Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Two questions from "Friday's Child".

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Posted by colin (Member # 217) on :

The level of the conversation in the other thread about the U.S.S. Carolina has become intemperate. My general feeling about the situation is that I am viewed rather negatively. I like the forum and I wish to continue to visit the forum. So, in the future, I will do one of the following-
1. address questions to the others.
2. introduce dialogue that I find interesting or relevant to the forum from the episodes and let others discuss the dialogue.
However, from this time forward, I will not give my opinion, interpretations, inferences, or speculations about said matters.

I believe this will alleviate any hard feelings that have developed about me and allow me to contribute to the forum.

Question #1
Dialogue
"Commanding. We are under heavy attack by Klingon vessels. Two convoy ships are already damaged. We must have help. Enterprise, acknowledge. Please acknowledge." (Fake distress call by the Klingons.)
Question
Mr. Scotty wasn't surprised that freighters would travel in convoys. What conflict could cause the freighters to travel in convoys in 2267?

Question #2
Dialogue
"Another distress call from the U.S.S. Carolina." (Lt. Uhura)
Question
Did the U.S.S. Carolina send two distress calls, or one?

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takeoffs are optional; landings are mandatory

Posted by Quatre Winner (Member # 464) on :

I'm gonna try to answer your questions the best I can.

(Q. 1)Technically, there was a long running state of hostilities but not open all out warfare on the UFP/Klingon border. I assume the Carolina and said convoy was along the border, which would preclude the ships running in convoy formation.

(Q. 2)Well, it's been a while since i've seen the episode in question so I don't recall how many distress calls the Carolina made. If there was a UFP convoy under Klingon attack and if Scotty DID refuse to take the call, well, he'd be in some kind of trouble.

Hope this helps you!

Quatre.

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"Omae o korusu..." - Heero Yuy

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

I will stalwartly continue to provide unfounded opinions, poorly researched claims and barely logical arguments. Feedback is welcome - just see if I care!

1) I believe "Friday's Child" already ignored the Organian peace treaty and implied that a mishandling of the Capellan problem could ignite a Fed-Klingon war. Thus, perhaps whatever happened to the Organians had already happened at this point, and war was again considered so imminent that convoying of freighters was necessary.

It might be that the Organians never enforced their treaty after the two intruding races had signed it, and only the political convenience of the treaty kept the Feds and the Klingons respecting it as long as they did.

An alternate explanation is that there were other conflicts going on, against other races. There isn't any canonical hint of such conflicts, unless it's the Tholians raising their ugly multifaceted heads (helmets?) again. They could well reside near the Klingons, as per some TNG references.

2) Nichols probably just swallowed a comma: the script probably read "..another distress call, from USS Carolina". One could of course also argue that no distress calls are acknowledged unless they are repeated, but that doesn't sound like the Starfleet we've learned to know and love. The only Fleeter so far to have ignored a distress call the first time around was Pike, and he had good reasons to do so.

Perhaps the Klingons goofed up and made the distress of the Carolina sound too severe the first time around, something that would have killed all the crew for sure before the Enterprise arrived. Then Scotty would automatically have abandoned any attempt to help the ship even if he thought the call was genuine - going to help survivors could be an all-overriding priority, but going to survey a dead wreckage would not be.

Timo Saloniemi