Alcoholics in space?

[Joaqin]

What is the deal with the crew of the USS Enterprise loving booze so much?

I am reading the comics from IDW and the crew are always saying things like "If we get out of here alive, I'll get you a fine scotch!" or something similar.

I see the same thing on DS9 where they are always bargaining Barrels of Blood wine or Kannar.

I imagine that flying a starship under the influence could result in something much worse than a DUI. I remember seeing Jadzia with a hang over. They haven't invented something to cure it yet?

What about other drugs in the future besides alcohol? No marijuana type substances? I am sure it will be legalized here some time in the near future, is it banned again in the future?

Just wanted to discuss this but if this is not the correct forum, feel free to move it.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Scotty does occasionally drink in a way that would be recognized now as abusive and dangerous. He's almost responsible, by negligence, for the conquest of the human race in "By Any Other Name" and gets a wee bit too wrapped up in the potential of nerve gas derivatives as mixers during a life-or-death crisis in "The Tholian Web."

Portrayals of comic drunks were common currency on American television in the 1950s and 1960s, though. Styles in entertainment change.

[Vic Sixx]

Synthehol doesn't really make you drunk unless you have access to the real stuff like Scotty use to. I think the first time you showed up drunk would be your last time ever on a ship probably a zero tolerance thing.
Roddenberry believed humans would be a bit more evolved and self controlled in the future. As in the military they probably have strict laws as when you can drink and when you can't.

[Ward Fowler]

People in the retro-future aren't so uptight and know how to have a good time.

[Timo]

Hmm... When did Scotty or any other TOS hero drink on the job? It's not as if the offer for strong drinks would have to mean "I'll slip you a bottle the next time we go to warp nine and you supervise"... What they do on their free time shouldn't be anybody's business, as long as they remember to take their anti-hangover pills before reporting for duty.

Timo Saloniemi

[ToddPence]

Scotty implies that he is going to get drunk in "The Tholian Web", just before the Enterprise is shortly about to face a crisis situation with the Tholians and an attempted rescue of Captain Kirk. In "Spectre of the Gun", with the landing party in an alien scenario (the recreation of Tombstone, Arizona) in which their lives may be imperiled, Scotty orders "half a gallon" of scotch. And in "By Any Other Name", Scotty succeeds in getting the Kelvan officer drunk, as per his goal, but his own inability to handle his liquor causes him to pass out before he can deliver the Kelvan's device to Kirk.

[iguana_tonante]

Joaqin wrote:

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What is the deal with the crew of the USS Enterprise loving booze so much?

I am reading the comics from IDW and the crew are always saying things like "If we get out of here alive, I'll get you a fine scotch!" or something similar.

I see the same thing on DS9 where they are always bargaining Barrels of Blood wine or Kannar.

Well, because booze is fantastic? Actually, I would have preferred if they made Picard drink some serious French wines sometimes, not that perfidious albionesque Earl Grey tea!

[GodThingFormerly]

Gene Roddenberry planned to depict Scott sliding into alcoholism after his return to Earth in The God Thing:

"Generally, the situation is that the five year mission is over and that it has been for some time. Most of the regular crew have been promoted and, for the most part, are pretty unhappy with shuffling papers and other administrative jobs. Scotty has become an alcoholic, and McCoy has given up treating human patients to become a veterinarian, loudly proclaiming animals as the only sensible patients he has ever had. It gives us kind of a fun look at these people's strengths and weaknesses. In the story, there is a story that brings them all together again."

TGT

[Captain Dago]

Dude, it was the 60s. Everybody was drunk.

[middyseafort]

^Hell, drinking is still somewhat en vogue on television and film; after all, it gives the actors something to do with their hands in a scene.

[Shatmandu]

We're lucky, I suppose, that we didn't see Kirk and company enjoying the cool, fresh taste of Pall Mall cigarettes after arriving back from a mission.

Joe, long and in the way, baby

[iguana_tonante]

middyseafort wrote:

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^Hell, drinking is still somewhat en vogue on television and film; after all, it gives the actors something to do with their hands in a scene.

That's not a problem in porn movies.

[Andorian Spy]

The God Thing wrote:

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Gene Roddenberry planned to depict Scott sliding into alcoholism after his return to Earth in The God Thing:

"Generally, the situation is that the five year mission is over and that it has been for some time. Most of the regular crew have been promoted and, for the most part, are pretty unhappy with shuffling papers and other administrative jobs. Scotty has become an alcoholic, and McCoy has given up treating human patients to become a veterinarian, loudly proclaiming animals as the only sensible patients he has ever had. It gives us kind of a fun look at these people's strengths and weaknesses. In the story, there is a story that brings them all together again."

TGT

Wow ... never knew this stuff! That whole pre-TMP is so odd, I love it. But, Scotty as an alcoholic? I'd be curious to know why he would go that way. Who knows? Maybe he was a functioning one for the movies, hitting his head in Trek V, etc.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Timo wrote:

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Hmm... When did Scotty or any other TOS hero drink on the job?

"By Any Other Name" and, by implication, "The Tholian Web."

The "By Any Other Name" incident is indisputable and particularly egregious. It's really nice to be able to defend it by saying "well, he had to in order to trick the Kelvin" - but there was absolutely no point to tricking the Kelvin at the cost of becoming so inebriated that Scotty was unable to carry out the rest of his assignment.

If the fate of the Federation had depended in that instance on Scott either being sober on the job or being able to hold his liquor then the folks in Picard's day would have been ruled by critters from Andromeda.

Oh, and BTW - the definition of whether someone is self-destructively "alcoholic" or not has nothing to do with their drinking on the job. Many acute alcoholics don't, right up until near the end.

[Alrik]

Shatmandu wrote:

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We're lucky, I suppose, that we didn't see Kirk and company enjoying the cool, fresh taste of Pall Mall cigarettes after arriving back from a mission.

Joe, long and in the way, baby

IIRC, GR had to fight the studio to keep that from happening.