First Contact

From what I heard, Buzz was actually slated to exit first, but Armstrong's location in the capsule made it easier for him to climb down before him.

 

I think that Malcorian Lilith got Rikered, time permitting.. That "handshake" thing was from B5.

This was a great episode showing things, as it did, from the alien perspective.

 

I understand the desire to see more alien creatures. I also know that scientists insist that the Human body plan is likely not the norm for aliens. But I disagree, just on the fact that if Extra Terrestrials are DNA based life, like Earth is, then that means similarity in form and function, among land creatures, certainly. And technology begins with fire. That means a body plan that can create and control it. Not just as primatives with torches, but everything that follows, from blowing glass to forging iron cannons. The Human Body Plan is very conservative, without all of these free-flowing tentacles and tails and things that would just get in the way. Humanoids make perfect sense to me.

 

I agree there's merit in the argument that the humanoid form is the one we needed to have in order to evolve intelligence. You need opposable digits to figure out tools, you need a certain size eye to see the most abundant frequencies of light. You need sexual reproduction for the species variety needed to adapt to environmental changes.

So you can make a good argument that we shouldn't be surprised to find sexually dimorphic aliens on other planets with two arms, two legs, opposable thumbs, two eyes and two ears.

But there are also more specific factors that go into evolution. Specific adaptations to specific survival challenges. They might have the same basic form as us, but they would probably not look exactly the same as us. Different skin pigmentation, different hair in different places, different bone structure, vertebrate count, appendage shape. They wouldn't just look like bumpy forehead caucasians. At least, the odds are very small.

This is one thing I think B5 and Farscape did well.

 

It is interesting that ... very interesting, indeed. Asians are the largest population, at least that I ever knew. You wouldn't know it, though by watching a lot of science fiction - including The Next Generation!

 

It's not quite so that Aldrin had been slated to exit first. The earliest, circa 1964, ideas for a lunar reference mission had the Lunar Module Pilot (which would be Aldrin's position) exit first, but when detailed planning and training for Apollo 11 began --- basically, once Apollo 8 had lifted off --- the Commander (Armstrong) was scheduled as exiting first.

For a short while in January 1969 mission planning listed the astronauts simply as A and B, without specifying whether Commander or Pilot was A, but by February 14, 1969, Deke Slayton (in charge of the astronaut office) and Raymond G Zedekar (in charge of the surface schedule) had set that Armstrong would exit first.

You're right that most of this decision was set by the geometry of the spacecraft as developed: given the way the front hatch opened, the astronaut holding it open had to be on the right (Aldrin's position), and so, the astronaut on the left (Armstrong's position) got out first, unless the astronauts swapped places inside the Lunar Module, which would be awkward and potentially dangerous while suited and odd at least before suiting up.

(Chariots for Apollo on the NASA history web site is the easiest reference to find, although quite a few other books, including Hanson's biography Neil Armstrong are more readable and clearer about the precise details and reasoning.)

 

Durken seems to be a man of compromise in the good way. So, he made the good choice, it's not the victory of Krola. "Hey Krola, we will not do these space things, but I'm still the boss. Be cool or I annihilate your political carreer by revealing what you did with the space gun." Krola maybe a necessary evil for Durken. He had surely to do a coalition with other political forces (outside or inside his own party) to be able to concretize this ambitious political agenda.

In fact, it's more a defeat for the Federation.

I agree it had potential for a longer story arc. It's already interesting to see a progressive and pacifist political leader chosing to keep this event secret. Now, he has to find an explanation for Yale's disappearance which coincides with her program's shutting down.
Few years laters, a lot of rumors are circulates about an alien visitation. It creates a lot of political and social tensions. As soon as Starfleet learns about that, the crisis is now also touching Starfleet because it means the Prime Directive have been violated.

 

It might be interesting if the novels followed up on this with Riker returning to the planet and encountering Lilith again now that he's married!

 

How would that be interesting? Plenty of folks sleep with each other before marriage.

I very much enjoyed reading 2takesfrakes and Jirinpanthosa's take on galactial evolutionary biology. Seems like a more valid explanation than The Chase

 

I wouldn't say the prime directive has been violated. They initiated contact because they had discovered warp and were about to meet other aliens anyway.

It would be interesting to see what would happen with the people who knew there were aliens around. Were there enough people who knew for sure, not for rumor, that there was an alien in that hospital, that either they would be dismissed as lying or crazy or hushed up by the government?

And I think the minister's reason for his decision wasn't that he was won over by Krola so much as he was convinced there were enough people like Krola around that very violent things would begin happening all around his planet.

 

Malcor 3 could just be the Universal Translator's version of what the natives call their planet- the real name might sound like Chinese food being turned inside out.

The Aliens had to resemble humans enough for Riker to disguise himself as one. It they looking like a walking squid or an orange plant Dr. Crusher would have a lot of surgery to do.

Back in the Sixties a study was made about how people would react to the knowledge that aliens had visited us - mass panic and rioting was expected.

 

Yeah, but aliens in pop culture were usually hostile invaders in the 60s. Today I think the predominant reaction would be to invent a new genre of porn.

Or rather, people would be scared but also kind of excited. So long as they haven't blown anything up. If they started blowing stuff up, that's when panicking and riot would ensue.

 

Yeah, but they delayed it. The Enterprise didn't violate it in "First Contact". But a socio-political crisis caused some years later by these events would be what the Prime Directive is supposed to prevent.

 

How odd - I don't watch Babylon 5!

 

It's the opposite. The alien only wanted to go to first base, and Riker convinced her that's what first base was.

 

Ha. That would have never occurred to me. Brilliant cop out. It's almost as if it was what Riker implied.

 

I just finished watching the episode. I wonder what ever happened to Malcor III. On Memory Alpha, it's spoken of in the past tense, and I wonder if something happened of which we haven't been made aware. I don't think there are any books that expand on the story, though that would be nice. I'm curious to know how things turned out, whether Picard and Durken ever got the chance to meet again, whether Yale got to come back to her home planet and talk of all the great things she has seen?