I found the holodeck aspect interesting, but the rest of the show is pure trash. One of the worst. So bad even I can't defend it. Shows like this are the ones that gave the animated series such a bad name. Just plain dumb.
I actuaaly thought the episode showed promise at the start with Enterprise having to face three Romulan ships and then having to high-tail it through the ion storm. Reminded of the start of an episode of Voyager and one of those anomalies they're always coming across.
Why doesn't the Enterprise balloon vaporise when shot by the Romulan phasers, instead of just deflate?
Spocks says the ship is acting illogically so he can't come up with a logical solution to the problem. Don't Vulcans have to deal with illogic situations every day, especially Spock, given he is surrounded by humans?
And this is a real grungy nit but the episode is called *The* Practical Joker.
Where does the Enterprise balloon come from anyway? Is such an item part of the ships arsenal to begin with? If not, did the computer just manufacture it for the purposes of its joke?
From what, I wonder?
There is a reference to an Enterprize "sensor balloon" (inflatable, but all sensor readings would be "real") in the novel "How Much for Just the Planet?".
"... or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll..." describes adequately its fate.
How the hell could a balloon fly straight through space ? How could romulan sensors not know it's a balloon ? if a balloon was hit by a plasma energy type weapon wouldn't it voporize ?
Well since there is no air in outer space for the balloon to resist against it could fly quite well if it had a thruster package attached. If it was made of a sensor reflective material with an active ecm module in the thruster package it would not be too hard to foil a cursory scan. As for surviving a plasma weapon thats a lot more tricky as I would have to agree with the plasma hit = boom theory for the balloon. But the balloon in HMFJTP was meant as a decoy during combat scenarios and practice sessions. So maybe it had been made part of the Enterprise's equipment by that time at least on a provisional basis.
As well as all the Holodeck Disaster episodes, this was rather reminiscent of 'Emergence' TNG (or rather the other way around). Consider: the computer develops its own intelligence and the holodeck goes awry. Also shades of 'Masks' - stuff appears all over the ship. Actually, this episode seems to assume that Kirk's Enterprise has replicators as advanced as the Enterprise-D - otherwise how did the computer somehow manufacture things like the joke scope on Spock's console?
I don't think the Enterprise balloon was a genuine article, or the Romulans would have recognised it as a training device. For a start, it was many times larger than the Enterprise itself.
This is the third episode of TAS to be directed by Bill Reed instead of Hal Sutherland.
If I'm not mistaken, and not misinterpreting the ep, "Court Martial", then events on the Bridge, at least, are under constant surveillence. If there was a practical joker on ship, then wouldn't it be easy to find out who it is by playing back the visual logs to see who put the device on Spock's scanner? (Which of course, would reveal that the ship itself put it there, thus shortening the ep considerably.)
Forget how the ship made the addition to Spock's scanner. I wanna know how it got it there.
Wow, that's a first. Lt. Arex has the conn. Despite the fact that Uhura, Sulu and Mr. Spock are on the Bridge.
Kirk and Spock step through the door on the Bridge into... a corridor??? Huh? I thought the only thing the door on the Bridge led to was a turbolift?
Up til now, all the Rec Rooms we've seen have been rooms with tables, chairs and various games in them. This is the first that has a holo-device in it.
Having the Rec Room console remain visible when you've decided to take a walk in the forest sort of spoils the illusion you're no longer on a ship, doesn't it?
How does M'Ress know where McCoy, Sulu and Uhura are? Did they tell her they were going to be in the Rec Room? And if they weren't responding and Kirk knows where they are, why doesn't he immediately send somebody after them, rather than wait awhile?
After the commercial break, McCoy says, "Lt. Uhura, I have to tell you this (the walk in the forest) is exactly what the doctor ordered." Well, yeah, you did order it, Bones. Or at least it was your idea.
According to closed captioning, the computer says, "'Pretty please with sugar on it.'" However, what we hear is "'Pretty please with sugar on.'"
Cargo hatch? That looks more like the Hangar Deck. (Which it is.)
Why would going through the energy field again undo the damage to the ship's computers? I would have thought it would have done more damage. (Then again, they never really do explain why it caused the particular damage it did in the first place.)
Why would the Romulans be transmitting a message about their food synthesizers? Wouldn't that be only on their intraship intercoms, if aired at all?
"Live long and prosper."
RE: BENN: It's possible that the scene with the corridor next to the Bridge was another "practical joke" from the entity.
Possible. But if so, then Kirk and Spock should have been asking where the corridor came from. They acted like it was supposed to be there. Only the fog was an anomaly as far as they were concerned.
"Live long and prosper."
By Benn (Benn) on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 2:23 am:
+ Kirk and Spock step through the door on the Bridge into... a corridor??? Huh? I thought the only thing the door on the Bridge led to was a turbolift? +
That reminds me of an old issue of the Star Trek Gold Key comic book that I once read, wherein another Captain Kirk was discovered in a capsule in space, or some such. This Kirk was from an earlier, pre-big bang universe in which he chose to (somehow) survive into the next universe to warn his future counterparts of some huge diaster of some kind. Anyhow, there was a scene in the end involving all crew members to join hands in a kind of "collective-will" (a bit like the Next Generation's 'Where No One Has Gone Before' think-only-of-the-traveler' bit . The comic had a line of hand-holding people on the bridge, and the line went through the turbo-lift doors, presumably to join hands with the rest of the crew. How that happened through a turbolift, I couldn't figure out. It was the first and last issue I ever read. I wish now that weren't the case, for I suspect I missed out on a lot of good laughs!
Most of those old Gold Key comics have been reprinted by Checker Book Publishing. You can find more details here. Personally, I've got a couple of the old Enterprise Log books that reprinted the same comics. Boy, were those cheesy. And full of nits.
Live long and prosper.
Gold Key did provide the story for the animated episode "Time Trap".
How did the replicator "throw" food? Shouldn't it just fill up the space & spill out?
Sulu, McCoy & Uhura go into the Rec Room & Sulu asks if they want to take a swim.
Wearing what? None of them appears to have brought a swimsuit.
Why doesn't Spock try overriding the computer like he did when Redjac had taken it over in Wolf In The Fold?
The glasses that Kirk & the crew drank out of looked totally impractical even without tampering by the Enterprise.Any liquid would have poured out of either side of the glass.Kirk says that he discovered that on the back of his uniform are the words Kirk is a jerk.How'd he see that exactly,reflection in a mirror?Did the Enterprise do that to each of his shirts,if not,then he must surely have more than one uniform shirt in his closet that might have not had anything written on the back.Kirk orders Scotty to shut down all logic functions of the ship computer.Isn't that something Spock would do? I always liked the Romulan uniforms from the original series,a shame they modified them for the animated show.
Why would the Romulans need to hide behind an asteroid to set up an ambush, don't they have cloaking technology?
The Romulans give up their initial pursuit a bit too easily. Their ships were intact, unlike the Enterprise who had been damaged, they were much less likely to sustain damage from the energy field than Enterprise was.
Btw, those Romulans attacked a Federation ship in Federation space. Isn't that an automatic act of war?