About The Show
Hosted by
Robert Rhodes
at Aloha Daze
Break On Through To |  |
Episode Details
Plot Summary | Ongoing
Story and Character Developments
Unanswered
Questions
|
Memorable Lines | Glitches
Trivia, Inside Jokes and References | NotePAD
Bova surprises Davenport while he is getting a midnight snack. They spot a wall with a greenish glow on one of the walls. They hear Thelma talking from behind the wall about a course correction, and the fact that the crew doesn't suspect. Thelma then walks through the glowing green wall and goes away, ignoring them. Bova and Davenport go inside, but while they are inside, the wall becomes solid. Davenport panics. She sits in a chair while Bova works controls, trying to find a way out. Then she disappears.
Bova tells crew, but they don't believe it. They can't find the secret room. Goddard asks Thelma about it, but she claims to know nothing about it. As proof of his story, Bova notes that Davenport is missing. Everybody searches everywhere for her, but they can't find her. Thelma continues to deny the existence of a secret room, and insists that her memory is fine.
Suddenly, the ship lurches, and there is a dreadful moaning that sounds like Ms. Davenport. The ship is out of control, on collision course with a satellite. For no apparent reason, things straighten out just in time. They notice there are signals coming from satellite. Goddard sends kids to bed, and promises to run diagnostics on Thelma.
In the morning, Rosie and Catalina find Davenport in the system when they run some diagnostics on Rosie's malfunctioning shower. The guys find her on their compupads. Everyone rushes to the ComPost to tell Goddard. They realize that the ship is reacting to Davenport's emotional state, and she must remain calm.
Davenport tells the crew about the secret room, and blames her predicament on Thelma. Goddard relieves Thelma of duty. Thelma is clearly upset about this, and decides to leave the Christa. She goes toward the satellite they passed. But the satellite is falling into a black hole, and Thelma gets caught in its gravitational pull.
Meanwhile, Davenport teaches class from within computer. It helps her keep relaxed, and keeps things from malfunctioning.
Later, Cat and Radu come up with a plan to find the secret room: Cat bounces sonic blasts against the walls like radar, and Radu's hearing detects differences in sound. Using this technique, they find the room, but they can't figure out how to get in. They can't activate the phase through program, and even Radu can't muscle it open. Davenport is becoming more machine-like.
The Gizbot gives Harlan a message from Thelma, explaining that she is leaving. Harlan brings it down to Goddard. Bova uses the message to activate the phase through program by using the words Thelma used to phase through.
From within the computer, Davenport scans for Thelma files, and finds out Thelma was programmed by former crew to report once a week, but Thelma's memory of it is erased. When Davenport tries to get more information, the system crashes. They get her out just in time.
They go to retrieve Thelma, and they find the black hole. Goddard puts on an EVA suit to retrieve her, but Radu accidentally rips the suit while testing the connection. The only remaining suit is too small, suitable only for Bova.
Bova goes after Thelma. He tells her it wasn't her fault, retrieves her, and the Christa gets away.
In the end, Thelma reflects on her reaction to this whole incident. Did she really have feelings, or did she just emulate them? Ms. Davenport offers to help her figure it out.
Ongoing Story and Character Developments
- This episode fulfills Elmira's prediction for Ms. Davenport from Spung at Heart:
Dreadful moans down every hall
For days, your ghost on every wall
- Uranusians have higher metabolisms than Earthers and need more food.
- Suzee is in another dimension, and Catalina would like to visit it.
- Rosie likes to take scalding showers, and considers 95 degrees to be "freezing."
- Thelma seems to have emotions. She is clearly upset when Goddard relieves her of duty. She expresses at the end that she seemed to feel this on an emotional level, but she isn't sure whether she actually felt the emotions, or just emulated them.
Davenport: Bova, what are you doing here?
Bova: Scaring you, I guess.
Davenport: You are a growing boy, and it's important to get sufficient sleep.
Bova: Don't worry, Ms. Davenport. I can always sleep in class.
Goddard: Are you positive there's no secret room?
Thelma: Yes, I am positive, I think.
Thelma: None of my memory banks have deleted information in the past 39 hours. A new record!
Radu: Why can't we hear her?
Goddard (gleefully): I muted her.
Harlan: The Commander's been working on a plan. Right commander?
Goddard: Uh… yeah.
Davenport: Thank heavens! When will I be released from this… cybernetic prison? When will I be normal again,
commander?
Goddard: Well, that's hard to say, Ms. Davenport. There's a little problem with the plan right now.
Davenport: And what is that?
Goddard: I have no idea how to do it.
[Catalina explains what she and Radu will do to find the secret room]
Harlan: What do I do?
Cat: Knowing you? Take credit for it all.
[later]
Harlan: I've found the secret room! … OK! Catalina and Radu found the secret room.
You can see the hole in Goddard's sleeve before Radu tears the sleeve off. Of
course, it is possible that the suit was supposed to be defective before Radu pulled on
it, but it seemed like they intended that Radu forgot his own strength and ripped it by
accident. (See picture at right)- At one point, we see Thelma "swimming" in space. While this was very amusing, it defies all known laws of physics. Swimming "works" because you have something to pull against. In the vacuum of space, there is nothing to pull against.
- Bova uses a recording of Thelma's voice to activate the phase through program, by using the same words she used when she left the secret room. But those words didn't activate the phase-through program -- it was already running when she said them! (Or at least, the wall was already glowing, which I assumed was the indication that you could pass through the wall)
- The recording of Thelma's voice that Bova plays back doesn't have the same inflection that Thelma used in the original recording, and uses the word "that's" which she did not say in her original recording (although she did say "that is").
Trivia, Inside Jokes and References
- During the closing credits, there is a scene of Bova eating a large sandwich. No doubt part of a scene that was probably cut for time. (See picture at right)
- The title of the episode is the title of a Doors song.
- Thelma speaks of her "prime directive" – a reference to Isaac Asimov's First Law of
Robotics.
Asimov's Laws of Robotics are:
0. A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being
to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the Zeroth Law.
(This is the "prime directive" that Thelma speaks of.)2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by a human being, except where that would conflict with the Zeroth or First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence, except where that would conflict with the Zeroth, First, or Second Law. For the record:
Unlike the Three Laws (#1 - #3), the Zeroth (#0) Law is not a fundamental part of positronic robotic engineering, is not part of all positronic robots, and, in fact, requires a very sophisticated robot to even accept it. For this reason, you'll rarely ever see or hear Asimov's Laws referred to as "The Four Laws of Robotics." More than likely, you'll see them refered to as the "Three Laws of Robotics", which includes only Laws One through Three. [Robert Rhodes - 9/15/1997]
- At one point, Goddard is looking for a Stockdale wrench. This is a tip of the hat to Gary Stockdale, who wrote the opening theme. Gary Stockdale is a member of Bill Mumy's band, the Jenerators.
- The idea of having Davenport in the computer was apparently conceived rather early in the series' development, when Tamsin Kelsey, the actress who was originally cast as Davenport, became pregnant. It was an excuse to keep her body hidden. They originally intended to keep the pregnant Davenport in the computer for several episodes. (Information provided by Kristian Ayre)
- Who was the original crew of the Christa?
- What has Thelma been doing in the secret room that the crew does not suspect? And why was she making course corrections?
- Who was Thelma keeping the log for, and why? And why was Thelma programmed to erase her memory of it?
- How did Bova get out of the secret room after Ms. Davenport disappeared into the computer system?
- Did the original crew of the Christa deliberately design the systems to crash if anyone tried to find information about them? And if so, what were they trying to hide?
- What was blocking Ms. Davenport from getting back into the hidden room?
- Is Thelma continuing to make course corrections and create a ship's log now that the secret room is destroyed? (Is the secret room destroyed?)
- Are there other secret rooms?
- As mentioned above, this episode fulfills one of Elmira's predictions from Spung at Heart, one that seemed to be fulfilled in that episode. Do any of her other predictions have larger implications that have not yet been fulfilled? (Partially answered in On the Road to Find Out: Elmira's prediction for Catalina was fulfilled in a bigger way in that episode).
NotePAD
(Notes from co-creator Peter A. David)
- None available at this time.
Episode Details provided by Tracey Rich.
This page was last updated on September 15, 1997.