Re: Dominion War - Why Didn’t Starfleet Station Betazoids on Each Ship
Lwaxana Troi could never read Odo, so I assume Betazoids and other telepathic species couldn't read changelings in general.
I couldn’t remember whether she was able to read Odo or not. But, now it is starting to come back to me. But, as I mentioned (and you referred to), a Betazoid would be able to notice that all of a sudden he / she couldn’t get a read the thoughts of the person that they could the day before.
The problem isn't that security screenings for changelings is a bad idea, it's that it can so easily devolve into paranoia. The one changeling that approached Sisko on Earth in the guise of O'Brien said there were only four of them on Earth. Who knows if even that many were really there? The whole goal was to drive the people of the Federation crazy with fear and paranoia. That's best served by making them think there are infiltrators to be found when there really aren't. They'll just keep looking and looking....
You’re referring to the events mentioned in the episodes
Homefront and
Paradise Lost. I actually can see this as being legitimate rational against using telepaths, but mainly post
Homefront and
Paradise Lost. At the end of
Paradise Lost, they mentioned that despite the fact that they knew that there were still Changlings on earth, they didn’t want to sacrifice the cushy Earth life that they loved.
As for privacy - soldiers and politicians agree with restrictions of their privacy for national security reasons as part of the job.
As for the public at large - even today, we have searches and such if there's a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.
Agreed!
The best way to explain it away - the federation did use telepaths; it was just off screen. Perhaps that's why Betazed was prioritized for conquest by the dominion.
I would say that perhaps they used telepaths if it were for the events of
Homefront and
Paradise Lost. Do you recall if Betazed was destroyed before or after those episodes? Using that rationale to explain why the Dominion might have targeted Betazed is an interesting theory. But, you would think that there are other species in the Federation that are as good as reading thoughts as the Betazoids.
Since the Changelings can infiltrate anyone they could do it to the Betazoids as well and use them to falsely accuse important people and take them out of action while the situation is cleared up.
That could happen, but hopefully if someone was accused you’d have a number of telepaths around so that you could “double check.” And then you have to hope that all of the telepaths weren’t replaced by Changlings! But, in reality, it isn’t like the Federation has a death penalty or anything. They would put the Changling in a prison, in which case you should be able to verify if the accused really is a Changling or not.
Not to mention it does nothing against Changelings who disguise themselves as things that are not live creatures. A Betazoid isn't going to notice the lack of being able to read the mind of a button, the reflective surface of a PADD or mist. Also it wouldn't work if the Changelings stick to species that Betazoids have problems reading as well.
Wasn’t Deanna able to sense sentient beings (within a reasonable amount of distance) whether or not she could physically see them? If that is the case, then Betazoids should have been able to sense a Changling masquerading as a PADD.
Having telepaths in the most sensitive areas brings the River Tam problem where they could possibly learn the deep, dark secrets they shouldn't know. It would probably be prudent to lock away those at Starfleet Command for the duration of the war.
That’s why any telepaths in sensitive areas would need to have security clearance! And, it isn’t like they have to be in a room listening to the Admirals making all their war plans. They could be at building entrances or hallway entrances or door entrances… just like regular security guards.
As we all know, one of the reasons it was so difficult for the Federation and its allies to defeat the Dominion during the Dominion War was because the Founders could infiltrate anyone and / or assume the form of anyone.
Not really. Founder infiltration seems to have primarily been a concern in the years before the outbreak of the war itself. By the time the fighting started, there was little time spent on countering Founder infiltration.
Just because it wasn’t seen in any episodes doesn’t mean that it wasn’t going on.
