Spacedock: Earth shield?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Picard' started by F. King Daniel, May 11, 2023.

  1. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2012
    This is the same Star Wars Universe that Star Killer base can send a ("Hyper-Space traveling" / "Planet Killing" / "Single Beam Splitting into Multi-Beams" of doom) that actually took out several planets.

    5 Planets with significantly large population centers wiped out in the span of seconds.

    That incident, now known as the Hosnian Cataclysm, was devastating.

    Somehow I feel safer in the Star Trek Universe compared to the crazy weapons that the bad guys get away with successfully using in the Star Wars Universe.

    This also doesn't factor in the Death Star destroying Alderran in the original Star Wars Trilogy.
     
    Yistaan likes this.
  2. Timofnine

    Timofnine Saintly henchman of Santa Premium Member

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2001
    Location:
    North Pole
    I know that my fan fic often gets me lambasted, but if you want to see how I have used ancient Star Trek weaponry to destroy the Star Wars Universe on an even larger scale, then look no further than here. :D
     
    Search4 likes this.
  3. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2014
    Location:
    Journeying onwards
    Well, Star Trek has aliens that can wipe out whole populations with a thought. Neither universe is especially safe.
     
  4. Timofnine

    Timofnine Saintly henchman of Santa Premium Member

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2001
    Location:
    North Pole
    Wesley Crusher Traveller can even do so with a joke. :shrug:
     
  5. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2014
    Location:
    Journeying onwards
    All the more reason why "Shut up, Wesley" is so important to know.
     
    Richard S. Ta likes this.
  6. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2012
    This isn't even factoring how powerful the Mirror-Universe Wesley Crusher is in STO.

    He was on a different level.
     
  7. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2014
    Location:
    Journeying onwards
    No, it wasn't. For reasons I feel are painfully obvious.

    Nevermind the Douwd:
    PICARD: What happened on Rana Four? The truth this time. All of it.
    KEVIN: Very well. For what it's worth. I am a Douwd. An immortal being of disguises and false surroundings. I have lived in this galaxy for many thousands of years although until today, no one has known my true identity. Once, while traveling in human form, I chanced to fall in love with an Earth woman. I put aside my powers and became her husband. Our life was happy and rich. Eventually we came to this planet to live our final years. Now she is dead. She never knew what I really was.
    PICARD: Your colony was attacked by a warship.
    KEVIN: Belonging to the Husnock, a species of hideous intelligence who knew only aggression and destruction. I could have destroyed them with a mere thought, but I did not do so.
    CRUSHER: You had the power to stop them but you didn't?
    KEVIN: I refused to for the same reason I refused to stop the Enterprise. I will not kill.
    PICARD: So you let the colonists fight a hopeless battle.
    KEVIN: I tried to fool the Husnock as I tried to fool you. It only made them angrier. More cruel.
    PICARD: And then what you most feared, happened. Rishon went to fight with the colonists, and died with them.
    KEVIN: How I wish I could have died with her.
    PICARD: But you couldn't. You were left alone.
    KEVIN: Yes. I saw her broken body. I went insane. My hatred exploded, and in an instant of grief I destroyed the Husnock.
    CRUSHER: Why did you try to hide this from all of us? Was it out of guilt for not helping Rishon and the others when they were alive?
    KEVIN: No, no, no, no. You don't understand the scope of my crime. I didn't kill just one Husnock, or a hundred, or a thousand. I killed them all. All Husnock everywhere. Are eleven thousand people worth fifty billion? Is the love of a woman worth the destruction of an entire species? This is the sin I tried so hard to keep you from learning now. Why I wanted to chase you from Rana.
    PICARD: We're not qualified to be your judges. We have no law to fit your crime. You're free to return to the planet and to make Rishon live again.

    (From TNG's The Survivors)
     
    Richard S. Ta likes this.
  8. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2012
    Pretty Powerful, but Mirror Universe Wesley Crusher was also pretty powerful.
     
    Richard S. Ta likes this.
  9. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2002
    Location:
    Montgomery County, State of Maryland
    Just being pedantic here -- Picard has to be speaking poetically about the inadequacy of Federation law to address the scale of his crime, because from a literal standpoint the Federation almost has to have a law against exterminationist genocide. But letting Kevin go is almost certainly the right call, since you really don't want to fuck with a creature that can vaporize the entire Federation in the blink of an eye.
     
    Ronald Held likes this.
  10. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2014
    Location:
    Journeying onwards
    I always took it as the Dwoud being at such a higher level, like Q level, that their laws could not be made to fit. I'm sure the Federation has a law about genocidal peer powers, but god like beings?
     
  11. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2002
    Location:
    Montgomery County, State of Maryland
    I mean, I think we're basically saying the same thing here. I don't think Federation law contains some special exemption for someone just because of what species they are -- being an extra-dimensional entity does not mean you didn't break the law if you commit genocide while you're in Federation space. It just means the Federation cannot physically enforce the law upon you.
     
  12. Yistaan

    Yistaan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2018
    Picard was assimilated after this episode and presumably the Borg found out all about Kevin and his powers, AND the location of the planet that Picard left him on. I wonder if the Borg ever made any attempt to go after him?
     
  13. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2002
    Location:
    Montgomery County, State of Maryland
    I think the Borg were smart enough not to try to assimilate extra-dimensional entities capable of vaporizing them in the blink of an eye.
     
    Yistaan likes this.
  14. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2014
    Location:
    Journeying onwards
    I don't see as an exemption. I do think it is difficult to enforce. And if the Federation as a trial by jury of your peers who would Kevin's peers be?
     
  15. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2002
    Location:
    Montgomery County, State of Maryland
    Oh, definitely. Impossible to physically enforce. That's why the best solution was Picard's -- let him go, let him punish himself, and hope he doesn't get genocidal towards the UFP.

    I think in this legal context, "peers" would just mean, "other adults sapient entities." If a bodybuilder is accused of murder, they don't recruit a jury only of other bodybuilders after all.
     
  16. Yistaan

    Yistaan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2018
    The Q Continuum does seem to have some sort of legal/justice system that isn't really comprehensible to humans but still seemingly exists (thus Q being banished, and apparently some sort of cold war/arrangement with the El-Aurians). Kevin could be turned over to the Q, even just in an offhand comment that Picard makes to Q the next time he shows up.
     
  17. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2002
    Location:
    Montgomery County, State of Maryland
    If there's any group of people I don't trust to enact a proportional, humane justice upon a genocidal god, it's the Q. ;)
     
    Yistaan likes this.
  18. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2012
    Depends on what the Q defines as "Humane".

    Their definition is different from ours for obvious reasons.
     
  19. Yistaan

    Yistaan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2018
    Despite all of Q's misdeeds since TNG I'm not sure we've seen anything from them on the level of, say, what Dr. Who did to the Family of Blood.
     
  20. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2012
    I don't remember that ep, so what happened in that episode?