Who Watches the Watchers?
- Thread starter Supernuke
- Start date
Superstition and supernatural do NOT equal "religion". He was appalled at them abandoning rationalism because of him.
And for a man like Picard, abandoning Rationalism is a horrific fate.
But why should he compound one violation with another? Obviously if the Mintokans are that easily swayed then they aren't as advanced as everyone thinks they are.
Precisely. To say it in religious language, Picard was nothing but a false idol.
What I liked is that he dared to step in front of a bow to convince them that he is not a deity. Sure, he knew that he will survive but it nonetheless takes quite some guramba to step in front of a bow.
The episode neatly showed how hard it is do undo cultural contamination, even in the case of Vulcanoids.
I think it's be interesting to do the episode with a lesser captain or a hypothetical Starfleet in which the Prime Directive is merely a minor rule. You can easily imagine the deified captain considering how he could use his position in order to help the Mintakans and how these good intentions turn our horribly in the end.
Or instead of creating a worse situation, he could have simply beamed up Palmer and left the Mintokans with a few people who saw swirly lights and a man disappear.
More than likely, the Mintokans are a rational race and would've dismissed a few unverified reports of the incident and went on their merry way without knowing anything about starships, transporters or the fact they weren't alone in the universe. Picard's choices did more to change the course of Mintokan civilization than a simple mystery would have.
But he's Picard, so his choices are above being reviewed in an objective manner.
EDIT: Oh yeah, his inability to pull the trigger on transporting up Palmer cost Palmer his life.
Brilliant, brilliant episode. Still remains one of my all time favourites. Probably in my top 3 in fact. 
Palmer did not die. Try to be a bit more sophisticated with your Picard bashing. Making things up is pretty pathetic, even for you.
My mistake. Us imperialist are human and tend not to have perfect memories.
How so? Three more less distinct sets of possibilities, plus permutations from combinations thereof.
We KNOW the Mintakans (or, at least, this particular group of them) did not have any advanced technology or knowledge, yet they are also most definitely Vulcanoid / Romulan.
It is entirely possible tha they were "seeded" long ago by the Perservers, just like the Amerinds in TOS's 'The Paradise Syndrome'.
However, with the lack of any evidence either way (and maybe that was an unstated reason for Star Fleet's 'duck blind'), the Mintakans could also have been an offshoot of the migration to Romulus.
I always interpreted this episode to be more anti-superstition than anti-religion.
Indeed, the Vulcan's Noun novels do seem to lend credence to that theory. Specifically:
The last few novels, the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, have lots of scenes taking place on the flight of the Vulcan ships who left and headed for Romulus. AFAIK, there is at least one ship which vanishes from the fleet and goes off on its own.
Always been my take as well. Think it through, don't jump at the first conclusion that runs through your head, etc..
Interesting. I am guessing somewhat different to what was told in 'The Romulan Way' but, in either case, the trip undoubtedly had its share of problems. Ships would have broken down or been otherwise separated from the fleet; exploratory parties lost to planetary phenomena; or dissident groups who chose to split away; you name it.
Me too. This ep never bothered me. Very watchable when it comes on.
Similar threads
