Summary[]
Picard joins Wesley on a shuttle ride to Starbase 515, where the boy is taking another exam for Starfleet Academy. Picard hesitates to tell Wesley the reason why he is going there - it is time to replace his malfunctioning artificial heart. He lost his natural heart in a fight with Nausicaans as a young ensign a long time ago.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise encounters the Pakleds, a seemingly simple-minded race. However, they kidnap Geordi after he has beamed over to repair their ship. While Riker is still negotiating with the Pakled, he learns that Picard's situation is critical. He uses a ruse to get Geordi back, and the Enterprise rushes to Starbase 515 so that Dr. Pulaski can save Picard.
Errors and Explanations[]
Internet Movie Database[]
Incorrectly regarded as goofs[]
- At one point, a shot shows the dome above Riker's head on the bridge. The view appears to be dense with stars, although the shot just prior to this one shows Enterprise and the Pakled ship sitting in an area of space that contains far fewer stars. (IMDB) On closer inspection, the dome is more likely to be a proper ceiling consisting of glass that includes bubbles; these bubbles reflect the light from the bridge, which creates the effect of a star-strewn dome. Real stars would be next to invisible anyway, as their light intensity would be far lower than the illuminated bridge's.
Nit Central[]
- Steve-Oh! on Tuesday, September 21, 1999 - 10:01 am: It's no wonder the doctor is screwing up the operation; he might want to turn the lights up higher so he can see what he's doing! The area around Picard is shrouded in multiple shadows, and even worse, when the doctor sends an assistant away for a specialist, the bright lighting in the hallway casts a glare on everything inside the operating room when the doors open! Are we to believe that the hallway is better lit than the operating theater? KAM on Tuesday, September 21, 1999 - 5:59 pm: Maybe the Doctor's race doesn't use the visible light spectrum? Perhaps he sees better with ultra-violet or infra-red?
- John A. Lang on Tuesday, June 04, 2002 - 4:48 pm: GARGANTUAN NIT: The shuttle is moving...so...how come the stars in the window ain't? Sophie Hawksworth on Wednesday, June 05, 2002 - 2:05 am: Actually at impulse speed it would be a nit if the stars in the window did move. I calculated that if the nearest star straight outside the window were 1 light year away (really close in space terms) and the shuttle were moving at 1/4 the speed of light then it would take over 25 days for the star to move by 1 degree. More distant stars would move more slowly. The only way we should ever see a starfield moving at impulse is if the ship is turning. MarkN on Saturday, October 26, 2002 - 2:24 am: Actually, if you look at them closely you'll see that they do indeed move, albeit verrrry slowly.
Ex Astris Scientia[]
- If he's so much smarter and they wouldn't really notice what he is doing, why doesn't Geordi focus his attempts on bringing down the Pakleds' shields? The Pakleds are wathing too closly for that,
And instead of pulling off the silly "crimson field" maneuver (an awkward homage to "The Corbomite Maneuver"), why doesn't Riker simply locate the shield emitter or any other important system and disable it with a phaser blast as soon as the Pakleds believe Geordi is on their side? He couldn't risk the Pakleds threatening to kill Geordi in response to Enterprise activating the phaser targeting system.