Pike's Wheelchair was Nightmare Fuel

[Farscape One]

I suppose you could do the 'Salamanca Speak' from BREAKING BAD, but that DOES take a fair amount of time.

(Hector Salamanca couldn't speak and was wheelchair bound, and really only had use of his right finger, which was used to ring a bell. The nurses would have a chart with numbered columns, and he'd ring to let them know which column the letter was in, then the nurse would go one by one until he rung the bell again. Rinse and repeat until he finished what he had to say.)

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I suppose you could do the 'Salamanca Speak' from BREAKING BAD, but that DOES take a fair amount of time.

(Hector Salamanca couldn't speak and was wheelchair bound, and really only had use of his right finger, which was used to ring a bell. The nurses would have a chart with numbered columns, and he'd ring to let them know which column the letter was in, then the nurse would go one by one until he rung the bell again. Rinse and repeat until he finished what he had to say.)

Vince Gilligan has gone on record as saying that the wheelchair bound Hector Salamanca was inspired by Captain Pike in "The Menagerie." The bell was his "Yes/No" button.

BTW, years ago, a friend of mine pointed out to me one of the most horrifying things about Pike being stuck in that wheelchair: The room they keep him in on Starbase 11 has doors with conventional doorknobs, not the usual Star Trek sliding doors. So he can't even leave that room unless someone else comes in to escort him out.

 

[Set Harth]

What a dick move to put him in that room!

 

[Ronald Held]

I might have thought Kirk with his interest in history, might have read about Morse Code.

 

[Farscape One]

Vince Gilligan has gone on record as saying that the wheelchair bound Hector Salamanca was inspired by Captain Pike in "The Menagerie." The bell was his "Yes/No" button.

BTW, years ago, a friend of mine pointed out to me one of the most horrifying things about Pike being stuck in that wheelchair: The room they keep him in on Starbase 11 has doors with conventional doorknobs, not the usual Star Trek sliding doors. So he can't even leave that room unless someone else comes in to escort him out.

I can certainly see that being an inspiration for Vince. (I only recently watched BREAKING BAD and BETTER CALL SAUL for the first time. Excellent shows, both of them. I always loved Vince's episodes of THE X-FILES, but PLUR1BUS and now these two shows just made me love his work even more.)


That is also an excellent point about Pike in that room. Also, I don't think we ever see him moving his chair on his own. He's a prisoner in every sense of the word. If Talos IV wasn't something he encountered previously, it would have been more merciful to let him die from that radiation.

 

[scotpens]

That is also an excellent point about Pike in that room. Also, I don't think we ever see him moving his chair on his own.

Pike turns around slowly in his chair when Kirk, Spock and Commodore Mendez enter the room. Later, Mendez says: "His wheelchair is constructed to respond to his brain waves. Oh, he can turn it, move it forwards, or backwards slightly."

 

[Farscape One]

Pike turns around slowly in his chair when Kirk, Spock and Commodore Mendez enter the room. Later, Mendez says: "His wheelchair is constructed to respond to his brain waves. Oh, he can turn it, move it forwards, or backwards slightly."

I forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder and correction.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I might have thought Kirk with his interest in history, might have read about Morse Code.

He knows what the episode requires him to know. Lincoln shows up, guess who's suddenly a Lincoln fanboy?

 

[The Salt Umpire]

I can certainly see that being an inspiration for Vince. (I only recently watched BREAKING BAD and BETTER CALL SAUL for the first time. Excellent shows, both of them. I always loved Vince's episodes of THE-FILES, but PLUR1BUS and now these two shows just made me love his work even more.)


That is also an excellent point about Pike in that room. Also, I don't think we ever see him moving his chair on his own. He's a prisoner in every sense of the word. If Talos IV wasn't something he encountered previously, it would have been more merciful to let him die from that radiation.

I recommend 'el Camino' which was about Jesse Pinkman. We can only wish Star Trek in any era was as well written, acted and filmed as BCS, BB, P & EC were.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

Pike turns around slowly in his chair when Kirk, Spock and Commodore Mendez enter the room. Later, Mendez says: "His wheelchair is constructed to respond to his brain waves. Oh, he can turn it, move it forwards, or backwards slightly."

If he can do all that, he can Morse. Get cracking Starbase 11 engineers and figure this out. Are there no advocates for people with severe physical disabilities in 2253? I'd have been raising hell trying to get this good man the ability to communicate.

Locking people with disabilities in back rooms because they're inconvenient has a long and dark history.

 

[Farscape One]

I recommend 'el Camino' which was about Jesse Pinkman. We can only wish Star Trek in any era was as well written, acted and filmed as BCS, BB, P & EC were.

I watched EL CAMINO, as well.

 

[scotpens]

He knows what the episode requires him to know. Lincoln shows up, guess who's suddenly a Lincoln fanboy?

Or the gang find themselves in a stylized representation of Tombstone, AZ in 1881, and Kirk suddenly becomes an expert on a minor incident in American history.

 

[UssGlenn]

There's a speed aspect to Morse Code that might be beyond Pike. Feels like he has to concentrate really hard to get his signal out, so distinguishing dits and das might be really hard.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

There is that. Here's how quick it was. Morse would be handy for captains to know. It would be useful sending an SOS by blinking ships lights, for example.

Would a 5x5 code would work better than 3 beeps per letter for Pike?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I was at The Tech Museum, in San Jose, this morning. They have a set of five small video carrels in an open area on the upper floor, featuring stories about technologies (usually very recent) to make the world a better place. As I recall, last year or the year before, one of them featured a seaweed cattle feed additive that reduces methane emissions.
But more to the point, they currently have a couple of them set aside for direct neural interfaces. One involves implants, and the other is a non-invasive headset with electrodes and a heads-up display, from an outfit called "Cognixion." When I saw it, I immediately thought of this discussion.

But I seem to recall either an episode or a book that went into some detail on just how badly ruined Pike's body and nervous system was, from the delta radiation.

And at any rate, I wouldn't call it nightmare fuel in the same sense as salt vampires and eye-screams are nightmare fuel.

 

[fireproof78]

Or the gang find themselves in a stylized representation of Tombstone, AZ in 1881, and Kirk suddenly becomes an expert on a minor incident in American history.

Kirk's such a know it all

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I recommend 'el Camino' which was about Jesse Pinkman. We can only wish Star Trek in any era was as well written, acted and filmed as BCS, BB, P & EC were.

Sometimes I fantasize about SNW being as good with continuity as Better Call Saul was.* I don't think it's an overstatement to say that BCS was the best prequel ever. As far as I can remember, EVERYTHING lined up with what Breaking Bad established.

*Probably not a fair comparison, since BCS was made by the same people right after BB ended, and SNW was produced by a completely different creative team decades after the fact, but still... It would've been cool if everything in SNW lined up that perfectly with TOS.

 

[Farscape One]

I was at The Tech Museum, in San Jose, this morning. They have a set of five small video carrels in an open area on the upper floor, featuring stories about technologies (usually very recent) to make the world a better place. As I recall, last year or the year before, one of them featured a seaweed cattle feed additive that reduces methane emissions.
But more to the point, they currently have a couple of them set aside for direct neural interfaces. One involves implants, and the other is a non-invasive headset with electrodes and a heads-up display, from an outfit called "Cognixion." When I saw it, I immediately thought of this discussion.

But I seem to recall either an episode or a book that went into some detail on just how badly ruined Pike's body and nervous system was, from the delta radiation.

And at any rate, I wouldn't call it nightmare fuel in the same sense as salt vampires and eye-screams are nightmare fuel.

I've always considered Pike in that chair and the faceless woman in "CHARLIE X" as the two most terrifying things TOS ever did.

 

[mb22]

I've always considered Pike in that chair and the faceless woman in "CHARLIE X" as the two most terrifying things TOS ever did.

I thought the aged Uhura sequence in "And the Children Shall Lead" pretty unsettling.

 

[Farscape One]

I thought the aged Uhura sequence in "And the Children Shall Lead" pretty unsettling.

I agree that was unsettling. And it IS keeping with an implied character fear from "I, MUDD", when she was deeply fascinated with the idea of having her consciousness transferred to an android body so she wouldn't age. (I say implied because the scene in "I, MUDD" does leave some room for ambiguity that it's simply her being the placement for a typical fear of many people, but I thought it was a noteworthy bit of subtle continuity.)

That scene and Chapel with the kids are the only saving graces of that episode. But they aren't enough to help raise it from being the worst episode of TOS.