Spoilers for TNG S04E14 Clues
!The Enterprise encounters a planet inhabited by an isolationist species who uses a fake wormhole to knock people out so they can somehow mask their presence. OK, I’m with it so far.
This trap fails on Data who revives the crew and the aliens say they need to destroy the Enterprise to stop people finding out about them. Picard points out that if the Enterprise is destroyed Starfleet will come looking for them. Again, so far so good.
The aliens agree to let the crew live if they can wipe everyone’s memory and order Data to never say what happened. This memory wipe takes 24 hours so they modify the computer records to make everyone think a day hasn’t passed and they were actually out for 30 seconds. Then they do it again when the crew realises after finding some unforseen clues, so now at least 48 hours has passed. This is where it lost me.
I can understand them not realising straight away if they’re in deep space and not communicating with Starfleet, but surely they’re going to figure out their chronometer is 2 days off eventually and go back to try and figure out what went on?!<
Hemmer didn’t have to die. Step out into the cold to slow down the xeno larva inside you, bro.
Even ignoring the plot, the writers really thought “let’s kill probably the 3rd most interesting character on this show”. I do love the immortal lady that replaced him, but what they did to him was so messed up.
Yeah, that really bugged me too. It seemed so contrived - Hemmer clearly knew earlier what was happening, as did La’an.
My conspiracy theory is he was too expensive due to the heavy makeup and they didn’t want to keep accommodating the almost completely blind actor.
I think it was always intended to be a one season role. I’m pretty sure the actor said that during one of the Ready Room episodes.
That in itself isn’t a problem if the character’s exit is well-written. The writers could still have killed him off, but at least they could have done it in a more convincing fashion.
I have the same argument about TNG killing off Tasha. It was just a sort of “oop, well I guess she’s dead now” moment.
I’m sure it was at least partially intended to drive the point home that nobody is safe. Because if we saw some random redshirt (technically a yellow shirt in TNG, but whatever…) we’d know they’re marked for death. But it just felt… Incomplete? Like the whole bridge crew just sort of shrugged and moved on, and she was only referenced a few times after that.
I agree, the way Tasha’s death was handled wasn’t great. The impact wasn’t really followed up on over the following few episodes. The manner of her death was more believable than Hemmer’s, though.
It’s Ok, we have Lieutenant (junior grade) Montgomery Scott onboard now…
It’s so great for them to renew the crew once in a while with never before seen people!