Q; Why haven't the communicators been upgraded to include a visual facility?
A; When you discuss transmitting sounds, i.e. speech from point to point without interconnecting cable, you are really discussing the sending of information. In the case of speech, without bending your ears too much with technical stuff, the information is not all that complicated. When we are discussing transmitting moving pictures, however, there is a far, far greater amount of information that needs to be sent, and my opinion is that Federation technology simply isn't up to it yet. Interesting to note, though, that on a clear day they could surely watch events on the ground by using the magnification facility of the view screen. I don't think that that's ever been done in TNG.
A couple of gripes of my own about this episode; when Beverly is asked as to the condition of the injured Klingon, she replies that his injuries are "very critical".
VERY critical? Golly, chaps, this must be serious, the guy's not, say, a shade critical, or even sort of critical. He is, indeed, very critical. What kind of English is this? Later on, when Worf is asked how much time he has spent with other Klingons, he replies "Hardly none". Surely he means "Hardly any"? Again, what kind of English do they teach at Starfleet?
I loved the Klingon death ritual, though. Memorable tv. I read somewhere that the film crew were very pleased with the shots towards the end of Worf tilting his head back and screaming over the body of the dead Klingon. We look down on Worf from above, and the shot retreats in small jumps, which took all manner of jiggery-pokery with the cameras, apparently. Interestingly, there is an episode of the Simpsons in which the cop McBain ("Bye, book!") sees his partner killed. As we leave the scene, the camera pulls back from above in little jumps, as McBain tilts his head back and screams over the body of his dead partner. Sound familiar? Well, the two scenes are very similar to view, and I've always wondered whether the Simpsons gang weren't tipping their hats towards the Trekkers, there.
When Riker, Data and Geordi are on the fast-disintegrating other ship, just before they find the errant Klingons they come up against a very strong light source. We know it's very strong, because Riker and Geordi both hold up their hands in front of their faces to protect their eyes. Now tell me, kids, what's wrong with that last statement?
Beverly has three dead Klingons to play with. The bodies are but empty shells, and she may do with them as she sees fit. Bearing in mind that she is in line to be Head of Medical for Starfleet (which is supposedly what occupies her time during Season Two) and that she is Chief Medical Officer on the only ship in the Federation that has a resident Klingon aboard and (phew) that the Feds don't know, ahem, barely none of Klingon medicine, wouldn't it have been just a teensy-weensy bit sensible to dissect them? Hmmmm?