From: mbecke69@ursa.calvin.edu (Mark Becker)
Subject: Re: 11001001
Organization: Calvin College
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 16:54:27 GMT

dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:

>OK so my local station has begun broadcasting reruns of TNG weeknights at
>11:05pm starting with "Encounter at Farpoint" and proceeding with the first
>season episodes (though they are not quite getting the order right).

>Last night I saw 11001001 for the first time, and I am missing something.
>Clue me in, OK?

>After hearing from Data that the magic filename would likely be a familiar
>name or place, and might be in binary, Picard regards the four Binos (sp?)
>lying apparently dead in an ordered pile, and says, "Would they make it
>that simple?  Let's try it".  Then Riker keys something in, the screen says
>"Searching", and a file by the name of 11001001 is found.

They got it from the names of the Bianars there. One's  name was 11, one was 00
one was 10 and the other was 01.

>At first I thought Picard got it from the pattern the Binos had arranged
>their bodies in, but I couldn't get 11001001 from that.

As for the order, it must have been a lucky guess. :)  Either that, or they
actually tried a few combinations, but they just didn't show it in the show.

>Then I looked up "minuet" in the dictionary: "a slow graceful French dance
>designed for multiple couples, done in 3/4 time, characterized by bowing
>and toe pointing".  Great.  So, is 11001001 basically the step pattern of

Minuet was just a distraction.  She had nothing to do with the filename.

>First the Binos consider stealing the Big E a worthwhile gamble since they
>must survive at all costs.  Later, they hinge their survival on Picard and
>Riker being able to solve a relatively difficult riddle, and with "bridge
>access denied" to boot!  Why make it difficult at all?  Why not leave
>a very obvious note in English, since they can speak English?

From what I got from that episode, the Bianars were trying to fix their
problem on their own, but ran out of time.  They weren't originally planning
to depend on the humans at all.

>Why depend on Picard and Riker at all?  Couldn't they have programmed the
>E's computer to automatically download the file after some period of time
>regardless of whether they had passed out?

That would have been time consuming, and they didn't have enough time.

>When Picard and Riker found them near death, they said, "Please try to help
>us".  How ambiguous!  To insure their species' survival, why didn't they
>just whisper, "download file 11001001".  Was it necessary in some religious
>or fairy-tale sense for humans to solve a puzzle in order to save them?

It's kind of like someone who was dying from a gunshot wound.  They only had 
the energy to get out one sentence, and that was the first thing that came to
mind. (Anyways, it's more dramatic that way.:)

>Clue me.  Thanks.

Hope this helps.

> -- Dan Wright

--
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*   Mark "Kickback" Becker      *    "With friends like these . . .          *
*     mbecke69@calvin.edu       *           who needs hallucinations!!       *
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