Spoilers Could Tasha have survived in "Skin of Evil", if augmentation was still in use at that time?

I believe the treatment of injuries through technological augmentation went in disuse or became prohibited because of what happened with Airiam.

So i think if it still was in use in the time of that episode, Tasha may have survived the encounter with Armus.

What do you all think? Do you think she still would have died or would she be alive if she would have been treated like Airiam?

 

I thought that's exactly what Crusher did - implanting her face with that ornamental medical device not unlike Detmer's...

Airiam survived a shuttle crash, supposedly. Tyler's parents from the same era did not, so it's not a generic get-well-from-shuttle-crashes technique or anything. I doubt Tasha's injuries had anything in common... But perhaps those of Troi's shuttle pilot in the episode did? Perhaps it's poor Lieutenant Prieto who got all Airiamed because he had a nosebleed?

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x23/skinofevil_hd_398.jpg

Timo Saloniemi

 

I don't think Tasha's injuries were just from Armus physically throwing her. There was a flash of energy too - which may have caused neurological damage to her central nervous system and/or brain neurons, such as 'depolarization'. This seems to be frequently fatal in the ST universe - and no doubt Crusher could detect the electrical activity in her brain this with the Tricorder.

 

To be fair, we actually don't know the extend of Airiam's injuries or if she was clinically dead after the shuttle crash. There could have also been some neurological damage though energy. Maybe caused by the destruction of the shuttle's computers.

Maybe her injuries were actually similar to those caused by Armus...

 

True, we are free to speculate.

However, Crusher wasn't against all forms of augmentation. She suggested she could fit Worf with implants to recover 60% mobility when he broke his back/neck in 2368.

These implants could be sending signals wirelessly and therefore could be vulnerable to hacking (and thus Worf could have been puppetted by an evil AI just like Airiam...).

It often seemed like medical staff in the 24th century were very quick to conclude someone was dead after an injury or attack, without performing any kind of CPR or other lifesaving emergency medicine - I can only conclude they have a very strong sense of when the brain has been damaged beyond repair and thus attempting to resuscitate the body would be futile.

 

Or then they had a philosophy where trying to save a life isn't worth the hassle beyond a certain point. Crusher pretty much says as much in "The Neutral Zone" where she thinks the people of old feared dying to an unhealthy degree.

Bashir in "The Passenger" insists that 24th century medical diagnostics means, esp. tricorders, are no good with death or the dead, and is proven correct soon thereafter...

Timo Saloniemi

 

As I recall, there was no way to save her since the gooey slick's energy bolt was breaking down her brain from the inside. There would be gaps and who needs Lt. Swisscheesebrainsyar? All those volts (what, no amps to move the voltage along? Pico Fermi prevailing, TNG is the same show whose first year also claimed vaccines are used to stop the worsening/advancement of an outbreak -- except vaccines are used to prevent an outbreak and are useless after one gets the cooties... TNG still can't hold a candle to some of STD's gaffes. Regardless, it's all good.)

 

That's may be one of the reasons. I guess during the 23rd century the doctor(s) would have done more to save her. Maybe they would even have been succesful.

Interestingly at the beginning, Crusher was pretty sure that she could save Yar. The Airiam treatment might have allowed her to do that.

 

I'm not sure if the energy of the beam was still active at the time, Tasha was in sickbay. In this case i guess Beverly would have recognized she couldn't do anything much earlier.

 

No. Denise Crosby would have still wanted to leave.

 

Augmentation doesn't mean immortality. Some people just die. Especially if they are done with the acting role.

 

WHAT?!? An actor and their behind the scenes choices plays a part in decisions seen on screen?!?

Perish the thought.

 

No. Armus made her stand on a magnetized plate.

 

Right. Had she survived, it would have been Pike's beep-beep chair for poor Tasha.

Everyone seems to assume she was injured. I don't think she was hurt much at all. My theory, which I've shared elsewhere on the board, is that she survived intact, but her SO was killed, and in the process of soul-searching and healing from the pain of losing him, she ended up joining the New Humans that Roddenberry talked about in the TMP novelization, and *voluntarily* going transhuman from a fully human and uninjured state. Those New Humans are mentioned in the novelization as having been banned from Starfleet service due to some unspecified incident years before. I believe that incident was what happened to Airiam.

 

Wow, you just blew my mind. Nice tie in!

 

That is quite convoluted and not implied by the episode at all.

 

It also is not explicitly stated in the episode that she is the way she is because of injuries. And we know that the showrunners like to play with weaving old source material like that into what they're doing: the very design of Discovery, scenes and characters from an unaired pilot, etc. I'm not claiming my idea is somehow magically canon or anything. It is what I prefer to think until contradicted by canon.

 

But it was certainly implied.


But turning this around, no they have nothing against cybernetics as a means to correct injuries in TNG era. Such was used to correct LaForge's vision and Picard's heart. So Tasha's injuries must have been of the sort that could not have been fixed that way. But it is quite probable that the reason we do not see extensive cybernetics in TNG era is that in most cases they're not needed. The medical technology is more advanced. For example it is quite possible that Airiam required that artificial skin due extensive burn scars, but in TNG era that could have easily been treated with dermal regenerators.

 

Or, it could be because there was no injury and she *wanted* that artificial skin, and we don't see it in TNG because New Humans aren't allowed to serve on Federation Starships. :P

 

No. The actress wanted out, so the writers reversed the polarity of her plot armor.