Turnabout Intruder

[David F. Weisma]

Remember when Dr. Janice something switched minds with Kirk? If they had left her in Kirk's body, then hypnotized her and convinced her she was really Captain Kirk, do you think they could have gotten her to access the memories in his brain? Having all his memories would make her almost him, would't it? In fact ...

Wait, they brought their memories with them. So what, in the alternate science of Star Trek, is hard wired into people's brains?

 

[T'Girl]

If the machine had switched personalities as seen, but Janice (and James) had from that point had access to the memories of the mind that they inhabited, this would have made Janice's impersonation easier. She would have been able to "look through" Kirk's memories, but they wouldn't have been her own.

Janice's impersonation of Kirk was based upon her perception of who Kirk was, which was the man who kicked her to the curb to pursue his dream of being a Starship Captain. Janice acted domineering and cruel, because this is who she thought Kirk was.

With access to his memories, she could have modified her "performance" to be more the Kirk that was, instead of the Kirk she had built up this portrait of.

Of course she might have realized that she had been wrong about him for years too.

All this would depend on how far gone Janice was psychologically, she might have been so locked into a mindset of who Kirk was, that a change over to behaving like the real Kirk would have been impossible.

 

[Timo]

So what, in the alternate science of Star Trek, is hard wired into people's brains?

Quite possibly everything. For all we know, the alien machine did a brain transplant. Or a total nervous system transplant or whatever.

In any case, what it did was beyond the powers of UFP science to explain or even detect. So it probably just farted in the general direction of biological facts and then proceeded with some extremely complex alien stuff that had the end effect of transferring the consciousness without really doing anything identifiable by a tricorder.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[David F. Weisma]

T'girl, you are absolutely right plot wise, and i like those ideas, but I am also interesting in figuring what we could tell about the Trek universe by the fact that this could be done. Actually, of course, scientific consistency from one episode to another probably wasn't a high priority.

Timo, you are right, but the very fact that consciousness could be transferred without doing anything that could be detected by a tricorder i s a very Cartesian view of consciousness. I can't even imagine a brain transplant - were their brains even the same size? Immune rejection? And could a brain work with a 'strange' spinal cord?

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Actually, of course, scientific consistency from one episode to another probably wasn't a high priority.

True, since Roger Korby's android duplicate was made by a mechanical process and yet contained all of Kirk's memories.

 

[UnknownSample]

Janice's impersonation of Kirk was based upon her perception of who Kirk was, which was the man who kicked her to the curb to pursue his dream of being a Starship Captain. Janice acted domineering and cruel, because this is who she thought Kirk was.

Good one, hadn't thought of that before.

I'm glad no one here said, "But a person IS his/her memories!" I've always had a problem with that idea.


Anyway, if Captain Lester possessed Kirk's memories, presumably she wouldn't have her own memories any longer, those having been left behind in her original body... so she'd forget why she was even doing what she was doing. She'd have to go visit Kirk in Lester's body and ask, "Why did I want to switch with you, again?"

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Janice's impersonation of Kirk was based upon her perception of who Kirk was, which was the man who kicked her to the curb to pursue his dream of being a Starship Captain. Janice acted domineering and cruel, because this is who she thought Kirk was.

Good one, hadn't thought of that before.

I'm glad no one here said, "But a person IS his/her memories!" I've always had a problem with that idea.


Anyway, if Captain Lester possessed Kirk's memories, presumably she wouldn't have her own memories any longer, those having been left behind in her original body... so she'd forget why she was even doing what she was doing. She'd have to go visit Kirk in Lester's body and ask, "Why did I want to switch with you, again?"

But she'd even forget the fact that she had switched, so she'd really be Kirk and in effect nothing would have happened.

 

[David F. Weisma]

Exactly right, Bored. Not to mention the special effect tied to the operation of the alien machine certainly looked like 'souls' were somehow being traded.

 

[Peacemaker]

So what, in the alternate science of Star Trek, is hard wired into people's brains?

Quite possibly everything. For all we know, the alien machine did a brain transplant. Or a total nervous system transplant or whatever.

In any case, what it did was beyond the powers of UFP science to explain or even detect. So it probably just farted in the general direction of biological facts and then proceeded with some extremely complex alien stuff that had the end effect of transferring the consciousness without really doing anything identifiable by a tricorder.

Timo Saloniemi