"Future's End": Starling's villainy?
- Thread starter Ragitsu
- Start date
Hmm... It's hard to say because in the episode we only get to see one side of him. Maybe a 6? Maybe I'm being too harsh or not harsh enough? It's been a while since I last saw the episode... Or a 4? I have no idea.
If I am remembering the episode correctly, Starling is a tech mogul who gets his hands on 27th century tech and wants to monetize it for his own personal profit. He does do some immoral things to protect his interests. He is definitely an antagonist. But he is not outright evil. He is not seeking to destroy the world. On your villainy scale, I might rate him a 4.
Nowhere near as much a villain as Braxton, who just opened fire on Voyager rather than hailing them.
The villainy comes from
1) Holding LA hostage, or at least claiming he did
STARLING: Well, it wouldn't get you anything. I've rigged the timeship.If you try to teleport it again, if you even go near it, Los Angeleswill look like the face of the moon.
JANEWAY: You'd destroy an entire city? You don't care about the future,you don't care about the present. Does anything matter to you, MisterStarling?
STARLING: The betterment of mankind.
2) risking the future. Note that he didn't deny the risk or claim that Janeway was making it up
JANEWAY: If you even attempt to travel to the future, you risk creating a temporal explosion that could cost billions of lives, including yourown.
STARLING: I'm willing to take that risk.
The villainy comes from
1) Holding LA hostage, or at least claiming he did
STARLING: Well, it wouldn't get you anything. I've rigged the timeship.If you try to teleport it again, if you even go near it, Los Angeleswill look like the face of the moon.
JANEWAY: You'd destroy an entire city? You don't care about the future,you don't care about the present. Does anything matter to you, MisterStarling?
STARLING: The betterment of mankind.
2) risking the future. Note that he didn't deny the risk or claim that Janeway was making it up
JANEWAY: If you even attempt to travel to the future, you risk creating a temporal explosion that could cost billions of lives, including yourown.
STARLING: I'm willing to take that risk.
Yet Braxton blew up an entire solar system
Admittedly, when it came to fleshing out Starling, there was not much meat on the bone as far as his operation was concerned, but we didn't get a sense that his introduction of technologies upset Earth's development, yes? At least, it appeared that humanity hadn't (yet) imploded by utilizing developments well in advance of its general societal maturity.
That said, he was certainly willing to have people (e.g., Rain, Tom and Tuvok) killed in order to protect ChronoWerx and he had no compunctions about inflicting torture (e.g., subjecting The Doctor to pain subroutines) to get what he wanted.
That said, he was certainly willing to have people (e.g., Rain, Tom and Tuvok) killed in order to protect ChronoWerx and he had no compunctions about inflicting torture (e.g., subjecting The Doctor to pain subroutines) to get what he wanted.
Since The Doctor's not flesh-and-blood, Starling may not have perceived that as being a particularly evil act? He doesn't have the exposure to the EMH that we do.
The accompanying smile on his face tells me didn't care one way or the other.
I honestly didn't find Starling that compelling. Ed Begley, Jr. played him too cartoonishly 'bad corporate executive' for me to call him a villain. (Likely an acting choice by Begley rather than what the script calls for.)
I'd probably rate Starling a 2.5 out of 10 on the villain scale.
I'd probably rate Starling a 2.5 out of 10 on the villain scale.
One wrong move and you're holo-dust.
I have to agree. Even when Janeway had warned Stirling that his actions might threaten Earth, he merely dismissed her warnings due to his own greed and arrogance. He didn't care. The guy was a monster . . . or he had become one.
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