Whitestar
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2004
- Messages
- 365
When Gene Roddenberry attempted to spread his “tree hugging” New Age philosophy for Next Gen, he wanted to create a government that respected and cherished the differences in its people, especially when encountering extra terrestrials. While the Federation/Starfleet initially appeared to be a benevolent government, there's a lot of evidence to suggest otherwise. In fact, it's a totalitarian regime and here are some examples.
During the initial development of Next Gen, Roddenberry sought to incorporate a ship counselor stationed on the bridge because he wanted the role of the counselor to help the crew adjust to life onboard a starship in deep space. This is understandable, but another reason for this was because at the time the show was made, therapy was the latest fad, it was considered cool and hip. Thus, the character of counselor Deanna Troi was born. Plus, he wanted the character to have empathic abilities, for he felt that she (and probably every Betazoid) would make ideal candidates as spies for Starfleet Captains, using the ship counselor title as cover. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s examine the episode entitled, “The Loss” for instance. In that episode, Troi loses her empathic abilities, albeit temporarily, and becomes angry and hostile towards her shipmates. To makes things even more dramatic, she threatens to quit her job as ship counselor because she felt that she could no longer perform her duty. The question is, why would she do that? Didn’t she bragged in nearly every episode that she has a degree in psychology? Even if she lost her empathic powers permanently, that doesn’t mean that she was incapable of performing as ship counselor because she’s a trained psychologist, or least, she keeps reminding us of that misleading impression. So what does this so-called “professional ship counselor” do? She complains, whines, and cries like a little spoil brat, rather than adjusting to this “handicap” as a mature adult and move on. But in typical Star Trek fashion, Troi miraciously gets her empathic powers back and everything is the same as before, as though the episode in question never happened. It would have been far more interesting if Troi had lost her empathic powers permanently and seek guidance from other professional counselors, who do not possess her former abilities and do their job very well without it. Plus, the crew would have felt more at ease than having Troi poking around in their minds!
The universal translator is another example of the Federation/Starfleet totalitarian mentality. The way it is depicted in Star Trek, this device is capable of deciphering an unknown language whenever the Enterprise crew encounters a new species for the first time. But what’s really stretching plausibility is that it does so instantaneously. The problem with this plot device is that it takes time to understand an unknown language. To get an idea of what that’s like, try watching a foreign film without subtitles in it and figure out what the characters are saying, and I guarantee you that you will not understand anything. Although it helps to figure out what the characters are emoting, judging by their voice intonation and body movement, its not enough for you to fully comprehend what’s happening in that particular scene if you don’t know the lingo. The only exception to this rule is the Next Gen episode entitled, “Darmok”, which highlights how rocky communication can become when words are shared, but not concepts. Which leads to a terrifying prospect: the universal translator operates by scanning the minds of alien beings, thus, breaching a code of ethics in terms of privacy. It scans, reads, and interprets the unknown language accordingly. If that is the case, why the frell does Starfleet need beings like Troi or telepaths in the first place? If it is so good at reading minds, we can forgo all the courtroom dramatics and equipment crises in Star Trek. And since it can read minds effectively, it is also an ideal focusing device for starship control panels. There goes half the episodes! I’m surprised that Troi never once felt that her job was threatened by the universal translator. If Starfleet had any brains, they would have fire her eema the moment the universal translator was invented, and I wouldn’t have minded one bit because I hated her character anyway. No doubt, this technology is something that the Borg would wilt before it. Speaking of which, it amazes me on how the Federation goes so far as to advertise all over the known galaxy on how evil the Borg are, with their plans for assimilating all intelligent life into their collective hive. At least the Borg are upfront about their objectives, but the same cannot be said of the Federation/Starfleet, who uses the universal translator as a mind scanning device, cloaked in the form of extra terrestrial brotherly love and understanding.
And the ultimate abomination is the transporter. This device has so many problems in Star Trek that I don’t understand why the writers insist on using it, plot convenience aside. When Roddenberry realized that he couldn’t land the Enterprise or a shutlecraft on a planet every week due to budget constraints, he had to figure out another creative way to get Captain Kirk and his crew from the Enterprise to a planet. Thus, he invented the transporter (well, not really, he stole it from the classic film, “The Fly”). Very convenient. Not only did it solved the budgetary problems of its time, it also removed the necessity of landing starships onto a planet, which would have been time consuming at best, boring at worse. Anyway, let’s examine for a moment on how it functions. Based on the writers description, it works by separating crew members at the atomic level, which is then converted into energy and sent through a matter stream. Once the energy arrives at the appointed destination, the process is reversed. Sounds neat. Too bad it doesn’t work as a means for transportation and I’ll explain why. The transporter cannot separate crew members atoms due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which states that one can measure an atom’s position and velocity with great precision, but never both at the same time. To measure one, cancels out the other. A good analogy to this the heads-or-tails scenerio. When you flip a coin, you can either have heads or tails, but not both. Same thing goes for the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Plus, it also converts crew members into energy, which is Einstein’s most famous formula, E=mc2. To convert a 50 kilogram person into energy, the energy equivalent would be somewhere in excess of a thousand 1 megaton hydrogen bombs! If we were to take that energy and reconvert back into matter, it would result in a clone, thinking that he or she is the original person. Thus, the transporter is actually a form of capital punishment as oppose to the ultimate transportation device. Some claim that the Empire in Star Wars is ruthless, but at least they don’t subject them to the horrors of the transporter by willingly destroying themselves as raw fuel, only to be cloned! Besides, if they wanted to get inside a captured ship, all they have to do blast their way through the doors. Crude, but effective. Roddenberry should have placed more careful thought in creating a teleportation device that displaces its occupants, like a wormhole or hyperspace, rather than destroying and cloning his characters.
The absurd part about all this is that this is coming from Roddenberry himself, who said from the beginning of the original series that he would never allow Starfleet vessels to be equip with cloaking devices because the Federation/Starfleet are not spies, and yet he fully endorsed Troi (and possibly other Betazoids) as pseudo-ship counselors to read (and invade) the minds of every people or being they come into contact, without their consent and he has the gall to state that the Federation/Starfleet are not sneaks?!? Like hell they’re not! The Federation is a totalitarian regime who does not care for its citizens well-being. It must be overthrown and replaced with a more benign government (if there is such a thing).
During the initial development of Next Gen, Roddenberry sought to incorporate a ship counselor stationed on the bridge because he wanted the role of the counselor to help the crew adjust to life onboard a starship in deep space. This is understandable, but another reason for this was because at the time the show was made, therapy was the latest fad, it was considered cool and hip. Thus, the character of counselor Deanna Troi was born. Plus, he wanted the character to have empathic abilities, for he felt that she (and probably every Betazoid) would make ideal candidates as spies for Starfleet Captains, using the ship counselor title as cover. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s examine the episode entitled, “The Loss” for instance. In that episode, Troi loses her empathic abilities, albeit temporarily, and becomes angry and hostile towards her shipmates. To makes things even more dramatic, she threatens to quit her job as ship counselor because she felt that she could no longer perform her duty. The question is, why would she do that? Didn’t she bragged in nearly every episode that she has a degree in psychology? Even if she lost her empathic powers permanently, that doesn’t mean that she was incapable of performing as ship counselor because she’s a trained psychologist, or least, she keeps reminding us of that misleading impression. So what does this so-called “professional ship counselor” do? She complains, whines, and cries like a little spoil brat, rather than adjusting to this “handicap” as a mature adult and move on. But in typical Star Trek fashion, Troi miraciously gets her empathic powers back and everything is the same as before, as though the episode in question never happened. It would have been far more interesting if Troi had lost her empathic powers permanently and seek guidance from other professional counselors, who do not possess her former abilities and do their job very well without it. Plus, the crew would have felt more at ease than having Troi poking around in their minds!
The universal translator is another example of the Federation/Starfleet totalitarian mentality. The way it is depicted in Star Trek, this device is capable of deciphering an unknown language whenever the Enterprise crew encounters a new species for the first time. But what’s really stretching plausibility is that it does so instantaneously. The problem with this plot device is that it takes time to understand an unknown language. To get an idea of what that’s like, try watching a foreign film without subtitles in it and figure out what the characters are saying, and I guarantee you that you will not understand anything. Although it helps to figure out what the characters are emoting, judging by their voice intonation and body movement, its not enough for you to fully comprehend what’s happening in that particular scene if you don’t know the lingo. The only exception to this rule is the Next Gen episode entitled, “Darmok”, which highlights how rocky communication can become when words are shared, but not concepts. Which leads to a terrifying prospect: the universal translator operates by scanning the minds of alien beings, thus, breaching a code of ethics in terms of privacy. It scans, reads, and interprets the unknown language accordingly. If that is the case, why the frell does Starfleet need beings like Troi or telepaths in the first place? If it is so good at reading minds, we can forgo all the courtroom dramatics and equipment crises in Star Trek. And since it can read minds effectively, it is also an ideal focusing device for starship control panels. There goes half the episodes! I’m surprised that Troi never once felt that her job was threatened by the universal translator. If Starfleet had any brains, they would have fire her eema the moment the universal translator was invented, and I wouldn’t have minded one bit because I hated her character anyway. No doubt, this technology is something that the Borg would wilt before it. Speaking of which, it amazes me on how the Federation goes so far as to advertise all over the known galaxy on how evil the Borg are, with their plans for assimilating all intelligent life into their collective hive. At least the Borg are upfront about their objectives, but the same cannot be said of the Federation/Starfleet, who uses the universal translator as a mind scanning device, cloaked in the form of extra terrestrial brotherly love and understanding.
And the ultimate abomination is the transporter. This device has so many problems in Star Trek that I don’t understand why the writers insist on using it, plot convenience aside. When Roddenberry realized that he couldn’t land the Enterprise or a shutlecraft on a planet every week due to budget constraints, he had to figure out another creative way to get Captain Kirk and his crew from the Enterprise to a planet. Thus, he invented the transporter (well, not really, he stole it from the classic film, “The Fly”). Very convenient. Not only did it solved the budgetary problems of its time, it also removed the necessity of landing starships onto a planet, which would have been time consuming at best, boring at worse. Anyway, let’s examine for a moment on how it functions. Based on the writers description, it works by separating crew members at the atomic level, which is then converted into energy and sent through a matter stream. Once the energy arrives at the appointed destination, the process is reversed. Sounds neat. Too bad it doesn’t work as a means for transportation and I’ll explain why. The transporter cannot separate crew members atoms due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which states that one can measure an atom’s position and velocity with great precision, but never both at the same time. To measure one, cancels out the other. A good analogy to this the heads-or-tails scenerio. When you flip a coin, you can either have heads or tails, but not both. Same thing goes for the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Plus, it also converts crew members into energy, which is Einstein’s most famous formula, E=mc2. To convert a 50 kilogram person into energy, the energy equivalent would be somewhere in excess of a thousand 1 megaton hydrogen bombs! If we were to take that energy and reconvert back into matter, it would result in a clone, thinking that he or she is the original person. Thus, the transporter is actually a form of capital punishment as oppose to the ultimate transportation device. Some claim that the Empire in Star Wars is ruthless, but at least they don’t subject them to the horrors of the transporter by willingly destroying themselves as raw fuel, only to be cloned! Besides, if they wanted to get inside a captured ship, all they have to do blast their way through the doors. Crude, but effective. Roddenberry should have placed more careful thought in creating a teleportation device that displaces its occupants, like a wormhole or hyperspace, rather than destroying and cloning his characters.
The absurd part about all this is that this is coming from Roddenberry himself, who said from the beginning of the original series that he would never allow Starfleet vessels to be equip with cloaking devices because the Federation/Starfleet are not spies, and yet he fully endorsed Troi (and possibly other Betazoids) as pseudo-ship counselors to read (and invade) the minds of every people or being they come into contact, without their consent and he has the gall to state that the Federation/Starfleet are not sneaks?!? Like hell they’re not! The Federation is a totalitarian regime who does not care for its citizens well-being. It must be overthrown and replaced with a more benign government (if there is such a thing).
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