Paranoia in the Federation

[Thanos007]

With the frequency that Star Fleet officers are either evil, replaced by doppelgangers, or mind controlled why aren't people more paranoid? I mean it should be to the point where red flags would be raised very easily. "He never took cream in his coffee before. Better alert security." "She always had long hair. Now it's short. Make over? Nah, Better play it safe and alert security."

 

[Tim Thomason]

With the frequency that Star Fleet officers are either evil, replaced by doppelgangers, or mind controlled why aren't people more paranoid? I mean it should be to the point where red flags would be raised very easily. "He never took cream in his coffee before. Better alert security." "She always had long hair. Now it's short. Make over? Nah, Better play it safe and alert security."

Section 31 closely monitors and, if necessary, disposes of all paranoid individuals.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ On the contrary...Section 31 is the very definition of paranoia.

 

[Timo]

Might be Starfleet takes the pragmatic approach. All the observed cases of devious subterfuge have a happy ending, after all. Vigilance at starship level suffices for solving galactic conspiracies; there's little need for formalized overwatch, and indeed letting the starships have their (sometimes quite esoteric) way is the best possible cure against these takeover threats, as so often demonstrated. An oddly behaving Captain may be Starfleet's last best defense rather than a threat to its security.

...Starfleet would have learned this lesson back in ENT already, at a time when official paranoia could not have been practically implemented yet.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Also, you cannot function if you're constantly worrying about every single detail of every single person's behaviour ever. You would go mad. People get used to some dangers and become numb to them in order to be able to live a relatively normal life.

 

[Greg Cox]

On the flip side, I wonder how many people use such possibilities as an excuse or alibi?

"That wasn't me! It was my evil transporter double, it was the evil me from the Mirror Universe, it was an android, a shape-changer, a clone. My crazy ex-girlfriend switched bodies with me!"

 

[Thanos007]

Sorry I was such a dick to you yesterday. Posessed by evil alien intelligence. You know how it is?

 

[Kilana2]

Ozzy has his own opinion:

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[JirinPanthosa]

People in a TV show have trend blindness. They approach every situation as if the odds of something improbable happening is the general average, no matter how many improbable things have happened to them.

 

[Tenacity]

^ On the contrary...Section 31 is the very definition of paranoia.

It's not like s31 poisons every species, or even every hostile species. The Founders were a unusually dangerious threat, and were treated with a unusual response.

A complete reasonable response, and thankfully for the federation, s31 was there to do it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Section 31 almost managed to lose the Dominion War because of that damned virus. The Dominion was backed into a corner and ready to go full-on blitzkrieg. The only reason the war even ended was because Odo gave away the cure.

 

[Greg Cox]

Sorry I was such a dick to you yesterday. Posessed by evil alien intelligence. You know how it is?

Hint: If you want to get away with being a dick, glue on a fake goatee first.

 

[Tim Thomason]

On the flip side, I wonder how many people use such possibilities as an excuse or alibi?

"That wasn't me! It was my evil transporter double, it was the evil me from the Mirror Universe, it was an android, a shape-changer, a clone. My crazy ex-girlfriend switched bodies with me!"

If we go with the Roddenberrian idea that everything in TOS are just dramatizations based on Kirk's logs, then it's possible that Kirk is some sort of sadistic serial killer who has to come up with some sort of new space anomaly to cover up every time he has a breakdown.

 

[Delta Vega]

Must have been a real pisser every couple of days aboard Kirk's ship
Down in the lower decks. . . . . ."Aw fuck, the Captains gone insane, been replaced by a doppleganger, behaving strangely, . . . . .again"

 

[johnnybear]

Thing is when an alien race is contacted and they tell you not to come back again or approach their space in any direction, why do Starfleet return, why do they do it?
JB

 

[Jedman67]

People in a TV show have trend blindness. They approach every situation as if the odds of something improbable happening is the general average, no matter how many improbable things have happened to them.

After so many improbable things, lets round it up with Breakfast At Milliways, the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe!

 

[Tenacity]

Section 31 almost managed to lose the Dominion War because of that damned virus. The Dominion was backed into a corner and ready to go full-on blitzkrieg. The only reason the war even ended was because Odo gave away the cure.

The only reason the war ended when it did, was because the cure was dangled in front of the Founders as a reward for surrendering.

Thank you s31.

 

[The Wormhole]

I mean it should be to the point where red flags would be raised very easily. "He never took cream in his coffee before. Better alert security."

DS9 kind of took the piss out of that one in Armageddon Game. While watching a recording seemingly of O'Brien's death, Keiko insisted it had to be fake because the time stamp showed it was the afternoon and O'Brien was drinking coffee, something he never does in the afternoon. At the end of the episode, after O'Brien was rescued, Keiko explains how she deduced the recording was a fake and he was really still alive, to which he says "but I really did drink coffee that afternoon."

 

[Henoch]

Hint: If you want to get away with being a dick, glue on a fake goatee first.

Neither Spock nor Mirror-Spock are dicks.

 

[The Wormhole]

Neither Spock nor Mirror-Spock are dicks.

Tell that to Mirror Kyle after a round with the agonizer.