Title :
Relics
Series :
Rating :
Overall Ep :
129
First Aired :
12 Oct 1992
Stardate :
46125.3
Director :
Year :
Writers :
Season Ep :
YATI :
Just where is the Dyson sphere? Scotty was on his way from Earth, or at least somewhere near to Earth, to the Norpin colony. Presumably the sphere lies somewhere on a more or less straight line between the two. Presumably there is at least semi-regular traffic between the Federation and its colony world. So Federation exploratory ships have been this way, and transports have been passing through the area for at least seventy five years, yet in all that time nobody has noticed the sphere?
Also, in a classic nit the Enterprise-D beams Geordi and Scotty off the Jenolen whilst its shields are still raised. Presumably they were able to use the kind of transporter window that O'Brien used to board the Sutherland in "The Wounded".
Great Moment :
Scotty in the holodeck Enterprise, toasting his long dead comrades.
Body Count :
One, Scotty's friend, died at some point before the episode.
Factoid :
The idea of a Dyson sphere is a real one, although Dyson's original concept was of a swarm of individual sattelites in a spherical shell rather than a solid object. Trek writers had sought to use one in an episode for some time.
A deleted scene had Troi coming to see Scotty in his quarters. Initially he did not understand why she was there, and on realising that she was a therapist he assumed that Geordi had sent her because he thought Scotty was unhinged. His upset over this was why Scotty went to the bar to get drunk. This is why Deanna kisses Scotty goodbye as he leaves at the end; with the scene deleted this seems quite an odd moment, as Deanna and Scotty never meet before he leaves.
Plotline
The Enterprise-D discovers Captain Scott suspended in a transporter beam for 75 years on the surface of a Dyson sphere. Scotty is feeling his age, but a crisis calls him into action one more time.
