I always thought the genetic modification ban was pretty flimsy. It wasn’t even established until DS9 since TNG had the Darwin Research Station.
I really don’t like how strict they made it in SNW. Why should humans dictate the laws for all races in the Federation? What happened to the Denobulans? Phlox said that they genetically modify themselves.
DS9 said that genetic modification was still allowed for the treatment of serious illnesses. So it doesn’t make sense for all permanent genetic modification to be banned.
Also, in DS9, genetic modification was more like performance enhancing drugs. Bashir’s modifications gave him an unfair advantage over other people. It’s kind of like someone cheating to get into a good school. But that argument also has problems since there are aliens with naturally superior abilities compared to humans. Vulcans have perfect memory, superior physical abilities, and telepathy, they would have a big advantage over humans in a lot of things. But Vulcans aren’t banned from Starfleet.
DS9 said that genetic modification was still allowed for the treatment of serious illnesses. So it doesn’t make sense for all permanent genetic modification to be banned.
The franchise is fairly consistent about genetic enhancements (i.e., augmentation) are illegal, while medical procedures are not. The Darwin station is the biggest outlier.
TNG overall never said anything about the Federation or Starfleet being against genetic modification. It wasn’t just Darwin Research Station. They didn’t say anything about it in “Masterpiece Society” either.
Dr. Bashir I Presume was the first episode that any kind of ban was ever brought up. They didn’t even say anything about a ban in “Space Seed” or “Wrath of Khan.”
Also, when Torres was pregnant in Voyager, she wanted the Doctor to modify her baby to remove Klingon traits and no one said it was illegal.
They didn’t say anything about it in “Masterpiece Society” either.
That colony wasn’t a member of the Federation, though.> Also, when Torres was pregnant in Voyager, she wanted the Doctor to modify her baby to remove Klingon traits and no one said it was illegal.
Also, when Torres was pregnant in Voyager, she wanted the Doctor to modify her baby to remove Klingon traits and no one said it was illegal.
He was not under investigation for being genetically modified. I think a key aspect of this episode and that episode is that Julian and Una were both under investigation for concealing their status as genetically modified. Neither of them faced any penalty for having the modifications done.
It is only Mr. Bashir who is punished for seeking out and obtaining genetic modification for his developmentally delayed child. Being genetically modified isn’t a crime and I don’t think it was ever depicted as such - but having a genetic modification done is a crime. And having one done on you prevents you from joining Starfleet in some cases. Although for all we know Ilyrians are given exception to genetic modification rules as long as they’re honest about it, but no human has ever gotten an exception so Julian lied to protect his parents and to ensure he’d get into Starfleet.
Which is insane. Its not my biggest problem with this episode but the revelation that the Federation has had like…violent pogroms against augments with children being arrested and what sounds like ghettos is incredibly bad? Its presented as an example of how “unfairly” augments have been treated, but that’s not unfair treatment, that’s borderline genocidal. It puts a way darker spin on the Federation than I think the writers were intending, like I don’t think even DS9 in its attempts to deconstruct utopia ever implied anything half as monstrous.
I really like the look fo the dress uniforms. Surprised that they never got Pike to the stand, especially after Una confessing that she told Pike 4 months ago.
Now that the cast has been reset, I’m ready for them to explore some strange new worlds.
Picard left the TNG storyline state in such a decent and settled place, feels like another story would only risk ruining things. Feels like the series is already in a good-as-it-gets state and can only go down from here, unless they go for total spin-off.
But I’ll still watch it even if it sucks, which the people with $$ in their eyes know so…
Oh no, its Generations all over again. They got a second almost perfect ending. Thats a rare thing. Most shows dont even get one, and nobody but Futurama gets three.
The Grand Nagus sexually assaulting women, especially Kira, is never actually fully addressed.
Yeah, that was a weird one. In DS9’s pilot Quark touches Kira and she threatens him (“if you don’t take your hands off my hips you’ll never be able to touch anything with them again” or something like that) but when the Nagus does it in season 2 it’s played for comedic effect. That irked me too when I rewatched the episode recently.
I think my problem with wesley is that he got such a preferential seat on the bridge of a massive ship that probably countless other people had worked their whole careers to get on. It feels unfair to all those people to put a kid on the bridge instead of an adult in the middle of their career.
Wesley as a character is fine! I know Whil Wheaton had a weird interaction with the fediverse and in my hazy memory of it I don’t really blame people’s reactions, but in his ready room show for star trek he honestly has been great. He seems like he really loves star trek.
The one thing is, “shut up wesley!” became an internet meme, and understandably I don’t think Wheaton finds that meme that funny after a couple of decades of hearing it. When the kneejerk reaction fans greet you with is to tell your character to shut up… when your character wasn’t a villain… but just kind of an awkward kid who really was never characterized as anything other than someone who just wanted people to like him… it just feels like punching down for no reason.
It feels unfair to all those people to put a kid on the bridge instead of an adult in the middle of their career.
It’s partially a testament to what a prodigy he’s supposed to be, but it’s also an artifact of Picard’s friendship with his mother and late father, and a soft character progression for both of them because up to that point no children were allowed on the bridge with him at all
Trek fans in that era got hung up on some weird stuff for sure. I knew several people who hated Neelix for basically the entire Voyager run mainly because of that one early episode where he acted jealously even though he got over it by the end of the episode lol
Ahhh 90’s TV… So there was a lot of issues during the 90’s when it came to scripts. One of the issues was that TV Execs now acknowledged the existence of women but they weren’t to sure what to “do” with them. You can see this in many many shows but one of the things that pops up is you might have a strong female character that has a few really good episodes or seasons but at some point the writing flips to they want to get pregnant and married (not saying either is bad but when it comes out of left field a bit it’s clearly just tacked on plot).
The reason I bring the above up is that much of Trek (even TNG) women are treated in many plots as merely props in a narrative to move a story forward not as actual characters. Unfortunately this is also why the Federation seems so blasé to how they’re treated, because they’re not fully treated as a proper character. So, hilariously, the execs of the time (and writers) are somewhat caricatures of their own creations, the Ferengis.
Therein my frustrations with older Trek. I see and appreciate what they were trying to do, but their inherent biases were on full display despite creating a show about a better progressive future.
The insane thing is that even with all that they were exceptionally progressive… in comparison to what else was out at the same time. The issue of doing this sort of social comparison is that you really need to keep it in context with history. Weird example. The Honeymooners regularly had a punchline of threatening violence against one of the wives (The infamous “One of these days Alice! BANG! ZOOM!”), 10 years after the last episode Star Trek The Original Series started which (unless I’m remembering wrong) didn’t use violence as a joke.
Sometimes it takes a while for things to change… Other times it gallops along.
I know I’ve already replied to you but I came across this short interview with the actress that played Dr.Crusher in TNG and why she was fired from the show then came back: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYsemEvV3-Y Oddly on point to what we’re talking about here.
Was pretty skeptical about all this stuff, but it seems like y’all have succeeded in moving a good chunk of people from Reddit to this new place, which hopefully bodes well for the future.
Hopefully y’all will be able to keep moderation functioning well, especially considering that a lot of Folks’ll stay split between here and the Reddit subs. Like the biggest reason (IMO, of course) that r/DaystromInstitute is/was one of the best subs out there was just how effective the moderators are/were.
Was pretty skeptical about all this stuff, but it seems like y’all have succeeded in moving a good chunk of people from Reddit to this new place, which hopefully bodes well for the future.
As long as there is enough people here to have a thriving discussion, we can be self-sustaining.
He definitely improves as the series goes on. I think most of the hate comes from Season 1 where he’s a genius kid who knows more than all the senior staff of the flagship. He gets a lot better when his stories aren’t just him whining about how no one recognizes how much of a genius he is.
That was such a bad situation. The whole, “how dare you question me, get out,” loss of Gates McFadden. Dr. Pulaski’s introduction as Bones 2.0 instead of as a distinct, unique character, and her first comments to Data. I think Diana Muldaur is very talented and a Star Trek icon – TOS and TNG. Pulaski is a strong character, but that first impression was hard for me to shake. I was happy when Dr. Crusher returned, but by then I was also also sad to see Dr. Pulaski go. I wish that PIC had made room for a Dr. Pulaski appearance.
That is a fundamental misunderstanding of how transporters function in the Trek universe. There is no destruction, duplication, and recreation of objects. Matter is simply converted into quantum information and then converted back.
Because teleportation is murder. Whatever comes out on the other side may look and act like you, but isn't you, because you're now dead for having been disassembled by the teleporter.
Teleporters are interesting because when you think about it long enough, you realize the person on departure end died.
You think about it more... and if the person that comes out the arrival end is an exact replica -- down to the atom -- and, further, has internal continuity of experience... You realize that if you accept they died then you kind of also have to accept that the "you" of any given instant is constantly dying and giving way to the "you" of the next instant. That person living that experience at that exact moment will never exist again; they're dead.
So you're kinda back to transporters being business as usual again, but with a fun new existential crisis on the side.
In practice, I agree with you. The transporter scans, disintegrates, and reconstructs the thing being transported. But when the thing being transported is reconstructed at a subatomic level it is effectively identical.
I can imagine the society we see in startrek having already worked through the moral and philosophical implications. I would have loved to see that addressed in an episode tho.
Is one carbon atom the same as another carbon atom, philosophically? Can you keep your identity when all your atoms are replaced by other atoms of the same kind? It’s the ship of Theseus problem
@QDidNothingWrong I suspect it's just a simple case of the actor getting it wrong and no one on set really noticed at the time. It's definitely not the standard form.
Another fascinating point is it’s not tradition to do the Vulcan salute to a non-Vulcan of which none of the characters on screen were so it’s strange he’d use that salute when not referencing anything Vulcan in the scene.
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