This has got to be one of my favourite episodes.
One of the most down-to-earth and viewer-friendly outings of TNG ever made, and another brilliant showcase for Patrick Stewart (in the same season as "Darmok", another great hour for our beloved captain).

The first time I watched this I hated it, it was just so dull. I have seen it a few more times and while I still think calling great is strong, it is a nice story and done well.

Phil goes on in his book about this is a simple society and suddenly they come up with this probe which will later contact Picard. He wonders how they did this, but I think what he is forgetting is that this is not reality. At the same time the probe is launched Picard (don't recalls is other name) is talking to the wife and friend he thought long dead (not even aged). It was a simulation, and the probe was probably to remind him of it but it does not mean when the real probe was launched from the real planet the planet looked like that. It could be that was the way they wanted people to remember the planet, simple and non developed. We have no way of knowing what they were truly like (for example, I doubt they looked that much liked us. That was probably for Picards benefit also).

I have read that this is one of Patrick Stewart's favorite episodes as well.

-db

About four years back my wife's mother died suddenly. As we were cleaning out the place my wife suggested that we take a little Blue Spruce sapling, about 10" tall, from the yard and bring it to ours so that we could care for it as a sort of living testimonial. Well, we just moved to a new house this past week and one of my final chores was to dig up that little tree again and bring it to the new place to keep the tradition going.

Definitely brought this ep to mind.

I feel bad to be picking at such a lovely, poignant ep, but:

-According to Daniel Dennett in his classic Consciousness Explained, the human brain operates on so complex a level that there never will be a computer powerful and/or sophisticated enough to produce a 'mental holodeck' anywhere near as realistic as the one shown here.

-And even assuming that you buy into the probe (and of course it is alien technology, so...) you then have to concede that it's also capable of making sure the 'teacher' it chooses isn't gonna freak out completely upon waking up to this incredible situation...or lock himself in the closet and refuse to come out...or stop eating until he gets some answers...etc., etc. (Otherwise, why pour all your resources into a sophisticated one-shot piece of equipment?)

-This is a very minor point compared to the above, but: When we last see Picard's Katarran son, he's balding in exactly the same pattern as his 'dad'. Now, IIRC, the Katarran people we see actually did exist. And male pattern baldness is hereditary. So...I guess it's a good thing that the probe found a 'teacher' with the the right genes.

1. As nitpickers, we don't deal in reality.

2. Maybe the probe did exactly that. Or maybe the probe can prevent the "teacher" from closing his mind to the new reality.

3. I don't think there's any evidence that the people in the probe simulation are real. Perhaps they were. Perhaps not. I would think that an alien probe sophisticated enough to enter a person's mind and provide them with a mental environment that is 100% real (ala The Matrix) is also able to adapt its program to meet with the "teacher's" preconceived notions of reality, just to make it more convincing.

Excellent points all, Mikey (albeit I like no.2 b better than a).
I guess this is one of those discussions - like the one re: Troi's capabilities that Luigi and I were having over on the 'Time Squared' board - that really can't be resolved because there's no strict scientific leg to stand on.

I don't think there's any evidence that the people in the probe simulation are real.

What I was actually basing that assumption on is the line near the end, when one Katarran says something like 'The rest of us died a thousand years ago.' Maybe I took it too literally...but it also made sense that the planet's inhabitants, with their presumably human(oid) egos, would want to be remembered specifically rather than generally.

-According to Daniel Dennett in his classic Consciousness Explained, the human brain operates on so complex a level that there never will be a computer powerful and/or sophisticated enough to produce a 'mental holodeck' anywhere near as realistic as the one shown here.

People have also said that no craft could ever be constructed to break the sound barrier, no rocket could ever reach the moon, computers would never be as powerful and small as they are now. All I'm saying is that things in the realm of science are only impossible until someone figures out a way to do them.

Lucky thing this probe didn't run into Klingons, Borg or any other species. The probe would have been built for nothing.

And how did they know that the person who experienced the "mental holodeck" would play the flute?

How exactly could the Enterprise follow the trail of the probe? Wouldn't the radioactive particles drift in interstellar space and be blown around by solar winds, not to mention the force of the Kataan sun going Nova? This probe has traveled about one light year for over a 1,000 years. That's a lot of time for the trail to become smudged and smeared.

If my math is correct the probe would have had to travel about 670,545 miles an hour. I believe that Voyager 1 was launched from Earth at an approximate speed of 3,120 miles per hour.

In both guides Phil can't see the Kataans inventing the mind machine. because there is no evidence of the technology that should come about after such a mind blowing invention (Sorry, couldn't resist the joke.) The one possible flaw in his reasoning is secret technology, or inventions by people who are considered crazy.
If the government is secretly working on something the "shotgun blast" of change might not occur, because all the people who would want to make a profit off of this invention don't know it exists and therefore couldn't incorporate it into other niches.
As for 'mad' scientists, people don't usually listen to them and don't always understand exactly what they've created or how it can be exploited. Nikola Tesla supposedly invented an antennae in 1899 capable of picking up what he believed were signals from an extraterrestrial civilization. If his antennae did work and the general public knew about it then World War I biplanes might have been equipped with Radar. (In case you were wondering, I do not think he picked up alien transmissions. If his device did work it probably picked up what we would call Pulsars.)

Kerri: Isn't male pattern baldness inherited from the mother's side? (Nitpicking the nitpickers)
This ep aired twice in the past month, and I missed the opening credits both times. Wasn't that Richard Riehle (later to do Voyager's "Fair Haven" and "Spirit Folk") as Picard's friend?

Adam, yes, you supposedly get it from your maternal grandfather.


But then, I should be completely bald by now if that's true

Adam, yes it was Richard Riehle.

Thanks, Butch. I finally caught the opening credits on yesterday's airing.
TNN ran this episode at least three times recently. The last scene on Kataan, with all of Kamin's loved ones coming back to him, never fails to bring a tear to my eye.
P.S. My maternal grandfather had one of the fullest heads of hair I ever saw. If the above is true, I'll never be bald.

Gosh, Kataanese technology isn't sufficiently advanced to save their civilization, but it can whip up this really sophisticated space probe...

This is a perfect example of how Star Trek is often bad science fiction in the service of a really good teleplay.

It may be a mistake to assume that technology always moves forward. There are times in our history when there has been a technological backslide. Possible causes: war, disease, ecological disaster, exhaustion of resources used by technology, religion, politics. The technology of the probe may be a remnant of older, more advanced technology.

I also wondered if Kamin lived in the Kataan equivalent of a 3rd world country, with lower technology than other countries. Maybe his nation obtained the probe technology the same way small countries today could get ex-Soviet nukes.

Well, let's see: The probe is really fast; it has scanning capabilities; it has a tremendously sophisticated 'mental holodeck'.

How exactly would that technology save their civilization?

The mental holodeck would seem to be completely useless in saving the people or restoring life to the soil.

The sensors might have been useful if they had existed at a point when the danger was just starting and could be averted.

The really fast space travel seems good, but maybe it was only usable on small probes? A bigger ship wouldn't travel as fast. Not to mention G-forces. We have no idea if this race had invented the Inertial Dampeners yet.

GREAT MOMENT: What a tear-jerker of an episode. The finale is what got me. Picard playing the ancient flute to the tune that he played as Kamin.

NANJAO: This episode has some ideas taken from "The Paradise Syndrome" (TOS) Both Captains had foggy memories of their real lives and had a relationship with a lovely woman.

The belief that male pattern baldness comes from your maternal grandfather is a bit of a myth. It desrives from a larger variety of factors.

There is one small point I find odd about this episode. The point of the probe was to teach a person about Kataan's culture, or the culture of that part of Kataan that sent it out. Why did it not begin is presentation by having Picard being born to a pair of Kataanian parents, and growing up. It seems weird that it would start Picard out as a married adult, with a wife and neighbors who all assume he is one of them. Wouldn't it make more sense to show him their cultue from the ground up, letting him learn it like a child? I would argue that it denies him the chance to see what life was like for their kids, but Picard eventually had children and grandchildren as Kamin, so he got it secondhand.
Another little thing is, where did the flute Picard played at the end, as Picard, come from? I would guess, he replicated it. He would probably know the Ressikan flute in detail after all that "time" he spent playing it and caring for it, and could have described it in detail to the computer, which could make one using a replicator. After all, he lived several decades of life in under a half hour, and it is possible his flute played a big role in his favorite memories of those years. I find it hard to believe it was in the probe, but I could be wrong. I bet there are some improbable little doodads carried in our space probes.
Finally, wouldn't it have been nice if Picard, in a later episode, were doing stuff with what he learned about the Kataanians? We never see him struggling to convey in words what he learned. We never see him getting invited to archaeological conferences to present a paper on Kataanian society, and he is the Federation's leading expert on the topic. We don't even see him tell an anecdote about his life as Kamin. Yes, those people he knew as Kamin were simulations, but they would feel real enough to him, having spent so much relative time with them. Even if it were just throwaway dialog or business, it would have been nice to see the most obvious and simple effects this experience had on him.

Another little thing is, where did the flute Picard played at the end, as Picard, come from?...

I thought the dialogue said that they found the flute in the probe.

It did. Riker brought to him, saying that they found it inside the probe.

Good point about how the probe should've taught about Katannian culture, Chirs.

John A. Lang: This episode has some ideas taken from "The Paradise Syndrome"(TOS) Both Captains had foggy memories of their real lives and had a relationship with a lovely woman.
Luigi Novi: Kirk had no memories of his life as Kirk, and there is no indication that Picard's memories were "foggy." By all appearances, he remembered every single thing of his life as Picard. He thought he was in the holodeck when he first woke up, and tried to order the "computer" to freeze program, remembered he lived on a starship, he remembered all of his scientific skills in building a telescope, examining soil samples, etc. As for a relationship with a lovely woman, you just desribed every single episode that features a character pairing up with someone. I mean, when was the last time a male regular had a relationship with a woman that wasn't lovely?

male regular had a relationship with a woman that wasn't lovely

The Gamesters of Triskelion(TOS)? Chekov, at least, didn't find his woman to be lovely...

LOL, Luigi.

It is an excellent point Chris makes about the probe's teaching methods...except when you factor in the part about the subject retaining all those memories of his/her previous existence.
I mean, Picard was freaked enough to discover he was a whole 'nother person...imagine the reality disconnect if he was suddenly to find himself five years old to boot! It'd likely be enough to make his mind reject the probe's influence altogether, safeguards or no.

Rene:Lucky thing this probe didn't run into Klingons, Borg or any other species. The probe would have been built for nothing.

Another excellent point. The Kataarans must have been really, really trusting...or, I suppose, truly desperate. But as complex as the probe is supposed to be, you'd think they wouldn't want to just fling it Out There if they could help it.

Even if it were just throwaway dialog or business, it would have been nice to see the most obvious and simple effects this experience had on him.
well, his flute playing was a fairly large part of the ep Lessons and I seem to remember his experience as Kamin being featured as well. I'll have to go to the videotape to see if it was implied or explicit, but I'm sure it was a part of the dialog. I think there was at least one other reference as well.

The Inner Trivia Question
Anyone know what song is this episode’s title is derived from?
Answer: George Harrison’s song, The Inner Light, which was the B-side song of his single Lady Madonna.

The Inner Plot Hole
Not only is the probe reality fully interactive in regards to Picard’s senses, but also the role-playing of everyone around him. Was there actually a man named Kamin, who was an iron weaver, with two children, who built a telescope, and all other stuff we saw, which was then programmed into the probe for Picard to experience, or did Picard’s participation in the program influence its nature according to his own talents, personality and behavioral patterns? Picard, for example, is an avid scientist and archaeologist (see The Chase), and has knowledge of gardening as well (The First Duty), explaining his knowledge of telescopes, measuring a drought by soil samples, etc. So did the real Kamin discover the cause of the drought, argue with the administrator, etc.? Obviously, if the real Kamin existed, he never told Eline that he was really an explorer from a starship called the Enterprise, as indicated by a remark she makes to him when she spots him using his telescope. And I doubt young Batai actually looked so much like Picard, as evidenced by the casting director’s choice of Patrick Stewart’s real-life son Daniel to play him. Perhaps the real Kamin really did do most of these things, and the probe was simply programmed to scan the Enterprise, and pick the person whose brain patterns most closely resembled those of Kamin? The Star Trek Encyclopedia refers to both Kamin and his family as having actually existed, and that Picard merely experienced his memories. So which is it? And if they were real, and Picard’s interaction with it did influence it, how exactly did the Kataanians program this Kamin guy’s memories into the probe? Obviously, the probe reality had to compensate for the alterations in "Kamin’s" life that were a result of Picard’s presence in it, such as Picard’s story to Eline about his life aboard a starship. The fact that the young Eline, who appears at the end of the elderly Kamin’s life, tells him that they’ve been dead for 1000 years, seems to indicate that the probe had an ongoing clock, keeping track of how much time elapsed since its launch, and that it calculated the appropriate Earth time by scanning the Enterprise’s computers. This seems to bolster the theory that the probe was a constantly monitoring its environment to adapt its program to whatever being it encountered.
--- As for the inconsistency in Kataan’s technology level, I had a thought that Picard could’ve discovered some type of virtual reality headset in Kamin’s home, and Eline would explain to her apparently amnesiac husband that some time ago, her people began using them too heavily, to the point of addiction, and self-neglect (much like in The Game), and combined with their natural xenophobia and disinterest in interstellar exploration, that all their technology was geared toward computers, artificial intelligence, direct computer-to-brain information transfer, memory engram study, etc. By the time they eventually saved themselves from their virtuality addiction, and did away with the headsets, they discovered too late that their planet would perish in several decades. Only recently had they begun to launch small missiles. It may sound a bit far-fetched, but it would explain a lot. The creators, of course, never bother trying to explain this, and even I admit that adding it to the episode would’ve required cutting some of the other scenes, and might’ve even bogged down the script. Phil Farrand’s analogy of Kataan’s technology to 1950s Earth is reasonable in most respects, but consider this: Did 1950s Earth have automatic, push-button door openers? Hell, do we even have those today? Remember, Ressick is only one village. There was no indication that big cities didn’t exist on the planet, it’s just that the episode was set in a village. Don’t we have big cities, farms, suburbs and small villages on our planet? If aliens landed on Earth today near a Native-American reservation in Arizona, or in the vicinity of a family living in a log cabin in Montana, it would not be a very scientific conclusion to decide that all such residential areas on the planet are like this, or that they represent the technological paragon of the entire planet. Kataan may very well have been at the level of 1990s America in all respects but space exploration. Technological progress does not follow a logical, linear path based solely on ability. Our space program is where it is today not of the Cold War. The moon race was based on American-Soviet competition, not the quest for scientific knowledge, and culminated in the moon landing after only a decade of incredibly rapid technological development, backed by a space budget that our current one is only a fraction of. If Kataan had no such Cold War, it would make sense that they would not have such sophisticated space technology. Now you may say that eventually, they would develop it no matter what, but that’s not necessarily true. If ability alone dictated this then we would have landed on Mars 10 years ago. The reason we don’t have a Moon colony, or a Mars colony, is because once we landed on the Moon, and even though Mars was thought to be the next step, it was felt that we had already beat the Soviets in the space race, and so, it was abandoned. NASA’s budget was dramatically slashed. You may yet also think that my proposed Kataanian disinterest in space is unfathomable, but you should realize that there are A LOT of people, including those in the science industry, as well as civilians, who feel that there’s nothing to be gained by going into space, that it’s too expensive and risky, and who don’t see what benefit will come of it, because they fail to understand that science is a gradual process of accumulating information, and not a quick-fix proposition.
The Inner Psychic Doctor
In the beginning of the episode, Worf says the probe "has assumed a relative position, and is holding course with (the Enterprise)." Even though the first shot of the Enterprise showed it slowing down, probably coming out of warp, it didn’t show it stopping, so we can assume from Worf’s statement that it is still moving, albeit slowly, and the probe is moving with it. Later, after our first glimpse of Kataan and the second commercial break, Riker orders Data to move the Enterprise away, and Data responds that the probe is moving with them, and holding a relative position. Crusher, in response to this, then comments that the probe has connected itself to Picard, like a tether. Maybe someone should tell her that Worf already said almost the exact same thing before, when she wasn’t on the bridge, and before Picard was probed.
The Inner Astronomy Lesson
When Picard first meets Batai, he asks him, among other things, what planet he’s on. Batai responds, "Kataan." Later, Geordi says the probe is from the Kataan system. This means the name of the star is Kataan. The Star Trek Encyclopedia says it’s the star. So which is it?
The Inner Terracentricity
Also, what are the chances that the name of the planet/star, as referred to by its inhabitants, would be the same as our designation for it? The star went nova during Earth’s 14th century, 300 years before the telescope was invented, so we had no pre-existing familiarity with them, let alone any contact.
The Inner Sudden Stop
In Act 2, Riker orders the helm to back away from the probe at 300 kph, and Data then said that it was following the Enterprise, but a subsequent shot of the main viewer shows the probe, but aside from its rotation, it isn’t moving with respect to the stars. Did the Enterprise stop? Riker never ordered Data to do so.
The Inner Jewelery Desinger-Turned-Areospace Engineer
Yet another item that raises the question of how much of the probe reality was real or invented: When Picard first wakes up in the probe reality, he notices that Eline’s necklace charm is the same shape as the probe. If all of this really happened, why did the Kataanians build the probe to resemble the pendant Kamin made for his wife?
The Inner Dan Quayle
And why, of all the citizens of Kataan, did they pick an iron weaver from a small village as the one whose memories would be sent in their time capsule? Who not a council leader, scientist, historian, or philosopher? Or was Kamin more than just an iron weaver, perhaps a man of many talents and skills like Benjamin Franklin or Leonardo DaVinci, who was a distinguished Kataanian scientist (explaining why the probe chose Picard), maybe instrumental in the construction of the rocket? Would this explain why the probe looked like Eline’s pendant? I know this may sound somewhat classist, or snotty, but if their situation occurred on Earth, whose memories would YOU want to send? Wouldn’t you want to send someone like Christ, Plato, DaVinci, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Ghandi, Thomas Jefferson, Gallileo Gallilei, or Mother Teresa? Or would you send Bob Vila?

ScottN: The Gamesters of Triskelion(TOS)? Chekov, at least, didn't find his woman to be lovely..
Luigi Novi: Did he have a relationship with her?

Miko Iko: His flute playing was a fairly large part of the ep Lessons and I seem to remember his experience as Kamin being featured as well. I'll have to go to the videotape to see if it was implied or explicit, but I'm sure it was a part of the dialog. I think there was at least one other reference as well.
Luigi Novi: He did mention the probe and his experiences on Kataan to Neela Darren when they played together. As for another episode that ever referenced it, the only one I know of was A Fistful of Datas, in which he was playing his flute.

The Inner Trivia Answer Nit

George Harrison’s song, The Inner Light, which was the B-side song of his single Lady Madonna.Luigi Novi

Unfortunately, Luigi, the single wasn't his. It was a Beatles single. Identifying "The Inner Light" as Harrison's is slightly more accurate, as the rest of the band didn't have anything to do with it, save for a brief bit of harmony near the end.

The Inner "My Bad!"

Ah. The reference source that informed of this didn't specify that. Thanks, Sparrow.

The Inner... ahhhhhhhh, screw it!

No problem, Luigi!

Miko Iko is right. I should have referred to Lessons as the main example of continuity with this episode. I was going to mention it as such, but my mind got on to other things and I never got back to it. Perhaps I thought it went wihout saying, but that's my mistake. I also think my ideas of what could have been done would have gelled better with what was already established about him. It's nice he got a new hobby out of it, but I would have liked to see how it effects his existing interests. We sure take these fictitious people to our bosoms, huh?
To respond to Luigi's point about why they did not begin Picard as a baby, I may be thinking about it as a human. Humans lose their memory of infancy over time, and I assumed that had Picard begun as an infant Kamin and grew up, he'd forget the shock of suddenly being an infant and adapt to being a Kataanian. For all I know, they may retain memories of their infancy, and decided to skip it and make him an adult from the start, so he'd adapt faster. Yeah, I sure am overthinking this.

Chris Diehl: To respond to Luigi's point about why they did not begin Picard as a baby...
Luigi Novi: Um, when did I make this point? Wasn't this your point, Chris?

No, it was mine (see yesterday's post of 1:05pm). But that's OK...there are worse fates than having my logic mistaken for yours.

I was beginning a response to a response to something I had written. I thought it was Luigi for some reason. It should therefore read "To respond to kerriem's point about the possible reason why ..."

Luigi: . . . a subsequent shot of the main viewer shows the probe, but aside from its rotation, it isn’t moving with respect to the stars.

:: Hasn't it been long-established that there's no observable movement relative to the stars until you're going really, really fast?

Yeah, I forgot to delete it. I just posted the nits that I've had for this episode in my Nitpick Document for years. Thanks.

Anon.:At the same time the probe is launched Picard (don't recalls is other name) is talking to the wife and friend he thought long dead (not even aged). It was a simulation, and the probe was probably to remind him of it but it does not mean when the real probe was launched from the real planet the planet looked like that. It could be that was the way they wanted people to remember the planet, simple and non developed.

I can undertand what you're saying. I can also understand Luigi's point that we're not getting an accurate picture of Kataanian society if we examine one rural village. However, I *STILL* don't buy it. Humans won't be able to develop the computing power necessary for that probe to function for decades, maybe even a century or two. Unless there is some cultural, religious, or psychological reason that the Kataanians do not engage in space travel, it is inconceivable that they have this extraordinarily advanced software but just launch small missiles.

I always thought that it would be interesting to say that, 1000 years ago, Kataan was claimed by an agressive, domineering empire who refused to allow its enslaved worlds access to space to prevent them from rebelling. When it became clear that the star was going to go nova, the empire showed no interest in evacuating the residents of Kataan and refused to allow them to construct space vessels for the task. Therefore, they built dozens of stealthy, tiny probes to go out and spread this knowledge of their civilization.

MAJOR KUDOS: The makeup dept. really deserves an extra round of applause for the work they did on Stewart's (Picard's / Kamin's) face.

Also Patrick Stewart's acting was very well done.

The ending with the flute was a nice touch.

Richard Riehle (Batai) is a familiar face from sitcoms like Grounded for Life and Married to the Kellys, but I'll always remember him for playing useless Tom Smykowski ("What exactly do you do around here?") in "Office Space."

In "Justice", the "god-entity" sent a "magic bubble" to communicate with Data by placing itself onto Data's head...and no one interferred.

However, in this episode, Captain Picard gets "linked" to the alien probe and Riker wants to disconnect it from Picard.

Why can't Riker just leave things alone?

I thought it was a nice touch to add Daniel Stewart (Patrick's real son) to the drama of the episode

Notes;

>>Picard/Kamin's job;

Although Picard in the 'dream' is indentifyed as an iron weaver we're not told exactly what that involves in this culture. While it would seem to imply he works with Iron it would be wrong to assume this, or think that is all that the title/job involves. It could, for example, involve not only creating iron items for use in cemomonies but also officating at those cemominies or dealing with social matters. The title/job may have changed over the years to include duties that have nothing to do with working with Iron.

>>Why no high technology?;

Just because the culture as a whole has advanced technology doesn't mean that they choose to use it. Picards brother lives on Earth and has deliberatly chosen not to make use of much of the technology the Federation has to offer. Likewise just because we have dishwashers that does not mean I have to own one.

>>Why dump him in the sticks?;

Three reasons I can think of.

First of all whoever was placed into the simulation was going to need some time to get used to it - as Picard needed time. Dumping the selected individual into a heavily populated area would most likely overwhelm them.

Second you'd have to provide information about a huge number of people to populate a city and make it seem real. This amount of information and detail may be beyond what the probe is capable of doing.

Third, if all the people Picard knows as Kamin were basied on real people - maybe having their memories copied for the program - then it would be impractical to try and copy the memories of the entire population. It is also likey (Both logically and from what was said in the episode) that news as to what was going to happen was kept secret to avoid mass panic. If so you wouldn't want to let to many people into the secret. It would be easier from a security viewpoint to let a smallish town/village into the secret.

>>Why not make him someone (more) important?;

If the intention is to show someone what the culture was like, and what happened to it, you don't want to put the person in a position where they would;

A - Know what has going to happen, including the construction of the probe. If you did they would either work out they were in a simulation or they would spend all their days trying to solve the problem instead of living their life in the simulation.

B - would be in a position to alter the outcome. If Picard, for example, had been a scientist he might have been able to 'develop' warp drive or protect the population.

>>Why didn't the Kataanians just evacuate the planet?;

Since the probe didn't have warp drive I'd assume the kataanians didn't have that technology. This would mean that any attempt to evacuate the planet would have to be done at sublight speeds. Even assuming there was another habitable planet close by this trip would take decades, if not centuries, and require a huge ship just for a small percentage of the population.
Unless they already had the technology to make such ships - which it seems they didn't - it could have taken them more time to construct such a ship than they had.

Even if they did build such a ship it may not have been fast enough to get out of the danger area at sublight speeds alone.

They may not have been able to detect any habitable planets they could travel to. Consider that while we can detect planets today we can't do much more than make a best guess as to what the surface and conditions on them is.

We don't know that they didn't try to evacuate at least some people. There is nothing to say that there were not other projects in the works that the designers of the probe knew nothing about. In fact I'd be very surprised if the goverment would have let anyone know had they built ships to evacuate a small number of people - it would only lead to panic from those who were forced to remain behind to die.

>>Why does Kamin seem to have the same tastes as Picard?;

Maybe he doesn't. The probe could have altered Kamin's background to fit with Picard's hobbies and interests.
Alternatively if Picard had turned out to have different hobbies/interests than Kamin the simulation could have explained this as being the result of his illness.
The same would hold for traits seen in his children - the program would no doubt alter the appearances of Kamin's children to resemble Picard ('My Children!? They don't look anything like me! What were you really doing while I was Ill!?)

>>Of the 1000 people on Enterprise why pick Picard?;

I have a theory on this. Picard is the only person on the ship who was assimulated by the Borg. We will learn in ST First Contact that Picard can still hear the Borg.
If the probe scanned the ship to find a mind it could interact with Picard may have been the most receptive because of what the Borg did to him.

Luigi Novi: "...but consider this: Did 1950s Earth have automatic, push-button door openers?"

When the door opens, it reminds me of certain microwaves which the door is activated by a button instead of pulling a handle. Though, given the radiation from the sun, maybe that was part of the gag.


By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, March 21, 2003 - 9:54 pm:
Yeah, I forgot to delete it. I just posted the nits that I've had for this episode in my Nitpick Document for years. Thanks.

You have a document? Considering how many nits you've posted, that's got to be one big document by now.


As for why not pick someone more important, well, Kamin's research did go back farther than any of the scientists, he was the developer of the "sun screen," He was aware that building the condensors was a matter of survival. Kamin was important.

The document for the first four live-action series and their film is 1,334 pages. The one for Enterprise is 82.

But was it Kamin who did that, or Picard? I thought Kamin was just an iron weaver.

It seems unlikely that the original Kamin could have developed all those things. I got the impression that it was Picard, using his knowledge of Federation science, who managed to do all that.

I'm guessing that the program the probe contained was designed so that who-ever lived Karmin's life wouldn't have been able to alter the outcome. After all it was intended to allow the subject to see what life on the planet was on.

It is also possible that such devices WERE built, but that Karmin wasn't part of it. If Picard/Karmin in the simulation started to head in that direction the program could have just arranged for the people who really worked on such things to find him out and work with him. Alternatively it could have arranged matters so that if Picard had discovered a way to alter the history something would have happened to prevent the plan from being put into effect - no funding, device fails/blows up on launch for example.

There's an awesome fully orchestrated version of Jay Chattaway's flute theme on The Best of Star Trek: Volume One. You can hear it in a 40th anniversary retrospective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_HKdvNhgA

Morgan Gendel has co-authored a sequel to this episode in on-line comic form, titled (what else?) "The Outer Light." More details here.

Why did I read that as "Gregor Mendel"