Janeway: How do I get this thing to go down both tracks?
Yes! The Trolley Problem: Tokyo Drift
Everyone is talking about Tuvix but no one is talking about the flower. Were they able to save it? It is arguably more useful than Neelix.
I’ll let myself out
That flower appeared again in Lower Decks, some episode of last season, iirc.
Man, Janeway didn’t fuck around.
Janeway had nothing to do with it that time. They found it on Museum-Voyager while doing some cleaning up or whatever shenanigans. A lot of people got fused.
I never thought of the capacity for evil that flower allows.
Imagine Janeway Tuvixing the royalty of some planet into a crew member so that they could force a monarchy to be subjects of her ship.
I still don’t understand why they couldn’t have restored Neelix and Tuvok and kept Tuvix around.
Technically, they could, but then you’ve got a hybrid person with full past memories of the others. Ethically touchy, since Tuvix would not be able to be with Tuvok’s family or Kes in the same manner previously.
I feel like they could have kept Tuvix and Tuvok and given up Neelix…
I kid. Mostly…
Still better than being annihilated
I mean, that would be up to Kes and Tuvoks family to decide. Complex, but families and relationships often are.
Not shining a light on the trek “transporters are actually infinite cloning beams” problem was probably for the best though.
That’s been similarly tackled from the eugenics perspective on TNG with these guys:
On the other hand, it’d be fun to have a Gary from Fallout type episode caused by the transporters.
Huh, what TNG episode is that?
s2e18 “Up the Long Ladder” aka the planet Ireland episode.
The other plot involves a more “refined” planet populated by clones who need fresh DNA to not degrade their society.
Ahh the Ireland episode. That’s why. Ive skipped it for so long I forgot the plot lines.
I don’t think “ethically touchy” mattered much to Janeway…
where is flower?
OMG, I had the flower behind the transporter and forgot to move the layer forward!
I am… appeased, thank you :)
Pattern buffer. She keeps its matrix on file for those moments when she’s feeling a touch “murdery” now and again.
Everyone always points out the incidental and accidental transporter incidents that happen from time to time in many of the Star Trek storylines.
What I am most interested in is … the story behind the development of the first transporter technologies. Think about the number of people that were vapourized, unmaterialized, dematerialized, transported into solid objects, transported into space, transported into alternate universes, materialized inside out, materialized with missing body parts, materialized without life for some reason, cloned, cloned and materialized within their clone, materialized with EXTRA body parts, materialized as a baby, materialized as a 90 year old, materialized with toaster embedded inside them, partially materialized, materialized in the wrong order, materialized with terrible life long side effects like cancers, memory loss or some exotic health condition that is only caused by transporter malfunctions.
Imagine the number of people that would have had to suffer so many ‘incidents’ before they were even able to safely say that transporters were a normal part of transporting people across distances.
I’ve long thought that the years just after First Contact would be fascinating to watch unfold. All the advanced tech (besides the warp drive) came from the Vulcans/Romulans (Transporter, replicator, etc). We see none of how Star Fleet came to be, how the Federation came to be, now the Vulcans helped humanity progress for YEARS. After First Contact, the next thing we see is a fully developed Enterprise, with all the tech in place and understood. A lot happened between that’s I’d love to see a show/movie explore.
The issue is how difficult it is to invent realistic technology without having to invent actual technology.
The more they explore the area they where formed the more they owe it to the audience to explain how it works, which of course is what all the nerds want to know…
I am a bit tired whimsical science/space magic and tried my own hand at conceptualizing how alien technology could form. It is a lot of fun but it takes pages on pages just to have your logical principles make sense.
I would be down for a bunch more stories on that theme.
The closest I’m aware of is a subplot in Enterprise where NX-01 has working transporter technology, but no one feels comfortable enough to use it outside of a live threatening emergency.
Star Trek ENT season 4 episode 10 “Daedalus” has the transporter inventor on board for an experiment. I’d like to see more about initial development too.
