What Has Discovery Added To Star Trek Lore?

I prefer Spork

 

SPORKS!

 

My guess is S31 gets "officially" disbanded or cut back to what seems like irrelevance after it causes some sort of embaressment.

Then with the khitmer accords removing the klingons and tommed incident causing the romulans to withdraw and the golden age of "peace" that follows, S31 is just forgotten. Even with the cardasssian border wars, it probably wasn't really needed as the cardassians where never a threat to the federation as a whole just the colonys.

It's only with the borg and dominion S31 had the need to come out of hidding again.

 

I think the latest episode has severely detracted from Star Trek lore (spoilers for Light and Shadows):

Spoiler

Spock having a learning disability that no one has heard about in either Prime or Kelvin timelines? (Spock's birth predates the timeline divergence) I support fiction inclusiveness as much as possible (having been born with a slight hearing impairment genetically myself), but I don't think a disability that was never mentioned or indicated before being shoved into the background of one of the most exposed characters in Star Trek is the way to go about it. Sort of how George Takei felt Trek should make their own gay characters (which they have done excellently with Culber and Stamets) as opposed to making Sulu gay--to be fair Kelvin Sulu is likely a genetically different person than Prime Sulu.

It's even more jarring how Kelvin Spock asks how he has any disabilities in the 2009 film, yet only his half human heritage is mentioned. The Vulcan Science Academy surely would have brought up dyslexia if he had it.

And this is the sort of thing you thought they'd have cured by the future too.

At this point we'll just have to assume that Spock's condition was cured in the Kelvin timeline shortly after Nero's incursion, and shortly before 2265 in the Prime timeline. As it is never. mentioned. again.

 

I will disagree. I had a severe speech disability early in my childhood that required a great deal of (what I remember to be) rather unpleasant training around the 1st grade. I was put into classes with children with mental retardation as they for some reason though I was also. I've worked with the same coworkers now in this office for well on 20 years. How many of them know about that? Zero. I'm not ashamed about it, it's just not their business and frankly it has never come up.

 

Spoiler

Bashir's parents found out how legal a cure was for their mentally disabled kid.

 

I had a speech impediment, not severe, but I do go to classes and have a tutor for a year or two. This is the first time I've acknowledged it in almost 30 years, and I have a graduate degree and multiple jobs.

Some things just do not come up, and certainly are not shared as a matter of record.

 

Might wanna work on your math skills. When something new is introduced, it's the very definition of being added.

 

This is how discussions are handled now? Personal attacks on a poster's math skills because they disagree about a topic?

And made, bizarrely enough, against someone who has a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering, an engineering license, and worked with 2 Nobel laureates in Physics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory...

 

There's this little "Report" button down below if you think it's a personal attack.

There is nothing in your avatar that indicates academic achievement, anymore than mine indicates my own.

 

Yeah, I was just noting the irony. I used the 'Report' button, thank you for reminding me about that.

Forgot that episode. Hmm, while it might be illegal in the Federation, because the choice was made without Julian's permission, I wonder if it would be illegal if an adult Julian wanted the cure himself? If the Federation still said no due to "Eugenics War" era rules, I would argue that basically crosses the line into unethicality and obstructing freedom of choice for a sentient individual.

 

Are you serious????? Do they not banter, joke and kid at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory?

More a language jab than a math one, though.

 

Oh ok hmm. Maybe it's just best we just put this to rest and not escalate it anymore then. Let's just move on to the topic.

While I guess this new information technically "adds" to the lore, it takes away from the fact that there are a lot of things I thought would have been cured by the 23rd century. I was reminded how Federation laws are against genetic tampering, but if there is, say, a cure for Down Syndrome and the adult person actually is begging for the cure to use, I'm not sure how the Federation can deny it just because they are afraid of a Khan (which such a cure wouldn't even produce).

I actually know this situation first hand as someone I know can't get treatment for ADHD in her home country, Russia, because they banned the medicine needed for it there. She can only get it outside Russia, and literally would never have been treated if she hadn't married out of the country.

 

Well, we don't really know enough about this disease and 23rd Century medicine to determine if it is curable in that era. While it's similar to dyslexia it doesn't appear to be dyslexia. Kirk's vision problem couldn't be cured because of his allergy to retenix. So he was forced to use an 18th Century solution, corrective lenses.

 

These are common questions regarding Star Trek. Patrick Stewart's casting was met with "Wouldn't they have cured baldness in the 24th century?", with Roddenberry's answer "They wouldn't care."

I suspect that Spock's disability is something a lot of people would care about though, most importantly Spock himself. If a cure is found before 2265, would it be banned if it happened to require altering Spock's DNA? Or are cures only legal if they don't involve DNA? Because that just sounds illogical of the Federation, honestly.

For Spock to even be born would likely require altering of human/Vulcan DNA as it is in a lab setting (likely using Paxton's techniques in creating Trip and T'Pol's kid on Enterprise). Were Sarek and Amanda guilty of violating genetic laws in creating Spock? At that point, violating another one to cure his disability probably is just another item to add to an already existing list.

 

Sarek said it was "from his human side" and it was said to be similar to dyslexia, but that doesn't mean it was a real genetic defect like dyslexia. It might have been some behavioral aspect of Spock related to his upbringing that the Vulcans (who can often be elitists who are so damned unenlightened for a species that prides itself on enlightenment) might have only perceived as a genetic defect.

They see human genes, see Spock with an issue, and conclude "it's caused by those damn human genes".

It might have been a case of the Vulcans' bias against Spock being half-human. Spock's issue might have been some minor behavioral aspect of Spock that was exacerbated by the Vulcans' unconscious bias against him for being a halfling. Ironically, there may have been less of an unconscious bias against Burnahm because she is full human, which the Vulcans might see as a positive aspect for being more pure, even if what she is is purely human.

But even if young Spock's learning issue was directly caused by a true genetic defect similar to dyslexia (using it as our example), it should be noted that dyslexia does not always manifest itself in everyone who inherits the predilection towards it. So there seems to be other factors involved rather than just genetics that might make Dyslexia an major leaning issue in some people with the predilection.

Similarly, perhaps whatever defect Spock may have hypothetically inherited would manifest itself in the prime universe, but not in the Kelvin Universe that diverged when Spock was 2 or 3.

 

Well at least we know why Sarek never mind melded with Spock (as mentioned in TNG Unification). He was afraid of catching Spock's disability! :O

Also while other Federation doctors might hold a hard line against genetic treatments, Dr. McCoy strikes me as enough of a wild card that he'd sneak one through to his pal Spock, although to be fair Spock would probably refuse to accept it citing Federation laws.

 

Or it’s just something Spock was able to work with and have no issues by adulthood. He’s a resilient fellow.

 

I can see it now...McCoy getting caught writing unnecessary prescriptions for his friends. Maybe one of his friends might abuse that and end up with 47 kidneys.

 

After pulling the plug on his dad it doesn't seem so bad.

Keep in mind this is the same McCoy who had no problem shouting out his futuristic medical knowledge in a 20th century hospital, likely violating all sorts of Federation temporal laws.

Even the woman with a new kidney might have her cure reverse engineered, causing all sorts of havoc to the timeline. Countries fighting over this would be enough to spark a Eugenics wars or World War 3. Oh wait... :O (And we thought McCoy saving Edith Keeler was bad).