Archer: "I should probably write stuff like this down, in case of a medical emergency or something."
Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x04 - "Moist Vessel"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
"Phlox, did you record Klaang's anatomy in Starfleet's medical database in case a future physician needs to save a Klingon who's near death?"
"Doctor...?!"
Or be able to identify a Klingon spy made up to look human with all the internals intact.
Yeah, Arne Darvin wasn't an Augment Klingon based on the way the DS9 officers talked about him. Definitely a ridged spy altered to look human. McCoy found out he was Klingon almost literally at the last moment.
At least L’Rell did the full treatment in Disco on Voq. It’s like they weren’t even trying with Darvin. If he ever used a transporter, it should have instantly notified the chief running the system that something wasn’t right with him.
But this does confirm before DSC was even created that ridged Klingons existed during the TOS Era. We just didn't see them.
I'm sure Baris went in to full Trump mode "I barely know the man. We've met maybe once..."
This was the first one that absolutely did not click for me. I didn't find it cute or fun this time...it just felt like a 25 min slog. I was actually kind of embarrassed watching it with my family because it was so unremarkable. That's not a comment on the entire series. Just this isolated episode. 3/10
It happens.
We don't know exactly how much work went into creating Darvin. Worf said he was a "Klingon altered to look human", which presupposes that some work was done further than changing his outfit and getting a haircut (as probably intended by TOS writers). Bashir said the "surgeon did good work", but Bashir doesn't seem to know about Klingon anatomical history (or he's lying, as I've theorized).
McCoy spots Darvin as a Klingon only on the basis of his heartbeat and body temperature. No mention of internal structure or other oddities. Darvin could've been a Disco Klingon with his bones shaved down and half his organs removed like Tyler. Or he could've been an Augmented descendant with a quarter of his organs removed. Or just plainly gene engineered into fully human, but the heartbeat and temperature was off (or too perfect) which led McCoy to make the jump to Klingon spy based on his expertise (was he familiar with the Ash Tyler case? Possibly).
The tribble also senses something Klingon about Darvin. Could it be the body temperature? Or just a subtle odor? Perhaps Darvin had been conversing privately with Gr'oth Klingons shortly before, and still had the stench of Klingons around his clothes, and the tribble smelled that.
My view is that we should assume that Darvin probably underwent the full organ job via the magic power of retcon.
It still doesn't fool of a full Starfleet medical scan, though.
It still doesn't fool of a full Starfleet medical scan, though.
The tribble is what alerted McCoy to scan Darvin. It was all nice and purry for the humans and one Vulcan, but hissed at Klingons previously. Then it hissed at Darvin. Then McCoy medi-scanned him.
Yeah. And McCoy didn't just wave his tricorder at the guy and it gave off a Klingon alert. He had to make the logical leap after noting that the heartbeat was off and the body temperature was abnormal and whatever olfactory sense set off the tribble. Three factors were enough to make McCoy deduce that Darvin was a Klingon, but I imagine other factors pointed towards human.
So, it seems clear to me that Darvin is well-hidden, well-altered enough to fool most scanners or even transporter systems, and it took a highly skilled veteran medical officer to note the inconsistencies. And I imagine McCoy's inference was a hunch later confirmed by a more thorough examination.
If he was Tylerized, then they probably used the same deductive methods to ascertain that he was likely Klingon (or at least non-human). Tyler might have an odd heartbeat and an abnomal body temperature as well.
This is how it is explained in Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
You mean kind of like Voq/Ash Tyler?
That really bothered me, to be honest. That you get a POW back from the Klingons and don't do a deep dive on his anatomy. The Discovery CMO (whoever it is) should've been removed from their post at that point.
Actually I kind of like it. If it was so easy and simple to detect such operatives, neither side would be able to do it; and it would make the technology god-like.
It only took Culber a minute, literally, to figure out Ash had been modified. Whoever ran the original analysis was incredibly lazy or incompetent.
Actually I believe in dialogue it was stated that originally they thought a lot of what they saw was due to Klingon torture techniques; It was only after a more in-depth reading that Culver managed to figure it out. Either way like I said, if it was so easily detectable neither side would bother with it.
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