Questions about ''Blink Of An Eye''

[Kemotx]

That's my favourite VOY episode, but I have a question...When that two scientists are trying to contact Sky Ship, they say that their ancient mythology says that Voyager arrived centuries ago. So my questions are:

1. How many centuries it was? They Voyager was in orbit for like few days, so I think that it was about 800 years. What do you think? (1 Second on Voyager = 1 Day on Planet)

2. How they changed from a tribal to early 20 century civilization in such a short time?

 

[KaraBear]

I don't think there is a way to know exactly how many centuries past

I don't know if 800 years seems "fast" but remember they had a strong drive to contact the "sky ship" that probably sped up their development

 

[R. Star]

They went from Hunter Gatherers to the a space faring society over the course of the episode. The planet was said to rotate 58 times per minute. So almost 229 years went by per day they were there. The episode never specifically states how long Voyager is there, but I would guess it would have to be at least a week.

It's conceivable that with the drive to see what's up there, and with no major technological setbacks(like say the fall of the Roman Empire in our own history), they could've accomplished the task in 1600 years, which is roughly what a week of Voyager being there would be. That's given a very generous stretch, but there's nothing saying Voyager wasn't there two weeks or even a month really.

It's an episode that makes less and less sense the more you think about it really. I just take it at surface value. An average episode with an amusing premise. Michael Taylor usually comes out with more good episodes than bad, and I'd say this one falls in the middle of the range. I find it difficult to credit that they supposedly didn't realize this was an extremely similar story to Wink of an Eye, from everything from aliens existing in faster times to the title, until they were already in production.

The implications about how technologically advanced these aliens should be years later is startling. They should either be the more advanced power in the galaxy by the time Voyager gets home... unless they wiped themselves out. Just think if Voyager hung around another week, they might've had a chance to acquire some better transwarp technology or something. Or really gotten blown up.

 

[KaraBear]

They went from Hunter Gatherers to the a space faring society over the course of the episode. The planet was said to rotate 58 times per minute. So almost 229 years went by per day they were there. The episode never specifically states how long Voyager is there, but I would guess it would have to be at least a week.

It's conceivable that with the drive to see what's up there, and with no major technological setbacks(like say the fall of the Roman Empire in our own history), they could've accomplished the task in 1600 years, which is roughly what a week of Voyager being there would be. That's given a very generous stretch, but there's nothing saying Voyager wasn't there two weeks or even a month really.

It's an episode that makes less and less sense the more you think about it really. I just take it at surface value. An average episode with an amusing premise. Michael Taylor usually comes out with more good episodes than bad, and I'd say this one falls in the middle of the range. I find it difficult to credit that they supposedly didn't realize this was an extremely similar story to Wink of an Eye, from everything from aliens existing in faster times to the title, until they were already in production.

The implications about how technologically advanced these aliens should be years later is startling. They should either be the more advanced power in the galaxy by the time Voyager gets home... unless they wiped themselves out. Just think if Voyager hung around another week, they might've had a chance to acquire some better transwarp technology or something. Or really gotten blown up.

I think the ultimate fate of any advanced society is to blow itself up.

I actually really like this episode. Especially when the doctor goes down to the planet and tells about it. Whether it makes sense scientifically, well I suppose it makes about as much sense as holodecks, transporters, replicators, and warp drive, I can accept those and enjoy it, and I can enjoy this.

Personaly I would have hung around a few more days out of curiosity to see what kind of technology they would come up with

 

[jazzstick]

I love this episode, it makes me want to play Civilization for hours on end!

 

[jazzstick]

They went from Hunter Gatherers to the a space faring society over the course of the episode. The planet was said to rotate 58 times per minute. So almost 229 years went by per day they were there. The episode never specifically states how long Voyager is there, but I would guess it would have to be at least a week.

It's conceivable that with the drive to see what's up there, and with no major technological setbacks(like say the fall of the Roman Empire in our own history), they could've accomplished the task in 1600 years, which is roughly what a week of Voyager being there would be. That's given a very generous stretch, but there's nothing saying Voyager wasn't there two weeks or even a month really.

It's an episode that makes less and less sense the more you think about it really. I just take it at surface value. An average episode with an amusing premise. Michael Taylor usually comes out with more good episodes than bad, and I'd say this one falls in the middle of the range. I find it difficult to credit that they supposedly didn't realize this was an extremely similar story to Wink of an Eye, from everything from aliens existing in faster times to the title, until they were already in production.

The implications about how technologically advanced these aliens should be years later is startling. They should either be the more advanced power in the galaxy by the time Voyager gets home... unless they wiped themselves out. Just think if Voyager hung around another week, they might've had a chance to acquire some better transwarp technology or something. Or really gotten blown up.

I think the ultimate fate of any advanced society is to blow itself up.

I actually really like this episode. Especially when the doctor goes down to the planet and tells about it. Whether it makes sense scientifically, well I suppose it makes about as much sense as holodecks, transporters, replicators, and warp drive, I can accept those and enjoy it, and I can enjoy this.

Personaly I would have hung around a few more days out of curiosity to see what kind of technology they would come up with

Blow itself up!?!

I won't argue the evidence for this but do you think it's possible that one could survive, and whiel we are on the subject, would it be fair to say "blow itself up" or would it be just "evolve"? A great example of this would be the Romans.

First they where a republic, then they where an empire, then they stretched themselves too thin and split, lastly to evolve into the "Holy Roman Empire" with the help of Catholic Church.

eh???

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It's conceivable that with the drive to see what's up there, and with no major technological setbacks(like say the fall of the Roman Empire in our own history), they could've accomplished the task in 1600 years, which is roughly what a week of Voyager being there would be. That's given a very generous stretch, but there's nothing saying Voyager wasn't there two weeks or even a month really.

I'm not sure that the development over 1600 years is unreasonable. It depends on whom we are seeing at every point someone is looking up at the night sky in the episode. 1600 years ago on Earth, there were only patches of advanced civilization: Mediterranean, across the Middle East to India and China. At least in the Eastern Hemisphere, that was the extent thereof. Moreover, that was subject to spurts and stagnation. Although it was rarer, there were still patches in which hunter gatherer society persisted, although mostly it would be considered tribal. The big problem with the episode is assuming that the planet is a monoculture.

 

[KaraBear]

They went from Hunter Gatherers to the a space faring society over the course of the episode. The planet was said to rotate 58 times per minute. So almost 229 years went by per day they were there. The episode never specifically states how long Voyager is there, but I would guess it would have to be at least a week.

It's conceivable that with the drive to see what's up there, and with no major technological setbacks(like say the fall of the Roman Empire in our own history), they could've accomplished the task in 1600 years, which is roughly what a week of Voyager being there would be. That's given a very generous stretch, but there's nothing saying Voyager wasn't there two weeks or even a month really.

It's an episode that makes less and less sense the more you think about it really. I just take it at surface value. An average episode with an amusing premise. Michael Taylor usually comes out with more good episodes than bad, and I'd say this one falls in the middle of the range. I find it difficult to credit that they supposedly didn't realize this was an extremely similar story to Wink of an Eye, from everything from aliens existing in faster times to the title, until they were already in production.

The implications about how technologically advanced these aliens should be years later is startling. They should either be the more advanced power in the galaxy by the time Voyager gets home... unless they wiped themselves out. Just think if Voyager hung around another week, they might've had a chance to acquire some better transwarp technology or something. Or really gotten blown up.

I think the ultimate fate of any advanced society is to blow itself up.

I actually really like this episode. Especially when the doctor goes down to the planet and tells about it. Whether it makes sense scientifically, well I suppose it makes about as much sense as holodecks, transporters, replicators, and warp drive, I can accept those and enjoy it, and I can enjoy this.

Personaly I would have hung around a few more days out of curiosity to see what kind of technology they would come up with

Blow itself up!?!

I won't argue the evidence for this but do you think it's possible that one could survive, and whiel we are on the subject, would it be fair to say "blow itself up" or would it be just "evolve"? A great example of this would be the Romans.

First they where a republic, then they where an empire, then they stretched themselves too thin and split, lastly to evolve into the "Holy Roman Empire" with the help of Catholic Church.

eh???

yes I think the ultimate fate of a technologically advanced race is to blow it up. At some point they will go to war and bomb the crap out of each other

 

[jazzstick]

I think the ultimate fate of any advanced society is to blow itself up.

I actually really like this episode. Especially when the doctor goes down to the planet and tells about it. Whether it makes sense scientifically, well I suppose it makes about as much sense as holodecks, transporters, replicators, and warp drive, I can accept those and enjoy it, and I can enjoy this.

Personaly I would have hung around a few more days out of curiosity to see what kind of technology they would come up with

Blow itself up!?!

I won't argue the evidence for this but do you think it's possible that one could survive, and whiel we are on the subject, would it be fair to say "blow itself up" or would it be just "evolve"? A great example of this would be the Romans.

First they where a republic, then they where an empire, then they stretched themselves too thin and split, lastly to evolve into the "Holy Roman Empire" with the help of Catholic Church.

eh???

yes I think the ultimate fate of a technologically advanced race is to blow it up. At some point they will go to war and bomb the crap out of each other

Well that's glum!

Why do you think this way?

 

[Pondwater]

What I wonder is what happened to the civilization after Voyager departed.

 

[R. Star]

Blow itself up!?!

I won't argue the evidence for this but do you think it's possible that one could survive, and whiel we are on the subject, would it be fair to say "blow itself up" or would it be just "evolve"? A great example of this would be the Romans.

First they where a republic, then they where an empire, then they stretched themselves too thin and split, lastly to evolve into the "Holy Roman Empire" with the help of Catholic Church.

eh???

yes I think the ultimate fate of a technologically advanced race is to blow it up. At some point they will go to war and bomb the crap out of each other

Well that's glum!

Why do you think this way?

It's not inconceivable at all. All it takes is one idiot with a few weapons of mass destruction to set off a huge war. Looking at our own world, we came perilously close a few times during the Cold War and despite that being over I hardly think we're out of the woods yet.

Can you say without certainty that some hot head idiot becoming to power in North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Britain, France or even Israel or the United States couldn't start a huge war? Heck I don't even think the current set of leaders we have in power now are above such stupidity given the right circumstances to say nothing of the future.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Personaly I would have hung around a few more days out of curiosity to see what kind of technology they would come up with

The problem is that Voyager itself was causing the instability in the planet's crust. Waiting around just to see how the planet progressed may have caused destruction and wiped out a significant portion of the population.

--Sran

 

[jazzstick]

yes I think the ultimate fate of a technologically advanced race is to blow it up. At some point they will go to war and bomb the crap out of each other

Well that's glum!

Why do you think this way?

It's not inconceivable at all. All it takes is one idiot with a few weapons of mass destruction to set off a huge war. Looking at our own world, we came perilously close a few times during the Cold War and despite that being over I hardly think we're out of the woods yet.

Can you say without certainty that some hot head idiot becoming to power in North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Britain, France or even Israel or the United States couldn't start a huge war? Heck I don't even think the current set of leaders we have in power now are above such stupidity given the right circumstances to say nothing of the future.

Absoultely nothing here that's not accurate but I'm just going to point out that we are still here and there's a chance we could grow up and not destory each other!

 

[R. Star]

Indeed, we are still here. I'd hope we grow up as it were too. But it only takes one party to screw that up, whereas growing up takes everyone being on the same page. Low odds from a statistical viewpoint.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It's not inconceivable that an advanced race will destroy each other but I think that sentiment underestimates people's selfishness. Take the 1960s, everybody thought the US and USSR would blow each other up, but their selfishness outweighed their lust for domination enough to keep from taking any action that would cause their own destruction.

The more likely extinction is the 'death by 1000 needles', like the gradual destruction of the environment where by the time we can personally feel the effects, oops, too late.

People who wake up with a sharp horrible pain in their stomach go straight to the doctor. People who gradually get more and more minor symptoms ignore it and ignore it until the cancer has metastasized. For the same reason there probably won't be any flashy sudden man-made extinction, but might be a gradual negligent man-made extinction.

But this is Star Trek, and the premise of Star Trek is that the future is better than the past. So why would you bring it up in a Voyager thread?

I don't have a problem with the planet advancing that much in several hundred years. They seemed pretty 1500s pretty early in the episode. What I have a problem with is that, after Jin said "We're not ready to join the rest of the galaxy yet", a few seconds after ships didn't emerge and say "Okay, we're ready!"

 

[R. Star]

But this is Star Trek, and the premise of Star Trek is that the future is better than the past. So why would you bring it up in a Voyager thread?

Given this thread is discussing an episode that covers the whole evolution of an entire race, comparisons to our own are bound to come up. It is the one common reference why can discuss intelligently.

 

[Stoo]

The problem is that Voyager itself was causing the instability in the planet's crust. Waiting around just to see how the planet progressed may have caused destruction and wiped out a significant portion of the population.

Voyager could have just shifted to a different orbit, further from the planet.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I don't have a problem with the planet advancing that much in several hundred years. They seemed pretty 1500s pretty early in the episode. What I have a problem with is that, after Jin said "We're not ready to join the rest of the galaxy yet", a few seconds after ships didn't emerge and say "Okay, we're ready!"

This may be one of those "barely legible screen canon" issues (which is to say, how much stock can be put in decision made by the art department), but the settlement at the beginning of the episode betrays that the state of civilization is more advanced than the script suggests. It's an alpine settlement that already has its own monumental architecture (the large hall). Not only does it suggest that they are not hunters-gatherers (they have permanent structures), but there exists extensive trade and agriculture elsewhere that is not being depicted. Such settlements become possible around 2500 years ago, becoming more prevalent about 1500 years ago. So the pace of development isn't being accelerated as much as the episode might otherwise portray. It's not the 12000 years of agricultural development or the 6000 years of urbanization.

 

[KaraBear]

yes I think the ultimate fate of a technologically advanced race is to blow it up. At some point they will go to war and bomb the crap out of each other

Well that's glum!

Why do you think this way?

It's not inconceivable at all. All it takes is one idiot with a few weapons of mass destruction to set off a huge war. Looking at our own world, we came perilously close a few times during the Cold War and despite that being over I hardly think we're out of the woods yet.

Can you say without certainty that some hot head idiot becoming to power in North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Britain, France or even Israel or the United States couldn't start a huge war? Heck I don't even think the current set of leaders we have in power now are above such stupidity given the right circumstances to say nothing of the future.

yeah, this is pretty much what I was thinking,

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Something Star Trek tends to do is measure technological process by years. This carries the implication that the amount of time something takes on Earth is the exact amount of time the same amount of technological development will always take.

Look at all the hyper-accelerated development we've had in the past few decades, after millennia of far slower paced technological development. That kind of spike only needs two ingredients: The ability to finely control electricity and the economic infrastructure to develop it. That doesn't have to happen at a specific number of centuries after other pre-electric milestones.

I don't think it's impossible that we will have a massive nuclear war, but I do think that the odds are lower than you say. Most evil people would rather control everybody than kill everybody.