Friendship One
- Episode aired Apr 25, 2001
- TV-PG
- 43m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
For the first time in seven years, Voyager gets a mission from Starfleet Command: retrieve the 21st century probe Friendship One from a nearby planet.For the first time in seven years, Voyager gets a mission from Starfleet Command: retrieve the 21st century probe Friendship One from a nearby planet.For the first time in seven years, Voyager gets a mission from Starfleet Command: retrieve the 21st century probe Friendship One from a nearby planet.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe Friendship One probe in this story is a thinly veiled approximation of the (appropriately named) Voyager I & II space probes launched by NASA in 1977. They also include records (made of gold) that have greetings from Earth in 55 languages including - no kidding - whale. There are also over 100 scenes of Earth and music from Bach to Chuck Berry. At this point in time, the probes are over 13 billion miles (21 billion km) from home, but still far from even one light year, which is 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion km).
- GoofsThe Friendship One probe, launched in 2067, bears the Starfleet arrowhead emblem. The Trek time line has established that this emblem was a mission-specific one assigned to the Enterprise in the 2260s and wasn't adopted by the whole of Starfleet until after then.
- ConnectionsReferences Star Trek (1966)
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An interesting episode that deals with the question of what actually happened to all the probes that we humans sent into space to make first contact with alien civilizations.
Voyager is supposed to recover a probe that was sent out 300 years ago and was actually intended to share knowledge and technology. But just like when ordering from cheap Chinese online shops: you can throw the manuals straight into the trash can because of the incomprehensible nonsense. The species that received the probe apparently misunderstood something in the technical specifications for antimatter technology and thus irradiated their entire planet. Happens, but at least the kids can now sled and build snowmen all year round - thanks to the nuclear winter.
In essence, this episode can be compared to what has happened regularly in our own history, when developed civilizations have encountered seemingly less developed civilizations. Be it native Americans, the cultures of Central and South America, feudal Japan, African peoples... When these cultures came into contact with Western culture, their way of life often not only changed drastically, but often also worsened. If a civilization has not yet crossed a certain technological threshold itself, technology introduced from outside often leads to disruptive, unpredictable changes in these cultures.
However, I wonder why humans continued to launch such probes into space after Cochrane carried out his warp flight and made first contact with the Vulcans. It would have made more sense to contact other species through the Vulcans instead of randomly launching a few probes into space.
And as is always when a crew member has to bite the dust on an away mission - then one of the many nameless officers is taken and given a generic name like Joe for his five minutes screen time.
Voyager is supposed to recover a probe that was sent out 300 years ago and was actually intended to share knowledge and technology. But just like when ordering from cheap Chinese online shops: you can throw the manuals straight into the trash can because of the incomprehensible nonsense. The species that received the probe apparently misunderstood something in the technical specifications for antimatter technology and thus irradiated their entire planet. Happens, but at least the kids can now sled and build snowmen all year round - thanks to the nuclear winter.
In essence, this episode can be compared to what has happened regularly in our own history, when developed civilizations have encountered seemingly less developed civilizations. Be it native Americans, the cultures of Central and South America, feudal Japan, African peoples... When these cultures came into contact with Western culture, their way of life often not only changed drastically, but often also worsened. If a civilization has not yet crossed a certain technological threshold itself, technology introduced from outside often leads to disruptive, unpredictable changes in these cultures.
However, I wonder why humans continued to launch such probes into space after Cochrane carried out his warp flight and made first contact with the Vulcans. It would have made more sense to contact other species through the Vulcans instead of randomly launching a few probes into space.
And as is always when a crew member has to bite the dust on an away mission - then one of the many nameless officers is taken and given a generic name like Joe for his five minutes screen time.
helpful•00
- tomsly-40015
- Feb 10, 2024
Details
- Runtime43 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 4:3
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