Quote Originally Posted by russdm View Post
i thought this episode was pretty good, almost a 5, but there are some things that frustrate me. The scene with Dr. P talking with Geordi about his eyeballs and stuff feels out of place. Then there is the fact that Sign Language has become unknown somehow.

This annoys me. Given the number of people who knew sign language at the time (Also, the actor playing Riva is Deaf), I found it too unbelievable that Sign language, any of those languages, would have become so unknown. It almost suggests that you wouldn't find deaf people in the Federation.

Is this to suggest that the idea of people having traits like deafness or blindness things that the Federation no longer likes to accept in its citizens? That apparently there are no deaf members of the crew? That Picard doesn't know what Riva is doing and calls it "Gestural Language"? When there should a record about Sign Language, which Data learns from, that he could have looked over, after knowing that Riva is Deaf?
It's possible they cured congenital deafness and also developed other systems in place for developmental deafness which removed. Especially given the development of the universal translator*, which presumably would not work with gestural-based languages, and world unification favoring breaking down of language barriers. I don't see a huge issue with this.

*I have major issues with the universal translator.