Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x06 - "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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If "Return of the Archons" is any indication of Starfleet SOP, there will probably be a team of sociologists on Gamma Trianguli VI to 'guide' Vaalian society for a while. Sociology had somewhat of a resurgence in the 1960s, so it made perfect sense that something trendy at that time would be a vital part of Starfleet operations three hundred years later. 
So considering Vaal's extra power reserves, I wonder if the thing had some kind of underground power generator thing that would keep it running independently of any apparent fuel source on the surface, and the Vaalians "feeding" it was more of a symbolic social control kind of thing, like making offerings to their god as part of their subservience.
Kor
So considering Vaal's extra power reserves, I wonder if the thing had some kind of underground power generator thing that would keep it running independently of any apparent fuel source on the surface, and the Vaalians "feeding" it was more of a symbolic social control kind of thing, like making offerings to their god as part of their subservience.
Kor
I think that could be a fun mission for an RPG. "The Secrets of Gamma Trianguli VI." Journey underground and discover the hidden mysteries of the makers of Vaal.If "Return of the Archons" is any indication of Starfleet SOP, there will probably be a team of sociologists on Gamma Trianguli VI to 'guide' Vaalian society for a while. Sociology had somewhat of a resurgence in the 1960s, so it made perfect sense that something trendy at that time would be a vital part of Starfleet operations three hundred years later.
So considering Vaal's extra power reserves, I wonder if the thing had some kind of underground power generator thing that would keep it running independently of any apparent fuel source on the surface, and the Vaalians "feeding" it was more of a symbolic social control kind of thing, like making offerings to their god as part of their subservience.
Kor
If it had, the Enterprise and its crew would have been crispy critters.If "Return of the Archons" is any indication of Starfleet SOP, there will probably be a team of sociologists on Gamma Trianguli VI to 'guide' Vaalian society for a while. Sociology had somewhat of a resurgence in the 1960s, so it made perfect sense that something trendy at that time would be a vital part of Starfleet operations three hundred years later.
So considering Vaal's extra power reserves, I wonder if the thing had some kind of underground power generator thing that would keep it running independently of any apparent fuel source on the surface, and the Vaalians "feeding" it was more of a symbolic social control kind of thing, like making offerings to their god as part of their subservience.
Kor
Nope. The climate-controlling, immortality-bestowing control freaks who set up this planetary slave settlement left Vaal completely vulnerable if it wasn't fed for a day or two.
It can also be argued that interference with the people of Landru on Beta III was out of bounds despite the U.S.S. Archon having encountered and its surviving crew having been absorbed into the native culture in 2167. A pre-warp society that was no threat to any outlying species unless said species crash landed or went down to the surface to investigate and was detained or killed. A remarkably stable society that for thousands of years had experienced a form of internal peace unknown by Earth humans but at the mercy of a supercomputer that ruled the planet as a dictator and used the death penalty to enforce its laws.
Reger, Tamar, Bila and the others on Beta III could have kept living their lives under Landru. Enduring Festival after Festival until their own physical deaths when a new generation of inhabitants would take over their roles in the cogs of this sterile and oppressive system that gave peace, sustenance and health but at the expense of voicing opposition to Landru's will and not being in harmony with the Body of his people.
Kirk felt differently. Crewman O'Neill's absorption as well as Sulu's and McCoy's just made his decision to shut down Landru a lot easier, a decision that probably would have been little different once Kirk learned that Landru possessed the technology to pull a starship down from orbit and destroy it. TOS is replete with worlds that don't have warp drive but still rule over their native peoples like old Earth despots and cult leaders. Kirk saw the Prime Directive in more than one light but one of those was clearly that when basic dignity and even life are threatened a starship Captain can bend the rules.
And Landru did have the blood of a 22nd century Federation starship on its artificial hands.
Reger, Tamar, Bila and the others on Beta III could have kept living their lives under Landru. Enduring Festival after Festival until their own physical deaths when a new generation of inhabitants would take over their roles in the cogs of this sterile and oppressive system that gave peace, sustenance and health but at the expense of voicing opposition to Landru's will and not being in harmony with the Body of his people.
Kirk felt differently. Crewman O'Neill's absorption as well as Sulu's and McCoy's just made his decision to shut down Landru a lot easier, a decision that probably would have been little different once Kirk learned that Landru possessed the technology to pull a starship down from orbit and destroy it. TOS is replete with worlds that don't have warp drive but still rule over their native peoples like old Earth despots and cult leaders. Kirk saw the Prime Directive in more than one light but one of those was clearly that when basic dignity and even life are threatened a starship Captain can bend the rules.
And Landru did have the blood of a 22nd century Federation starship on its artificial hands.
The self-defense argument falls apart if Kirk had the opportunity to evacuate his ship and crew out of Vaal's reach.
Get the fuck out of there and leave the indigenous culture alone.
All that means is that the writers decided to side with the colonizer when they constructed their narrative.
There is no evidence of this.
Oh, great -- more colonialism!
It worked for Spock in an issue of DC Comics first Star Trek series.
If it actually is an immortality machine, surely there are Starfleet scientists looking at how to copy those effects without the slavery, right? Then again, the transporter should be an immortality machine, the Ba'ku planet was a fountain of youth, the androids in I, Mudd claimed to be able to transport minds into immortal androids...in the future people are a-ok with dying, I guess. Picard even has Data convinced he should try it.
why people keep forgetting Vaal endured several minutes of being fired upon by ship’s phasers before depleting its energy? The same phasers capable of sterilising a planet’s surface.
He had no such chance.
“Culture”.
there is no “colony”.
By the way, a third, less extreme, example of a planet whose population is controlled by a machine which is adored as a god is of course Rubicun III.
The Edo god is however much more reasonable, eventually permitting the enterprise to leave unscathed, and leaves much more leeway to its subjects, so Picard doesn’t destroy it. And of course it was much more powerful than Vaal or Landru, so destroying it wasn’t much of an option either.
Still, its origins remain a mystery and even more than in the other cases there is a hint that it might be an outsider to the planet, so an intervention would have been much more sensible.
The Edo god is however much more reasonable, eventually permitting the enterprise to leave unscathed, and leaves much more leeway to its subjects, so Picard doesn’t destroy it. And of course it was much more powerful than Vaal or Landru, so destroying it wasn’t much of an option either.
Still, its origins remain a mystery and even more than in the other cases there is a hint that it might be an outsider to the planet, so an intervention would have been much more sensible.
Spock played an RPG?
A couple of minutes. A day of so of going without its regular feeding, and it's that weakened.
Wow.
Who subcontracted on Vaal, Boeing?
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The special effects seemed to indicate Vaal had some kind of shielding, at least at first, or a layer of protection that the Enterprise's main phaser banks had to take time to blast through. I could be wrong on that but the prolonged phaser fire would lead me to believe that Vaal had a pretty sophisticated personal defense system for being a god-machine on a planet full of tribal humanoids.
I forgot that this episode coined the term "Wortham unit" for a measurement of energy. I don't know if it ever got mentioned again in the franchise.
I forgot that this episode coined the term "Wortham unit" for a measurement of energy. I don't know if it ever got mentioned again in the franchise.
I don't think it was ever used again, although I could see SNW using it. I actually thought about using "Wortham Unit" for my user name before I picked "comsol".
Well, we know he's been a dark wizard...
again, the Enterprise phasers are really powerful.
it definitely had shielding.
Any computerized rock deity that had survived for that long wasn't likely to be easy to take out.
But enough about Keith Richards.
[*Incoherent mumbling and cloud of smoke*]
Much like Vaal.
Much like Vaal.
Felt like a set up for a future episode, bit of a shit one as a standalone.
Not demonstrated on TOS. They're like the transporter - never quite enough until the plot calls for it.