AboutDeran McKean Expertise I am a 35 year fan of all the incarnations of Star Trek from the original show to the newer incarnations, to the books, comics and toys. I can answer most questions regarding the storylines and characters including their non-screen histories.
Experience Thirty-five years of collecting Star Trek merchandise, pouring over the books, comics and attending a number of conventions
Education/Credentials I have a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology and an MBA
Expert: Deran McKean Date: 7/12/2008 Subject: Data
Question In "Naked Now," Data is rushing to reinsert the engineering chips (forgot what they're called) back in the panel, so the ship can get out of the path of the star debris.
At least one engineer was simply watching. Why not try to help? Data was under the influence, yet was still able to do the work, so a human probably would have been able to help (slower, but still could have helped).
It's not as though the Enterprise were simply late to go to a conference call on some planet. They were about to be destroyed. The fact that nobody even offered to help seems a little beyond belief (especially since Data told Riker that he wasn't going to finish in time).
It could be argued that they just wanted to stay out of Data's way, but I think Data would have been able to maneuver around the other helper.
The giant door on the Dyson Sphere nearly cracked the Jenolen 'like an egg.'
What effect would it have on the following?
A) Borg Cube
B) Enterprise-D
C) Crystalline Entity
D) Think Tank
E) Caretaker
F) Nagilum
G) Odo
Let's suppose there were a very close star to the Dyson Sphere which exploded. Would the supernova do any damage to the sphere, or would its construction prevent that?
When you said Data was less intelligent than the Think Tank, I assume you meant the Think Tank as a collective unit. What about Data vs. the leader (humanoid) of the Think Tank?
Or do you think the knowledge in the Think Tank is shared by all (like the knowledge in the Borg Collective)?
What would happen first?
Picard reads 1 book (100-page length)
Data reads 100 books (each 100 pages in length)
Answer Hi John -
Yes, I think the engineer's name was Shimoda or something like that. I think your guess is as good an explanation as any. What probably happened is Riker didn't want Shimoda interfering with Data's progress and undoing anything he'd already done. You can bet that if the ship was at risk, I would sober up pretty quick!
(The chips are called isolinear chips). And I'm in agreement with you, if the entire crew was at risk, I would get Data all the help I could, even drunk help would be better than none at all!
The Jenolen was a 23rd Century Sydney Class transport vessel with shields that were significantly weaker than those of the Enterprise, or even Intrepid class vessels like the Voyager. Against the objects you describe, here are my opinions:
A) I think the Borg Cube could resist the crushing forces of the door long enough for the Collective to come up with a means to escape.
B) Same goes for the Enterprise-D, I think the shields and structural integrity fields would hold out much longer than those of the Jenolan, at least long enough for two seasoned officer like Picard and Riker to figure a way out.
C) Crystalline Entity - Since the entitiy could generate and control the electro-magnetic forces of entire planets, I think it too could hold back the door long enough to escape.
D) I would guess that the members of the Think Tank are at least somewhat familiar with the theories behind Dyson Spheres and most other conceptual engineering ideas, and could generate something to push the door back and/or delay its closing until they too could escape.
E) The Caretaker seemed to have a pretty extensive knowledge of engineering and very sophisticated energy transference and teleportation capabilities. I would think he could teleport himself or his ship (array) away from the Sphere before he came to any harm.
F) Nagilum seemed to have massive abilities to affect matter and energy and I'm sure could teleport himself away or phase his molecules out of phase with this dimension before the door hurt him.
G) Odo could revert to his liquid form and ooze away from the door before it could hurt him.
From what I know about the Spheres their construction should protect them from suffering too much damage from a Supernova.
Yep, I assumed the Think Tank as a collective unit. I don't think the members share consciousness the way the Borg do, and against just one of them, like the leader, Data might stand a good chance of outsmarting him/her.
I think that, given Data's speed and ability to process information so quickly, he could read 100 books and retain the information in the time it took Picard to read 1, one hundred page book. After all, the android has shown that he can paint two pictures at the same time!
