single nuclear reactor. Just what's on this Array that needs so much power?
Since when did becoming smarter have an effect on social confidence? Just because you can increase shield efficiency by 300% and realize that there are no limits to space travel doesn't mean that you become better at acting and picking up chics.
The first few posts on this board talk about Worf disabling the audio so they can plot against Barcley in private. Originally La Forge had to pull out isolinear chips(?) in the obsevation lounge, while Worf just hit a button. I wouldn't trust either action but a button controlled by the computer shouldn't even work.
When one of the reactors on the array, 8 I believe, was going critical the female engineer that was informing us of the situation was looking at a screen with a diagram of the E-D.
One of the things the Cytherian said when describing the bridge crew was "bio-chemical..." and yet he himself looked quite human.
I don't think the episode indicated that becoming smarter changes social confidence in itself. I think the probe merely affected his personality as well as his intelligence. He didn't just have the ability to come with new ideas, he became more willing to be assertive in putting them forward (too much so, in fact).
And yeah, that Cytherian did look like he had a cranial plate, electrochemical stimulus response, etc. (Can't be certain if he belonged to a hiearchical command structure or was bipedal.)
I wonder why Voyager never tried to head towards the center of the Galaxy and ask the Cytherians to send them the rest of the way home. I don't see why they would refuse...They apparently shared alot of information with the Enterprise about themselves and their technologies.
Also, while Barclay may have forgotten what he did, weren't their records of it(visual and sensor) which could be used as a basis to attempt to recreate what happened? Even if that took months or years, why not try?
Barclay!! Gotta love him.
quote:KAM: That Dr. Crusher is a Renaissance woman. Mother, Doctor, Dancer, Engineer...
quote:costanze: One of the reactors in the telescope array is threatening to blow up, which would lead to a chain reaction blowing the whole thing apart, and several others are becoming critical. Barclay in engineering says that the interface is too slow to cope with the changes, sprints along a long corridor (who built these long corridors and not enough turbolifts on the enterprise?) and starts his holodeck-computer-connection.
Now, what interface does he mean? I thought he meant the interface on the telescope itself. After all, the central computer on the telescope was damaged, which controlled all of these reactors. It can't be the enterprise computer who is too slow. So why would the holodeck connection help barclay to avert disaster? And how does he manage to spit out detailed plans for a neural interface and handle the reactors in less than 30 seconds?
quote:Torque: So how does the beam of light exactly work? I mean even if the beams actually are able to read his mind, how does that machine inside the holodeck affect anything outside the holodeck? At some point, I'd assume the machine would end at the holodeck grid.
quote:Joel Croteau: Am I the only one who thought of HAL 9000 when Picard asked Barclay to disconnect himself and Barclay said "I'm afraid I can't do that?"
quote:dotter31: Also, while Barclay may have forgotten what he did, weren't their records of it(visual and sensor) which could be used as a basis to attempt to recreate what happened? Even if that took months or years, why not try?
JoshM - Engineer? When was she an engineer?
I wrote that 6 years ago & my memory is fuzzy on it, but I think I was thinking about her interest in Dr. Reyga's shielding in Suspicion, possibly she might need some engineering know how in dealing with Data, & IIRC she has tinkered with Geordi's VISOR, I think in Starship Mine.
dotter31 mentioned why there was no record of what Barkley did and I have to agree, in fact he made physical changes to the shields, tripling their strength, so why wasn't the change permanent? If I open up a friend's computer and add RAM to it or upgrade the operating system...those changes will still be there after I leave his house, even if he had no clue what I did or how I did it he will still benefit from the upgrades I performed. Or was Gordie SO bitter from being One-uped by Reg that he rebooted the ship's computer and undid all the changes?
Awww man, I watched this ep today and came here hoping Andre had said something about it....
Trying to guess whether he liked it or not.
I thought the idea of a powerful and advanced species that lives near the center of the galaxy was interesting. And how they were able to have Barclay become the smartest human in existence and get the ship there to meet with them, that was pretty cool too. Of course, his abilities were only temporary.
"I wonder why Voyager never tried to head towards the center of the Galaxy and ask the Cytherians to send them the rest of the way home. I don't see why they would refuse...They apparently shared alot of information with the Enterprise about themselves and their technologies." - Rene in 2007
Well, the simple explanation for this, as Tim recently reminded me, is that the show would have come to a premature end if the Cytherians had helped them get back to Federation space, and the Borg Collective area of the DQ would most likely have been largely bypassed and we would not have gotten to see the Future Janeway infect them with a virus that brought "chaos to order". And VGR being the lone representative of the franchise for two years, that would have made the finale A LOT different.
Bottom line is: the ship HAD to be "going home" for a certain number of years, and when they encountered the Borg, they HAD to either defeat them or get away somehow, and not have them be the invincible juggernaut that they were on TNG.
If it had been done any other way, the primary "Paramount cash cow" would have come to an end. We just couldnt have that, am I right?
Although I would have loved to have seen an alternate reality, or a "What If?", if you will, where the VGR crew is assimilated and used against the Federation once the Collective arrives with about a dozen tactical cubes in the AQ/BQ, and for all races in those quadrants to be either assimilated or annihilated. I have to admit, that would have been interesting to see.
Hey, they showed on ENT what would have happened if they hadn't destroyed the Xindi superweapon, you know, the timeline where Earth WAS destroyed and much of the AQ has been taken over by the Xindi, so I think it would have been cool to see an ep of VGR where the worst possible outcome for the galaxy happens: the Borg actually invade en masse and assimilate every living humanoid and absorb every scrap of technology.
And I would have liked that a lot better than "Timeless", I can tell you!
The Cytherian probe had disabled the Argus array nearly two months prior to the Enterprise's arrival. So, it had just stayed there all this time, near a useless piece of hardware instead of moving on to seek more compatible systems?
Btw, why send the flagship of the Federation to the array? This looks like a very sophisticated piece of scientific equipment, it must have its own specialized engineering team ready to be dispatched to deal with this sort of malfunction.
While trying to run away from the probe, Enterprise only goes as high as warp 2. Why didn't Picard order maximum warp, and THEN explore other options if the probe still managed to match their speed?