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

[Timo]

This is the fun bit, certainly: Starfleet in TOS seems awfully wary of telepaths, and few seem to realize Vulcans are actually pretty good at that.

Kirk had real trouble drafting a Vulcan, any Vulcan, for the V'Ger intercept in ST:TMP. In another timeline, just a handful survived the loss of the homeworld. It wouldn't be difficult to believe that Starbase 11 just plain had no access to a telepath at the time - and that Spock would be in a truly unique position to understand Chris Pike, mindmelds or no mindmelds.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ghel]

For those stating that people should have new biological parts rather than mechanical, while this may be true in the real world, remember that something happened to basically make genetic manipulation very taboo within the Federation. Whether this was the eugenics wars or something else as well, most episodes that bring up biological manipulation even for minor things cast in in a negative light.
Regarding cyborgs, I am willing to believe that either A. Pike's damage was too extensive for the implants B. Pike knew he had a standing invitation from the Talosians and therefore didn't need them, or C. Airiam's level of implantation was a major exception to standard medical practices. After all, even in DS9, Dr. Bashir is very reluctant to provide Bareil Antos with 1/2 of a positronic brain because he wouldn't be the same person afterward. Given that she can't even remember things without uploading/downloading digital recordings, perhaps Airiam's surgeon was either a bit shady or a family member who refused to allow her to die no matter the cost.

 

[SJGardner]

I'm probably chiming in too late with this, but I think the main difference between Airiam and Pike's cases is the nature of their injuries. Airiam had probably enough of her body left intact after her accident that the cybernetic parts could be grafted onto; Pike, however, absorbed a huge amount of ionizing radiation. Granted, delta radiation in Star Trek is not quite what we call delta radiation in real life, but it was quite obviously intended as a sci-fi analog for real-world gamma radiation. I think the damage suffered by Pike was done on a cellular or maybe even a genetic level, which could be impossible to repair even in the 23rd century. The chair, however bulky, might be the only thing even keeping him alive.

That being said, my headcanon is still that the incident was recent enough that the beeps might have been intended as a temporary solution until a proper voice synthesizer could be installed.

 

[seigezunt]

Peter Weller as RoboPike.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

If Pike couldn't couldn't feel horsehair in his fingers or ride one with the sun and the wind on his tanned face he wouldn't feel alive... No amount of implants could give that to him...

 

[Rainard Fox]

If Pike couldn't couldn't feel horsehair in his fingers or ride one with the sun and the wind on his tanned face he wouldn't feel alive... No amount of implants could give that to him...

You make me cry now. Thanks, it's... heartwarming.

 

[ITDUDE]

Or just hire a telepath as a helper.

I hear Chekov is a bit of a telepath

 

[Yistaan]

considering that the transporter can split people into good and evil, make duplicates, and reduce/increase age, it does seem strange that it can't restore an earlier pre-accident Pike.

(regarding Culber)

Spoiler

I'm actually having trouble with the Culber storyline because his angst about not being himself anymore (when nothing is medically wrong with him) could literally apply to anytime someone has been transported. They are vaporized and resurrected. Again. and again. and again.

 

[fireproof78]

considering that the transporter can split people into good and evil, make duplicates, and reduce/increase age, it does seem strange that it can't restore an earlier pre-accident Pike.

(regarding Culber)

Spoiler

I'm actually having trouble with the Culber storyline because his angst about not being himself anymore (when nothing is medically wrong with him) could literally apply to anytime someone has been transported. They are vaporized and resurrected. Again. and again. and again.

Radiation

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I never understood why Picard had an artificial heart and not a grown/replicated duplicate of his original biological heart.

I find that a very good question. In Picard's time technology has had bigger leaps and bounds they could even have cloned him a heart with his own tissue.

Airiam is 67% human under all her cyberbits...........

She's our cybergirl

 

[USS Triumphant]

First, shouldn't this thread be in TOS, since it refers to events that would hypothetically happen to Pike during that series' time period, and not during DSC? Or is the fact that most of the content pertinent to the conversation is going to come from DSC enough for it to be here?

Second, does anyone think I really give a fat rat's butt about that question? I'm just stirring the pot.

And finally, I think they should let the changes to the timeline affect Pike's future. CBS could just issue a little statement saying that TOS is unaffected except that the events shown in "The Menagerie" never happened, and that TOS-R is canon now. That way we can have our Pike show.

 

[Yistaan]

First, shouldn't this thread be in TOS, since it refers to events that would hypothetically happen to Pike during that series' time period, and not during DSC? Or is the fact that most of the content pertinent to the conversation is going to come from DSC enough for it to be here?

Second, does anyone think I really give a fat rat's butt about that question? I'm just stirring the pot.

And finally, I think they should let the changes to the timeline affect Pike's future. CBS could just issue a little statement saying that TOS is unaffected except that the events shown in "The Menagerie" never happened, and that TOS-R is canon now. That way we can have our Pike show.

I placed this thread here because relevant spoilers regarding Airiam have no place in the TOS forum. Per TOS only, one can assume the tech doesn't exist to cyborgize people for injury repair. We know it exists only through Discovery.

Next, even if the Red Angel averted Pike's fate, the presuming Pike show still wouldn't feature Spock. Unless he somehow now has the ability to serve on 2 starships at the same time, the Enterprise and Discovery (or whatever ship Pike would be commanding in this alternate TOS where he never got injured).

 

[Timo]

considering that the transporter can split people into good and evil, make duplicates, and reduce/increase age, it does seem strange that it can't restore an earlier pre-accident Pike.

But the transporter of TOS doesn't do requests. Weird things happen by accident, and there's no reason to think the heroes could reproduce these accidents even if they for some reason decided to risk it.

The full extent of manipulation witnessed in TOS transporters, beyond the general one of allowing the transportees to alter their pose (say, to adapt to the topography of their points of arrival and departure) and sometimes forcing this (say, turning the Klingons around in "Day of the Dove"), is the ability to put people on hold for a moment (again "Day of the Dove"). DSC doesn't really add anything to that, yet.

The first-ever time our heroes "heal" somebody using the transporter, in-universe, is TAS "Counter-Clock Incident". In the preceding "Terratin Incident", the transporter accidentally (rather than by any active intervention or intent of our heroes) reverses the effects of a natural phenomenon, within certain limits (it won't help the colonists, say); in this reversal, it resembles the "Enemy Within" case. But our heroes explicitly weren't aware of it being capable of that; the first time they make use of the knowledge gained is "Counter-Clock", which then is smoothly followed by TNG "Unnatural Selection" a century later, etc.

So, no help for Pike there: TAS directly forbids our heroes from helping!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[USS Triumphant]

I placed this thread here because relevant spoilers regarding Airiam have no place in the TOS forum. Per TOS only, one can assume the tech doesn't exist to cyborgize people for injury repair. We know it exists only through Discovery.

I refer you to my second paragraph.

Next, even if the Red Angel averted Pike's fate, the presuming Pike show still wouldn't feature Spock. Unless he somehow now has the ability to serve on 2 starships at the same time, the Enterprise and Discovery (or whatever ship Pike would be commanding in this alternate TOS where he never got injured).

True. However, Pike and Spock had already parted ways before the beginning of TOS, with Pike handing off the Enterprise to Kirk and Spock remaining aboard. So like I said, things could be wildly different for Pike, and the only episode(s) affected would be "The Menagerie".