how quickly they forget...

[cellio]

Tonight's episode of Enterprise had some good character bits. I'd rate it pretty high, except for one little plot problem.


Have they already forgotten that they have a transporter on that ship? I would have accepted nearly any excuse for why it wouldn't function, but ignoring it is unreasonable.

Sheesh.

Comments

Enterprise fun

[jeannegrrl.livejournal.com]

I thought of that too. But I figured it could be attributed to this: they have established that they are very skittish about using it on living beings, and Two, the guy's leg was pierced which would have further reinforced the skittish part. I mean, heck - they're frightened enough to use it on a healthy person, but someone who's seriously injured? They might come back as a pile of goo or something... Why wasn't it even mentioned as a possibility in the episode? I guess it could be rationalized by saying it really didn't enter their minds as a possibility due to the stuff I wrote above...

I suppose I can see your point. I'll tell you one problem I saw with last week's episode (which I thoroughly enjoyed),

(I've written it in white text just in case you haven't seen the episode yet and I don't want to spoil it - if you want to read it, just select the area below w/ your mouse)


What the heck did that Vulcan who stayed on Earth do when it came time for Pon Far? What about when he died or if he got injured? Wouldn't they notice the pointy ears and green blood?

Re: Enterprise fun

[cellio]

Yes, they're skittish about using it, but they had ships threatening to blow them out of the sky, so that's pretty severe. And the risk of being turned into a pile of goo is relatively minor in the face of someone who's going to die otherwise. Once Reed popped his air hose, the transporter was looking pretty good.

As I said, I didn't expect them to use it. But I did expect them to discuss it, on-screen. And given what we saw of the character, Reed should have insisted on it (on the grounds that it endangers the ship much less than any of the alternatives).

Last week's episode: (I've now changed the cut tag to warn of spoilers for both episodes.)

What the heck did that Vulcan who stayed on Earth do when it came time for Pon Far? What about when he died or if he got injured? Wouldn't they notice the pointy ears and green blood?

Hmm, I forgot about Pon Far. Oops. :-)

I wondered about the ears/blood too. I thought that perhaps T'Pal's errand in Carbon Creek was body recovery, but they never tidied that up. And how long can a guy who works in a mine go without getting injured in some way that bleeds? My suspension of disbelief took some pretty major hits last week....

I can't BELIEVE I'm actually making these arguments...

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

What the heck did that Vulcan who stayed on Earth do when it came time for Pon Far? What about when he died or if he got injured? Wouldn't they notice the pointy ears and green blood?

Hmm, I forgot about Pon Far. Oops. :-)

I wondered about the ears/blood too. I thought that perhaps T'Pal's errand in Carbon Creek was body recovery, but they never tidied that up. And how long can a guy who works in a mine go without getting injured in some way that bleeds? My suspension of disbelief took some pretty major hits last week....

Respectively:

1. Presumably "went native" and hooked up with an Earth woman. It's possible that if you let your anti-emotion discipline and celibacy slip as much as his probably did, that Pon Farr might not even take place as it does in "Orthodox" Vulcans.



2. Presumably he used his superior physique and substantial mental discipline to avoid dying by natural causes and heal whatever came up. And hoped a lot.



3. I'd expect him to get his ears bobbed at some point. Or learn how to do it himself, which would involve less of a payoff to the doctor. You could also make a point of establishing yourself as "good people" in a small town, where the doctor might be more likely to quietly look the other way for "decent folks what aren't hurtin' nobody" and would have fewer people to tell in any event (i.e., how Clark Kent wasn't given away when childhood vaccinations went oddly in Smallville.)



4. He wasn't staying in the mine; he stated that he would be moving on from Carbon Creek, "to one of their larger cities, at first." Although again, the whole superior physiology and Vulcan Zen thing would probably help in the mine anyway.

Re: I can't BELIEVE I'm actually making these arguments...

[cellio]

I haven't made a study of Vulcan physiology; are there no differences that would be apparent if one were being intimate?

I didn't know that sheer force of (Vulcan) will could prevent bleeding. Or death from natural causes, come to think of it.

Quietly getting the ears bobbed makes sense.

Re: I can't BELIEVE I'm actually making these arguments...

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

Well, we know from Sarek and Amanda that it's possible for Vulcans and Humans to interbreed, which suggests that the physiology can't be too different (although if we're being strict about it, the whole copper/iron based blood thing should have precluded that as well.)

Stopping bleeding is a staple of biofeedback/mental discipline literature, so I assume it's part of the Vulcan Mental Discipline portfolio as well. We actually have support suggested in this episode, with the discussion regarding meditation and what it can accomplish. Obviously, that's not likely to be enough for severe trauma, but probably works for routine cuts and scrapes at some minor cost to overall constitution.

We also have substantial precedent for Vulcans (notably Spock, Tuvok, and, when he started going senile, Sarek) withdrawing when injured or sick to try and "gut it out" privately. Sort of like cats finding a place to hide to heal naturally. I believe that supports the notion that most of the time time they can get over things through bedrest and directed meditation.

Re: I can't BELIEVE I'm actually making these arguments...

[cellio]

I didn't mean to imply that I thought Vulcans and humans couldn't breed; we know they can. I was wondering whether there were any differences that would become visible once the clothes have been removed -- things to make the human female ask "what IS that?" or the like. :-)

Re: I can't BELIEVE I'm actually making these arguments...

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

This is the 50s - any good girl wouldn't have the prior reference to know that anything was different, right? :-)

Re: Enterprise fun

[goljerp]

Well, who says that they have to transport the human? Why not just transport the mine someplace else? (onto the hull of a romulan ship, for example?) Or just "maximum dispersion" if they want to be nice? For that matter, if they transported the mine in the first place (or after the ordinance guy said it thought it wasn't on a ship) then there wouldn't be any leg-piercing to worry about.

As far as last week's episode, it was OK, but IMHO, Strangers From The Sky did it much, much better. (Also dealt with first contact better -- which is why, in my mind, the movie First Contact is not cannonical.)