James "Watson" Kirk

[MAGolding]

Sherlock Holmes sometimes said that Dr. Watson saw, but did not observe. The same could be said for Kirk, Spock, Sulu and the other members of the landing party to Omicron Ceti Three.

In "This Side of Paradise" the Enterprise heads for Omicron "Mira" Ceti III to - I'm not sure what, maybe investigate and record how the colonists must have died years ago from the Berthold rays emitted by the star, pick up personal effects and maybe bodies for their relatives, etc.

KIRK: Mister Spock, there were one hundred and fifty men, women, and children in that colony. What are the chances of survivors?
SPOCK: Absolutely none, Captain. Berthold rays are such a recent discovery. We do not yet have full knowledge of their nature. It is known, however, that living animal tissue disintegrates under exposure. Sandoval's group could not have survived after three years.

KIRK: And what about us? Can we afford to send people to the planet's surface?
SPOCK: The breakdown of tissue does not develop immediately. We can risk a limited exposure.

And later:

SPOCK: Captain, this planet is being bombarded by Berthold rays, as our reports indicated. At this intensity, we'll be safe for a week if necessary. But

When they beam down:

(The group beam down into a farm, complete with wooden fence and a tarmacadamed paths. There are clap-board buildings and even a stable block.)
KIRK: Another dream that failed. There's nothing sadder. It took these people a year to make the trip from Earth. They came all that way and died.
ELIAS: Hardly that, sir. Welcome to Omicron Ceti Three. I'm Elias Sandoval.

I think that they shouldn't have been surprised to find the colonists alive.

The buildings certainly look like they had been assembled by carpenters probably taking more than a week. The area looked well tended. And they materialized on a lawn or field with short grass a few inches high. I've mowed far too much grass to expect that grass would naturally stop growing at such a height. That grass looked like it had last been mowed a week or two earlier.

They should have been startled and said that the colonists must be alive for the grass to look so recently mowed.

 

[Phaser Two]

The buildings could have been prefab and the grass artificial.

 

[Timo]

Also, you don't die of the radiation in a week - you're safe for a week.

So Sandoval's folks would notice they're coughing up an awful lot of blood when they're halfway done with their huts - but this need not yet be reason enough for them to stop painting 'em porches.

Self-mowing grass in turn probably has its own excemption clause in the laws against genetic engineering...

What Kirk sees is quite unlikely to be the home of 150 people, even if they filled those buildings with nothing but hammocks. So, a project apparently cut short. But not by the deaths of the farmers - instead, they probably found out that they never suffered a running nose or a sore back from sleeping on the lawn!

(Incidentally, what Kirk is doing there may be checking out the place for the Dytallix Corporation, which will move in shortly. Or, for all we know, may already have done so, establishing an automated mine that Kirk just checked on.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

Sherlock Holmes sometimes said that Dr. Watson saw, but did not observe. The same could be said for Kirk, Spock, Sulu and the other members of the landing party to Omicron Ceti Three.

In "This Side of Paradise" the Enterprise heads for Omicron "Mira" Ceti III to - I'm not sure what, maybe investigate and record how the colonists must have died years ago from the Berthold rays emitted by the star, pick up personal effects and maybe bodies for their relatives, etc.





And later:



When they beam down:



I think that they shouldn't have been surprised to find the colonists alive.

The buildings certainly look like they had been assembled by carpenters probably taking more than a week. The area looked well tended. And they materialized on a lawn or field with short grass a few inches high. I've mowed far too much grass to expect that grass would naturally stop growing at such a height. That grass looked like it had last been mowed a week or two earlier.

They should have been startled and said that the colonists must be alive for the grass to look so recently mowed.

Maybe grass on Omicron Ceti III grows a lot slower than here on earth? Another effect of the Berthold rays perhaps?
JB

 

[Timo]

The real in-universe reason why the grass is short is clear: Sandoval's people are alive and keeping it short.

Or is it clear? Supposedly, grass would be kept short by sheep or the like. But did any of the livestock survive? We see none, and hear of none.

Yet Sandoval believes in picket fences, whose sole practical purpose would be to contain the sheep...

And the hills around the settlement have short grass, too. Either the cattle keeps it short by foraging directly on it, or then the farmers cut it for them. There'd be no point in cutting it for any other purpose, not on the hills even if the house lawns might be done for aesthetics.

Yet in the end, in studio/location reality, the grass is short simply because that's how it grows in California when suitably trampled, right? Neither sheep nor lawnmowers involved. So Kirk isn't being unattentive, but merely hesitant to jump into conclusions regarding the exact level of trampling involved.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Commishsleer]

Sherlock Holmes sometimes said that Dr. Watson saw, but did not observe. The same could be said for Kirk, Spock, Sulu and the other members of the landing party to Omicron Ceti Three.

In "This Side of Paradise" the Enterprise heads for Omicron "Mira" Ceti III to - I'm not sure what, maybe investigate and record how the colonists must have died years ago from the Berthold rays emitted by the star, pick up personal effects and maybe bodies for their relatives, etc.





And later:



When they beam down:



I think that they shouldn't have been surprised to find the colonists alive.

The buildings certainly look like they had been assembled by carpenters probably taking more than a week. The area looked well tended. And they materialized on a lawn or field with short grass a few inches high. I've mowed far too much grass to expect that grass would naturally stop growing at such a height. That grass looked like it had last been mowed a week or two earlier.

They should have been startled and said that the colonists must be alive for the grass to look so recently mowed.

These are really good points that I never thought about until now.

However since Spock says they don't know all that much about the rays he might be thinking their might be more flexibility in the time line. I'm thinking that the tissue breakdown starts more than a week and maybe the colonists wouldn't feel anything (like some diseases) for a month or so when recovery would be too late.

I'm also thinking that the people who dropped them off on the planet might have had some contract to make the initial buildings (with modern technology) so there was somewhere to sleep, keep the animals, bathroom etc. I know the group were some sort of back-to-nature group but they didn't say that they wouldn't accept any technological help.

The grass is alien grass so that might be its maximum height.

 

[johnnybear]

Didn't Kirk or Spock say that they would be safe on the planet from the Berthold rays for 72 hours?
JB

 

[Phaser Two]

Didn't Kirk or Spock say that they would be safe on the planet from the Berthold rays for 72 hours?
JB

Safe for a week if necessary, Spock says, "at this intensity." I always took that to mean that the Berthold rays varied in intensity and were not static, which seems right for a natural phenomenon. If there were variances in intensity, then at a different time that could mean safety for much longer. In any event I have little trouble believing that a dedicated group of colonists (150 of them, although some of those were children) with Federation-issue tools could build the structures we saw in a week, especially if they hired outside help and used prefab construction elements. In fact, we can achieve that with our current level of technology with enough manpower.

What I've always wondered about TSOP is why no one scans the planet for life signs before they beam down! One line of dialogue indicating that the B-rays prevented sensors from operating would have solved this issue . . . .

 

[Timo]

I do wonder what Kirk's mission to the planet was supposed to be. After finding that the colonists are alive, he describes the mission as "examinations, tests". But he was already on a mission (characterized as "unhappy") to Omicron Ceti III when establishing orbit around that planet. Was he there to study the Berthold rays? Or just to collect the bodies and to bring them to Earth?

Probably not solely the latter, as surely Starfleet wouldn't divert a starship for such things. But if he happened to be in the neighborhood for other reasons (say, the study of the Berthold rays)...

It's nice how the crew has so much to contribute. When McCoy declares the colonists should not be alive, Sulu shrewdly asks "Is it possible that they are not?". Later on, Kelowitz can tell the colonists didn't build a cattle shed. And yes, Spock does perform a scan that verifies the absence of animals other than 'em humans. But none of this need be part of their original mission, which is left ambiguous.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

It seemed pretty good down there to me and in these days of high pressure and anxiety who wouldn't want to spend the rest of their lives on Omicron Ceti III?
JB

 

[Timo]

...But how to bring your dog with you?

Why did the plants refuse to fire their spores at the farm animals? Or conversely, why did they fire their spores at the farmers? If the intent was to sedate these alien monsters and stop them from eating the plants, then surely gunning down the cows (and thus giving them immunity to radiation, longevity, and potential regrowth of lost horns or testicles) would be a first priority.

If there was deeper sapience behind the actions of the plants, what was it? An attempt to take over a spacecraft and move to a new location? If so, this was an epic fail: rather than take control of a means interstellar transport, they only nearly manage to strand her for good.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nyotarules]

Forgot the rays which colony can grow a population with 150 people unless the woman are having 10 kids each with the different men?

 

[Timo]

Huh? There's no known pressure for the colony to grow.

And 150 people is perfectly fine from the genetic diversity viewpoint, even if we discount 23rd century medicine. That's how many if not most settlements in human history grew up, after all. If need be, insert a tall dark stranger every fifty years or so - we know these places do get visitors, much like Jimmy Kirk visited Tarsus IV. And we do know folks like Leo Walsh or Cyrano Jones or Carter Winston get around in their very own spaceships. The colonists would get what they wanted from these guys, one way or another.

Timo Saloniemi