RE: Poor Picardo... | Report this post to moderator
By: Jadzia-Dax (Odo's file, contact) @ 10:05:56 on Jul 19, 2004

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Thats not totally fair. There's been a few token TOS references scattered throughout ENT. (maybe not as much as the contradictions but that's besides the point)

But these "token TOS references" have come from essentially one writer - Mike Sussman. The rest of the stuff is TNG-referenced and note that TNG is 200 years in the future of ENT. At least with TOS, it was much closer to ENT's time. And the fact that in TNG, we hear early on (2nd season) in TNG "The Measure of a Man" about a "Daystrom Institute" (where Maddox was stationed and "Chair of Robotics") indicates there was some respect for and tie-in to the past.

In this case with Soong's "grandfather", we continue referencing 24th century stuff. It's like there is this disdain by the showrunners, for TOS.

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besides, if they're gonna do an AI centric episode and can bring back one of the more well known members of the TNG crew, it'd make more sense to wrap the story around a guest star as opposed to Daystrom who not many people would know about.

Huh? What "not many"? The name "Daystrom" has been bandied about within TNG and the fandom, again thanks to this establishment of the Daystrom Institute. Whether the average young fan has ever seen TOS "The Ultimate Computer" or not, the name "Daystrom Institute" is generally familiar to people. It was also indicated that Dr. Leah Brahms (seen as a hologram in TNG "Booby Trap" and for real in TNG "Galaxy's Child") graduated from the Daystrom Institute and of course those of us familiar with TNG know that she was one of the designers of the Galaxy class ships like the 1701-D.

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The story would resonate much more since the audience knows "oooooh, right! Data!" as opposed to "who's that guy"?

Umm.... that can often be a turn-off to people because you are introducing "known" actors who were main cast members, as some other character... And it smells of "gimmick".

So rather than flesh out so much of the stuff that a mere 79 episodes of TOS couldn't flesh out, here is an opportunity to have ENT lead into TOS. People keep forgetting that ENT is not directly "prequel" to TNG. It's prequel to TOS. And I think THAT is why so many of us are frustrated with what is going on here because there is this complete ignorance of and dissing of what started Star Trek in the first place.

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Not that I'm dissing Daystrom, thought he was crazy cool badass.

Yes but what he DID to merit an Institute named after him means that his work WAS significant.

And the point of the episode TOS "The Ultimate Computer", wasn't so much on Daystrom the character, but was focussed around SEVERAL THEMES, with Daystrom as the catalyst for looking at one "theme" and Kirk at the other. The actual plot of TOS "The Ultimate Computer", was a story about War Games that the 1701 would be engaged in vs 4 other Constitution class ships. And the "theme" for Kirk was about "being replaced" by technology, and all that goes with that sense of a loss of "control" of one's destiny.

And the "theme" for Daystrom, dramatically elucidated in Daystrom's speech as he was having his little nervous breakdown at the end as he tries to convince his creation (something that he literally used a copy of his own memory engrams to program) to break off its devastating attacks, goes like this:

"We will survive. Nothing can hurt you. I gave you that. You are great. I am great. Twenty years of groping to prove the things I'd done before were not accidents. Seminars and lectures to rows of fools who couldn't begin to understand my systems. Colleagues... Colleagues laughing behind my back at the boy wonder and becoming famous, building on my work. Building on MY work!"

And so you have a man driven to obsession to succeed, and he found that in order to do so, he literally had to introduce a little bit of "himself" into the machine in order to make it as "perfect" as he wanted it to be.

I mean, this was some interesting stuff with interesting themes and interesting repercussions. And the fact that this man had done some remarkable things in the past and perhaps went on to do more good things (once he apparently got better), enough to bring about the naming of an Institute in his honor, is pretty significant.

The fact that in the very same episode, Spock notes to a Commodore at the beginning:

"The basic design of all our ship's computers are Dr. Daystrom's."

IS significant and worthy of acknowledgement.

And Daystorm's "ultimate computer" in that ep was a "multitronic" unit, which he invented to supercede the "duotronic" system that all starships used at the time that he ALSO invented. And as we later find in TNG, there is eventually a switch to the isolinear chips, but paralleling that, you have a Soong develop a "positronic" system for his androids - essentially taking Daystrom's AND Dr. Ira Graves' (from TNG "The Schizoid Man", where Graves was Soong's teacher) stuff another step further to create a Data and a Lore, et al.

So Daystrom is the "father" of both a Graves and a Soong when it comes to advanced AI in Star Fleet.

Really.

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"I think the show talked to people through the characters. They're stories that speak to the heart. They talk about love, they talk about friendship, they talk about loyalty, they talk about patriotism, exploration, curiosity, reaching out... And I think all those things still touch people. Even when you look at a 30-year old show, it still has something to say." - D.C. Fontana, Sci Fi Channel Special Edition TOS 1998
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"If the season finale involves the re-built USS Reliant coming back in time to the 21st Century crewed by Moogie, Dr. Selar, Morn, Transporter Chief Kyle, and the Salt Vampire, then we'll know that Coto has gone too far." - tomba1701

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