Can someone please explain to me how on earth (no pun intended, not even an extremely bad one) Pressman made admiral? This guy loses his ship under highly suspicious circumstances, the investigation is inconclusive... and Starfleet promotes him? I know that promoveatur ut amoveatur seems to be the creed of Starfleet Command, but...

Don't get me wrong, this is one of my favourite eps. I just don't understand what Starfleet was thinking...

I think Pressman had knowledge of Section 31 so perhaps they helped him go up in the ranks. He is after all Asst. Chief of Starfleet INTELLIGENCE!

Riker lost the Enterprise D, which wasn't rotating its shield frequencies, to an aging Klingon Bird of Prey in "Generations," yet Riker wasn't drummed out of Starfleet.

He wasn't promoted to admiral either.

BTW, I didn't say Pressman should have been drummed out of Starfleet, just that I didn't think his making admiral made much sense...

Actually, don't you think they should perhaps let Riker be captain of his own ship in the Next Gen film? Like Sulu?

Heres my idea of the next film...
Picard gracefully takes command of Starfleet Command and a promotion to high Admiral. Worf, on a meeting from Kronos, congradulates his former Captain and plays one last game of poker with his friends on the Enterprise. Meanwhile, a conspiracy in starfleet comes to a boiling point when a group of high ranking officers and their subordinates take command of the USS Promethius and head to former Dominion territory to kill all remaining Dominion personnel-thus ending the Dominion threat in the Alpha Quadrant once and for all.The Enterprise takes chase. Picard commands one last time. Meanwhile, Captain Sisko completes his time with the Prophets as they tell him of the new threat. He goes home, into the loving arms of his son, Jake, his wife, Kasidy, and his one year old infant, Joseph(named after his granfather). The Female Changeling contacts Odo through a new comm array near the wormhole and he comes home to DS9.
The battle takes place at DS9 with the Defiant-A and the Enterprise fighting not only their enemies but their friends as well. They come out victorious, but Odo tells Kira he has to go back to the Founders and complete his task. But Sisko stays on DS9. Everyone wishes Picard good luck in his new job as head Starfleet Commander.
The Enterprise effects repairs fo a few days. As the movie ends, Picard says a final good bye to as his dear friends and, to everyones amazement, hugs Will. Will hugs him back and he beams down to Earth with the senior staff, teary-eyed, smiling back at him.
As the movie ends, Riker Puts his last Rank Pip on, followed by his communicator. He walks onto the bridge, Commander Data in the seat to his right. He touches Picard's chair. Deanna tells him he is now in command and to make Picard proud. Riker sits down. The final pan shows the crew of the Enterprise-Captain Riker, Commander Data, Counselor Troi, Lt. Commander LaForge, and Doctor Crusher-for the last time, on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, ready for what lies beyond. Riker tells the Helm officer to take them out, and the final shot shows a beautiful pan of the words USS Enterprise as the mighty ship leaves spacedock and slides through space, past Earth, Past the sun, and disappears into a flash of light...

See how nice it would be to wrap up both DS9 and Nextgen in one smooth movie? Just no Voyager ok?
Thanks for reading.

I wouldn't mind if Paris, Seven or the Doctor made it into a future movie (Paris as Enterprise conn officer; Seven as chief of sciences?). They are the only Voyager characters who haven't managed to tick me off in one way or another.

It WAS 12 years between the time he lost the ship and the time of the episode. it's not like they promoted him the next week.

This may sound like a •••••• Question but, was the character of Admiral Erik Pressman in this episode, Jewish, the actor who played him, Terry O'Quinn, wasn't, but Im talking about the fictional Admiral Pressman, . I know "Pressman" is a Jewish last name and there have been a few Jewish Characters In Star Trek. I'm basing this assumption on their fictional last names, religiously they weren't Jewish, and are the Ferengi supposed to be like Jews, seems like an anti-semitic sterotype. I'm against anti-semitism, the Holocaust was a tragedy, I wonder what the late Rabbi Meir Kahane would think of the Ferengi?

That last post made no sense whatsoever. How are the Ferengi supposed to be like Jews? That comment came out of nowhere.

First, I don't think any characters in Star Trek have ever been Jewish.

As for the Ferengi, the only way that could be like the Jewish people would be the moronic stereotype that Jews love money and are greedy.

First of all why is it that 5 diferent Trek boards have suddenly gotten hit with questions about Jews on Star Trek?

As for the Ferengi question. They love money and as you will recall were likened to "Ocean going Yankee traiders" by Data. They are supposed to be the worst of aspects of capitalism all roled into one. I have no idea how anyone could figure that they are supposed to be Jews.

As for Jewish characters on Trek. As you will recall most humans on the shows don't have any religous beliefs at all. That means that the only other way to consider someone Jewish is through their ethnic heritage which is hardly something that almost anyone in their world (or even this one) would care much about.

Still by ethnic heritage going by surnames such as Dr Carol Marcus and her son David, Pressman, Rifkin, Epstein, Samuels, Kaplan, Green, we can safely presume their have been a few ethnically Jewish characters on 0Star Trek, in addition to the Many Jewish actors. By characters I mean fictional characters, William Shatner is Jewish but the character he plays, Jim Kirk is not.

Green is not always a Jewish surname. When my 's, early relatives came over from Germany (late 1800's, early 1900's), their surname was Americanized to Green, and they were Catholic, not Jewish. The same can be said of many last names ending in, "-stein." Pronounced, "steen" the name is seen as Jewish, but pronounced, "stiyne" it would be considered German. At least in the US, there have been so many interfaith marriages, and people who don't follow any particular religion, that going by the last name alone is not effective.

In the NextGen Guide II, Phil wondered where the Romulans got a piece of the Pegasus since it never exploded. However several times in the show it's mentioned that there was a hull breach. It was probably a piece of the hull where the ship breached that the Romulans recovered.

After the Romulans resume their Tachyon sweep, Worf comments that the Romulans have had two days head start. How did he know that the Romulans have been there for two days?

Did everyone on the Pegasus know about the cloaking device or just Ensigns like Riker?

If there had been a hull breach in Engineering then why were there bodies lying around? Shouldn't the explosive decompression have blown them into space?

Supposedly this device allows a ship to pass through solid matter and what happened to the Pegasus seems to verify this, but when the Enterprise leaves the asteroid, why doesn't the rock pass through the bridge?

Also in the book Phil wondered why Pressman was so eager to recover the device when there should be blueprints. Well, if the Romulans had gotten hold of the Pegasus, they could prove that it had a Federation cloaking device in violation of the Treaty.

I wonder if the Federation could claim that the cloaking effect was accidental and that the real intent was to build a phasing device?

At the end of the show we see Riker in a detention cell, but where are they keeping Admiral Pressman?

Everytime they mention the treaty of Algeron I wondered if that's the same Algeron who got flowers?

Wasn't the story called Flowers for Algernon - with two Ns?

Yes, Chris but, I think Keith is punning.

Did everyone on the Pegasus know about the cloaking device or just Ensigns like Riker?

Riker was on the bridge at the time of the crisis as I remember. Anyone on the bridge, in engineering, or manning sensors would know what was happening.

KAM: When the Enterprise leaves the asteroid, why doesn't the rock pass through the bridge?
Luigi Novi: Bingo, Keith. Thing is, it would've been very difficult to film in a way that would've conveyed what was happening. We wouldn't have even been able to see the bridge. The same problem came up in Death Wish(VOY), and the effect that was used to convey it in that episode wasn't the most convincing.

KAM:Also in the book Phil wondered why Pressman was so eager to recover the device when there should be blueprints. Well, if the Romulans had gotten hold of the Pegasus, they could prove that it had a Federation cloaking device in violation of the Treaty.
Luigi Novi: Yeah, but it doesn't really seem that that's Pressman's main concern in this episode. He clearly seems to want to get to the device so they can USE it. His statement to Picard that the Treaty of Algeron has handcuffed them for decades is partially an indication of this. If Pressman feels this way, and they've been using blueprints, well, then why HAVEN'T they been using the phase cloak? It seems from Pressman's attitude that they haven't.

Was Picard (or even Riker) just trying to make a point with Will being in a cell at the end? Given the circumstances, confining him to quarters would probably have been just as effective. (After all, in one episode Data attacked a fellow crewmember with a weapon, and he was just sent to his room!)

Why is Picard so upset? After all, the Romulans aactually attempted to invade Federation planet Vulcan a few episodes back, and nobody in the Federation diplomatic corps told them that in view of this, all treaty bets are off? Picard himself goes on covert missions from time to time, also. Moreover, all he had to do was go to the nearest Starbase and let the Federation authorities sort it all out. Instead, he reveals himself to the Romulans.

Picard should have been court marshalled a long time ago.

I'd sure like to know HOW this cloaking device was made and installed by a Federation Starbase & nobody knew it. I find it hard to believe that EVERYONE at the construction site for the Pegasus was in on the conspiracy. And if it was made after leaving drydock, it sure doesn't say too much about the ENTIRE CREW of the Pegasus either.

Maybe the cloak installers were cloaked? ;-)

Anonymous: Picard should have been court marshalled a long time ago.

But he was probably passed over for promotion in favour of up-and-coming captains who performed more heroic deeds...

John, about the conspiracy-theory theory (as it were) you suggest - I don't think it's that improbable. The Feds were probably worried about the lack of Romulan activity for a while now, and some renegade Admiral, possibly someone working for Section 31 who uses copies of the Treaty of Algeron as toilet paper, commissioned the Pegasus project to try and keep in step.

I mean, if a conspiracy between Federation, Klingon and Romulan officials can lead to the assassination of the Klingon chancellor and risk major interstellar war, then anything is possible.

I must note that this is probably the best episode directed by Levar Burton

RE: Sven of Nine..passed over for promotion....

You bet! Imagine the relief at those Admiral's dinners that Picard is always ducking, when they learn that they won't have to entertain the man who has ruined more flag officers than the Dominion war...

As for the "conspiracy," well, all it would really take is a few clever moves by the Starfleet judge advocate's office, say a memorandum to the effect that "In our opinion, a device for examining the interior of asteroids is not a cloaking device banned by the treaty, even if there are some incidental and tangential cloaking effects...."

Some of the footage of the asteroid belt comes from "Galaxy's Child"

The Treaty of Algeron is a weapons treaty. I think that history is clear that weapons' treaties are garbage. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the Russians have a weapons treaty with us that they broke. I believe it was one of the SALT treaties.

JAL: I'd sure like to know HOW this cloaking device was made and installed by a Federation Starbase & nobody knew it. I find it hard to believe that EVERYONE at the construction site for the Pegasus was in on the conspiracy. And if it was made after leaving drydock, it sure doesn't say too much about the ENTIRE CREW of the Pegasus either.

Your statement is full of assumptions, John. First off, nothing says the device was installed by a Federation starbase. By all indications, this device is the size of a suitcase and could be easily installed at any time. Perhaps a covert transport rendezvoued with the Pegasus and delivered the device well away from any nearby facilities. As such, there would be no need for the construction workers or even most of the crew to have any knowledge of what was happening. (After all, the Enterprise hooked the device up and made it work, and their systems were never designed to accept such a device--or, even if they were, La Forge didn't seem to know anything about the ship being "Phase'n'Cloak Ready". This implies that the installation process is fairly straightforward.)

This same argument applies to the device being installed later. Let's say the chief engineer clears the engine room, seals all the hatches, guards are posted at all entrances, and a special team is brought in to install the device. Nobody but the ChEng, the captain, and the outside team have to know anything. The controls only respond to the captain's command codes, so no one can poke around the computer and discover the device's purpose.

Is Admiral Pressman supposed to be Jewish?

Why?

I don't know, either, but I expect we'll be hearing about Rabbi Meir Kahane in a second...

Warning from the moderator: This turns into anything even slightly resembling a flame war and all the related posts will be deleted.

I suspect Kahane-Fan Anonymatt wouldn't really want Pressman to be Jewish, since he is the villain of the episode.

>>Supposedly this device allows a ship to pass through solid matter and what happened to the Pegasus seems to verify this, but when the Enterprise leaves the asteroid, why doesn't the rock pass through the bridge?

It seemed to me that the shield bubble represents the boundary of "phased" matter. Thus, only at the edge of the shield bubble does the rock appear.

The Pegasus got rock inside it's shield bubble because the shield was deactivated (or it malfunctioned, I suppose) while they were travelling through rock. Until that point, they couldn't see the rock in the port-less Engineering compartment.

I wish they showed the screen-view when they are moving through the rock... I was kinda waiting for it. No such luck :-(

So, when exactly during this episode do Riker and Troi slip into the holodeck to review Archer's final mission? : )

And, how come Worf isn't concerned that his honey bunny Troi is hanging out with her ex, the XO?

After Riker was released from the Brig?

Maybe showing episodes of Enterprise is a form of punishment?

From what I've read, Riker & Troi viewed Archer's logs sometime after the Admiral's arrival.

(It must have happened when we weren't looking!)

One unanswered question in this episode: would Riker have done the right thing if he hadn't needed to reveal the existence of the cloaking device to save the Enterprise?

True, he wasn't going to help Pressman and he made a lot of noise about the device, but he wasn't necessarily going to stop him either. Pressman told him to keep quiet about it but Riker never got a chance to answer. So what would he have done if the Enterprise hadn't been at stake?

After the Romulans resume their Tachyon sweep, Worf comments that the Romulans have had two days head start. How did he know that the Romulans have been there for two days? - KAM

That's true, but add this in too: Pressman said that three days ago, Starfleet found out that the Romulans recovered the debris (or maybe that the actual recovery was three days ago -- the dialogue isn't clear). But either way, wouldn't the Romulans have been searching the system for at least three days?

I think Riker's confrontation with Pressman was the creator's way of indicating that he was coming to the right decision on his own, before the use of the phase cloak became necessary, and that therefore, it's implied that he would've done the right thing.

Apparently, "These Are The Voyages" (ENT) takes place during this episode.

The only moment I could see where Riker could have the time and go to the Holodeck to search through Archer's voyages was when Pressman & Picard were chatting about Riker in the Ready Room....which wasn't very much time I must add.

The Pegasus would be considered a "project" ship by today's navy standards; meaning it was built with more advanced technology for testing. The phasing-cloak was not built at a starbase, it was built onboard and tested with the the consent of only a few officials. This is of course also an assumption, but this is what project vessils do. Also, is main engineering on an Oberth-class starship accessable in the exposed section of the Pegasus? Only about half of the saucer and bit of the nacelles and undersection was visable.

Did anyone on the Enterprise think of using the transporter to carve out an escape path? Perhaps this would have reduced the chance of collapsing the asteroid(which is why they didn't use weapons) They also could have transported a probe outside of the asteroid to call for or leave to get help.(once the Romulans lost interest and left)

While using weapons to get out may have collapsed the asteroid, why not use antigravitons to repel the fragments?

Actually, why didn't the Romulans try to collapse the asteroid on the Enterprise?

Actually, why didn't the Romulans try to collapse the asteroid on the Enterprise?

because they wanted the enterprise intact to steal secrets. If picard transported his crew over to the warbird, then the warbird would go to romulus, and another warbird would sneak in and try to steal stuff.

(This is of course assuming that the romulan commander was sincere in his message about the crew being guests on romulus without any interogations.)

By Nick Angeloni (Nangeloni) on Monday, July 12, 1999 - 12:27 am:
"I wouldn't mind if Paris, Seven or the Doctor made it into a future movie (Paris as Enterprise conn officer; Seven as chief of sciences?). They are the only Voyager characters who haven't managed to tick me off in one way or another."

Torque:
I may be the only one, but I actually liked Ensign Kim. I could feel for how he barely gets recognized for his work; still in ensign etc. For me, I'd think it would nice to see Kim get into some position, and be promoted etc without it being one of those reset episodes...

Also, Seven would most likely take a position next to her husband, Chuckles.

-----

NANJAO
In the DS9 episode, name escapes me, but its the Latin titled one I think; where Bashir goes to play spy on Romulus. Well in that episode, it talks about how the Federation has an operative, in the Romulan HC. While the DS9 episode doesn't specifically say that it’s referring to this episode, one could assume...

-----

Comments From the Guides
Possible Anti-Nit
Phil mentions that the value of 500 meters is smaller than the width of the Enterprise D saucer section. Picard could have been referring to a clearance value of 500 meters. Such that if the chasm narrowed to where there was less than 500 meters between any part of the hull and the rock face, then he'd abort the mission. This actually makes more sense. Even if Picard had given the actual value of the width of the saucer section, he'd still want some clearance in case there were gravitational anomalies etc.

-----

Comments
Some have mentioned the blueprints of the cloaking device when discussing why they need the actual prototype. Well, seeing how the house I’m living in right now doesn’t exactly match its blueprints *shady construction* (walls not exactly aligned, light switches weren’t grounded in some rooms (they have since been fixed), etc.), there’s no guarantee that the blueprints would effectively match the working design. It’s quite probable that modifications were made after those blueprints were created. (Think of how Geordi modified the warp core on the Enterprise D, to much of the annoyance of Leah Brahams.

Great Moments
I love the look Worf gives Pressman when Worf is refusing to confine Picard to his Quarters. The way he portrays it, even if everyone else on the Bridge would have supported Pressman, nobody would have tried to take on the Klingon.

With regards to the above conversation about "collapsing" an asteroid: there's no gravity in space. If Enterprise shot a bunch of torpedoes at the asteroid, the explosive force would send rocks away from the ship.

There's also something that's always bugged me about asteriod belts and fields on TV shows. I read somewhere that the size of all the asteroids in our own belt put together would be something like half the size of the moon. If that's the case, then there's no way there can be a densely-packed belt of asteroids (i.e. all within eyesight of each other) going all the way around the sun. Can anyone with astronomical experience answer my question?

I believe the asteroid was big enough to create its own gravity.

Asteroids belts & fields in SF are usually more tightly packed for BILC (Because It Looks Cool).

A densely-packed belt going around the sun would be highly improbable if not outright impossible. However a densely packed section might be possible, although too many & too close and they would be drawn together because of gravity.

This site backs up the half the moon idea.

Terry O'Quinn's name may still be less than a household name, but I think his face is, what with his brilliant work as John Locke on "Lost." O'Quinn also was on "Millennium" as a regular. I believe he was in the very first Sprint commercial in which he assigned the familiar "Trenchcoat Man" to his work.

"JAL: I'd sure like to know HOW this cloaking device was made and installed by a Federation Starbase & nobody knew it. I find it hard to believe that EVERYONE at the construction site for the Pegasus was in on the conspiracy. And if it was made after leaving drydock, it sure doesn't say too much about the ENTIRE CREW of the Pegasus either."

We see a cloaking device in DS9 twice. The first one is small enough for Quark to hold in his hand - although this is meant for a small ship. The second is a Klingon device stolen, once again by Quark, was around the size of a small coffee - although its unclear how large a ship this device was meant for it was powerful enough to cloak a Nek'var class ship later on. In both cases the devices are easily small enough to be moved around a ship or transported without anyone knowing what you are up to, and they can be removed and reinstalled easily. That they were able to remove the cloak from the Pegasus and install it on Enterprise without any experience of fitting cloaks to Federation ships would imply that the same held here. Namely that you didn't/don't need any outside help installing a cloaking device on a ship, any skilled crew can do it themselves.

These are the Voyages (ENT); There is enough time for Riker and Troy to have been on the holodeck during this episode. After all it is highly doubtful that the Enterprise D managed to get to the Field, find the Pegasus, remove the cloak and then install it on the Enterprise in 45 minutes. We can assume, as we can in all Startrek episodes, that we only get to see the more interesting bits rather than the crew doing their day to day duties;

'Next Week on Startrek The Next Generation. Follow the adventurers of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, ace statistician, as he boldly goes where no-man has gone before, and tries to work out exactly how much Doctor Crusher owes Mr Mott for all her hairstyles. See the gallant Captain struggle with Calculus as he works out exactly how many hits the Enterprise can take before he needs to return fire...See him combat Klingon maths with its double decimal system...Watch in awe as he works out how many torpedo's the Voyager really fired in seven years...'

Somehow I don't think it would be a great hit, although it might make for more interesting viewing than some Startrek episodes...

Perhap we can have an ep where Picard get audited by the IRS?

I'm trying to get the sequence of events on the Pegasus correct, because something here doesn't quite add up.

From what I can tell it appears that they fitted this cloak to the ship, then took off to test it along the neutral zone (Which is really, really dumb anyway. see below). Then, when they tested this device it caused a plasma conduit to explode, damaging the ship and leading to the surviving crew having to abandon ship. The Pegasus continues to drift along for a while before coming to a rest inside the asteroid. (The crew must have left the ship before it stopped in the asteroid or they would have known where the ship was from the start).
Errm, one rather major problem here. I'm lead to understand two things;
Cloaking devices use a hell of a lot of power, which is why cloaked ships can't fire when cloaked.
Plasma conduits are part of the warp drive, which is the primary power source for starships.
If both above are true then it seems that the ship managed to remain cloaked without main power. No wonder Starfleet wants this cloak back.


Why would you want to test a bit of highly advanced, ultra top secret and illegal equipment in front of the Romulans. The reason it is illegal is because of a treaty you have with the pointy eared ones so why test it anywhere near them? Couldn't they find somewhere out of the way?

I believe the cloak was built onboard while the ship was away, not at a starbase. Also the ship could have been moving toward the asteroid at a high rate of speed, and an asteroid field would be a decent place to test it due to natural cover, so the cloak would only need a few seconds of extra power before it failed and de-phased partially imbedded in rock.

Question; How many times do we see an Enterprise use a cloaking device?

>>Also the ship could have been moving toward the asteroid at a high rate of speed, and an asteroid field would be a decent place to test it due to natural cover, so the cloak would only need a few seconds of extra power before it failed and de-phased partially imbedded in rock.

I don't buy this;

The explosion was the reason why the ship had to be evacuated. Consider that the crew would have to react to the explosion, take damage reports, realise that they couldn't do anything to save the ship and then get to the escape pods. There is no way they managed to do all that in a 'few seconds'.

To repeat myself, if you are going to test an ultra top secret, illegal bit of equipment you'd want to do so as far away from the people you couldn't control/boss around as possible. Asteroid field or not testing it anywhere near the Romulan boarder where there might be cloaked ships watching you is about as dumb as you can get. The Romulans apparently knew or suspected that the Pegasus had a working cloak since they started looking for the ship when they found debris. Which only proves quite how stupid the whole thing was.
What was Pressman's next part of the test? Holding a press conference so everyone knew what he'd been doing?

Nit; Why didn't Pressman set off the self-destruct to destroy the cloak? If he couldn't then that only adds to the question 'how did the cloak remain active'?

Re decloaking in front of the Romulans; Like the chief I wondered why Picard decided to decloak the Enterprise right in front of the Romulans, thereby proving to them that Starfleet had broken the treaty by creating such a device, and then again by using it at least once on the Enterprise. Then I considered this again and realised that our good Captain is playing the kind of politics Machiavelli would have been proud of.
Picard must know that Pressman has some serious support, both in order to create the cloak and afterwards to hide what he'd done. As such he probably guessed that if they returned home with the cloak Pressman would get to walk away and his friends would just cover the episode up...unless the Romulans had enough evidence to start complaining to the Federation. So, Picard decides to give the Romulans the evidence they would need, since Pressman is, as several people have noted, the last person who should be an Admiral.
Picard does the following, and uses the following logic/excuses;

1-Fit the cloaking device to the Enterprise. Since this is a phasing cloak it is the best chance for the Enterprise to quickly escape the asteroid.

2-Activate the cloak to get out as quickly as possible. The logic would be that it is better to leave while there is only one Romulan ship nearby, since if he waits more ships will turn up. If the Romulans decide to try and take the cloak by force it would be better to face only one ship than several.

3-As soon as they have left the asteroid turn the cloak off. Picard can argue that the Romulans would at this point already know the Enterprise is fitted with a cloaking device since she would have vanished from their sensors. He would go on to argue that while the cloak seemed to work fine at impulse it might have malfunctioned if they'd tried to use it at warp or kept it working for any length of time - which is probably what happened to the Pegasus. Had this happened the Romulans would have not only had a good chance of getting the cloak but the Enterprise as well, making it the lesser of two evils.

Now The Romulans had evidence as to what Starfleet has been up to they will start making noises. In order to avoid a war, or seriously damaging their reputation with other governments The Federation has to quickly appease the Romulans by showing them that this wasn't an official experiment. The best way to do this is to openly investigate the matter and publicly place the person who's idea it was on trial...and that would be Pressman.

In short Picard managed not only to pick the most logical courses of action for the situation he was in, but he's also managed to shaft Pressman and most of his friends at the same time.

Answer; We see an Enterprise use a cloaking device four times in total.

Enterprise, in a mirror darkly part one. The ISS Enterprise uses a Suliban Cloak.

TOS, The Enterprise incident (I think). The Enterprise uses a Romulan cloak they stole.

TNG, The Pegasus. The Enterprise uses a Federation Cloaking device.

TNG, All good things. A Future Enterprise uses a cloaking device.

Maybe they used it next door to the Romulans so that if something happened, and the cloak had to be intentionally destroyed or worse, any distortion effects from the cloaking device... (any techno-babble charged particles that were emitted during the test) could be scapegoated to being Romulan activity.

You test something deep into the heart of the Federation and something doesn't go right, an investigation would yield that Starfleet was violating rules.

Well, since it seems that Pressman is washed up as a Starfleet officer, I wonder if Section 31 will be offering him a job soon. He is the kind of guy they would want, someone who breaks the rules for the sake of the Federation.

Even if Pressman is sent to prison, I'm sure 31 could find a way to spring him.

I really enjoyed the exchange between Picard and the Romulan commander after their ship first decloaks.

Two words: CHEF RIKER!

What were Sirtis and Frakes thinking, coming out of retirement by putting the old uniforms on and pretending their careers still exist?

I absolutely HATE the fact that the creators of Enterprise tarnished the memories of this decent TNG episode by associating it with their appalling abomination of a show!

And like Phil said, there must be many corrupt people at Starfleet Command if Pressman has that many friends there. And they all probably belong to Section 31!

Hmm...perhaps my previous post really belongs on the "These Are The Voyages" post on the Enterprise board. At least part of it does, anyway!

Just watched this episode again and I must conclude that there was not enough time for Riker to visit the Holodeck & play "Chef" on Archer's ship

Commander Riker only did this holodeck thing in one quantum reality. Not the one we prefer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esBh-gvGkRQ An alternate version of Captain Picard day. I didn't make it, I just thought it was funny.

Someone said this in the comment section for this video:

(Jean Luc "I'll surrender my ship on my first mission" Picard was a self-righteous blowhard who never passed up an opportunity to pontificate to all those lowly beings around him who did not fit into his idealized image of humanity. His brother Robert was right: he needed humbling. Too bad not even the Borg could conquer his indomitable ego, only put him at odds with it. That served to turn him into some sort of glossed over Captain Ahab.)

And he said this too:

(As Picard had yet to be injured by the Borg at Farpoint, he was not yet an Ahab type character by then. Just a pompous pontiff of Gene's overblown "vision.")

Whoa! Them's fightin' words! Personally I think this guy is being a little harsh, don't you think?

I don't want to get into the whole controversy about Gene's vision, I'm sick and tired of that argument. As it has been over 20 years since TNG debuted, I no longer have the patience for such a thing. The sad fact is that there are still Trek fans who never liked the direction Gene took with Trek in the 80's and to this day they will still let their frustrations be known in any way they can, in this case, an internet BBS.

So this guy doesn't like Picard, so what? I mean, really, who cares? Would he rather be like James "Shoot First Ask Questions Later" Kirk who pratically seduced and slept with every female humanoid in the galaxy? Would he rather have that? I know I wouldn't. That form of M.O. is way too politically incorrect for these times, anyway.

Anyway, I think this episode could have done without the Picard Day angle at the beginning, I just thought it was a little lame. Remember, the only kid Picard actually got along with was his nephew Rene, definetly not any of the children on board his ship.

(BTW, in the Cracked magazine parody from 1987, Picard was called "Puckhead" and Riker was called "Rekirk", and I think you all know why!)

I'm going through the series via Netflix and came across this ep once again. A couple posts touch on this but don't outright ask: why not simply remove the cloak and utilize the phasing device? The Treaty forbids the Feds to have cloaking technology but an interphase generator may be just fine, and be extremely beneficial in both exploration and defense.

Cybermortis: The explosion was the reason why the ship had to be evacuated.
The survivors evacuated due to the mutiny; the explosion happened afterwards and was witnessed in the escape pods.

In this episode didn't Admiral Pressman think he was doing the morally right thing, even if his actions were technically illegal ?

It's of course open to interpretation, but I wouldn't say Pressman was doing the morally, ethically, or legally right thing regarding the creation of the phasing cloak. He simply wanted to level the playing field when it came to the Romulan and Klingon tactical advantage of a cloaking device. Violating a treaty for the perception of 'unbinding our hands' (to paraphrase the episode) over a piece of technology isn't exactly acting morally, especially since SF have advantages of their own: fleet size, hundreds of worlds collaborating, captured/traded technology...

Of course, Section 31 would have no moral qualms about doing this.

I'm surprise they never recruited Pressman, because he thinks like they do: Protect the Federation at any cost and the consequences be damned.