Star Trek: Voyager
Channel 647 BBCHD
S4 Ep21 The Omega Directive
11:00 - 12:00p [ Saturday 02 December 2017 ]
Janeway receives an order for Voyager to wipe out a dangerous, unstable molecule that has the power to destroy space.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
Wikiquote
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke
Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/going-nuclear-over-the-pacific-24428997/
Smithsonian Magazine
Going Nuclear Over the Pacific
A half-century ago, a U.S. military test lit up the skies and upped the ante with the Soviets.
By Gilbert King
August 15, 2012
The summer of 2012 will be remembered as a time when people around the world were caught up in events in the skies above Mars, where the rover Curiosity eventually touched down onto the red planet. Fifty years ago this summer there were strange doings in the skies above earth as well. In July 1962, eight airplanes, including five commercial flights, plummeted to the ground in separate crashes that killed hundreds. In a ninth incident that month, a vulture smashed through the cockpit window of an Indian Airlines cargo plane, killing the co-pilot. Higher in the atmosphere, cameras mounted in U-2 spy planes soaring above the Carribean captured images of Soviet ships that, unbeknownst to the U.S. at the time, were carrying missiles to Cuba.
In gray skies over Cape Cod, a 20-year-old telephone operator named Lois Ann Frotten decided to join her new fiancé in a celebratory jump from an airplane at 2,500 feet. It was her first attempt at skydiving. While her fiancé landed safely, Frotten’s chute got tangled and failed to open fully. She tumbled end over end and landed feet-first in Mystic Lake with a terrific splash—and survived the half-mile free fall with a cut nose and two small cracked vertebrae. “I’ll never jump again,” she told rescuers as she was pulled from the lake.
But of all the things happening in the skies that summer, nothing would be quite as spectacular, surreal and frightening as the military project code-named Starfish Prime. Just five days after Americans across the country witnessed traditional Fourth of July fireworks displays, the Atomic Energy Commission created the greatest man-made light show in history when it launched a thermonuclear warhead on the nose of a Thor rocket, creating a suborbital nuclear detonation 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
In the fifty minutes that followed, witnesses from Hawaii to New Zealand were treated to a carnival of color as the sky was illuminated in magnificent rainbow stripes and an artificial aurora borealis. With a yield of 1.45 megatons, the hydrogen bomb was approximately 100 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima 17 years before. Yet scientists underestimated the effects of the bomb and the resulting radiation.
Knowledge of radiation in space was still fragmentary and new. It was only four years before that James A. Van Allen, a University of Iowa physicist who had been experimenting with Geiger counters on satellites, claimed to have discovered that the planet was encircled by a “deadly band of X-rays,” and that radiation from the sun “hit the satellites so rapidly and furiously” that the devices jammed. Van Allen announced his findings on May 1, 1958, at a joint meeting of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society, and the following day, the Chicago Tribune bannered the headline, “Radiation Belt Dims Hope of Space Travel.” The story continued: “Death, lurking in a belt of unexpectedly heavy radiation about 700 miles above the earth, today dimmed man’s dreamed of conquering outer space.”
News of the “hot band of peril” immediately cast doubt on whether Laika, the Russian dog, would have been able to survive for a week in space aboard Sputnik II, as the Soviets claimed, in November of 1957. (The Soviets said that after six days, the dog’s oxygen ran out and she was euthanized with poisoned food. It was later learned that Laika, the first live animal to be launched into space, died just hours after the launch from overheating and stress, when a malfunction in the capsule caused the temperature to rise.)
What Van Allen had discovered were the bands of high-energy particles that were held in place by strong magnetic fields, and soon known as the Van Allen Belts. A year later, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine as he opened an entirely new field of research—magnetospheric physics—and catapulted the United States into the race to space with the Soviet Union.
On the same day Van Allen held his press conference in May 1958, he agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military on a top-secret project. The plan: to send atomic bombs into space in an attempt to blow up the Van Allen Belts, or to at least disrupt them with a massive blast of nuclear energy.
At the height of the Cold War, the thinking may have been, as the science historian James Fleming said recently, that “if we don’t do it, the Russians will.” In fact, over the next few years, both the United States and the Soviet Union tested atomic bombs in space, with little or no disruption in the Van Allen Belts. Fleming suspects that the U.S. military may have theorized that the Van Allen belts could be used to attack the enemy. But in July 1962, the United States was ready to test a far more powerful nuclear bomb in space
The first Starfish Prime launch, on June 20, 1962, at Johnston Island in the Pacific, had to be aborted when the Thor launch vehicle failed and the missile began to break apart. The nuclear warhead was destroyed mid-flight, and radioactive contamination rained back down on the island.
Despite protests from Tokyo to London to Moscow citing “the world’s violent opposition” to the July 9 test, the Honolulu Advertiser carried no ominous portent with its headline, “N-Blast Tonight May Be Dazzling; Good View Likely,” and hotels in Hawaii held rooftop parties.
The mood on the other side of the planet was somewhat darker. In London, England, 300 British citizens demonstrated outside the United States Embassy, chanting “No More Tests!” and scuffling with police. Canon L. John Collins of St. Paul’s Cathedral called the test “an evil thing,” and said those responsible were “stupid fools.” Izvestia, the Soviet newspaper, carried the headline, “Crime of American Atom-mongers: United States Carries Out Nuclear Explosion in Space.”
Soviet film director Sergei Yutkevich told the paper, “We know with whom we are dealing: yet we hoped, until the last moment, that the conscience, if not the wisdom, of the American atom-mongers would hear the angry voices of millions and millions of ordinary people of the earth, the voices of mothers and scientists of their own country.” (Just eight months before, the Soviets tested the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated—a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb—on an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia.)
Just after 11 p.m. Honolulu time on July 9, the 1.45-megaton hydrogen bomb was detonated thirteen minutes after launch. Almost immediately, an electromagnetic pulse knocked out electrical service in Hawaii, nearly 1,000 miles away. Telephone service was disrupted, streetlights were down and burglar alarms were set off by a pulse that was much larger than scientists expected.
Suddenly, the sky above the Pacific was illuminated by bright auroral phenomena. “For three minutes after the blast,” one reporter in Honolulu wrote, “the moon was centered in a sky partly blood-red and partly pink. Clouds appeared as dark silhouettes against the lighted sky.” Another witness said, “A brilliant white flash burned through the clouds rapidly changing to an expanding green ball of irradiance extending into the clear sky above the overcast.” Others as far away as the Fiji Islands—2,000 miles from Johnston Island—described the light show as “breathtaking.”
In Maui, a woman observed auroral lights that lasted a half hour in “a steady display, not pulsating or flickering, taking the shape of a gigantic V and shading from yellow at the start to dull red, then to icy blue and finally to white.”
“To our great surprise and dismay, it developed that Starfish added significantly to the electrons in the Van Allen belts,” Atomic Energy Commission Glenn Seaborg wrote in his memoirs. “This result contravened all our predictions.”
More than half a dozen satellites had been victimized by radiation from the blast. Telstar, the AT&T communications satellite launched one day after Starfish, relayed telephone calls, faxes and television signals until its transistors were damaged by Starfish radiation. (The Soviets tested their own high-altitude thermonuclear device in October 1962, which further damaged Telstar’s transistors and rendered it useless.)
Both the Soviets and the United States conducted their last high-altitude nuclear explosions on November 1, 1962. It was also the same day the Soviets began dismantling their missiles in Cuba. Realizing that the two nations had come close to a nuclear war, and prompted by the results of Starfish Prime and continuing atomic tests by the Soviets, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on July 25, 1963, banning atmospheric and exoatmospheric nuclear testing. And while the U.S. and the Soviet Union would continue their race to space at full throttle, for the time being, the treaty significantly slowed the arms race between the two superpowers.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/07/09/the-50th-anniversary-of-starfish-prime-the-nuke-that-shook-the-world/
Discover
The 50th anniversary of Starfish Prime: the nuke that shook the world
By Phil Plait July 9, 2012 6:05 am
On July 9, 1962 — 50 years ago today — the United States detonated a nuclear weapon high above the Pacific Ocean. Designated Starfish Prime, it was part of a dangerous series of high-altitude nuclear bomb tests at the height of the Cold War. Its immediate effects were felt for thousands of kilometers, but it would also have a far-reaching aftermath that still touches us today.
In 1958, the Soviet Union called for a ban on atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons, and went so far as to unilaterally stop such testing. Under external political pressure, the US acquiesced. However, in late 1961 political pressures internal to the USSR forced Khrushchev to break the moratorium, and the Soviets began testing once again. So, again under pressure, the US responded with tests of their own.
It was a scary time to live in.
The US, worried that a Soviet nuclear bomb detonated in space could damage or destroy US intercontinental missiles, set up a series of high-altitude weapons tests called Project Fishbowl (itself part of the larger Operation Dominic) to find out for themselves what happens when nuclear weapons are detonated in space. High-altitude tests had been done before, but they were hastily set up and the results inconclusive. Fishbowl was created to take a more rigorous scientific approach.
Boom! Goes the dynamite
On July 9, 1962, the US launched a Thor missile from Johnston island, an atoll about 1500 kilometers (900 miles) southwest of Hawaii. The missile arced up to a height of over 1100 km (660 miles), then came back down. At the preprogrammed height of 400 km (240 miles), just seconds after 09:00 UTC, the 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead detonated.
And all hell broke loose.
1.4 megatons is the equivalent of 1.4 million tons of TNT exploding. However, nuclear weapons are fundamentally different from simple chemical explosives. TNT releases its energy in the form of heat and light. Nukes also generate heat and light, plus vast amounts of X-rays and gamma rays – high-energy forms of light – as well as subatomic particles like electrons and heavy ions.
When Starfish prime exploded, the effects were devastating. Here’s a video showing actual footage from the test, 50 years ago today:
As you can see, the explosion was roughly spherical; the shock wave expanding in all directions roughly equally since there is essentially no atmosphere at that height. Another video has many more views of the test; I’ve linked it directly to those sequences, but if you start at the beginning it’s actually an hour-long documentary on the test.
Nuke ’em ’til they glow
One immediate effect of the blast was a huge aurora seen for thousands of kilometers around. Electrons are lightweight and travel rapidly away from the explosion. A moving electron is affected by a magnetic field, so these electrons actually flowed quickly along the Earth’s magnetic field lines and were dropped into the upper atmosphere. At a height of roughly 50 – 100 kilometers they were stopped by the atoms and molecules of Earth’s atmosphere. Those atoms and molecules absorbed the energy of the electrons and responded by glowing, creating an artificial aurora.
Heavy ions (atoms stripped of electrons) are also created in the blast, and get absorbed somewhat higher up in the atmosphere. The image here shows this glow as seen by an airplane moments after the nuclear explosion. The feathery filament is from the bomb debris, while the red glow may be due to glowing oxygen atoms; this tends to be from atoms higher than 100 km, so the glow is probably due to the heavy ions impacting our air.
Taking the pulse of a nuclear weapon
But the effects were far more than a simple light show. When the bomb detonated, those electrons underwent incredible acceleration. When that happens they create a brief but extremely powerful magnetic field. This is called an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. The strength of the pulse was so huge that it affected the flow of electricity on the Earth hundreds of kilometers away! In Hawaii it blew out hundreds of streetlights, and caused widespread telephone outages. Other effects included electrical surges on airplanes and radio blackouts.
The EMP had been predicted by scientists, but the Starfish Prime pulse was far larger than expected. And there was another effect that hadn’t been predicted accurately. Many of the electrons from the blast didn’t fall down into the Earth’s atmosphere, but instead lingered in space for months, trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, creating an artificial radiation belt high above our planet’s surface.
When a high-speed electron hits a satellite, it can generate a sort-of miniature EMP. The details are complex, but the net effect is that these electrons can zap satellites and damage their electronics. The pulse of electrons from the Starfish Prime detonation damaged at least six satellites (including one Soviet bird), all of which eventually failed due to the blast. Other satellite failures at the time may be linked to the explosion as well.
The overall effect shocked scientists and engineers. They had expected something much smaller, not nearly the level that actually occurred. Because of this, later high-altitude nuclear tests made by the US as part of Operation Fishbowl were designed to have a much lower yield. Although the explosion energies are still classified, it’s estimated they ranged from a few dozen to a few hundred kilotons, a fraction of the 1.4 megaton Starfish Prime explosion.
Ripples downstream
The long-term physical effects from the explosion died down after a few months, but the ramifications live on today. In 2010, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency issued a report called "Collateral Damage to Satellites from an EMP Attack", and I highly recommend reading it if you’ve gotten too much sleep lately. It details the effects of a high-altitude nuclear blast, and how one could be used to disable an entire country in one blow.
I am of the opinion that knowing is better than not knowing, even when the knowledge is terrifying. In this case, forewarned is forearmed. This EMP knowledge has been out there for decades, so the more we understand it, the better we may be able to use it to prevent damage from the bad guys from trying something like this.
And if I may distance myself from the horrifying political and dark human aspects of all this, there was much science learned. EMPs are fascinating, and don’t need nukes to occur. The Sun blasts out high energy particles and light during solar storms. In much the same way, these can damage our satellites and harm our astronauts in space.
Learning about them from Starfish Prime increased our understanding of the physics of EMPs, and also gave us insight into mitigating the effects. Interestingly, a nearby supernova or gamma-ray burst (a kind of super-supernova) would also have very similar effects, and could even directly affect our atmosphere. The good news is there are no potential supernovae or GRB progenitors close enough to hurt us. However, as our Sun orbits the galaxy, there may have been a time when one did go off nearby, millions or billions of years ago. There’s some thinking that the Ordovician extinction 440 million years ago – when the trilobites died out – may have been due to a nearby GRB. The evidence is sketchy for sure, but intriguing.
Lesson on the half-century anniversary
So what do we make of all this? What conclusions may be drawn?
The scientific conclusions are rather straight-forward — the existence of EMPs, the damage to satellites, the artificial aurorae and radiation belts — and have added to our knowledge.
But at what cost? I was alive and entering young adulthood at the end of the Cold War. I wasn’t born when Starfish Prime went off, but I do remember other tests, and I remember some of the nightmares I had as a kid about nuclear war. This wasn’t ancient history; it was just a few years ago. The concern over nuclear weapons is still real, as well it should be, even if the situation has evolved somewhat since then.
It may seem like madness now that there were two such huge powers (not including China, which was also a credible nuclear threat at the time) testing nuclear weapons on our own planet. Perhaps it was madness. Still, the idea of two enemies with such overwhelming capability to destroy each other and themselves is behind the premise of Mutually Assured Destruction — making it insane to attack, since it guarantees your own destruction.
That assumes one of the groups in questions doesn’t want to die. With some religious fanatics, that deterrent not only goes away, but actually becomes an instigation. That’s one reason I support reasoned, well-investigated intelligence efforts by governments. These efforts can be abused, of course, so we must be vigilant in watching the watchers. But there’s little doubt they’re needed. Bad guys are out there.
So I urge you, on this unhappy anniversary, to read more about the explosion that taught us so much about unexpected consequences, and to think about how fragile our existence can be — and why we must fight so hard for it.
I’ll leave you with one more thing. From an article I wrote in 2010, here is a video by Isao Hashimoto showing the location and information for every nuclear detonation on Earth. I titled it "What the hell were we thinking?"
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
[Astrometrics lab]
Captain JANEWAY: Come in. Status report?
CHAKOTAY: Everything's going according to schedule.
JANEWAY: Good. The Omega Directive doesn't allow me to say much but I want you to know what to expect. At oh six hundred hours, I'll be leaving in a shuttle with Seven of Nine.
CHAKOTAY: Would it be out of line to ask where you're going?
JANEWAY: I can tell you this. One of two things is going to happen. Either Seven and I will succeed on our mission, and return within a few days, or your long range sensors will detect a large explosion in subspace. If that occurs, you'll have less than ten seconds to jump to warp and get the hell out of here. Head for the Alpha Quadrant and don't look back, understood?
CHAKOTAY: I always thought Starfleet was run by duty-crazed bureaucrats, but I find it hard to believe that even they would order a captain to go on a suicide mission. This shuttle excursion is your idea, isn't it?
JANEWAY: Let's just say I've had to amend the Directive, given the circumstances, But you have your orders and I expect you to follow them.
CHAKOTAY: That's expecting a lot. You're asking me to abandon my captain and closest friend without even telling me why.
JANEWAY: If it were a simple matter of trust I wouldn't hesitate to tell you, but we've encountered situations where information was taken from us by force. I can't allow knowledge of Omega to go beyond Voyager.
CHAKOTAY: That's a reasonable argument, but you're not always a reasonable woman. You're determined to protect this crew, and this time you've taken it too far. A dangerous mission? Fine, I'll acknowledge that, but isn't it more likely to succeed with everyone behind you, working together?
JANEWAY: Ordinarily, I'd agree. But this Directive was issued many years ago, and Starfleet didn't exactly have our predicament in mind. Lost in the Delta Quadrant, with no backup. I can't ignore the orders, but I won't ask the crew to risk their lives because of my obligation.
CHAKOTAY: My obligation. That's where you're wrong. Voyager may be alone out here, but you're not. Let us help you. We'll keep classified information limited to the senior staff. We'll take every security precaution. Just don't try to do this alone.
JANEWAY: Assemble the troops.
[Briefing room]
JANEWAY: If we were in the Alpha Quadrant right now, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'd be in contact with Starfleet Command, and they'd send in a specialised team to deal with the crisis. In their absence, we're going to have to make do with the training I've received, and the knowledge Seven of Nine has retained from the Borg. You've all seen this symbol. Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Chosen by Starfleet to represent a threat not only to the Federation, but to the entire galaxy. Only starship captains and Federation Flag Officers have been briefed on the nature of this threat. What you're about to hear will not go beyond these bulkheads, is that clear? Good.
(She calls up a rotating image on the wall screen.)
JANEWAY: This is Omega.
PARIS: A molecule?
JANEWAY: Not just any molecule. The most powerful substance known to exist. A single Omega molecule contains the same energy as a warp core. In theory, a small chain of them could sustain a civilisation. The molecule was first synthesised over a hundred years ago, by a Starfleet physicist named Ketteract. I think he was hoping to develop an inexhaustible power source.
SEVEN: Or a weapon.
JANEWAY: Ketteract managed to synthesise a single molecule particle of Omega, but it only existed for a fraction of a second before it destabilised.
(Another image. A space station with a big hole in it.)
JAEWAY: This was a classified research station in the Lantaru Sector. Ketteract and one hundred twenty six of the Federation's leading scientists were lost in the accident. Rescue teams attempting to reach the site discovered an unexpected secondary effect. There were subspace ruptures extending out several light years.
PARIS: The Lantaru Sector. It's impossible to create a stable warp field there. You can only fly through it at sublight speeds. I was always told that was a natural phenomenon. You're saying it was caused by a single molecule of this stuff?
JANEWAY: Omega destroys subspace. A chain reaction involving a handful of molecules could devastate subspace throughout an entire Quadrant. If that were to happen, warp travel would become impossible. Space-faring civilisation as we know it would cease to exist. When Starfleet realised Omega's power, they suppressed all knowledge of it.
EMH: Have you detected Omega here, in the Delta Quadrant?
JANEWAY: I'm afraid so. I've been authorised to use whatever means necessary to destroy it. Tom, I've calculated the location of the molecules. I'll transfer the coordinates to the helm. Take us there at full impulse.
PARIS: Aye, Captain.
JANEWAY: I don't have to tell you what's at stake. If a large-scale Omega explosion occurs, we will lose the ability to go to warp forever.
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
Captain's log, supplemental. Encrypt log entry. We're approaching the star system where we believe we'll find Omega. I have to admit, I have never been this apprehensive about a mission. I know how Einstein must have felt about the atom bomb, or Marcus when she developed the Genesis device. They watched helplessly as science took a destructive course. But I have the chance to prevent that from happening. I just hope it's not too late.
[Cargo Bay two]
JANEWAY: Status report?
SEVEN: This is a harmonic resonance chamber. The Borg designed it to contain and stabilise Omega.
JANEWAY: I thought I asked you to work on the photon torpedo.
SEVEN: The torpedo may be insufficient. I can modify this chamber to emit an inverse frequency. It will be enough to dissolve Omega's interatomic bonds.
JANEWAY: Here's to Borg ingenuity. This is excellent work, Seven. We may need this.
SEVEN: The modifications require several complex calculations. Assist me.
JANEWAY: I guess I will. I'm curious. When did the Borg discover Omega?
SEVEN: Two hundred twenty nine years ago.
JANEWAY: Assimilation?
SEVEN: Yes, of thirteen different species.
JANEWAY: Thirteen?
SEVEN: It began with Species two six two. They were primitive, but their oral history referred to a powerful substance which could burn the sky. The Borg were intrigued, which led them to Species two six three. They too were primitive, and believed it was a drop of blood from their Creator.
From 10/3/1958 ( premiere US TV series "Lux Playhouse"::series premiere episode "The Best House in the Valley" ) To 3/16/1991 ( my first successful major test of my ultraspace matter transportation device as Kerry Wayne Burgess the successful Ph.D. graduate ) is 11852 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 4/15/1998 is 11852 days
From 7/9/1962 ( the United States conducts the Starfish Prime nuclear bomb test ) To 12/20/1994 ( in Bosnia as Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps captain this day is my United States Navy Cross medal date of record ) is 11852 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 4/15/1998 is 11852 days
From 8/5/1930 ( Neil Armstrong ) To 6/29/1995 ( the Mir space station docking of the United States space shuttle Atlantis orbiter vehicle mission STS-71 includes me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-71 pilot astronaut and my 3rd official United States National Aeronautics Space Administration orbital flight of 4 overall ) is 23704 days
23704 = 11852 + 11852
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 4/15/1998 is 11852 days
http://www.tv.com/shows/star-trek-voyager/the-omega-directive-10728/
tv.com
Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 Episode 21
The Omega Directive
Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
Episode Summary
Stardate: 51781.2
Voyager is forced out of warp by the detection of a dangerous and powerful particle, called "Omega", that has the power to join subspace. Janeway must enlist the help of the senior staff to carry out a secret standing order from Starfleet - destroy Omega by any means necessary.
AIRED: 4/15/98
http://www.startrek.com/database_article/omega-directive
STAR TREK
Omega Directive, The
Star Trek: Voyager
Season: 4 Ep. 20
Air Date: 04/15/1998
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
JANEWAY: Fascinating.
SEVEN: Yes, but irrelevant. We followed this trail of myth for many years until finally assimilating a species with useful scientific data. We then created the molecule ourselves.
JANEWAY: Omega caused quite a stir among my own species. Federation cosmologists had a theory that the molecule once existed in nature for an infinitesimal period of time at the exact moment of the Big Bang. Some claimed Omega was the primal source of energy for the explosion that began our universe.
SEVEN: A creation myth like any other.
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
JANEWAY: Perhaps. What is it the Borg say? That Omega is perfect?
SEVEN: Yes.
JANEWAY: Is that a theory or a belief.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Bridge to Captain.
JANEWAY: Go ahead.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: We're approaching the coordinates.
JANEWAY: I'm on my way. I'm leaving this project in your hands. Use whatever resources and personnel you need.
SEVEN: Understood.
http://www.tv.com/shows/lux-playhouse/best-house-in-the-valley-197061/
tv.com
Lux Playhouse Season 1 Episode 1
Best House in the Valley
Aired Friday 9:30 PM Oct 03, 1958 on CBS
AIRED: 10/3/58
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux_(disambiguation)
Lux (disambiguation)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lux is the SI unit of illuminance and luminous emittance.
Lux or LUX may also refer to:
Other uses
Lux (soap), a soap from Unilever
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux_(soap)
Lux (soap)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LUX is a global brand developed by Unilever. The range of products includes beauty soaps, shower gels, bath additives, hair shampoos and conditioners. Lux started as "Sunlight Flakes" laundry soap in 1899.
In 1925, it became the first mass-market toilet soap in the world. It is noted as a brand that pioneered female celebrity endorsements.
History
Origins and history
The brand was founded by the Lever Brothers in 1899 and now known as Unilever. The name changed from "Sunlight Flakes" to "Lux" in 1900, a Latin word for "light" and suggestive of "luxury.”
Beginnings
Lux's early advertising campaigns aimed to educate users about its credentials as a laundry product and appeared in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal. By the early 1920s, it was a hugely successful brand and in 1924, the Lever Brothers conducted a contest that led them to a very interesting finding: women were using Lux as toilet soap.
Building beauty soap credentials
Introduced in the United States in 1924, Lux became the world's first mass market toilet soap with the tagline "made as fine as French Soap". In the first two years of launch, Lux concentrated on building its beauty soap credentials. Advertisements offered consumers "a beauty soap made in the French method" at an affordable price, with the promise of smooth skin.
Made with fine-texture, rich in fragrance, and manufactured using a method created in France, the first Lux toilet soap was sold for 10 cents apiece.
1928–1940: 9 out of 10 stars
This era saw key launches of LUX in the UK, India, Argentina and Thailand. The brand concentrated on building its association with the increasingly popular movie world, focusing more on movie stars and their roles rather than on the product. In 1929, advertising featured 26 of the biggest female stars of the day, creating a huge impact among the movie-loving target audience. This was followed by Hollywood directors talking about the importance of smooth and youthful skin. This pioneered the trend of celebrity product endorsements.
In 1931, Lux launched a campaign with older stars, "I am over 31". The series of print ads had stars talking about preserving youthful skin. Lux also launched campaigns featuring interviews with stars and close-ups of stars, bringing to life the '9 out of 10' idea
1940s and 1950s: Romancing the consumer
Using movie stars as role models, Lux's strategy was to build relevance by looking at beauty through the consumer's eyes. While still retaining the star element, the focus shifted to the consumer and the role of the brand in her life.
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
[Cargo Bay two]
(The work on the chamber is finished.)
SEVEN: We don't need to destroy the molecules. I believe I've found a way to stabilise them. The alien in Sickbay calibrated his containment field using Omega's own resonance, an approach unknown to the Borg. I have modified this chamber
CHAKOTAY: Those weren't your orders. The Captain wants Omega eliminated.
SEVEN: That is still an option, if she insists on yielding to her fear.
CHAKOTAY: Show me what you've done.
SEVEN: This simulation shows the molecules in their free state, highly unstable. I've modified the chamber to emit a harmonic waveform that will dampen the molecules.
CHAKOTAY: Looks great, in theory, but this is only a simulation. How are you going to test it?
SEVEN: On Omega.
CHAKOTAY: Bad idea. One mistake, and no one will be around for a second try.
SEVEN: It will work.
CHAKOTAY: Someday, maybe. Hang on to your research. For now, we stick to the plan. Stand by to transport the molecules into this chamber and neutralise them as ordered.
SEVEN: I have been a member of this crew for nine months. In all of that time, I have never made a personal request. I am making one now. Allow me to proceed. Please.
CHAKOTAY: Why is this so important to you?
SEVEN: Particle zero one zero. The Borg designation for what you call Omega. Every Drone is aware of its existence. We were instructed to assimilate it at all costs. It is perfection. The molecules exist in a flawless state. Infinite parts functioning as one.
CHAKOTAY: Like the Borg.
SEVEN: Precisely. I am no longer Borg, but I still need to understand that perfection. Without it, my existence will never be complete. Commander, you are a spiritual man.
CHAKOTAY: That's right.
SEVEN: If you had the chance to see your God, your Great Spirit, what would you do?
CHAKOTAY: I'd pursue it, with all my heart.
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
SEVEN: Then you understand.
CHAKOTAY: I think I do. I'll inform the captain of your discovery. For now, her orders stand.
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
TUVOK: Sensors show no traces of Omega molecules.
JANEWAY: Mission accomplished.
Captain's log, stardate 51793.4. We've arranged for our guests in Sickbay to be taken back to their homeworld, and we can finally put this mission behind us. This will be my last encrypted log concerning the Omega Directive. The classified datafiles will now be destroyed.
[Holodeck - da Vinci's Workshop]
(Seven is gazing at the crucifix on the wall.)
JANEWAY: I wondered who was running my programme. Master da Vinci doesn't like visitors after midnight.
SEVEN: He protested. I deactivated him.
JANEWAY: What are you doing here, Seven?
SEVEN: This simulation contains many religious components. I was studying them to help me understand what I saw in Cargo Bay two.
JANEWAY: The data isn't clear why Omega stabilised in the last few seconds. The chances are it was simply a chaotic anomaly, nothing more.
SEVEN: For three point two seconds I saw perfection. When Omega stabilised, I felt a curious sensation. As I was watching it, it seemed to be watching me. The Borg have assimilated many species with mythologies to explain such moments of clarity. I've always dismissed them as trivial. Perhaps I was wrong.
JANEWAY: If I didn't know you better, I'd say you just had your first spiritual experience.
[ Episode ends ]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Cross
Star Trek: Voyager - The Omega Directive - television series Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired Wednesday 8:00 PM Apr 15, 1998 on UPN
(from internet transcript)
***
[Laboratory]
TUVOK: We've disabled the locking mechanism.
JANEWAY: Narrow your phaser beams to cut through the inner seal.
TUVOK: Inadvisable. We'd risk penetrating the containment field.
JANEWAY: Then we'll have to use some elbow grease. Give me a hand. Right.
(They pull the protective door aside. The blue light from the chamber fills the room.)
JANEWAY: There's enough here to wipe out subspace across half the quadrant.
TUVOK: I'll order the away teams back to Voyager and target this facility with the gravimetric charge.
JANEWAY: It won't be enough. We'll have to go with our Borg option. Ensign.
ENSIGN: Yes, Captain.
JANEWAY: Return to the ship. Tell Commander Chakotay to help Seven complete the harmonic chamber. We'll have to transport Omega directly to the ship. That means finding a way to shut down this containment field.
TUVOK: It's unfortunate we can't study this phenomenon in more detail. We may not have the opportunity again.
JANEWAY: Let's hope we never do.
TUVOK: A curious statement from a woman of science.
JANEWAY: I'm also a woman who occasionally knows when to quit. Take another look at your tricorder. Omega's too dangerous. I won't risk half the quadrant to satisfy our curiosity. It's arrogant, and it's irresponsible. The final frontier has some boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, and we're looking at one.
- posted by Kerry Burgess 9:03 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Saturday 02 December 2017
