A better reason for the Romulans to go "ham" on synthetic life forms would be strategic. If you hate the Federation, but can't do anything to counter the Federation at the moment, due to your homeworld's sun going "supernova", you would create a crisis that would ensure that the Federation did not have a strategic advantage over you. Thus, you would hack into the synth's network on Mars to destroy a major Federation military facility: Utopia Planetia. The secondary objective would be to squash the manufacturing of synths, thinking that all the Starfleet needs to do is to request a military-grade synth, and produce it by the thousands. Think about it: the Federation could churn out an army of "Data(s)" in short order. That would scare anyone, especially the Romulans, who are in no position at the moment to counter a potential threat. Thus, playing the long game, you make sure that all synths are destroyed, and that no new Synth research is conducted. This, IMO, is a better reason for the anti-Synth plot, rather than some prophecy about the coming of "Space Mecha-Cthulu" or whatever.
A better reason for the anti-Synth plot, IMO...
- Thread starter dswynne1
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If it was just about destroying the Federation's tactical advantage, why would they willingly destroy and prevent the construction of the fleet that was supposed to help them? "No, we don't want you to conquer us, we're going to die instead."
Really, the Zhat Vash and their fear of synthetics is a far more plausible explanation for the attack on Mars then a desire to weaken the Federation strategically.
Really, the Zhat Vash and their fear of synthetics is a far more plausible explanation for the attack on Mars then a desire to weaken the Federation strategically.
Romulans sabotaging and dooming their own rescue effort because they were so afraid of Synths makes no sense, but that's the point. That's how fanaticism works, and they illustrated how damaging it can be.
Makes more sense then they did it so the Federation couldn't have a tactical advantage over them.
The problem is that even the most idiotic fanatic should have still understood that the plan made no sense. And Oh did not come off as a complete moron.
Well, if the vast majority of your people are all dead, then yes, the Federation wouldn't have a tactical advantage over them. Which, again, makes no sense even to the most idiotic of fanatic.
It makes sense relative to all organic life being at stake not just Romulans.
Considering how close they did come to wiping out organic life they kinda sacrificed their own people for the good of the many
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The problem is the timing of the attack. Was there a reason why the Zhat Vash couldn’t have waited until after the Romulans were all evacuated before attacking Utopia Planitia? It’s not like there was any huge rush on their part to convince the Federation to ban synths. If there was, they would have tried to kill Data a long time ago. Or Noonien Soong before that. But they didn’t do squat until the absolute worst possible time for them personally.
1) It was pretty common knowledge that no one had been able to replicate Data's positronic brain.
2) I don't think an army of what amounts of a Star Trek version of SW-esque battle droids is a major military advantage for the Federation. Most combat, as we saw in the Dominion War, is ship-to-ship rather than surface. Autonomous battle droids would be an advantage, but it's an advantage that would come with major downsides (e.g., there would still need to be humanoid troops to guide the androids and repair them, since they wouldn't have the cognitive ability to operate autonomously). But an advantage like that could be countered if the Romulans are just willing to be a bit more ruthless than even the Dominion -- what's the use of having a battle droid surface army if the enemy just lobbs mass drivers at the surface, for instance?
3) This option doesn't have a major thematic strength using the Zhat Vash presented: the idea that conflicting cultures are not inherently evil, but that they're operating out of misplaced fear, leading to a cycle of violence and reprisal that needs to be interrupted through non-violence and self-sacrifice.
1) Doesn't matter, if the Daystrom Institute were able to manufacture androids even with a tenth of Data's capability. Clearly, the Synths are capable of pulling off an operation like destroying an entire Starfleet facility with ease. Ergo, imagine reprogramming the Synths for the purpose of warfare...
2) You are assuming that Starfleet couldn't order the production a combat model capable of conducting a war of attrition. Certainly, the Romulans would be paranoid enough to assume so, and thus would make the move to put a stop to such a capability. Heck, the Romulans would consider any violation of the Treaty of Algeron as a reason to increase hostilities against the Feds.
3) You could still have such themes, since you have Picard already trying to convince the Feds that not all Romulans are paranoid xenophobes. In fact, you could easily have a scene where Picard convinces Commodore/General Oh that everything he has done was to bridge the gap between the Feds and the Romulans from the beginning, and that the Feds and the Romulans can come to an understanding on the nature of the Synths. Oh, would reply why would she trust Picard, with Picard saying that the Synths are a new species that he and others are willing to protect with their lives. Now THAT is "Star Trek"...
DSW
Yep. There were no shortage of opportunities to take out Data.
Here's another one to make you think / groan: Why did Oh order the execution of the two synths Rios encountered? Wouldn't it have made more sense - given the Zhat Vash's ultimate goal of eradicating all synthetics - to capture them and access the location of their home world?
Probably best not to put more thought into it than the writers have ...
That blanket statement isn't fair to the individual stories and season-long arcs in Trek that do hold up to scrutiny.
It's not nitpicking when the structure and logic of the plot are a shambles.
It's entirely true, of any story you can name. "No text can hold up to a hostile reading."
It's not really nitpicking when a mystery is set up by the writers and the payoff makes no sense.
A huge Federation fleet built to save the Romulan people from their sun going nova gets destroyed by 'rogue synths,' and we as the audience are asked to watch a show that is supposed to eventually explain why this happened. The reason? Oh and the Zhat Vash fear synths, but instead of destroying them, they reprogram them to attack and destroy the very thing that would have saved their people, condemning the Romulans to death, all so that the Federation will stop using them. Please explain to me how this even remotely 'holds up' to the barest amount of scrutiny.
Maybe the high amount of synths which were built expressly to complete the fleet construction are the very reason they attacked that that time. And destroying them wasn't enough, they needed to make sure they were banned. They can't just wait around if they felt the events leading up to their prophecy were starting to happen. There's nothing really wrong about that story point..
It was never stated that F8 and the other synths were built expressly to complete the fleet. And even if they were, so what? Let them build the fleet, let the fleet save the Romulans, and then destroy Utopia Planitia later.
So if my family needed a certain kind of medicine to survive or they’d be dead in a few years, and there was someone who could make that medicine for me, but because I hated that particular person I decided to kill them before they could complete making the medicine, effectively dooming my family to death, there’d be nothing really wrong with that?
It's more like there's a doctor with a cure for your family, but you also know he will kill every organic being in the universe and you had graphic vision of it burned into your mind, and you have one opportunity to take him out which you may miss if you wait. And also your entire life revolves around preventing that from happening because you're committed to the cause.
Except I had the power to control that doctor to do what I wanted, before I killed him. So it would be pointless to kill him before he saved my family, since I could always have him kill himself right afterwards.
That’s the problem with Oh’s plan:
The Zhat Vash hate synths, but they also have remote control of F8. F8 and the other androids are really just non-sentient robots that look like humans, that anyone can control. They are not ‘synthetic life’ like Data or the other Coppelians were. So there was no reason to have them destroy Utopia Planitia when they did.
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