{"id":5814,"date":"2015-03-16T14:47:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T14:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/211-Contagion"},"modified":"2015-03-16T14:47:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T14:47:19","slug":"211-contagion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/16\/211-contagion\/","title":{"rendered":"2.11 — \u201cContagion\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

2.11 — \u201cContagion\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> The Enterprise<\/em> flooshes to the aid of the USS Yamato<\/em> inside the Neutral Zone. It turns out that the Yamato<\/em> has been exploring the technology available on the lost \u201clegendary\u201d world of Iconia. While there, it contracted a computer virus that is causing its systems to go haywire. The Enterprise<\/em> catches this virus, and is forced to pursue a cure at the source of the virus on ancient Iconia, or risk destruction of the ship. Meanwhile, a Romulan vessel challenges the Enterprise’s<\/em> right to be in the Neutral Zone, and threatens attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> There are some logical inconsistencies in this one if you try to tear it apart. How did the transporter room track Picard onto the Romulan ship after he stepped through the Iconian doorway? Doesn\u2019t Picard, or the Captain of the Yamato<\/em>, have to report back to Starfleet at some point before deciding to violate the Neutral Zone and risk instigation of war? There is a lot of business about legends and ancient texts–from where and according to whom? Exposition is clumsy in this episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Still, “Contagion” feels more like it comes from a show that I would be happy to watch week to week. If parts of the story are clumsy, it’s still dense and interesting.The gateways are cool–reminiscent of the doorways into the past that were opened in \u201cAll Our Yesterdays\u201d to evacuate another doomed planet. Or Stargates. Are the Iconians still living somewhere? Maybe the writers should have placed the planet’s destruction (200,000 years ago) nearer to the present, in order to leave this storyline open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s hard to believe that rebooting the computer and restoring from backup is so hard to figure out. OTOH, the threat seems prescient in 1989, before the Internet was in wide use, when computer reboots were less a fixture of daily life. Wasn’t there another Star Trek story credited with helping to popularize the virus metaphor for hostile computer programs? Or am I conflating this with something else? We’ve watched 138 episodes of Star Trek now, so my recall is starting to get fuzzy. Anyway, virus and probe magic are no worse storytelling devices than having the ship run into another capricious all-powerful space douche, like they might have done in TOS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Data dies! Briefly. I remember that in the second season of TOS characters were dying all over the place and being brought back to life, like Scotty in \u201cThe Changeling.\u201d It’s good to see TNG amping up the drama. It seems like a story leap to see the Federation in such a Cold War posture in opposition the Romulans. Didn’t they just emerge from hiding at the end of Season One? I guess there have been developments we haven\u2019t been told about. I like the two sides cautiously trying to figure out how to approach each other, and the Enterprise<\/em> saving the Romulan ship and then fleeing, just to be safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also like the Romulan commander. The precedent for a female Romulan commander was set, of course, in \u201cThe Enterprise Incident.\u201d Which I totally want to watch again now. Two makes a pattern, and suggests that the Romulans are more progressive than Starfleet at this point in future history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Warp 4 of 6.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/en.memory-alpha.org\/wiki\/Contagion<\/a>