Couldn't Pike have been rebuilt as a cyborg (spoilers for Project Daedalus)

[Yistaan]

Discovery didn't create this discrepancy. Time and technological development in the real world did. I was wondering why Pike was confined to the beep beep chair in the 23rd century when we could do better for someone who was merely physically mangled *the first time I saw the episode in the early 80's*.

I doubt it was even real world tech development that outdated the episode more than the writers' own desire to create something overly dramatic. This same episode had no problem foretelling twitter gossip on the internet as it was: "There's been subspace chatter about it for months", as well as the franchise's more famous predictions such as cellphones, computerized translators, and tablet computers.

Putting Pike into a beeping wheelchair is along the same lines of the death penalty for visiting Talos IV--done for drama instead of any in-universe logic.

Having beeping wheelchair Pike be allowed to live a life of illusion is a much more dramatic moment than, say, the Talosians allowing Darth Vader to live life as an illusionary, younger and healthy Anakin Skywalker.

 

[BillJ]

...but Discovery didn't create this discrepancy.

Sure they did, by choosing to place a show ten years before TOS.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Sure they did, by choosing to place a show ten years before TOS.

Exacerbated? Perhaps. Created? No.

 

[jfordny]

It was a weakness to me in the Menagerie LONG before Discovery. It's a great episode in a lot of ways, but it never made sense to me that in 2267 a black box with a blinking light was all that could be done for Pike - who actually could move that wheelchair with his mind.

It's one of those YMMV situations. Discovery makes the weakness more apparent, but IMO it was always there.

 

[DEWLine]

In answer to the question as phrased in the thread title: Not without his informed consent.

 

[Timo]

And it's quite plausible that Pike was terminally unable to deliver anything beyond the general positive and the general negative. Selective brain damage that deprives one totally of the use of language as a means of expression, both in speech and in writing, is a real-world thing. It doesn't diminish the victim's mind any more than losing a leg would; comprehension of language may remain intact. But get the exact right part of your brain fried and you can't put together anything coherent language-wise, even if your body works perfectly as such.

Giving Pike a more mobile body might have been doable, and might have been done eventually; there was no hurry in the episode, other than that of Spock's making. But he had already made up his mind and no change in Pike's condition to the better, short of complete miracle recovery of everything including peachy skin, would have altered that decision. Therefore the concept of patching up Pike a bit better never held plot value.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[KennyB]

Anyone ever see Neville Page say if this guy from STIII was any relation to Airiam in the concept stage?

 

[fireproof78]

It's not like radiation damage is purely calculable for what it's going to cause, no matter how much Star Trek tries to do so. Pike's exposure might have been so severe that his body could not tolerate such a procedure.

 

[UssGlenn]

Putting Pike into a beeping wheelchair is along the same lines of the death penalty for visiting Talos IV--done for drama instead of any in-universe logic.

But it was really done because they couldn't get Jeffrey Hunter back. They needed an in-universe excuse to use Sean Kenney who could look the part in heavy makeup, but otherwise not need to act.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

We could have RoboKirk roaming the galaxy, fighting crime.

I always thought the pause in this delivery was very Shatner-eqsue...

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[WarpFactorZ]

And it's quite plausible that Pike was terminally unable to deliver anything beyond the general positive and the general negative.

Yes, but they could have at least programmed the chair to say "Yes" or "No", instead of BEEP and BEEP BEEP.

 

[RobertoRossUK]

They should have just made Airiam a different species, rather then make work for themselves trying to suggest she's some kind of robot woman.

She could have easily been a species that can't survive under normal human conditions: weak gravity, therefore needing a full suit to move about. Or even a liquid or gaseous lifeform that lives within the confines of the robot body.

 

[XCV330]

Yes, but they could have at least programmed the chair to say "Yes" or "No", instead of BEEP and BEEP BEEP.

agreed. its jarringly antiquated now. one of those things that did really need to be replaced

 

[Timo]

...But the problem with that is that we would then have gotten a tin man voice saying "Ye-s" and "No-o-o". "Beep beep" can be medical doubletalk in all its abstraction. Tin man voice is much more difficult to bullshit away as "not dated"!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ronald Held]

Communicating in beeps is more jarring than Yesss or Nooooo.

 

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

Maybe Pike was just into R2D2 cosplay.

 

[Yistaan]

They couldn't be bothered to build in a universal translator (even just for yes/no) for Pike's wheelchair and they decided to go for the beeps.

These med-tech guys (who came from the disbanded Section 31) aren't working on a budget after all, they work to "better themselves", and that doesn't include building a vocabulator/translator into the man who (presumably the way Discovery is hinting) brought down Section 31 and forced them into new, less cooler jobs.

 

[Ronald Held]

As was pointed out above, if his speech center is non-functioning, he cannot formulate any words.

 

[mos6507]

I don't feel sci-fi writers understand that mechanical parts just make their universe look less advanced, not more.

But then you can't show off fancy makeup effects.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They couldn't be bothered to build in a universal translator (even just for yes/no) for Pike's wheelchair and they decided to go for the beeps.

Or just hire a telepath as a helper.