Maybe it required a mind meld, something that could not be simulated even with holodeck/rec room technology (no comment about how the spin-offs handled the question).
Why didn't anyone smoke on "TOS?"
- Thread starter Jayson1
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Well that's the term I meant to say but it was less than an actual mind meld and more just a touch of fingers as I remember, Corp! Here and in The Cloud Minders are the only references to Vulcan sexuality in the original series and the BBC cut the chat he had with Droxine on my old video tape!
JB
JB
I believe that Adam Nimoy also discusses it in his memoir My Incredibly Wonderful, Miserable Life.
I had forgotten that....sort of the opposite to Troi puffing away in a Fistful of Datas.
Yes, TOS was treated as a kids' show in the UK and in continental Europe. The BBC also completely banned four episodes for many years because of their more grown-up themes. And I heard that when TOS was originally dubbed for German TV, Spock's affliction in Amok Time was completely changed to some vague sort of "space sickness." I'm sure the storyline with T'Pring made absolutely no sense that way. Heaven forbid a species should have a biological drive to mate. 
Kor
Kor
That doesn't happen much in Star Trek (except in "A piece of the action"). Although battling Klingons while you're sloshed might be a bit dangerous.
Apparently some folks still have a taste for it, at least according to the Constellations story "Fracture". Poor Kirk...
Yes, TOS was treated as a kids' show in the UK and in continental Europe. The BBC also completely banned four episodes for many years because of their more grown-up themes. And I heard that when TOS was originally dubbed for German TV, Spock's affliction in Amok Time was completely changed to some vague sort of "space sickness." I'm sure the storyline with T'Pring made absolutely no sense that way. Heaven forbid a species should have a biological drive to mate.
Kor
It sure was treated that way and shown in such a bizarre order as to bring tears to your eyes and that's just the bits they cut out!!! The first time I ever saw the show complete was with the DVDs back in 2004!
JB
Fair point. They may not have had tobacco. However, perhaps they had something similar. If humans were stupid enough to start smoking tobacco then it's not a stretch to assume that an alien culture (especially one that would actually build a culture based on an earth book about gangsters) would do the same with a different substance.
Perhaps, yes, but not inevitably. We're not talking about hypotheticals, we're talking about a specific, known data point -- that the Iotians did not smoke -- and attempting to explain it. As you say, given that they were so imitative in every respect, it stands to reason that they would've included smoking along with everything else they imitated, if they'd had the means. So the absence of smoking suggests that they didn't have the means, that they were unable to find an adequate substitute for tobacco in the hundred-odd years since the Horizon's visit.
So, you missed my post upthread about something that looks like it could be a stamped out cigarette butt on the floor under the card table?
Exactly. That butt is there suggesting that the Iotians did indeed smoke.
I find it strange that tobacco has been done away with, but not alcohol. I know synthahol is probably made to bypass all the problems (addiction, liver damage etc) but it is still an unnecessary social contrivance, and while (today) it is more popularly accepted, it is still clearly bad for you and does you no benefit.
Or, if substances can be rendered safe yet effective (as apparently with synthahol) and people retain their interest in them for mind altering purposes, a more open ideology on substance use would make sense... people doing pretty much any drug recreationally, and since it is rendered safe (including non-addictive) and people are (supposedly) otherwise mostly well adjusted, abuse wouldn't be an issue (or not as much anyway).
Or, if substances can be rendered safe yet effective (as apparently with synthahol) and people retain their interest in them for mind altering purposes, a more open ideology on substance use would make sense... people doing pretty much any drug recreationally, and since it is rendered safe (including non-addictive) and people are (supposedly) otherwise mostly well adjusted, abuse wouldn't be an issue (or not as much anyway).
I was just thinking about that... :-D any view of a toilet? Reference even? I remember sinks, showers, baths even... but never a toilet.
As to the alternative smoking... good idea... but then, part of smoking is the whole hand/mouth/breath things... it would seem that the smoking alternative should still "feel" like smoking (as opposed to a patch or whatever, more like e-cigs), in terms of effect and ritual, just like synthahol is still "having drinks." In TNG you see occasional smoking (Picard in the holodeck, others at the poker games).
Excellent point. The utter lack of bathrooms and references of any kind to them establishes that Star Trek will steer clear of certain topics without implying that they don't exist. No one ever said on TOS that people don't smoke anymore. Even if only a tiny fraction of intelligent life forms in Federation space smoke, that's possibly still one heck of a lot of smokers and what we would consider today to be an enormous supply chain, perhaps the sort of business that Mudd might have dabbled in.
Actually we do get some bathroom mentions on DS9. They called it "Waste Extraction" though for some reason only the Ferengi got to use that term. We also get a bathroom mention from Jake in "Explorers" were he is kind of confused as to how someone is supose to go on that ship. Also I think their might have been one on "Voyager." I think it was one of the episodes were the ship had almost no power and Nellix is talking to Janeway about how the Bolians bathroom issues might become a problem if they don't get the bathrooms working again.
Jason
Jason
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