Vidian Phage

[Dingo]

And didn't we get a couple cool late season 6 and 7 mentions of the good old Vidians? I believe in Think Tank Jason Alexander's character said he cured the phage.

Good for them!

You know of course that the “cure” of the Phage would also be economic disaster for Vidiia. Think about it a race that fought a plague for two thousand years. They had to have invested enormous amounts of resources in just the support of people affected.

There had to be a lot spent on research just to keep people alive. You suppose that because of it there were reservations for Vidiians that didn’t have the Phage, they had to be isolated from the disease, this would be the breeding pool because a disease that affected the DNA would in all likelihood inhibit the victim from producing children.

The infrastructure needed to treat Phage victims had to be enormous, and a “cure” would have brought the Vidiian economy to a screeching halt.

What does all this mean, you might ask. Well considering a people with superior medical technology, that couldn’t cure themselves, one would ask. Whose pocket does all that currency spent on services around Phage victims go into and does that group of people have enough power to actually keep a cure from being found?

Brit

That last line of your post is especially poignant. It sounds like those conspiracy theories that claim that someone invented a carburetor that gets 150 miles to the gallon but the oil companies bought the patent and are sitting on it.

Anyway, on the subject of the Vidiians, lets not also forget their race relations angle. Think of how many races they stole organs from and used as slave labor. I imagine 2000 years plus of such atrocities wouldn't go unpunished or unforgotten.

I can only imagine what the Vidiians standing in the interstellar community is now that they aren't in the business of stealing organs any longer.

Perhaps they could start an economy based on selling medical technology, since they seem to be radically advanced in that arena. Provided of course they can somehow re-ingratiate themselves back into the interstellar arena.

The honatta profession would have to have obviously been lost with the Think Tank's cure and that would mean a pool of overspecialized labor out of the job and thus massive un-employment.

So I agree the cure for the Phage probably did bring Vidiian society to a screeching halt. I'd love to see a fanfiction or actual author tackle the subject.

 

[Brit]

That last line of your post is especially poignant. It sounds like those conspiracy theories that claim that someone invented a carburetor that gets 150 miles to the gallon but the oil companies bought the patent and are sitting on it.

The “carburetor” was almost an urban legend when I was growing up in the fifties and the sixties. So yes that is where that notion came from. It wouldn’t matter if it was true or not but in the light of economic crisis it surely would be one of those things that Vidiians would wonder about.

So here they are with no allies because stealing other species' organs wouldn’t have allowed them to make friends with anyone. There would be an awful lot of people out of work, technical, highly paid people, and everyone would be looking for some kind of scapegoat. They would be in such disarray that anyone, be it unscrupulous Vidiians (and remember their ethic system had been compromised for a millennia) or unfriendly aliens, could jump in and take over.

So I agree the cure for the Phage probably did bring Vidiian society to a screeching halt. I'd love to see a fanfiction or actual author tackle the subject.

I’ve thought about this for a long time because I am writing a fic with this as part of the back ground. I’ve got almost 20,000 words so far and it’s about two thirds finished.

It came to be known as the “Grand Odyssey”, a torrent of people pouring out of Vidiia Prime. That deluge of Vidiians migrating away from their planet, seeking to escape the chaos and destruction accompanying the defeat of the Phage.

In the final uproar when the Vidiian economy collapsed, one small sleek ship streaked away in the rush, seeking escape from a planet that was no longer home. Hoping to find security in the multitude, the pilot carefully concealed her trail in the mass of warp signatures until she thought she was far enough away from Vidiia to avoid detection. Only then did she change her heading and began the search for her real goal.

So Neogothboy74, it’s not silly, it is “world building.” Writers do it all the time; Science Fiction writers do a lot of it. I am a regular reader of several blogs with an interest in science fiction and there have been a lot of discussions there as to how you actually build a world. Being science fiction rather than fantasy, the world has to be logical but with both the premise always begins with “What if.”

Brit

 

[neogothboy74]

So Neogothboy74, it’s not silly, it is “world building.” Writers do it all the time; Science Fiction writers do a lot of it. I am a regular reader of several blogs with an interest in science fiction and there have been a lot of discussions there as to how you actually build a world. Being science fiction rather than fantasy, the world has to be logical but with both the premise always begins with “What if.”
Brit

I'm sorry if I offended you. I didn't mean to imply that your premise was flawed in any way - except in the presentation that these are the events that happened next, without exception. Which was apparently just my interpretation of what was said. It just didn't read (to me) like a 'what if', so much as a 'you know this is what happened next' - which we don't. And that's what I was commenting on. Perhaps I took too literal a reading of your post, or didn't communicate my feeling clearly enough, which is surely entirely my fault. lol. It's so hard for me to communicate online sometimes, though I seem to have mastered miscommunication quite easily. But of course 'What If' scenarios are always fun!

I’ve thought about this for a long time because I am writing a fic with this as part of the back ground. I’ve got almost 20,000 words so far and it’s about two thirds finished.

Where do you post your fics? I used to read a lot of Trek fic, but I don't think I've read a single piece since around Voyager Season 5. I don't know why I stopped. It wasn't a concious decision on my part. It just sort of fell away... I do remember the last one I read very clearly though, and it was definitely a Voyager piece, which I enjoyed.

 

[Dingo]

The “carburetor” was almost an urban legend when I was growing up in the fifties and the sixties. So yes that is where that notion came from. It wouldn’t matter if it was true or not but in the light of economic crisis it surely would be one of those things that Vidiians would wonder about.

So here they are with no allies because stealing other species' organs wouldn’t have allowed them to make friends with anyone. There would be an awful lot of people out of work, technical, highly paid people, and everyone would be looking for some kind of scapegoat. They would be in such disarray that anyone, be it unscrupulous Vidiians (and remember their ethic system had been compromised for a millennia) or unfriendly aliens, could jump in and take over.

Then your version of post-Phage Vidiian society sounds almost like Germany post the Wiemar Republic or post-Communist Russia in the 1990s. I'm imagining a Vidiian Vladimir Putin coming into power in that instance.

I’ve thought about this for a long time because I am writing a fic with this as part of the back ground. I’ve got almost 20,000 words so far and it’s about two thirds finished.

I look forward to reading it. I'm charmed to meet a fellow fanfiction writer. I do a lot of fanfiction writing myself, but haven't really dabbled in Star Trek just yet. I'm working on one though, a more lower decks fic but that's a story for another thread.

I'm figuring that there might be a few powerful races the Vidiians hacked off (pun intended) with their organ harvesting as well that might start a genocidal war against them too.

 

[voyagerfan]

Where can you see the fanfic?

 

[Brit]

Where can you see the fanfic?

Hi Voyagerfan, you can't see it because it's not posted. I don't post any fic until it is finished and betaed. There are a lot of fic readers that will not read unfinished fic and I usually fall into that category myself unless I'm helping someone.

So I am working away, I have Parts one through three ready to be betaed, I'm half way through part four and I have a lot of notes and actually have a pretty firm idea of what part five will be.

Brit

 

[Dr. Jekyl]

[
So I agree the cure for the Phage probably did bring Vidiian society to a screeching halt. I'd love to see a fanfiction or actual author tackle the subject.

I'd recommend Voyager Season 7.5. The whole thing is well worth a read, but they have a Vidiian arc that starts in the season 3 'episode' Altruistic Motives, that looks at some of the problems in Vidiian society after the cure of the Phage, including the poverty and the damage the years of organ harvesting did to their relations with other races.

Unfortunately, the series has been on hiatus for several years, and, at this stage, will probably never be finished. Crying shame - they'd just reunited the Doctor & Denara Pel too. *sighs* I wonder if it's time for my once-yearly 'please update' email?

 

[kimc]

[
So I agree the cure for the Phage probably did bring Vidiian society to a screeching halt. I'd love to see a fanfiction or actual author tackle the subject.

I'd recommend Voyager Season 7.5. The whole thing is well worth a read, but they have a Vidiian arc that starts in the season 3 'episode' Altruistic Motives, that looks at some of the problems in Vidiian society after the cure of the Phage, including the poverty and the damage the years of organ harvesting did to their relations with other races.

Unfortunately, the series has been on hiatus for several years, and, at this stage, will probably never be finished. Crying shame - they'd just reunited the Doctor & Denara Pel too. *sighs* I wonder if it's time for my once-yearly 'please update' email?

I would absolutely love to see that series continued. It looks like real life had interfered with the authors' intentions which is a shame since they had things setup quite nicely. At one point they had updated the site with a notice saying they still intended to continue but nothing came of it.