Actually, there's a NG episode where they transport a village worth of people from a planet but keep them in the holodeck but tell them they're just guiding them to another part of their planet. They had a guy actually integrated into the population and he called the Enterprise for help.
As I recall, the guy integrated was Worf's adoptive brother, and he broke the law to do it. And when the crew found out, they had to play along because it was too late to undo it.
I have a culture in a universe still being worldbuilt that would be able, with their technology, to get rid of a comet or asteroid without a problem. And if it was a case of, say, an impending supervolcano eruption, they could build a more stable copy of the planet (exact replica of every goddamn thing, living and non, but for the volcano and the people), move it into orbit, transport everyone there in their sleep, and basically turn the original planet into raw materials. All in the same night.
Having scanners that can ignore the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, devices that can convert matter into energy and vice versa in seconds (some of which are almost the size of stars), gravity control, and computronium measured in the billions of googolbytes, it would be a cinch for them.
There was an episode of STTNG where the Enterprise just sat by while a planet blew up because of the Prime Directive.
ST:TOS, on the other hand, pretty much just ignored it all together!
The general idea behind the Prime Directive is a good one. Non-interference and all that, but in situations like that comic of that one ST:TNG ep it really defeats the purpose behind it! I mean, the idea behind the Prime Directive is to allow cultures to develop on their own without outside interference, but allowing a natural disaster that you could prevent (especially one that, like in that comic, you could prevent without the natives even knowing! They'd have no way of knowing that that comet was deflected) kind of ... keeps them from developing at all
I think, for the most part, Picard was lawful neutral, while Kirk was chaotic good.
Also, I agree. With no way of knowing that they were even in danger, they would not be aware they'd been saved. Hell, even if they had seen the comet, they might not have known it was a danger. Even if they did, somehow, they would doubtless just think the gods had saved them.
Comments 7
The comic's still more accurate, and funny!
Reply
Reply
Reply
Having scanners that can ignore the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, devices that can convert matter into energy and vice versa in seconds (some of which are almost the size of stars), gravity control, and computronium measured in the billions of googolbytes, it would be a cinch for them.
Reply
A single terabyte: 1012 bytes.
Reply
ST:TOS, on the other hand, pretty much just ignored it all together!
The general idea behind the Prime Directive is a good one. Non-interference and all that, but in situations like that comic of that one ST:TNG ep it really defeats the purpose behind it! I mean, the idea behind the Prime Directive is to allow cultures to develop on their own without outside interference, but allowing a natural disaster that you could prevent (especially one that, like in that comic, you could prevent without the natives even knowing! They'd have no way of knowing that that comet was deflected) kind of ... keeps them from developing at all
Reply
Also, I agree. With no way of knowing that they were even in danger, they would not be aware they'd been saved. Hell, even if they had seen the comet, they might not have known it was a danger. Even if they did, somehow, they would doubtless just think the gods had saved them.
Reply
Leave a comment