Surgical alterations

[retroenzo]

Just finished watching 'Face of the Enemy' and it got me wondering why they always resort to surgical alterations when working undercover, when 20th century TV creators achieve the same effect with prosthetic makeup. Or what about holography?

Admittedly, modern day prosthetics applied 24/7 would peel off or just be very uncomfortable to wear, but surely there has to be a less invasive way of modifying someone's appearance. If it's to convince scans, surely the 23rd/24th century equivalent of plastic surgery wouldn't convince technology of someone's DNA.

Also I wonder how easy it would be to change someone's appearance so drastically. Eg Neelix has been transformed into both a Ferengi and a Klingon and then restored to full Talaxian appearance as normal.

 

[JRTStarlight]

I think they must use surgery for longer-term covert operations since it would be too easy to wipe off or discover if it were less permanent. Besides, with dermal regenerators, that superficial surgery has nearly no recovery time, no scars, and little or no pain. Will the wonders of modern medicine never cease? Still, it's far better than needles and sutures. All the pain. They used to hand-cut and sew people like garments. Needles and sutures. Oh, the terrible pain!

Ha. Even McCoy would be quite limited in what he could do without modern equipment. He probably wouldn't have the technical expertise, for example, to make a medical tricorder or a dermal regenerator any more than I could make a T.V. or a computer (from memory).

But if you got the tools and you got the talent, it would be weirder not to use them.

Anyway, you can only go so far without adding massive amounts of new material, like bone, or shaving it off, and reversion to one's original state may not be so easy. Then again, everything is 3D imaged and scanned, and maybe most parts are "printed" or even more advanced, replicated with high precision. It's just amazing stuff.

 

[Kor]

Neelix's Klingon appearance was a holographic alteration, just like B'elanna's pregnancy.

Kor

 

[retroenzo]

Neelix's Klingon appearance was a holographic alteration, just like B'elanna's pregnancy.

Kor

It's been a while since I watched that episode so couldn't quite remember how his appearance was changed.

However, the Ferengi appearance was still surgical if I remember, and there was also Dukat's alteration into a Bajoran. If ever he did want to go back to being Cardassian, they'd have to completely rebuild him.

 

[The Wormhole]

If ever he did want to go back to being Cardassian, they'd have to completely rebuild him.

Which is apparently what happens, remember when Sisko, O'Brien and Odo were disguised as Klingons Kira joked with Bashir about restoring their original faces. Also, at the end Bashir asks Odo (who was "solid" at the time) what he wanted his face look like and Odo just requested his normal look.

Although, in Voyager's Workforce when Chakotay was disguised as a Forehead Alien, all he had to do was flash a dermal regenerator over his face for a few seconds and his alien forehead bumps were gone and his tattoo was back.

 

[JRTStarlight]

I do think they are glossing over the actual difficulties a bit, but with some really high tech stuff, who can say for sure? If it doesn't require an actual doctor, maybe it's not actually surgery but just some well-bonded stuff to the skin, or even real/artificial skin grown over the implants or covering the tattoo, and it can be taken off as quickly as it can be put on with a dermal regenerator. Of is it just a dermal generator (no re)?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Who remembers when the Doc jabbed Lyndsay Ballard with a hypospray and her head changed shape?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Maybe what's in the hypo stimulates cellular memory? Who needs this thing when you can just rearrange your cells in sickbay? They'll never be bored. http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Cellular_regeneration_and_entertainment_chamber

 

[CorporalClegg]

Who remembers when the Doc jabbed Lyndsay Ballard with a hypospray and her head changed shape?

It was a mid season six Voyager episode. No one remembers it.

 

[Forbin]

Let's not forget Dr. Crusher removing and replacing Worf's forehead multiple times during one episode! Every time he went down to the planet, she removed it. Every time he came back to the ship, she replaced it. Back down, off. Back up, on. Just leave the damn thing off for the duration of the mission, what the hell!!!?

 

[Albertese]

Let's also not forget when Quark was surgically converted to a female. Smaller ears, made me wonder how his original ears would be restored, and if they'd retain their functionality as erogenous zones. There must be a enormous number of nerves in there to sort out. Also, as I recall, the episode implied that he let the other Ferengi dude sleep with him in order to finish whatever con he was running, so unless Ferengi sex organs are radically different from ours, that means his penis had to be removed and later restored. And at the end of the episode, after having been converted back to male, he complains that he still has female hormones in his system causing his emotions to run amok, suggesting that the gender swap was a fairly complete process. So this whole casual surgery process seems to know almost know bounds.

--Alex

 

[JRTStarlight]

If McCoy can reattach a brain, there must obviously be a way to reattach the ear parts (that were probably kept alive and in stasis). Simple, by comparison. Even if that knowledge was lost or again inaccessible, it obviously does exist in places, and maybe 100 year on from TOS, they can at least do ears, even if brains are again beyond their reach.

 

[C57D]

That sort of story (ST or not) always amuses me. You can be altered look like another species but unless you speak the language like a native (none of your UT martial arts movie "dubbing") and understand the cultural mores and memes (since they vastly influence language (both vocal and body) and its utility) you will surely stand out like a sore thumb?
And any tricorder/sensor scan will also instantly give you away.

 

[JRTStarlight]

Absolutely. I've always felt they gloss over the UT too easily (I feel it has to at least be pretty obvious and maybe take twice as long to communicate, but it's not interesting to show that detail so they skip it). But it's still there.

And unless you need probable cause to whip out a pocket medical scanner, you can scan most anyone, any time, and learn a great deal. It may not be as covert as you might like, and maybe it's culturally unacceptable, but they can hardly stop you. Mostly, your best chance is never give them a single reason to look, and without speaking the native language and without an accent, I just don't see that realistically happening.

It's interesting, though, the Ferengi seem to have their UTs implanted. Maybe TNG and onwards, so do most Federation citizens.

 

[C57D]

Very much so.

I am sure that I dont express my view of the world in the same way as a Siberian hunter or even a UK teenager ( I am a British 56 year old). Let alone a member of a totally alien sentient species.

Silly example - I use the word "see" to denote understanding as well as for the obvious vision implications. I presume because sight is a Humans strongest sense?
What other (if any) word would be used to denote understanding in a species with a different primary sense??

 

[Paul Weaver]

It was a mid season six Voyager episode. No one remembers it.

If only it was a previous minor character who vanished in the post-seven purge....

 

[JRTStarlight]

Silly example - I use the word "see" to denote understanding as well as for the obvious vision implications. I presume because sight is a Human's strongest sense?
What other (if any) word would be used to denote understanding in a species with a different primary sense??

Lots. Rings true. Smells wrong or suspicious. Smells off. Touch bases with you. Feels wrong/right. Get an aquatic species, and taste is bound to come up more often.

Well, smell you later.

 

[FormerLurker]

Then there's "Hear me out." "That doesn't sound right." "Leaves a bad taste." "I feel violated/validated."

 

[C57D]

Lots. Rings true. Smells wrong or suspicious. Smells off. Touch bases with you. Feels wrong/right. Get an aquatic species, and taste is bound to come up more often.

Well, smell you later.

Very true.Unless you understand a sentient species metaphors and how to comfortably use them then you will not blend very well.
I appreciate that a convoluted UT scene is probably not a useful use of screen time, but maybe it should be used sparingly and briefly to rationalise and highlight the inherent limitations?
And as for the whole " I look like an alien so I can now pass for one" thing, well maybe that is just another result of our obsession with what we can see to the neglect of anything else? Maybe the whole "ostrich - head in the sand I can't see you so you can't see me" metaphor?
I guess the closest ST had ever got to addressing this whole problem is the TNG's Darmok.

 

[JRTStarlight]

When the UT's won't work is different than when they work but would be obvious. I would have liked to see a detailed scene of where they work, but would be obvious (and I don't mean that horribly done scene in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Even if the klingons would recognize it, there was no reason for them to use books to figure out what the klingons were asking them. Just a good scene with a slower, methodical back and forth using the UT. The others could then be assumed.

It's like the turbo lift doors. They took the time to show a double door arrangement once (with Kirk and Captain Christopher in Tomorrow Is Yesterday) just as elevators require two sets of door (one for the car, one for the corridor or hall or room, lest you have an open shaft). But after, mostly they only use one set of doors since that was quick and easy - it's just assumed there are double doors and we can't see them.