VOY - Concerning Flight

[Darth Wedgius]

So if the raiders have transporter technology can't they just take scans and make copies of the stuff? Eh, maybe not. They might be using the transporter without really understanding it.

But yes, Rhys-Davies was great in this one. Leonardo was great when he's supposed to be, clueless when he's supposed to be, and larger than life when he's supposed to be, which was all the time.

The Doctor being interested in scuttlebutt lends weight to him being sentient, not just sapient, given that he's talking to Seven, the one person on the ship least likely to be impressed or to talk to anyone else about it.

I would have given it a bit of a higher score, this being Voyager, but I think SF Debris takes into account opportunities lost, and I can't say that doesn't happen here.

[bronnt]

The problem with stories like this one is the added layer of fictionalization makes it really tough for me to get invested in what's happening. Janeway is a fictional character, but in her reality, Leonardo is also a fictional character. He's not the real Leonardo, he's a computer simulation pretending to be Leonardo. That makes it extremely difficult for me to get invested in her interactions with him because the story is written like they'd have rather had time travel and the actual Leonardo around to interact with Janeway.

There were like 20 different times where it seemed the obvious move was just to turn off the holo-emitter, shove it in your pocket, and then be on your way, but the only story-telling trick they have in this story is letting Janeway interact with her historical idol. Which I find fine as a recreative activity, or like in Scorpion, where it's clearly an escape she uses to help refocus her brain.

I honestly wonder why an alien with no historical reference for Leonardo even found him amusing enough that he left him running instead of trying to sell the extremely-advanced mobile emitter technology.

I would just say they definitely got pretty innovated post TNG. I think Picard turning the safety protocols off against the Borg was pretty novel and dramatic. Then having a photogenic race infect the holodeck and control the ship in that one episode. How about where the crew is trapped inside it and the ship is deteriorating at the same time? Wicked stuff.

There's an in-universe explanation even provided. In 11001001, the Binars upgrade the Enterprise's computers, and most of the episode is about the evolution of holodeck characters. You can say that either the Enterprise shared their upgraded tech throughout Starfleet, or else the Binars were hired to help progress the Federation's simulation technology.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I would just say they definitely got pretty innovated post TNG. I think Picard turning the safety protocols off against the Borg was pretty novel and dramatic. Then having a photogenic race infect the holodeck and control the ship in that one episode. How about where the crew is trapped inside it and the ship is deteriorating at the same time? Wicked stuff.

There's an in-universe explanation even provided. In 11001001, the Binars upgrade the Enterprise's computers, and most of the episode is about the evolution of holodeck characters. You can say that either the Enterprise shared their upgraded tech throughout Starfleet, or else the Binars were hired to help progress the Federation's simulation technology.

I see. That's unfortunate for everybody involved.

[clearspira]

Well, it was only those four Binars that were criminals and even then they only captured the Enterprise to save their world. The others may have been perfectly happy to work with the Federation. Although as Chuck has noted previously, post-Borg the fact that the Binars essentially assimilate their kids is greatly problematic. It is an episode review that I am looking forward to assuming Chuck will go into this.

[cloudkitt]

I know it would have defeated the point of the episode (and done away with its bright spot), but it did always feel a little ridiculous that, while being pursued by people out to kill her, that Janeway would keep stopping to have discussions with him and not just shut him off and carry the mobile emitter with her. XD

[FaxModem1]

I know it would have defeated the point of the episode (and done away with its bright spot), but it did always feel a little ridiculous that, while being pursued by people out to kill her, that Janeway would keep stopping to have discussions with him and not just shut him off and carry the mobile emitter with her. XD

He would probably notice, and for whatever reason, save scumming is something just not done with holodeck programs.

[CharlesPhipps]

One of the strange things about holodeck episodes is the fact that the series writers had a fundamental disconnect with them. They always viewed them as simply a means to break the boundaries of the stories like, say, "And here's 1930s gangster episode" or "Irish village episode." The sheer fact a holodeck could be used to comment on the fact that the audience is heavily invested in a fictional world they wish to be a part of is something that only seems to have occurred to them circa Captain Proton.

It reminded me of TNG's "The Game" where VIDEO GAMES WERE DANGEROUS AND ADDICTIVE.

You know, despite the fact that's literally what a holodeck is.

Janeway's association with Leonardo Davichi is basically her love of Carmen Sandiego-esque edutainment. I also feel like, a bit like Captain Picard's love of gangster novels, the character having a deep and abiding love of a Renaissance painter/inventor/scientist is completely tacked on. Janeway likes Leonardo because the writers say she does and it provides no insight into her character or why she chose this guy to be her fantasy fun guy.

I honestly wonder why an alien with no historical reference for Leonardo even found him amusing enough that he left him running instead of trying to sell the extremely-advanced mobile emitter technology

My headcanon is the guy planned to have Leonardo produce large amounts of old-looking "authentic alien art" for assholes to buy. Even if it's just reproductions of his other stuff, lots of people would fall for it.

[Kendrakirai]

So if the raiders have transporter technology can't they just take scans and make copies of the stuff? Eh, maybe not. They might be using the transporter without really understanding it.

There’s a difference between transporter and replicator technology, and even then, some things can’t be replicated. The replicator seems to work best with fairly simple molecular chains and elements. Food, simple items, basic elements and minerals. And it takes time to scan an object at the required resolution, and quite a bit of computer space to store the patterns.

Also, they were just grabbing stuff basically at random. They probably aimed for the main computer, but everything else was just as they could get it.

Incidentally, even if they did have transporters, that doesn’t mean they’d have replicators; they didn’t exist in the form they do now until some time between Star Trek 6 and TNG, at least for the Federation, while transporter technology had been in widespread use for the better part of a hundred years.

[Yukaphile]

Well, since I am knee-deep into my Voyager rewrite, and am already into Season 4 (at least in terms of organizing a coherent plot and narrative structure), I checked out Chuck's review, and think I will have the "Leonardo" character tweaked differently. It will be layered onto the overall ongoing plot, not be the main plot itself, and also, there is a huge power drain in the program going on indefinitely when they need to conserve power, and so Janeway has to "kill" her beloved hologram.

[Elric4985]

I don't know, Chuck. Do you know what Kyber Crystals go for?