posted
I am not sure whether my intended topic is really a pure "Starships & Technology" thread, so move it as you see fit. There seem to be two camps regarding the Starfleet "jeep," and I fall into the "Why would Starfleet use a wheeled vehicle?" one. I will try to offer a better argument than that, though. What about the environmental impact? Picard and company tore through the area with seemingly little or no regard for it, or for what may live in it. Now, some of you may be rolling your eyes, but those thoughts ran through my head as I watched the scene. Since the Federation and Starfleet are often portrayed as humanistic and liberal organizations, I thought they would try not to disturb a given environment, not mow it down. Is not the driver of the jeep the same man who nearly wept when he accidentally killed a space creature?
Registered: Oct 2001
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It does seem odd that a wheeled vehicle would be used in such an initially benign situation. If we were talking about an actual battlefield, then there would be good arguments for using a vehicle that cannot crash, does not rely on high tech hovering devices in order to move, and can in all likelihood be field-repaired with 13th century technology. And the environment be damned. But this was not a battlefield.
The vehicle offered little besides recreation value. Now that could be forgiven, since Picard specifically aimed at recreation. But the environmental impact does raise an eyebrow or two. Not to mention that the unmanned shuttle was left in full view of the natives, leading to cultural contamination - another issue close to Picard's heart.
posted
We've seen on many TNG shows that an Away Team thinks nothing of landing a shuttle somewhere and walking kilometers away from it, if necessary. The only reason for the Argo rover can be summed up in one word: gimmick.
I mean, what are the odds that the only adversaries they encounter on the planet happen to also have equally paced wheeled vehicles? I mean, really!
posted
Anyway, the Argo was cool and fun. That should be obvious from the conversation between Picard and Riker before Picard left on an away mission.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
You should really rework the usage of the word "cool" in your life. I believe you were looking for one of the following words: "Cheesy, unnecessary, contrived, absurd."
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I stopped trying to rationalize the use of the Argo when I had to stop trying to rationalize the point of having the alien bad guys show up all ambush-like in the first place. The way they showed up right at the end, the way B4 was spread out all over the place, and Picard's line about it not feeling right all seem to point to the idea that the writers intended this to be an alien ambush. But, of course, that makes no sense when you consider the fact that Shinzon wanted Picard alive and he also wanted B$ to be found and to make it back to the Enterprise.
posted
Then again, perhaps this was the intended effect? To stop the unnecessary and possibly disruptive "thinking" thing that might otherwise have been going on?
I'm not speaking of the audienice here, but of our fictional heroes. Having a Soong android scattered on the surface of a backwater planet made little sense, so probably our heroes would have insisted on finding out more about it. But if Shinzon hires a few locals to "ambush" the heroes and to scare them away, they will delay this fact-finding mission and are more likely to come to rely on B-4's totally insincere account of his personal history.
Of course, from the POV of the heroes, the ambush makes no sense, either. But the heroes will probably not pay much attention to *this* mystery when they are acting out their part in the greater scheme of Shinzon.
posted
Also, the only real way to prevent the natives from being in the area would be to kill them. I imagine Shinzon wouldn't have wanted such obvious evidence of a plant.
And as for Picard being worried about "roadkill", why would he be? Sure, he might become upset over the death of dangerous-but-communicative lifeforms such as the Crystalline Entity, and the accidental killing of the space-baby's mother, but those are much different things than rolling over some random stupid animal out of millions or billions of such creatures on a planet's surface.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
I'm still wondering if the guys who chased them around in the "jeep" were the natives of the planet. Was this mentioned? And if they are natives, had contact been made with this race previosuly (assuming they even have space travel)? If not, isn't that dune buggy ride one big Prime Directive violation?
-------------------- "Well, I mean, it's generally understood that, of all of the people in the world, Mike Nelson is the best." -- ULTRA MAGNUS, steadfast in curmudgeon
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Yes, they were native. Yes, they were a pre-warp society. But they never intended to run into them. They were just going to fly down and pick up what was down there and fly away. It was the aliens who initiated the contact.
Yes, it was contrived and quite retarded to even HAVE a dune-buggy chase IN THE FIRST PLACE, but such is the way of things...
-MMoM
-------------------- The flaws we find most objectionable in others are often those we recognize in ourselves.
Registered: Jun 2001
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