Charles Austin Miller

Relics - S6-E4

Question: When Scotty was at the door of the Holodeck, he calls for the bridge of the Enterprise, "no bloody A, B, C, or D." When the doors open, it's the bridge of the original ship. However, he was Chief Engineer on the refit Enterprise (no A). Besides the obvious "it's in the script", why didn't the computer ask for a distinction?

Movie Nut

Answer: As a product of 24th Century technology, the ship's computer is an example of extremely advanced artificial intelligence that is capable of intuiting deeper meanings based on inflection and speaker personality profiles. The computer probably (and correctly) intuited from Scotty's profile and the exasperated tone of his voice that he meant the original, unmodified Enterprise NCC 1701.

Charles Austin Miller

Yesterday's Enterprise - S3-E15

Question: The ever-popular gag in this episode is that Worf consumes prune juice for the first time and declares that it is a "warrior's drink," to Guinan's amusement. However, Worf was adopted as a child by human parents, he grew up on Earth, he was highly educated and graduated Star Fleet Academy on Earth. Given the reputation of prune juice as a natural laxative throughout human history, how could Worf not know what prune juice is, having lived most of his life on Earth?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: There's nothing to indicate that Worf had never heard of prune juice before, just that he had never tried it before. He doesn't recognize the smell or taste of the drink as prune juice because he's never had it before. But that doesn't mean he has no idea what prune juice is, or that it is used as a natural laxative. In a later episode Guinan directly asks Worf's parents why he never had prune juice prior to her serving him the drink. They answer that as a child Worf refused to eat human food of any kind, everything he consumed had to be Klingon. Other episodes show that Klingons tend to despise human food in general for being bland. It stands to reason that someone who shows no outward interest in human food might not know what prune juice is usually used for. But then again, maybe he does know and he doesn't care because prune juice is delicious to him.

BaconIsMyBFF

Thanks for reminding me about that later episode, although I think the later prune juice explanation from Worf's adoptive parents was scripted to address many fan questions along the same lines as my own.

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: Yes, Data's contacts did noticeably drift on occasion, which was a source of angst for Brent Spiner (who played Data and Lore). Spiner never had anything good to say about his yellow contact lenses, as they were his least favorite part of the lengthy makeup process. Rather than further discomfort Spiner by constantly adjusting the contacts, they would often just continue shooting in spite of this minor makeup malfunction, unless he looked positively cockeyed.

Charles Austin Miller

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