Incredible inconsistency in "Concerning Flight"

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Voyager' started by Shatnertage, Jun 15, 2013.

  1. Shatnertage

    Shatnertage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, I'm being a little melodramatic in the title, but bear with me.

    After the aliens transport Voyager's stuff, including the computer core, Paris says, "It feels like we just got mugged."

    How would he know what it feels like to get mugged? I thought the Federation was a post-scarcity utopia where they didn't have money, much less wallets or criminals.

    It really stood out for me because I think that even now "mug" in the meaning of being robbed on the street is passing out of American English. I remember hearing the word a lot in the 1980s, but don't remember the last time I saw it in print or heard it in conversation.

    I guess you could rationalize that Paris, as a student of the 1950s, used archaic slang, but then why would he expect anyone to understand him?




    Also, if anyone here goes into television production, a humble word of advice. If you've got a heavyset actor, and he's wearing a long white beard...don't dress him in red. Ever.
     
  2. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    Remember that he's serving with several former Maquis. I suspect they know what it's like to be mugged having dealt with Cardassians so often.

    --Sran
     
  3. Crazyewok

    Crazyewok Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ditto what Sran said.

    You got remember as well he was a outlaw. He most likley had been to the border worlds of the Federation that are not so fine and dandy.

    We only really know that earth is a "Upotia" Other members of the federation could be a little less pleasent.
     
  4. Shatnertage

    Shatnertage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    So when they're doing their Maquis thing they're going around carrying wallets and other personal possessions that people could mug them of? Obviously, there's still violence in this period, but would it really be the kind of urban crime that we call mugging?
     
  5. Crazyewok

    Crazyewok Vice Admiral Admiral

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    If your on some forgotton border coloney full of ferangi and other less than pleasent people then yes it would fit.
     
  6. Gov Kodos

    Gov Kodos Admiral Admiral

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    Post scarcity is a load of crap. If your fleet connected or a politico life is great, that we see, we don't get to see much else though.
     
  7. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    It might. Recall that Nog was arrested in "Emissary" because he was involved in the theft of several items.

    --Sran
     
  8. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Inconsistency is Voyager's middle name
     
  9. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    ^Bad writing.

    --Sran
     
  10. Brit

    Brit Captain Captain

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    I think you can imagine what being mugged might feel like so long as you understood the word, being right or wrong in that assumption could be a problem because a lot of people imagine what it feels like to be stabbed and they usually get that wrong too. So Paris being familiar with twentieth century idiom probably knows the word well enough to use it. I don't know if anyone else would actually understand it or not, it really doesn't make a lot of difference, you can say a lot of things in the heat of the moment.

    I've always thought of Trek as using some kind of evolved English and the dialogue we hear is a simple translation of that evolved English and in light of that understanding mugged would not be a inconsistency but rather a translation of another 24th century slang word.
     
  11. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I can't believe that anyone would happily choose to volunteer as a waiter in Daddy Sisko's resteraunt, or as the guy in the background vacuuming Starfleet Academy in Wrath of Khan. There must be some kind of compensation for doing these things. And if there is, there is something worth stealing.

    Plus, Trip and Malcolm were mugged on Risa in ENT: "Two Days and Two Nights". No one said anything about Earth.
     
  12. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    "Hey let's knock over those Federation bums with their high tech medkits, tricorders and comm badges!"
     
  13. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Quark almost mugged Harry in the pilot.
     
  14. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    I'd guess people who work at Joseph Sisko's restaurant get free food whenever they want. Yum!

    Different time period, but your point is well taken.

    --Sran
     
  15. Shatnertage

    Shatnertage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    So even after humanity can master FTL travel, they won't be able to stamp out street crime. So much for Roddenberry's optimistic future.
     
  16. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    Unfortunately no. The ability to travel faster than light will merely give people more places in which to commit their crimes. Remember that the amount of chaos in the universe is always increasing. Crime breeds chaos.

    --Sran
     
  17. Crazyewok

    Crazyewok Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It is aload of class A crap.

    Yes there not likely any pettycrime on Earth.And if it is it will be rare and far between.

    But can you really expect the same on some border world? Or from other alien species that do not share Human values?
     
  18. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    ^Exactly right. Sisko's speech about this very subject in "The Maquis" was spot-on. It's easy to behave oneself when living in a society that's well-established and can provide for its people. But that's not going to be the case on a newly colonized planet. There will be crime, from petty theft to murder. Improved technology is small comfort in the face of fear and desperation, feelings that drive people to do rash things.

    --Sran
     
  19. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The whole schtick about mankind evolving past crime is like some cultural revolution propaganda. People being fed by the system like Picard have it on repeat, and they seem to believe that by saying it it becomes a truth and any variance from that is a failure and aberration on the part of mankind.

    As to the waiters etc.. perhaps you need to put in the hard yakka as a pleb in any area you are wanting to achieve in. Planning on being a chef? Learn how to interact with customers and what their irritations and wants are via waiting tables.
     
  20. Shatnertage

    Shatnertage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Actually, given that the worst punishment we've seen in VOY for crime seems to be an all-expenses paid vacation in New Zealand, I'm surprised the crime isn't a lot higher.

    I know they didn't want to put it in Siberia because the Federation can't have gulags, but I think they could have come up with someplace worse than New Zealand for their penal colony. Not much of a deterrent, really.