Starfleet could have defeated all of its enemies in weeks

[awiltz2]

In the Season 3 episode "Wink of an Eye," Kirk is put into a state of hyper-acceleration by the Scalosians.

McCoy invents a serum to induce hyper-acceleration and Spock tries this serum, thus hyper-accelerating him.

Luckily, McCoy also seemingly invented a counter-serum to return him back to normal speed.

Spock is later seen repairing the ship in a matter of seconds.

If this technology were shared with the rest of Starfleet, couldn't they have become almost limitessly powerful? Whenever their ship would be attacked, they'd have a specialized crew of people to drink hyper-acceleration serum and immediately repair the ship, possibly even destroying or neutralizing the enemy ship in their state of hyper-acceleration.

It's application to science would be almost endless. They could hyper-accelerate scientists to produce the results of an experiment in a matter of seconds. They could hyper-accelerate a recovering patient so he can return to duty in a matter of seconds (or minutes) depending on the recovery time.

If Kirk were ever under attack, he could drink the serum, remove the weapons of everyone in the area, take the counter-serum and be virtually invincible.

But then again, the show wouldn't be very fun to watch if the stars had no vulnerabilities.

Any thoughts?

 

[Christopher]

If they were able to "defeat their enemies" with such overwhelming force, all they'd do is make more enemies, because everyone would be scared witless of them and become determined to stop them at all costs.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They should create an army of time traveling, superfast, telekinetic androids to defeat their enemies.

 

[Sandoval]

Any thoughts?

Thousands.

But none about this.

 

[awiltz2]

Any thoughts?

Thousands.

But none about this.

My apologies. Perhaps it was a silly inquiry

But I simply find it interesting how advanced technology in TOS (which could often be applied throughout the series if not by Starfleet in general, by members of the Enterprise) was apparently left alone.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Any thoughts?

Thousands.

But none about this.

My apologies. Perhaps it was a silly inquiry

But I simply find it interesting how advanced technology in TOS (which could often be applied throughout the series if not by Starfleet in general, by members of the Enterprise) was apparently left alone.

That's just Sandoval being Sandoval. I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah, in TOS they discovered a lot of things that could have "changed the world", but that wasn't the nature of the show. Done and then forgotten was the rule of the day, for the most part.

 

[Sandoval]

That's just Sandoval being Sandoval. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[T'Girl]

Queen Skinny of the fast people revealed to Kirk that non-Skinny-losions tend to "burnout" fairly quickly, plus the effects of the acceleration make them very docile.

Now Kirk seemed none the worst for wear, and Spock did repair the ship quickly, but repeated exposure to the waters of premature ejaculation could have serious health consequences.

 

[Wingsley]

More to the point, every time a human were to expose him/herself to the Scalosian water is another time his/her life is in endangered by cell damage. So the more dosages of Scalosian water you take to bail out your comrades, the greater the risk you will die before you succeed.

I would say there were other phenomena in TOS that Kirk and company encountered that could be even more potent as weapons or defensive augmentations. Did Starfleet ever salvage the Planet Killer at L-374? ("The Doomsday Machine") If they did, look out Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Dominion and Borg. Of course, who needs a giant neutronium-hulled rotten carrot for a battleship when you could just apply the ultra-risky antimatter intermix formula to induce time travel? ("The Naked Time") Still not daring and powerful enough? How about ingesting some kironide-laced Platonian native foods to build up a formidable paranormal ability, useful in grabbing hold of enemy ships and destabilizing them? ("Plato's Stepchildren") Of course, if that's not enough, you could pursue limitless paranormal powers by exposing humans with high ESPer ratings to the Negative Energy Barrier at the galactic edge, in which case you could both make anything you want happen and read everyone's minds as well.

All of these tricks come with extreme risk. If the Federation could re-activate the Planet Killer, would they really want to? What if they couldn't harness it? Would they have to find a way to de-activate it again? If so, how much loss of life would be acceptable while they're preparing to chuck another bomb down its gullet?

Of course, the Federation produced their own super-weapon when the Starship Enterprise was equipped with the M-5 supercomputer. A single starship nearly wiped out four similar vessels in a botched war games exercise. Again, the Federation would have to ask themselves if it was worth the risk.

Maybe the Federation might resort to these tactics if the chips were down and they were in serious danger. But the Federation MO is not typically one of scavenging other people's technology or innate abilities to augment their own tactical abilities as a first resort.

 

[Neutral Zone]

The Federation may have been able to have made itself into an unstoppable force, but it would only been powerful against the equal species to their own, humanoid or creatures of the basis animalistic structure.

But i doubt that they could have done much against life forms that were like lifeforms from the Squire of Gothos or the life forms that were from Charlie X etc. And definitely no match for the later lifeforms of Q or the Borg.

So, I think the Federation would've only beenpowerful within in its own lifeform structures.

 

[Theodore Jay Miller]

How about ingesting some kironide-laced Platonian native foods to build up a formidable paranormal ability, useful in grabbing hold of enemy ships and destabilizing them? ("Plato's Stepchildren")

I have a theory on that one: kironide in the bloodstream enables you to tap into the energy of the kironide deposits on the Platonian planet. So the telekinesis only works on that planet.

 

[Satyrquaze]

By the rational of the OP, why not have every ship in Starfleet charge the Galactic Barrier? That way the Federation could have an army of telekinetic, telepathic god-men at the cost of a few dozen ships. Give them dosages of the hyper-serum and they'd be nigh-omnipotent. Course, they likely wouldn't adhere to the laws of the Federation...

Because, that's what Star Trek is all about... a near-all powerful army conquering the universe.

 

[awiltz2]

By the rational of the OP, why not have every ship in Starfleet charge the Galactic Barrier? That way the Federation could have an army of telekinetic, telepathic god-men at the cost of a few dozen ships. Give them dosages of the hyper-serum and they'd be nigh-omnipotent. Course, they likely wouldn't adhere to the laws of the Federation...

Because, that's what Star Trek is all about... a near-all powerful army conquering the universe.

Good point!

Having members of the Federation who could mutiny and take over the Federation itself, this is a rather large risk to take. Of course it would make sense to limit these modifications to a select few, but I'm sure they could get into the wrong hands. If the enemy advances upon our technology, they would get the upper hand and make us that much weaker.

But the medical technology!? Like NOMAD's ability to bring people back to life ("The Changeling")? And the plant's ability to bring people to peak physiological condition, removing all defects ("This Side of Paradise")? With the plant from "This Side of Paradise," they could affect a human with cancer, use the medical tricorder to see that the cancer has been removed, use some form of stimuli to get them to resort to anger, and voila. I'm sure near-immortality could have been achieved with that plant.

They could probably have gone back to Talos VI and recovered all the damage done to Christopher Pike.

But I'm sure it comes down to the show not being very entertaining if there were technological solutions to all of its problems; and budget probably didn't help much either.

 

[Wingsley]

My theory about all the wonder-cures, wonder-weapons, and wonder-monsters that Kirk and company encountered over the years, is that Kirk usually provided a report to HQ about what was found and where, along with his recommendation. His recommendation was typically either quarantine the place where the wonder was found (like what was done at Talos IV), or destroy the wonder so Pandora's Box can't be opened again ("The Doomsday Machine", TNG's "Contagion"), or simply ask Starfleet to send a science vessel to catalogue the wonder and and figure out how to contain it so it can't get out of that box.

Remember the warehouse scene at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, with the worker rolling the cart carrying the Ark along in the dark, never to be seen again? There's probably a basement level on some Tantalus V-like planet or asteroid where these phenomena get stored for later analysis... and they sit there in storage... waiting to be opened...

 

[MarsWeeps]

Of course, the Federation produced their own super-weapon when the Starship Enterprise was equipped with the M-5 supercomputer. A single starship nearly wiped out four similar vessels in a botched war games exercise

The M5 wasn't a super weapon. It didn't increase phaser power or create better photon torpedoes. The other ships were caught with their pants down (like Kirk in ST:II) - they didn't expect the Enterprise to be firing with full power.

 

[Timo]

All of these tricks come with extreme risk.

Kironide appeared to carry little risk, as opposed to the other two ways of creating superhumans (Scalosian water which induces a whole-body glass jaw on the victim, and Galactic Barrier which appears to have 6:1 fatality ratio for those affected in the Valiant case, and 4.5:1 in the Enterprise one). But I like TJ Miller's excuse here...

The general trend with powerful enemies in TOS was that they were both unique and sore losers; victory over them meant destruction of the potentially useful assets. The Doomsday Machine and NOMAD probably left virtually nothing to study. Ditto with the Space Amoeba, the dikironide cloud, the Zetarians or other lifeforms capable of threatening starships. And the computers of Landru, the Eymorg or the Kaladans might have held useful secrets, but probably were too clever by a half to reveal them.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Greg Cox]

Remember the warehouse scene at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, with the worker rolling the cart carrying the Ark along in the dark, never to be seen again? There's probably a basement level on some Tantalus V-like planet or asteroid where these phenomena get stored for later analysis... and they sit there in storage... waiting to be opened...

It's called . . . Warehouse 23.

Coming soon to Syfy.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They could field a legion of super-heroes with all the advanced technology they've found.

 

[The Badger]

They could field a legion of super-heroes with all the advanced technology they've found.

Why, yes. You could have a crew including a super strong android with perfect recall, a man who can see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, a woman able to psychically perceive emotional states....

But that's more comic book than Star Trek, surely?

 

[Nerys Myk]

A top secret unit of Starfleet's Special Forces, code named The S-Men:

RUK- Android. Super-strength.

DEELA- Scalosian. Super speed. Invisibility

ALEXANDER- Platonian. Telekinesis.

GARTH-Izarite. Antosian trained metamorph.

And their mysterious leader only known as "Charlie X"