Hi, everyone. While watching Trek and watching certain docudramas, I got to thinking...what real world events would be interesting to see mentioned in Star Trek? I'd love to know if they figured out how to clean up Chernobyl.
How they finally stopped telemarketing. Think about it. All their communication devices, there’s never a hail that says “Hello sir, are you happy with your subspace service?”
I'm curious how Trek deals with missionaries. The prime directive forbids Starfleet from interfering with primitive cultures... but who's to stop rich nutcases with ships and replicators spewing bibles?
I'm wondering about global warming... Earth does have an environmental control system in place, but we don't know when it was implemented. Not to mention a thermonuclear World War III complicating everything. So I'm rather curious, not only if there were any concentrated recovery efforts but also if global warming had caused or exacerbated tensions leading to WW3 in the first place as well. Seeing the lush green city in the Mojave Desert also made me wonder if they were also able to restore other severely desertified areas like the former Aral Sea.
It's unclear if there's a civilian version of the prime directive, there are indications both ways. Might be less the Federation and more member by member, or there could be nothing. Some people could go forth and spread ideas and concepts as they see fit.
The Enterprise Incident was based (with some creative liberties) off of what was known as The Pueblo Incident.
Matter replication by the forced and accelerated conversion of energy into matter -- instead of converting matter to energy. Not unlike burning a campfire in reverse. Fusion generators would probably play a part as well. Like male pattern baldness?
Fascinating! The episode (IMHO) is wonderful as it is but for whatever reason(s), I'm glad it was kept at the level it was. I'll post a link below, which appears to cover some of her original draft - which definitely parallels the issue a lot more, if the teaser is hinting at the Enterprise just going for an observation mission to see if the Klingons are giving their ship technology to the Romulans (giving the Romulans an edge against the Federation), instead of Kirk acting wack and going headstrong into Romulan territory about a cloaking device. The espionage and Captain Wack aspects still felt more firsthand exciting, showed another aspect of Kirk being mindful of his crew. The finished episode shows a lot more than just seeing if Klingons are working with Romulans, it's clear (hinted at in the 4/19/68 draft) that they were but felt that was secondary to the new cloaking device. It's a shame season 3 didn't build on all this, unless that was Fontana's goal - to do this in steps (show alliance forming, later culminating in a new cloaking device on top of all that. Either way, both editions intrigue but the finished edition with the added dimension for Kirk, the new cloak, and the Romulan Commander trying to get Spock to defect - if he or Sarek was going to be the one tempted to cross over?) What that site reveals clearly shows how much Fontana loved the show and her characters and depth into exploring Vulcan lore. Even the TAS episode where she fleshes out ideas mentioned briefly in "Journey to Babel" regarding Spock as a child... and having seen all of TAS a year or two ago and in awe over the quality of the stories (and only just found out now she was the story editor!!)... Fontana, was so much an asset to this franchise, even for scripts where she withdrew her name and had a pseudonym put in - the base ideas were still hers until a certain point. Never knew it was Freiberger's idea to have Romulans using Klingon design (thus hinting at a new alliance, which could have expanded storylines as well... that and it made TOS-R look even more stunning as we saw both types of ships surrounding the Enterprise. I wonder what happened to the Romulan ship from season 1 and why it never made a return...) https://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2016/05/dc-fontanas-story-outlines-for.html And on Memory Alpha, I had no idea it was originally to be Kirk and McCoy doing the stealing of the cloak, and their outline of the story suggests Kirk's sanity may have been tested in a way other than feigning insanity to get the crew off the hook. Now that would have been way-cool. And she wrote in a novel how Spock can go get jiggy (the 7 year cycle is of fertility, they can technically "get busy" any time.) This also lets Spock off the hook for "The Cloud Minders" as he's seen to be cajoling to Droxine and by then I doubt NBC got tons of fan protest letters the way they had regarding Spock and the Romulan Commander (or by fans bringing up "Amok Time" even though with Spock having opened up to Kirk, he may have had an epiphany and not being so high strung on discussing his species' pre-bedtime habits (or "snu-snu before snooze-snooze", Zapp Brannigan knows all about that! )) Spock not being 100% Vulcan would also allow the inference involving his human side being a factor as well, something TOS might have benefited from but worked out okay regardless. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Enterprise_Incident_(episode)
Kirk credited a missionary/plastic surgeon for Chinese Spock's pointy ears, following a mechanical rice picker accident... I would think (the best) missionaries might take more of a "let's do good, tell them what we believe (which motivates our good deeds), and let them make the choice whether or not to believe". Not "let's civilize this planet's natives because we're holier than them and force them to do what we do". There would be some give and take of knowledge and wisdom, but at the end of the day they and the alien non-converts civilly agree to disagree (ideally), while those who do agree freely choose to do so without coercion. There naturally would be conflicts as there are today, people being outcasts because of newfound faith, persecution, etc. Christians might relish the chance to start planetary colonies like their American ancestors did in the 17th century. And a mission ship might travel between such worlds to offer spiritual aid and comfort to those far afield.