Malurian Reparations

[XCV330]

Have Malurians ever been shown chronologically after TOS? I mention because even though 4 billion of them died from the NOMAD attack, it was shown on Enterprise they did travel to other systems, albeit at least on the one case shown, in an underhanded way, with mining operations. Seems like justified or not, any Malurians that did survive the attack by being away from home would have a pretty severe ax to grind with Earth.

Did they ever get a novel mention or some future mention in the TNG era?

 

[valkyrie013]

I believe some mentions in the Birth of the Federation books before, and a comic where there was 1 survivor a few days after nomad, don't think of any other mentions.
As for the blame, Earth didn't send it to kill anybody, was an accident, I'm sure the Federation would help in finding survivors, and resettling them on a new planet, and help with future to rebuild there civilization.

 

[EyalM]

Would the federation even admit NOMAD was an old Earth probe? I would guess it would have been classified.

 

[XCV330]

Would the federation even admit NOMAD was an old Earth probe? I would guess it would have been classified.

It does seem like something you would never want to admit to, though you might want to find out who made the other probe it collided with (sounded vaguely Romulan).

It isn't like Earth willfully sent NOMAD out to kill 4 billion people. They did not even know it was there, but United Earth is still a member nation of the UFP. They had to have some responsibility for it. And unlike Friendship One there's semblance of a happy ending.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It does seem like something you would never want to admit to, though you might want to find out who made the other probe it collided with (sounded vaguely Romulan).

It isn't like Earth willfully sent NOMAD out to kill 4 billion people. They did not even know it was there, but United Earth is still a member nation of the UFP. They had to have some responsibility for it. And unlike Friendship One there's semblance of a happy ending.

It was Tan Ru's fault.

 

[XCV330]

sorry I meant to type "no semblance of a happy ending"

 

[Dukhat]

I always thought that ENT’s use of the Malurians was an unfortunate name-drop fail, which that show had plenty of. The impression I always got from “The Changeling” was that they were a pre-warp civilization that the Federation was studying, like the Mintakans. But in ENT they clearly have technology on par with the 24th century. So a tiny probe, even one with Nomad’s destructive capability, should not have posed a problem for them.

Many times I felt that the ENT writers were just pulling random TOS references out of their ass without actually researching any deeper about them or the context in which they were being used.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I always thought that ENT’s use of the Malurians was an unfortunate name-drop fail, which that show had plenty of. The impression I always got from “The Changeling” was that they were a pre-warp civilization that the Federation was studying, like the Mintakans. But in ENT they clearly have technology on par with the 24th century. So a tiny probe, even one with Nomad’s destructive capability, should not have posed a problem for them.

Many times I felt that the ENT writers were just pulling random TOS references out of their ass without actually researching any deeper about them or the context in which they were being used.

I don't think so. In fact the opposite seems to be true

• They're sending distress calls most likely through subspace.
• There's a Federation team on site
• Interplanetary war is a possibility
• There was planetary census
• Regular reports

KIRK: Any response from the Malurians, Lieutenant?
UHURA: Nothing since their original distress call, sir.
KIRK: What about the Federation science team working there? Doctor Manway had a special transmitter.
UHURA: There's nothing, sir. I'm scanning all frequencies.
KIRK: They have to answer.
SPOCK: Captain. They will not answer. The long-range sensor sweep of this system reveals no sign of life.
KIRK: That can't be. The last census reported a total inhabitation of more than four billion people.
SPOCK: I register no life readings at all, sir.
KIRK: That's impossible. What could have happened?SPOCK: We would have known in advance of any system-wide catastrophe, and in the event of an interplanetary war, there would be considerable radioactive residue. Our instruments show only normal background radiation.
KIRK: Any other possibilities?
SPOCK: Unknown, sir. Sensor readings would have revealed the presence of any disease organisms. They do not. In addition, we received the routine report from this system only a week ago. Even the Symbalene blood burn does not act that swiftly.
SULU: Captain, shields just snapped on. Something heading in at multiwarp speeds.

 

[Dukhat]

I don't think so. In fact the opposite seems to be true

• They're sending distress calls most likely through subspace.
• There's a Federation team on site
• Interplanetary war is a possibility
• There was planetary census
• Regular reports

None of which proves that the Malurians weren’t a pre-warp civilization, or at best having technology on par with pre-Federation tech. Yet 100 years earlier it was shown that they possessed technology greater than Earth had at the time.

 

[Timo]

...Which sort of defines "damning with faint praise", now doesn't it?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[XCV330]

The Malurian inclusion in ENT was an odd choice, but there it is. It could be supposed the Malurians were not all the different from packlids, creatures that had been exposed to warp travel and even had access to it, without necessarily understanding it entirely: stone age tribes given metal axes by traders.

 

[Timo]

Yet none of that is dictated or even suggested by the combined plotlines. So Malurians were around in the 22nd century? And their homeworld and a large chunk of their civilization no longer were after the mid-23rd? There's no contradiction, and no need to believe that the civilization ceased be, or that it survived. Or that they ever were in friendly terms with the UFP, or hostile to it. They're one of the more harmless species to refer to, being a tabula rasa that even gets wiped clean again in TOS. So I can see the attraction for the ENT writers...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[valkyrie013]

And the destruction of homeworlds doesn't necessarly mean a complete genocide of the species, Vulcan and Romulas went poof, and there still around, granted in more limited way.
So unless the Malurians didn't have colony worlds, there species would survive.
Take Earth, if Earth went Poof, there still be Deneva, Alpha Centauri, and countless other colony worlds that humans habitate. Yes Billions would die, but billions would live.
And showing Malurians having warp travel in Enterprise just reinforces the version of them having colony worlds Unless there society didn't really leave there world unless needed or a certain % that have wunderlust, and 99% live on the homeworld.

The Babylon 5 Markab plague was worse in that 99% of the world died, and most of the colony worlds got infected as well, so in that example, 99.9% of the species died galaxy wide.

EDIT:
Now if the Malurians did find out that the Nomad probe was of Earth Origin, there would be some uproar, demanding some type of reperations or censure for it, but a good defense would be that it was a meld of Nomad and Tan Ru, and it wasn't sent out to EXTERMINATE! life.

So as said in previous post, the Federation would help, even if the Malurians wern't federation memebers or protectorates.

 

[Nerys Myk]

None of which proves that the Malurians weren’t a pre-warp civilization, or at best having technology on par with pre-Federation tech. Yet 100 years earlier it was shown that they possessed technology greater than Earth had at the time.

I think it does, especially them sending out messages via subspace and possibility of Interstellar war with another culture. Nothing indicates they're prewarp. In the 22nd Century you couldn't swing a sehlat with out hitting a culture more advanced than Earth.

 

[Dukhat]

I think it does, especially them sending out messages via subspace and possibility of Interstellar war with another culture. Nothing indicates they're prewarp. In the 22nd Century you couldn't swing a sehlat with out hitting a culture more advanced than Earth.

They said interplanetary, not interstellar. So that implies that the Malurians were only limited to their own solar system, which is indicative of a pre-warp culture.

And subspace radio is just an assumption on your part, the only mention being of a ‘transmitter’ that the Federation team had that was stationed on the planet. There’s no indication that the Malurians themselves had the means to communicate with anyone.

 

[Kor]

I basically consider TOS to be a self-contained show, so I don't use retcons from other series to inform my understanding of TOS.

But in the context of the franchise, Memory Alpha quotes Mike Sussman on putting the Malurians in the ENT episode. His idea was that their fate in TOS could be seen as "comeuppance" for their villainy: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Malurian

Kor

 

[Dukhat]

I basically consider TOS to be a self-contained show, so I don't use retcons from other series to inform my understanding of TOS.

But in the context of the franchise, Memory Alpha quotes Mike Sussman on putting the Malurians in the ENT episode. His idea was that their fate in TOS could be seen as "comeuppance" for their villainy: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Malurian

Kor

That’s utterly stupid. So the actions of a handful of ‘evil’ Malurians a century ago justifies their entire planet being destroyed?

 

[Kor]

That’s utterly stupid. So the actions of a handful of ‘evil’ Malurians a century ago justifies their entire planet being destroyed?

Hence why I don't inform my understanding of TOS with stuff from the spinoffs.

Kor

 

[Nerys Myk]

They said interplanetary, not interstellar. So that implies that the Malurians were only limited to their own solar system, which is indicative of a pre-warp culture.

And subspace radio is just an assumption on your part, the only mention being of a ‘transmitter’ that the Federation team had that was stationed on the planet. There’s no indication that the Malurians themselves had the means to communicate with anyone.

Not seeing enough to indicate they could only be prewarp. Prewarp is an assumption on your part.
Kirk and Uhura's exchange once again

KIRK: Any response from the Malurians, Lieutenant?
UHURA: Nothing since their original distress call, sir.

Now, how you suppose Uhura received their message and is attempting to get a response if not through sub-space? How do you think the regular reports from the system are sent?

 

[Dukhat]

Not seeing enough to indicate they could only be prewarp. Prewarp is an assumption on your part.
Kirk and Uhura's exchange once again

Now, how you suppose Uhura received their message and is attempting to get a response if not through sub-space? How do you think the regular reports from the system are sent?

I’ll concede they could have had subspace radio. However, I see no other evidence that the Malurians had warp capable ships, much less ones that were more advanced than the Federation’s by a century.