How small was the planet in Insurrection??

[c0rnedfr0g]

It seems like the 600 Ba'ku colonists were concentrated in a relatively small area. Was the planet so small that there was only enough room for the size of my high school class?

Also, how did the Federation not figure out that these people were colonists? They were relatively advanced and cultured for a people that hadn't, presumably, moved to other areas of the planet. Even after the Federation learned they were already warp-capable, couldn't they share the planet? Or at least have medical ships in orbit that could absorb the rays?

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

if you ask me, the Ba'ku are greedy bastards

 

[Timo]

No direct indication on the size of the planet, except that it had Earth gravity. Clearly, the Ba'ku hadn't seen any benefit in spreading themselves out, and only inhabited something like one billionth of the dry surface area.

As for why the Feds didn't realize right away that these couldn't be natives... We could argue that they did. The only hints that Starfleet would have thought of the Ba'ku as "primitive aborigines" come from the library scene that was deleted from the final movie. In the released version of the film, the Feds could easily have been aware of the interstellar origins of the Ba'ku, but would still have seen the need for covert rather than overt study - it would have been the prerogative of the Ba'ku to give up their interstellar lifestyle and to revert to "primitive" farmers, apparently several generations ago, and disruption of this lifestyle would and should not be the Starfleet way. After all, Starfleet didn't want to disturb the similarly pastoral and isolated folks in "Paradise Syndrome", either, despite them clearly being non-native to their planet.

Picard personally didn't know at first that the locals were tech-savvy, but he might simply have been lax in reading the material, or not privy to all of the material. And since apparently only a small cabal in Starfleet knew that the Ba'ku were extremely long-lived, Picard and others would have to assume that the people currently living on the planet would be so many generations removed from the original interstellar colonists that they would have forgotten how to build a lightbulb, let alone a warp drive. Especially if the Son'a presented them with their own "findings" on the matter, and the Ba'ku didn't actively promote a different view through their everyday activities.

Nobody ever really raised the point of whether the Ba'ku were "natives" to the planet, or "immigrants" or perhaps "vagrants". Picard argued from the emotional point of view that the planet was their home, without regard to whether it was "ancestral" or newly acquired. Dougherty dismissed the entire point, again without regard to the age or nature of the claim.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Therin of Andor]

Or at least have medical ships in orbit that could absorb the rays?

What would be the point? As demonstrated in the film, the rejuvenation effects were only temporary. Leave the planet and you revert.

 

[Nebusj]

Or at least have medical ships in orbit that could absorb the rays?

What would be the point? As demonstrated in the film, the rejuvenation effects were only temporary. Leave the planet and you revert.

Well, that was the speculation, but it wasn't really demonstrated until the next film when we found out that nothing was actually going to change any.

Anyway, the rejuvenating effect doesn't seem to work on starships if you're the face-stretchers, but it does work if you're Star Fleet, except if you're Dougherty, and anyway it's just a plan to kill the residents and blow up the rings ... er ... can we go back to talking about the joystick?

 

[Therin of Andor]

it wasn't really demonstrated until the next film when we found out that nothing was actually going to change any.

Huh? It was very clear that the Son'a reverted to old age because they'd been expelled from the planet. Also, Geordi was having one last, lingering look at a sunrise (or sunset) because he had found out his rejuvenation was not going to have lasting effects.

 

[Nebusj]

it wasn't really demonstrated until the next film when we found out that nothing was actually going to change any.

Huh? It was very clear that the Son'a reverted to old age because they'd been expelled from the planet. Also, Geordi was having one last, lingering look at a sunrise (or sunset) because he had found out his rejuvenation was not going to have lasting effects.

LaForge didn't know that his rejuvenation would not have lasting effects. He was taking in the sunrise because he wanted to have the experience in case the regeneration doesn't last.

And the Sona started ageing when they were away from the planet, yes, but they were exiled (or left) a century before. When you're a hundred and twenty-five years old odds are you'll be a touch more decrepit than you were at young adulthood.

 

[trevanian]

There are no small planets; only small (-minded) rewriters.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

i suppose if the planet was significantly smaller, they'd all have a bit more 'bounce' in their step, eh?

 

[trevanian]

i suppose if the planet was significantly smaller, they'd all have a bit more 'bounce' in their step, eh?

Yeah, and since very tiny planets are sometimes referred to as planetoids, I guess that means humans living there would be humanoids.
deep thoughts

 

[Candlelight]

The planet was large enough to have a fairly decent (and important) ring system.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Well, like I said in another thread, the film's "heart" was in the right place, but clearly you can see it's a mess from almost every aspect of the film (except Goldsmith's score).

 

[SmoothieX]

Anyway, the rejuvenating effect doesn't seem to work on starships if you're the face-stretchers, but it does work if you're Star Fleet, except if you're Dougherty, and anyway it's just a plan to kill the residents and blow up the rings ... er ... can we go back to talking about the joystick?

The So'na ship was shielded against the rejuvenating radiation, so that's why they didn't experience the effects of it.

Pretty stupid when you think about it. They could have been taking years off while they were implementing their evil plan.

 

[Timo]

The Son'a ships were shielded against the dangerous effects of the Briar Patch, but that's all we know. For all we know, Dougherty indeed shed years off his shoulders during the operation, as did all the Son'a.

OTOH, the film makes it look as if (or at least allows for the interpretation that) the rejuvenating effect of the planet wasn't a "healing" one. Rather, it may be that the planet plays funny games with the passage of time, selectively slowing down, speeding up or reversing its flow. This might tie in with the strange time-stretching abilities of the Ba'ku, too. In that case, it would be understandable that the effects didn't take, that LaForge didn't get his eyes back.

Essentially, then, the whole fountain of youth would be useless - you would indeed have to move to the Briar Patch for the rest of your life if you wanted to stop aging or become young again. As Dougherty no doubt correctly put it, basically nobody would do that.

Timo Saloniemi