Sid Meier's Pirates!

 Wii, Sid Meier's Pirates! (2010) game

The original on the Amiga somehow passed me by - I didn't like strategy games at first, your 'Settlers,' 'X-Com' or 'Dune II,' but after spending enough time with them I came to love these games as favourites of the machine (and in gaming generally), but for some reason, maybe a suspicion of too much disk-swapping, perhaps a perceived lack of variety, it could have been I didn't have my own copy, I don't know, I never actually played 'Pirates!' and as a result it both retained some vague draw, of the exotic and unknown category, and a seed of interest that eventually grew into getting a copy for the Wii thinking it would be a far more advanced version. As it turned out I was to be rather disappointed, and I'm sure they were going for a strong nostalgia factor for those who'd loved the original back in the 90s (or was it late-80s?), because this was almost an exact copy in gameplay terms. There is the obvious addition of motion sensitive gameplay (though this is few and far between, limited to the dancing and fighting minigames, most of the game controlled from the D-pad), and a fairly pointless collectable accoutrements section that allows you to dress your pirate up in all manner of clothing like a Ken doll (which may have been part of the original anyway), but it's pretty pointless other than for the joy of customisation and putting your mark on your character. In every other respect it's the same gameplay. Though I never played it I somehow gained the knowledge of what the game entailed, and also heard firsthand in the now from one who had played it, but even if I knew nothing about this version, it's archaic systems and rigid gameplay would have tipped me off that it hadn't moved on in the two decades since!

The graphics are far more detailed, 3D and lushly colourful, and I will say that playing it in a heatwave with a fan blowing at me and my wooden door creaking in the background of air pressure gave me an almost 4D-enhanced experience of sailing the high seas at times, but overwhelmingly my impression was one of trudging through thick mud to get to something shiny, then turning round and doing it all again. Over and over again. It may be that this was a realistic depiction of piratical life: slow, tiresome, punctuated by occasional moments of excitement, delight and success, but it really did feel as if I was at sea on long voyages the way travel was so laborious. It could be painfully slow, especially when you're going against the wind (yes, I know all about tacking), inching forward while days are passing in-game and your character is literally ageing in the meantime! And then whenever you do reach port half the time was spent waiting for loading screens to the extent I didn't know which was slower: the sailing or being a landlubber! It didn't help, nor put me in the best frame of the mind that the Wii booklet was so slim and uninformative, telling you to download the full manual online. Fine, but when I did download the manual for the Wii version it was the same as the paper copy! Admittedly much time has passed and there were other versions I could have used, but it put me off trying to search out the proper manual and consequently I had to work things out for myself.

All well and good, sometimes it's ideal to approach a game that way, and the loading screens were at least full of helpful hints for the gameplay. At the same time there were key points it took me a long while to work out, and one or two I never did (such as how to attack a port - I assume you have to be at war with that nation, presumably by attacking enough of their ships...), and I felt on the whole there was no reason to have made the game anything other than a series of menu screens (and the fact that every different screen is accompanied by loading times didn't inspire confidence), everything else was mere bonus trappings - if we're talking Amiga games one aspect made me think of a specific genre of that era in style and relevance: the Don Bluth titles, specifically 'Dragon's Lair' and 'Space Ace' which were amazingly like being in a cartoon at the time, but could only achieve such heretofore unattainable graphical prowess at the expense of actual gameplay where it was merely a case of timing button presses to advance, a memory and reaction game, basically. The duelling brought this to mind very strongly since it's all about timing and the fancy graphics (not all that fancy now), were mere window dressing. I couldn't get a handle on them at first (nor the dancing), yet another game affected detrimentally by Wii controls not precise enough for purpose, so you're left uncertain if it's your own timing at fault or the sensors themselves (then there's the issue of 'A' being so close to the D-pad it's easy to roll down onto it and select an option by mistake). As time drew on and I was able to collect items that improved my skill in such areas and gradually made my way up the ranks of each country, the game opened up and I started to enjoy it instead of bumbling around. For a time I even considered it a 3-star game, though even then I'd have felt generous awarding it that. As it turned out, one last sting in the tail dropped the experience back down to my initial impressions.

There was certainly plenty to do, searching for lost cities, romancing governor's daughters, collecting, trading, ship battles, hunting for your kidnapped relatives, tracking down treasure and dealing with the pirates that put it there... And once I understood the landscape of this 'World' map and where to go for this or that, it's quite satisfying ticking things off lists, achievements being a modern addition I assume, that at least gives you more reason to keep playing, but eventually pales as you find yourself having to run the length of the ocean to catch up with your nemesis (or nemeses' since there's more than one!). But it was in the final battle against Montalban, the man who stole away your childhood by taking your family, my negative impression was sealed. The 'story' such as it was, at first appeared to be something more than I was expecting, and I assumed this wouldn't have been part of the original game and would be a far more developed part of the experience than it turned out to be - it was in the original and there isn't really any story other than giving you more of an impetus to explore and goals to aim for. But back to that final sword fight: to get to it you have to blast his secret city base, an on-rails 'light gun' shooting section, fun the first few times, but when it takes a couple of minutes to get through and at the end of it Montalban chops you to pieces in a few hits then it's one of those most ancient gaming headaches of the kind found in so many platform games and the like which is more trial than challenge.

It took me hours of repetitive, trying attempts, and I seemed to make no progress: I might get a strike in on him, only for the favour to be returned immediately, and defence moves seemed no avail as he'd simply recover faster. I actually did feel like I was starting to get RSI from the repetition of the two sequences, aiming and shooting my ship's cannons, then sword-fighting, and I got to the stage where I contemplated the shame of potentially having to give it up - perhaps at 88 my man, Robeye The Worthy, was simply too old for the necessary reaction speed, but there was no way I was going to start at the beginning again to find out! I tried various tactics, each sword (the attacking one, the defending one, the one in the middle), then I started bringing in another remote in to play as the second player - it enables a parrot to fly in and attack if you make a successful hit, giving a slight advantage, though repeatedly mashing buttons with one hand while at the same time trying to have a sword fight with the other, was certainly a challenge of dexterity! After days of attempts I somehow got the right timing and won the fight, but it was a major low point of the game that sealed my opinion. It's not that it was a terrible game, and once you understand the values of the few goods you trade, reach the top rank with free repair work on your fleet of ships, get a fleet of ships, tick off the tasks, it could be quite fun - I even pulled some late shifts, even an all-nighter at one point so I was clearly sucked into the world, but there were just too many irritations, tasks that took too long, and a growing sense of simply repeating the same few tasks over and over.

I grant that there is something enjoyable about being able to play a game one-handed (it didn't use the Nunchuk attachment so you could have a cup of tea or a sandwich in one hand, while controlling your ship with the other!), and I once ate a meal while playing, something I don't think I could say about any other game. But the motion controls didn't add much to the experience and once again I think of annoyances: the fact that if you leave a port it pushes you fast out into the sea, and if there's a reef, or rocks in the way you'll run right over them causing all kinds of damage! It's realistic in that food is used up over time and your crew grow restless and eventually mutinous if you don't do enough plundering, yet at the same time the other ships in your fleet will follow you blindly, running over rocks instead of steering their ships sensibly. I'm sure the greatest difficulty in a pirate Captain's life would have been dealing with people, a commodity with their own mind and short tempers, so it adds some internal threat to your plans that the crew need to be kept, if not happy, then merely miserable instead of mutinously angry! Early on I found it so hard to recruit new crew and they seemed to mutiny so often or get killed in battle that it was very demoralising, though once I got the hang of hopping into a port with the hope the bad apples would desert and the ship would go back to normal operations, or I was successful enough with countries I could recruit more easily, it became a much better experience.

It was a very gradual, if addictive game, which had the feeling of climbing a hill to get somewhere or make money, but when you get near the top it became much more enjoyable. But once you've beaten all the pirates, have a solid fleet and have taken on the majority of the tasks there isn't much reason to keep playing, though you can. One other flaw was it was almost impossible to actually lose the game, maybe a concession to 'modern' gamers? If you lose your ship you're picked up by someone else, if you're marooned on a desert island someone will come along and make you their Captain. The graphics reminded me of 'Age of Empires III,' colourful, bright, detailed, but it also reminds you there are much better resource management games you could be playing so it's hard to justify starting again (though I applaud the idea that everything you need to collect is reset in a new game so you can replay without feeling you know where everything is). The bottom line is that it's very old-fashioned, and not in a good way, it didn't succeed in updating the format to give you a greater sense of control and options - 'mouse'-controlled strategy games could be ideal for the console, as shown by how great 'Star Trek Conquest' was, but Sid's 'Pirates!' didn't cut it, me hearties.

**

Natural Law (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Natural Law) (2)

The final scene between Chakotay and Seven in the Cargo Bay is really like any final scene from the series: the two people who've just gone through an experience together reflect on it in some way, mutual understanding results. But it's the only mildest hint in the episode of the direction the pair were heading in, and that's probably the most surprising thing about the episode when you know how they end up at the conclusion of the series. You could say the shared experience, coupled with Seven's already seen interest in the Commander (to the audience), in 'Human Error,' as out of the blue as it was, is what jogged things along after this, but I was somehow heartened to see there was some kind of development rather than the impression of instant change in their affiliation that I tend to think of. That said, this is hardly the most important outcome of the episode, nor is it played up at all, it's most definitely a subtle alteration. The big issue is that of the treatment of primitive natives, and strangely it's left far too late to give it any really strong examination. I often think of this as one of the weaker instalments of the season, and the season as one of the weaker of the series, perhaps because there's very little development for the characters or addition to the lore when they should have been going out big, bringing back recurring characters, showing the community that was missing on screen (slightly mitigated by Carey popping up in the previous episode and the Bolian Chell getting a reference here), and increasing the connection with home that would become so crucial at the very end.

Instead, this could just as easily be a Season 1 story: a couple of characters trapped on an alien world with something of the Prime Directive issues at play, while the B-story features Tom Paris having to learn diplomacy when he makes a minor traffic violation in alien space and is forced to go through a pilot training scheme. As amusing as it is (and his friends clearly have a whale of a time ribbing him about it in one of the few scenes showing multiple characters on Voyager), it doesn't really have much bite to it, Paris is hardly going to become Mr. Humble, so the story doesn't go anywhere other than giving us the enjoyment and/or dismay of seeing him failing to navigate this crusty old test instructor. It's thrilling when he's called back to reality when Janeway orders him to beam out the 'invading' Ledosians from the Ventu safe haven, and pulls off some piloting excellence to do it, but it also undermines the lesson of his story, which would be that to comply with their own values Starfleet sometimes has to be humble and accept the rules imposed by alien cultures - instead, once it becomes inconvenient Paris is off the hook and can go back to boy racer in the cause of the greater good! Satisfying, but not entirely in keeping with the Starfleet ethos on display. At the same time the Ledosians didn't exactly give them much choice, turning hostile and attacking, so their rules were no longer the issue when they're behaving in a warlike manner.

The episode was far too much taken up with the minor adventures of Chakotay, and especially Seven, on the planet's surface - not in the sense that this wasn't of interest, but if you're going to introduce a strong moral component into the story, waiting for the last few minutes doesn't allow for much latitude of exploration! I enjoyed the pair of them together, it's a setup we didn't often see, and as the series wound down it makes you long for more of that kind of thing that they should have been doing throughout the series, but suffered when the series 'opened up' and tended more toward bigger action stories rather than the more intimate two or three character situations of the early seasons. In those days you needed such situations to explore these new characters and get to know them, but I don't feel they've been explored as much as they should have been across the entire series. Therefore it's a difficult quandary, as I want these kinds of stories, yet this one doesn't really go anywhere and so appears insubstantial as a result, being neither an in-depth character piece where we learn new things about our people, nor a serious social commentary, and suffers in both cases.

The real meat was the idea of an alien race forcing a segregation between a more advanced culture that was fighting a more primitive one. We never learn who these aliens were, though not advanced enough to defy the Borg as it's suggested they may have been assimilated (which is the reason Seven knows how she might deal with the unique forcefield preventing all entry and exit into Ventu territory), and it recalled a sci-fi book I once read about a tribal culture, Mayans or Inca, something like that, who were preserved on an asteroid. It's a fascinating idea, the preservation of a culture, but at the same time it throws up questions of whether it's right to 'protect' something at the expense of the people within it - for example, it may be that these Ventu were expert healers, but what of things they couldn't heal? If no one 'interfered' and helped them to develop in education and knowledge, they could die out. I suppose that would be considered acceptable as 'the natural order,' but while knowledge can (and often does), bring more trouble, even destruction, we have to remember that we're seeing this idea from within our own culture so we're no better to judge than the aliens who performed the segregation. I suppose Starfleet's general idea is to avoid getting involved because they could just as easily mess things up and make their lives worse, as better, and if they make it to warp level then fair enough (again, even that point of view is flawed when you realise warp travel isn't the final development that makes humans perfect, it's just an arbitrary cutoff point for convenience!).

Clearly in this case the Ledosians, while they gave the impression that they'd learned from the past and regretted what they'd done (and I'm sure it wasn't all one-sided, even then - no culture is immune from 'human' nature, after all), it was really only because they couldn't get into the territory and as soon as they have the slightest inkling of a chance they charge in and plan on carving it up or whatever, no doubt lucrative minerals, oil, or whatever resources are of value to them, could be in abundance, and even if it's unknown, the potential is there! So we see that high ideals don't necessarily last longer than the forceful implementation of them, which is maybe a more truthful moral of the story than the slightly vague idea of non-interference. But again, why leave it so late to approach the topic - there was even the obvious parallel of Chakotay's own culture's history on Earth. They could have tied in the Sky Spirits and how this alien species affected his ancestors, or at the very least shown his consideration of the parallels, but the closest we get to that is Janeway's oblique reference to Earth having it's own, similar problems. I will say that if there were two people most suited to being stranded with, it would be Chakotay and Seven. On his side, he's always been remarkably patient and adaptable to such situations - I think of 'Basics' or 'Resolutions.' Maybe he's too quick to accept the new reality, but it also shows he'll happily keep living, content wherever he is. Seven is the opposite, on her side intent on using every technological solution possible to extricate them from their prison, but slow to accept the natives.

Together then, they made an excellent team and I enjoyed their simple interactions. Perhaps drama was missing, ire and two different points of view contesting with each other, as in O'Brien and Bashir when they were trapped in 'Hippocratic Oath,' but it made for a gentler experience. I'm not quite sure how Chakotay sustained his serious leg injury unless part of the shuttle hit him just as they beamed away, but we didn't see that, he's just suddenly injured. I'm not sure it would have made all that much difference if he'd been in perfect health, except it adds a little more danger to Seven's position when she's forced to search for shuttle parts alone, in turn learning to depend on her young native friend, and of course they might never have come into contact with these natives in the first place. After a night out in the wilds Seven gradually becomes more and more dishevelled, eventually looking like her future self from 'Picard' - fortunately she doesn't talk or act like that unpleasant future version! It was actually quite nice to see them using one of the shuttlecraft since the Delta Flyer was so often the craft of choice in these latter seasons (but of course they had other plans for that and needed to shatter this vessel, too). You might think the natives being impressed by Chakotay's facial tattoo was surprising and wouldn't make much difference, but you have to remember it's a new symbol to them, and in such a simple culture would be a major dramatic difference in their lives.

Both Chakotay and Paris seemed to hark back to the early days, with the latter presenting a bit of a maverick attitude in the face of all these rules and regulations, while when the Impulse engines go offline above the planet, Chakotay orders Seven to go to warp, when surely you can't do that in a planetary atmosphere, so it seemed a bit of a Maquis course of action. But it was a good Starfleet trick to punch through the barrier with Phasers in order to beam through the hole as the shuttle exploded! They must have saved a packet on the actors as the Ventu never speak which presumably means they only get paid as extras despite having that interesting gestural language (although a couple of them were given titles). It means they can have a few other speaking guest stars, I suppose, including one of my favourite names: Ivar Brogger (he'd also appeared before as one of the former Borg drones in 'Unity'). Neil Vipond was also good as Tom's instructor, Kleg - he'd previously played Darok, the old manservant of Martok in 'Once More Unto The Breach,' a very memorable performance, so it's nice to see he had another Trek role in him. Ultimately the episode isn't bad, it has nice sets or location work (so good it was difficult to distinguish), but is almost a placeholder story, a slot that could have made better use of the impending closure of the series.

**

Friendship One (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Friendship One) (2)

The ideal mix of a moral quandary, a tense situation, and character and general history provide a standout for Voyager's first official assignment in seven years. And it doesn't get any easier knowing they're doing this on behalf of Starfleet rather than their own survival. Of course the Carey in the room is bringing back an established recurring character only to kill him off so unceremoniously! It underlined the danger of the situation with this unstable alien leader who may or may not have been mentally affected by radiation, but who was most certainly emotionally affected by his and his people's situation to the point of complete distrust and expectation of betrayal. I was surprised to see Carey was only in a handful of Season 1 episodes (most famously having B'Elanna break his nose in almost an actual physical vying for the post of Chief Engineer - at least that didn't happen in his final appearance, though I'm sure he'd have wished he could have gotten off so lightly), then showed up once in each season from 5 to now 7. He was a casualty of the series' attempt to be different to 'DS9' when, in fact, dealing with regular faces on an ongoing basis would have made the most sense and provided a much stronger ship-wide community and continuity (I wonder if anyone's actually gone through the whole series and counted off every Starfleet extra and named crewman to see whether they were accurate in their supposed 200-odd crew roster!). They did that a fair amount in the first couple of seasons, but gradually got away from it, perhaps too much of a headache to juggle so many characters when they really wanted to make more sci-fi-focused stories than character-based.

Yet they weren't above bringing back an old face once in a while, which only makes it odder that they weren't willing to build up the crew community. But I'll take it, if that's the only way we get someone like Carey back. I'm not sure if we knew he was married, nor is it clear from this episode if his wife was aboard, except that there'd have to be a scene where Janeway goes to tell her what's happened to her husband, so unless that's yet another example of not showing the community, it would be confirmation that as far as she'd been concerned for several years she'd lost Joe when Voyager was sucked into the Delta Quadrant. Painful that it's just now, near the end (even though the characters don't know it's the end, but they've reached some kind of end with regular contact with Starfleet), now is when Carey is lost. It wasn't even a great last role for him, he's just there, along for the ride. It could have been any of the engineering staff, but it's a little gift for longterm viewers to be rewarded, if a bit of a double-edged reward! Even the final scene, presumably in Carey's Quarters where he'd been working on a model Voyager in a bottle (would you really need to work on it inside the bottle in the age of Transporters - authenticity, I suppose, although didn't they usually have masts that folded down and would spring back up when the ship was pushed down the neck!), isn't so much about Carey as it is the Captain and Chakotay musing on the trouble caused, whether to a civilisation or an individual.

Still, I appreciated the sense of continuity and harking back to the series' past, and Carey was far from being the only example of that: the whole premise is about a probe that was launched in 2067, only four years after Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight which itself was an example of technology bringing about a new era of improvement to living conditions and first contact with the Vulcans, so you can completely understand the desire to reach out to other species as the Vulcans did to them, a spirit of eager cooperation and hopefulness that sadly backfired in the case of this particular race. It might be a little hard to believe that this probe would have survived in space for so long, and apparently they were still tracking it up till one hundred and thirty years ago, which would be the early part of the 23rd Century. And somehow they were tracking it in the Delta Quadrant when they wouldn't have been able to 'see' that far out, nor would they have coordinates since there'd be no frame of reference beyond known space, and if it had got that far, how would it be in the same area over a century later... As you can see there are a lot of problems with the entire premise, and yet that doesn't bother me when it's written so beautifully and is such a sharp reminder of Prime Directive issues, while also showing the goodness and rightness of our heroes. They continue to do right by these people despite the cold reception, hostility, even coldblooded murder - when they attempt to set the atmosphere right, even at this critical moment they're threatened with the unused missiles of this world, the leader happy to blast them out of the sky rather than trust what they're doing is for his people's good.

At the same time I can see his point of view: if you've lived with a terrible, devastating affliction that you believe was caused by outsiders, it would take a lot to get past that hate and distrust - even curing the baby and sending it back could be viewed as a trick to lure them into complacency so they can be completely destroyed. The key was that although Verin had kept them alive for so long, survival was no longer enough - he was like a wartime leader in a time when peace had come, in much the same way Winston Churchill so ably led the country in the crisis of World War II, yet after the war was ousted. Everything and everyone has their time and it's about recognising that, a fascinating side issue of the episode. Janeway, too, is really put through it, characteristically more than willing to help, despite the overt enmity of those she's dealing with, until their response of killing Carey hardens her towards them. It takes an impassioned plea from Tom and Neelix, as former eyes on the ground, to give these people one last chance - and they were there and saw Carey executed in front of their eyes. But they also saw the pain in the eyes of their captors, the squalid, hopeless existence they were forced to endure. As the Doctor and Seven (once again donating nanoprobes from her own bloodstream), gradually heal Otrin, the stowaway from the Flyer and we see his face lose the horrible mottled bumps of the radiation poisoning (reminding me of the Vidiians in its visual repulsiveness), so the rift between the two peoples is also healed, Tom and Neelix both trying to connect to their captors in different ways.

For Neelix it was a harsh reminder of his own traumatic past, recalling the destruction of his home planet by the Metreon Cascade, but of course Verin, while expressing a cold regret that he had to lose his family, still doesn't sympathise or empathise and warns him not to compare their lives. It's so good to be reminded of Neelix' past, not to mention him taking on his self-appointed role of Ambassador again. His roles have so often been whatever was needed at the time, he's always striven to fit in to whatever mould Voyager needed, but he's also learned a lot and his compassion always shines through so it was a pleasure to see that side of him again. Tom as Nurse is also something that tended to fall by the wayside for much of the series, so again, its good to get that aspect of his character again as he does what he can to save the alien baby - really good model of one, too! In fact, everything worked: the sets, whether the familiar caves or the snowstorm-whipped outdoors (somehow reminding me of the Skedar planet from 'Perfect Dark' - must have been all that black metal and snow!), the CGI enhancements, even the use of those great EVA suits, all gave the episode a quality and a reality that shows how far Trek's production values had come (and would only continue with the next series).

The best thing about it, though, was the decision to repay evil with good, a very Biblical response to what are essentially enemies - the crew had no real responsibility to these people, even as representatives of Starfleet: as they mentioned, the probe was launched pre-Starfleet (which I take retroactively as a nice reference to 'Enterprise' - I know that wasn't the intention, I doubt the episode's writers, Michael Taylor and Bryan Fuller, even knew what the next series would be, even though it would have been in development at that time!), and humans can't be held responsible for the actions of their ancestors, no matter what terrible things they may have done. I grant that it's expected these aliens would suspect and distrust the descendants of those they blame for devastating their planet, but it wasn't their fault and they had no obligations to them other than their own sense of fairness and justice. That Janeway does the good deed at risk to her own ship only shows the strong moral core of her character and the Starfleet she represents (far from the one depicted, for the most part, in modern Trek). Even before Carey's senseless murder she's clear that she wants to keep all options open as a good Captain would (there's even a tidy comparison by the Admiral at the beginning to James Kirk when he says she's made more first contacts than anyone since him, another nice little Trekference to add to the canvas of this episode's use of canon), negotiating, warning, and eventually making use of her great Tactical Officer, Mr. Tuvok, in a clever ruse to gain access to the caves - I thought it was out of character for the Vulcan to so easily be captured, but he was only 'caught' by the Doctor, as someone who could withstand the radiation. Clever! Except that there was no guarantee the Doctor would be the one sent to take him back, nor that he wasn't asked for some kind of code to gain entrance past the guards...

Once again intelligence is valued over force and only makes our characters more inspiring. Mind you, it was much-needed tactics or they'd have had three years of ferrying these aliens to the closest M-class planet, which would take us to Season 10 (aha, a way to extend the series!), though I don't imagine it would have necessarily made the best TV to have three seasons of that... I felt there were some other good messages in the episode, too, with B'Elanna adamant she wasn't going to be treated like an invalid during her pregnancy, while Tom brought her up short, reminding her of the toxic atmosphere down on the planet and that she's breathing for two. In other words her responsibility to herself and their child inside come first above any feelings of pride and the need to feel useful. And who knows, maybe she'd have been the one to be killed if she'd gone instead of Carey, a stark potential reality to think of. (There's an impression B'Elanna's changed by the fact Chakotay bets with Neelix that she'll get her way, obviously the Torres he knew, a nice touch to show Motherhood does alter perceptions and behaviour). Unfortunately Paris lets things down a bit by later saying something about Fatherhood tends to regress the male psyche by a few thousand years, but he meant well and really only meant they become over-protective.

There was also a little reminder that science, for all its uses (much like logic), shouldn't be the be-all and end-all when Otrin states he's a scientist so he believes what he sees when they're trying to convince him they aren't responsible for what happened to his world, nor was it the intention of their ancestors - and they're right. It may have been unwise to send out this information on antimatter, but it was still up to the aliens how they used it. It also shows that knowledge in itself isn't always empowering, sometimes it can be destructive, and wisdom is required. Saying that, I thought it a bit reckless for the Away Team to pick up the child's musical toy when it could just as easily have been a bomb or grenade (I know they scanned it with their Tricorders, but even so, you never know if something's shielded, as was the case with the life-signs), not to mention they later give it to the little girl, and as Verin said, it could be a weapon! There was also the implication from the aliens who originally encountered Friendship One that they didn't know what music was since they seemed not to understand what it was that was playing. If that was the case then how could they have any technology at all since they'd need to have mastered mathematics which in turn is extremely connected to music! It could simply be they were referring to the musical piece itself, or the general idea of this probe, but it stood out to me.

We have some interesting Trek names in the guest cast, for example a rare connection to one of the modern Trek films (can we still call them modern when it's a decade since the last one?), as Yun was played by Ashley Edner who had a role in 'Star Trek Beyond' (Natalia, whoever she was). I presume Yun was the little girl. We also have a previous guest star back from this series: Admiral Hendricks (whom I didn't think much of while watching, a bit too 'soft,' but I enjoy the connection now I know it), was played by Peter Dennis who'd had a more visible role as Sir Isaac Newton in 'Death Wish.' Then there were a couple of people who'd been in 'DS9,' with John Prosky as scientist Otrin, previously Brathaw in 'For The Cause' (don't recall the character - interestingly his episode was only two episodes away from 'The Quickening,' another episode about a race blighted by illness that our people get involved with fixing), and Bari Hochwald who played Bashir's rival, Dr. Elizabeth Lense in 'Explorers' (Brin must have been the alien woman who gave birth, not that you'd recognise Bari under all that ugly makeup - always remembered the actress' name as quite memorable!), and would go on to appear in 'Enterprise' ('Marauders'), while John Rosenfeld, here credited as 'Technician #1' (must have been the male scientist who discovers the probe at the start), would also go to 'Enterprise' ('Silent Enemy'), so a nice selection of Trek connections that only enhance my enjoyment of what is a pretty strong and affecting story all round that helps to round out the series' history and gives a taste of what the series may have been with the conventional Starfleet hierarchy in place.

***