Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihlts.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe
From: rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Several points on ST III & ST IV
Message-ID: <537@ihlts.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-Aug-84 12:40:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlts.537
Posted: Mon Aug 13 12:40:28 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Aug-84 01:52:04 EDT
References: <2665@ncsu.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 52

>	I believe the name of the episode in which the children were rescued
>	was called 'The Dark Angel'.

It was titled "And the Children Shall Lead".  Or you could say that "Miri"
was also an episode in which the children were rescued.  You could even say
that about "The Devil in the Dark", if you really want to stretch things.

>	There will *not* be physical evidence of the passages of the
>	Enterprise, Grissom, and Klingon.  The planet blew up!  i suspect that
>	all such evidence within a certain radius will be wiped out.  in any
>	event specifically what happenned around the planet will be gone.

What, even evidence like electromagnetic radiation from various sources?
You don't think that Starfleet can keep track of at least every large ship,
particularly when they watch it leave Earth orbit?  What about the dozens of
monitoring probes they operate?  Grissom will be placed at Genesis at that
time by its previous transmissions.  Enterprise surely must have been tracked
the whole way from Earth to Genesis, with arrival time pinpointed.  (What would
be the first thing Capt. Esteban would do upon arriving in the Genesis system?
Right, set up a few monitoring satellites.)  Also, the time they departed from
Genesis in Bird of Prey is probably known because the only sensible thing to
do when romping around Federation territory in a Klingon warship is to let
everybody know what you are doing!  (In the book, Saavik actually does this.)
Also, I wish to point out that Genesis did NOT "blow up".  What happened is
that the gravitational stresses turned the thing into a molten mass, a "proto-
planet".  It might evolve into an ordinary planet, given a few billion years.

>	Somewhere i seem to remember a reference that says or implies that the
>	Enterprise automaticly jettisons its log buoy when the self-destruct
>	sequence begins. . . . Even so, it might not say much about the battle
>	as no one had time to make a formal entry in the log.

It's not the log entries that are of most interest, it's the alert record made
by the computers, i.e. the "flight recorder".  I don't remember any such
reference, but I did recently speculate myself upon that possibility.

>	Kirk & company STOLE a Constitution-class starship!  And then they
>	destroyed it!  Regardless of the circumstances, they are out of
>	Starfleet, at least for ST IV.

You are missing the big picture.  The Federation was stuck in what is probably
the most difficult position they have ever been in.  If it turns out that Kirk
has helped them out of that predicament, the politicians that run UFP (and
therefore, Starfleet) will think at least twice before going after Kirk.  Nixon
did far worse things than Kirk has, but he got in no trouble.  However, I am
still all for Kirk getting kicked out of Starfleet as a cover for a dangerous
mission.  He needs to prove that he's still a team player and they need good
PR.
-- 
"It's only by NOT taking the human race seriously that I retain what
    fragments of my once considerable mental powers I still possess."
Roger Noe			ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe