Random thoughts about 'Meld'. A mind meld is almost an act of violence.. Clearly 'Meld' has to be one of the best acted and written episodes in Star Trek. The Doctor and his scorn about mind melds to a Janeway who will in a later episode meld with Tuvok. I LOVE Tuvok saying to The Doctor "You are not invulnerable hologram, a few well chosen commands to the computer and you will cease to exist." And to Janeway.. (er) .."You disgust me." Betazoid, Vulcan and even Ocampa have telepathic abilities. Suder of all species being a sociopath and a betazoid. I can't quite wrap my brain around that. How can an empath be disconnected? "We both know that I'm prepared to die but are you prepared to kill?" That has to be one of the greatest ignored horrors of execution and war. People are prepared to die but are you prepared to be a killer? Mostly one is left with feeling Suder is permanently changed. Unlike other melds he held onto the best of Tuvok.
Suder couldn't sense the emotions of others-he lacked the natural empathy of other betazoids. That added with his violent, sociopathic and aggressive nature made him a very dangerous individual period-much less an individual to meld with.
To me it was a clever twist. Like a Vulcan lacking logic. A Klingon without honor. A Borg wanting solitude. Suder unable to sense empathy almost made him handicapped. Then to meld him with another race with telepathic traits, but controlled ones, was just asking for one of them to crack.
That line gave me chills when I saw it. That's interesting to think about. Executions are often set up so that there is no executer. In modern executions, in the states (of the U.S.)that still have capital punishment, death is by lethal injection. There are either 3 or 5 automated plungers on the wall, each connected to an I.V. connected to person being executed. 3 or 5 officers each hit 5 buttons Simultaneously, and the lethal injection is chosen randomly and administered. Similarly, this is how the "firing squad" is set up to work, which has a long history. It's carried out with 6-12 people so that the person who fires the fatal shot is anonymous, and doesn't even know themselves. And if anyone has a conscientious problem, they can "miss." I know it's a cartoon, but there's a great scene in The Clone Wars where two soldiers are about to be executed by their unit. Nobody wants to do it, and they all "miss" simultaneously.
Cute One can only imagine hand to hand combat though. Like the First World War where they came at each other with bayonets. Imagine being a shop keeper, a teacher etc. one day and charging at another human being ready to impale them? Suder challenged Tuvok to consider this. Starfleet clearly represented the no capital punishment argument in this episode, though Tuvok wondered what the victims three sisters would think. Voyager did more than one story considering this theme. I think the meld released the control Tuvok had to actually have the nerve to try and kill the 'demons'. He came close to killing Suder but won out. Do you think disabling Suder's Betazoid empathy and even telepathy was a way to explain why he had never picked up on Tuvok being a spy when they all were in the Marquis?
I don't think Sudor could sense others thoughts and emotions. As a sociopath, his own emotions are numb. He feels nothing. Maybe for a Betazed, that disallows him the ability to sense others. Plus Vulcans are like highly disciplined supermen. I think Tuvok would need to be able to keep his identity a secret from all sorts mind probing methods.
It's certainly a hindrance and had he been able to sense others I doubt Tuvok would have lasted so long, it also sure as heck would have been an asset the Maquis would have certainly needed to exploit.