Saturday, May 10, 2008

6.12 blink of an eye

Voyager investigates an unusual planet and becomes trapped in orbit. On the planet, days pass in a matter of seconds; if Voyager sinks into the atmosphere, they will also become trapped in time. They must leave, as they are causing seismic disturbances on the planet.

We as viewers get to see the changes as each successive generation on the planet advances technologically. On Voyager, Chakotay, Torres and Seven study this phenomenon from a little further away, using images from a probe. In an attempt to get info on how to leave orbit, the doctor is sent on what is meant to be a three second (two day) away mission. When the beam-back fails, he spends three years on the planet, and comes back with much technical info; and also with the news that he had a female ‘room-mate’. He also tells that ‘the star ship’ is a focal point of life on the planet, celebrated in song, story, and children’s toys.

The planet’s inhabitants reach the space travel stage, and send two astronauts who are able to enter Voyager in a state of accelerated time. The crew is frozen like statues. The two astronauts reach the bridge, but then begin to get sick from the effects and are detected. One of them dies from the transition. The other attempts to help, but as the planet’s inhabitants continue to develop weapons, they fire on Voyager – wanting to stop the source of the seismic disturbances. With shields almost down, Voyager’s only hope is the pilot.

As the pilot heads back, the doctor asks him to check up on what happened to a boy named Jason – the doctor’s son!

The pilot is able to convince the inhabitants to stop firing; two advanced ships appear and tractor Voyager out of orbit. Wearing a temporal device, the pilot visits the bridge to say goodbye. In two hours, Voyager will have warp drive and will leave. A great ending: back on the planet’s surface, we see an elderly asian man (– the pilot, who is two hours / 50 years older – sitting, peacefully watching as a bright star in the daylight sky suddenly disappears.

A clever time-based episode with huge nits.

Three Big Nits: #1: We can understand the people on the planet because they are speaking English. I thought this was because of the Universal Translator (which of course doesn’t make sense anyway, since no one from Voyager is there). But then, I see that the letter from the Protector is even written  in English! What were the odds of that? On earth, even people who live 30 miles away in an isolated area may have a completely different language.

#2: In and around the area of the note written in English, the ‘Protector’ is sending a message to the Ground-Shaker in a hot air balloon. Two men are heating the air in the balloon. Then they release the balloon, which begins to float up – but it does not appear to have a heating device any more!

#3: When the aliens board Voyager, they are in some other, speedy time frame, and the Voyager crew seems frozen in time like statues. Why is it that no one sees the aliens until they fall down ill? They stopped plenty of other times and didn’t move, but no one appeared to see them then.

6 comments:

  1. Hi, I really like your reviews. However, as an answer to your third nit: it is explained that for each second on Voyager, a day passes on the planet. Since the smallest amount of time a human can observe is about 0,1 seconds, the aliens would have to stand still for at least two hours for the Voyager crew to see them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jochem, thanks for the comment. So you're saying that when the aliens fell ill, they stayed in one place for 2 hours, but before that, they always moved sooner? I haven't seen the ep for awhile, but if that is the case, then you're right - my nit is wrong.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm pretty sure the aliens never stayed in place for 2 hours, but that the reason the crew saw them when they fell ill was that they where "moved" to Voyager's timeframe. This was also the reason they fell ill.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So what you do while you missed your science lessons? You are trying to be too clever for your own ability ;-)

    - Nit 2 Once the air in the baloon is heated it WILL STILL rise (hot air is less dense than cold)even a REAL Hot air balloon does not need to be continually heated to lift off the ground + rise HOWEVER it does need the Balloon air to be reheated peridoically to stay afloat + rise otherwise the hot air would naturally cool and the balloon sink.There is NOTHING scientifically/factually wrong what is seen to happen to the balloon in that scene - it might simply come down again out of sight, they may not have had the knowledge that 'you' have to keep heating the air for it to continually rise. In any case the whole idea of using a balloon to contact Voyager in the sky is still scientifically backward (but equivalent to dark ages knowledge) since compared to the full height of the atmosphere a hot air ballon can only manage a tiny fraction of it as the air becomes to0 thin - it would NEVER get ANYWHERE near Voyager's orbit! LOL! Thats how REALISTIC/well researched(i know as i'm learning(education etc)/ living as a scientist for a life time) the episode U have tried to nit pick is :)

    - Nit 1 are U not familiar with the concept of artistic license. You expect there to be subtitles everytime a universal translator isn't "present" - your saying that a film about a story, say in Uk + France (+ monio lingual fench people) MUST have everything spoken written in french when the action is happening in France - which is complete nonsense Of course you don't with enough intelligence you can understand you are watching the show as a viewer, it mores effective if the communication is as direct as possible. i never even expect the ST universe to turn out as reality ANYWAY - its just a briliant way of escapism/entertainment etc (see "the Raven" episode ;) ( it may change but current theory it looks unlikey we are infinitely trapped by the laws of physics (and probability)in out tiny corner of the galaxy - even if as i think likely the chance of life as we understand it is as rare as hens teeth,like winning a super lottery such that so many random variables need to match for biogenesis(the process of creation of animate/life from inanimate matter) Why should life evolve to ANYTHING LIKE we have, can perceive,relate to or understand. Our own concious perception of reality is so tiny in range and so INDIRECT in nature (to exist,our mind can only make assumptions and shortcuts of our actual info in environment - we can't stream the info directly the bandwidth/computational power of our brains is too small,as effective for survival + accuracy it has been eg OPTICAL ILLUSIONS shows up this "FAKE" version of reality our brains make up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Al, Just having a little fun here. You realize of course that you are criticizing me (I think) for nitpicking the show, but you are nitpicking my nitpicks! How wild is that!!! :) Anyway thanks for visiting!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very similar to the book 'Dragon's Egg' by Robert L Forward. This had an Earth exposition visiting a Neutron star where life developeds at a million times faster than humans

    ReplyDelete