Is this anyway to treat an Admiral...

[2 of 10]

Just finished watching "Generations" and the way that Jean-Luc "buried" on of StarFleets Best. Under a pile of rocks, so
eventually they would fall off and he would probably be eaten by the vermin on Vidian.

Surly, there must be some kind of protocal when dealing with the death of a Star Fleet legend, but under a pile of rocks seems just a bit undignfied, even for an ensign, must less a legend. Any thoughts ????

[Robert D. Robot]

I always assumed that Kirk's body would be relocated to some grand memorial back on Earth once the Federation rescue ships arrived. I did not take the rock pile to be Kirk's final resting place (although I think some TrekLit states otherwise....). In the meantime -in a landscape that seemed to be rubble and boulders scattered across a surface of solid rock- the best way to keep a body from being dragged away and gnawed on by larger scavengers was to cover it with rocks. I believe the pile of rocks was also a nod to how ancient Earth cultures living in barren landscapes "buried" their dead.

Besides, unless you can seal the body up in a decent coffin or a big Tupperware container, smaller vermin are going to get to a body, whether it is eaten above ground or burrowed to underground!

I do agree, however- I did think it was a little odd when I first saw the scene, but then I thought, "Well- what else are you gonna do?"

[Timo]

To be sure, it doesn't sound possible at all that Kirk would have been under that pile of rocks to begin with.

Kirk dies by falling down a tall cliff - and the editing of that fall makes the cliff twice as tall as the real thing. He ends up a bloody mess in the middle of twisted metal. Would it be possible for Picard to haul Kirk's corpse all the way back up, along a route that for the most part consists of sheer rock and near-vertical metal ladders? Perhaps, if Picard were a muscular fireman in his early twenties, and had the entire day for the job. But even in that case, he would end up being covered in Kirk's blood and body parts.

So Picard really would have no means to get Kirk's body up there - and no particular reason to do so, either. OTOH, Picard himself would have every incentive to climb the hill and wait for rescue at the highest possible location, in the middle of Soran's distinct artifacts that could be spotted from the air. After having done so, he could well spend the idle hours piling a few rocks into a memorial cairn and then placing Kirk's badge on top of that cairn.

Which, BTW, is way too small to hide Kirk's body, even if we count the depression in the rock below. So we'd have to assume Fireman Picard also hacked Kirk's corpse to smaller pieces in order to make it fit, with tools he didn't have.

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/a...15/gen1074.jpg

Timo Saloniemi

[Peach Wookiee]

There's also the nagging issue of the Prime Directive. You can't just leave a body of one of your heroes there when on the planet next door is a different species that will be affected in about 200 years by finding his corpse.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What happened to Kirk's body in the Shatnerverse novels? It was stolen or something like that, wasn't it?

[Timo]

There's also the nagging issue of the Prime Directive. You can't just leave a body of one of your heroes there when on the planet next door is a different species that will be affected in about 200 years by finding his corpse.

The odds of anybody finding it before scavengers got to it and made it unrecognizable would be about zero - assuming Soran's artifacts were cleaned up first, so that no immediate attention would be drawn to the site. But if Soran's hardware was indeed mopped up, there'd be no good reason not to remove Kirk's body, too.

OTOH, why bother mopping up? The Veridianites are going to find out about space aliens eventually anyway, probably very, very soon after discovering spaceflight. Discovery of the remains is hardly comparable to a deliberate UFP attempt at influencing Veridianianianian development.

Timo Saloniemi

[Vance]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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What happened to Kirk's body in the Shatnerverse novels? It was stolen or something like that, wasn't it?

I admit that I liked the comic's answer. Once the events of Generations is over, Picard has it beamed into its final resting place in a Federation graveyard (think Arlington) with honors. (The story is really about Spock, sneaking across the Neutral Zone to be there.)

[Unicron]

Pffft. Everyone knows that Kirk's body disappeared into the Force after his death, just off camera.

[billcosby]

2 of 10 wrote:

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...and he would probably be eaten by the vermin on Vidian.

Unlike most standard coffin burials, in which the body stays intact forever?

[Kirby]

Aside from Kirk's body there was also the little problem of the giant Enterprise saucer on the planet. Someone's gonna have to come and clean all that up.

[Ghrakh]

Yep, Generations left a lot of mess to be cleaned up.

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

I assumed that no one could know anything about Kirk's being alive or there. The whole incident was a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive, wasn't it?

[Maurice]

The Mighty Monkey of Mim wrote:

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I assumed that no one could know anything about Kirk's being alive or there. The whole incident was a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive, wasn't it?

Wow! I haven't seen you on in AGES!

[Alrik]

The Mighty Monkey of Mim wrote:

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I assumed that no one could know anything about Kirk's being alive or there. The whole incident was a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive, wasn't it?

Not likely, and if it was, it was Kirks violation, not Picard's. Kirk went with Picard to that specific place and time of his own free will. Once he learned he could leave the Nexus, he could have just as easily chosen to reappear on the B moments after he left and live out his days in his own time in retirement. Two problems with that though. One, it would have altered the timeline Picard knew (Kirk had been lost saving the B). Two, Kirk wanted to make a difference again. After considering his options, he figured helping Picard stop Soran was the more appealing choice.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Kirby wrote:

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the giant Enterprise saucer on the planet. Someone's gonna have to come and clean all that up.

Did any novels ever touch on that point?