Symbiosis - How impaired was Ornaran society?

[cgervasi]

We see the Ornarans are impaired and unable to respond when their ship breaks down. They also say that even with time not in an emergency situation they are unable to repair their spaceships. How are they able to Brekka with all the industrial products that allow its residents to have affluent lifestyles based only on growing and refining felicium? How are they able to do other activities: treat people requiring surgery, operate cars, planes, or other vehicles, resolve disputes in court, etc? Are they inept at those things too?

I would imagine people doing critical jobs operate in the sweet spot after the high is mostly gone but before withdrawal sets in. If that allows them to function, though, why can't they repair the ships they designed and built? I can understand why they can't design new and better ships, but repair is usually easier than design. If they can't do repairs, maintain a parts supply chain, etc, their whole society must be crumbling.

 

[FormerLurker]

It probably is. Which would explain why they were eventually sent off without most of what they asked for. The Enterprise crew refused to repair their ships beyond the minimum necessary, and refused to provide them with the means to repair their disabled ships at home. The Brekkans were pissed because they knew the Ornarans would eventually realize what was being done to them, and stop helping the Brekkans. Which they pretty much deserved.

 

[Melakon]

The Brekkians knew that once the Onarans got the collective monkey off their backs, they would lose their primary industry. The Onarans might break off all trade entirely or worse, repair their ships and invade in retaliation.

 

[HIjol]

"Got Dam de Pusher Man"

I remember this one as being a mite edgy for Star Trek, and I also remember having some real negative feelings towards the Brekkians. They had the "love grass" in their hands, and they knew it and still chemically enslaved the Onarans. Woof !
I mean, that is where Machiavelli goes to take a break from having the ends justify the means!

 

[Melakon]

It's a very funny episode though, if you're already under the influence when the Onarans are given their fix.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Yeah, I thought Merritt Butrick and that other dude handled acting out their symptoms really well.

I always did wonder what became of these societies...

 

[2takesfrakes]

The episode's alright, despite its unremitting "drug" message. As to how impaired their society actually was, it's very hard to believe they were capable of doing anything else but get stoned. The logic of this show fails outside of a metaphor and that's how I've always chosen to leave it. The real joy of it is having the STAR TREK II guys onboard - and The Good Doctor's stance and defiance on the matter. When Bev turns to Jean-Luc and sincerely tells him, regarding the Prime Directive and how it applies here, "... it's hard to be philosophical, when faced with suffering" ... I just love the Dancing Doctor! She's always been my favourite Chief Medical Officer on any STAR TREK show. Her empathy for her patients, her Bedside Manner, if you like, has always won my heart.

 

[Timo]

It sounds likely that the people tasked with shipping the drug would get dibs on it, and be among the most affected and addicted of the lot...

There might be people in better shape down on the surface, making do with smaller and less frequent doses and suffering milder symptoms, be they from the drug or lack thereof. But they would be hard pressed to dislodge the space transport clique, even if aware of how corrupt and inept it has become.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[cgervasi]

I remember this one as being a mite edgy for Star Trek, and I also remember having some real negative feelings towards the Brekkians. They had the "love grass" in their hands, and they knew it and still chemically enslaved the Onarans. Woof !!

I found this part to be easy to believe. They started selling a legitimate product.
Here's how I imagine it:
They figured the Ornarans who could admit the truth knew it was an addiction and didn't care. They had every incentive to come up with a narrative to justify their product. The Ornarans had a chemical incentive not to admit the truth. It's common for good people who discover their job is causing some problem to want to deny the problem.

The show suggests simply telling the Ornarans they were addicted would change everything. Anyone who's known an addict knows telling him he has a serious addiction doesn't change his behavior much.

 

[HIjol]

Now that is a take on things I had not considered!

 

[publiusr]

Vintage 1980s drug war propaganda. A prison planet episode would be a bit more fitting today.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Vintage 1980s drug war propaganda. A prison planet episode would be a bit more fitting today.

True, it seems every series back then did their own drug episode, but at least Symbiosis was honest in its commentary: Yar said drugs make you feel good.

 

[cgervasi]

True, it seems every series back then did their own drug episode, but at least Symbiosis was honest in its commentary: Yar said drugs make you feel good.

This was back in the days of "just say no". She explained the truth, that drugs make you feel good but put you at risk of getting hooked and ruining your life.

 

[MikeS]

There's nothing in the episode that specifically says that Fellicium makes you feel good. We are just shown that the withdraw syptoms are horrid. The only "feel good" message we get about drugs is from Yar, who is not talking about Fellicium. The Brekkans sold Fellicium as a cure to some disease that had affected the Onarra. So if I may postulate a brief timeline...

One - There is some horrible disease on Onara. The Brekka offer up Fellicium as a cure. Fellicium offers no high - no cure - just a terrible withdrawl when not taken.
Two - The disease disapates on its own accord. Evolution of immunity over generations perhaps?
Three - The Onara continue to believe that the disease is what is causing them awful pain - not the drug withdrawl - so they continue to take it. Their society is addicted.

So the drug is the worst of both worlds - no high with terrible withdrawl symptoms. The Onara have no idea that it is the drug and not the disease that is affecting them.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

This was back in the days of "just say no". She explained the truth, that drugs make you feel good but put you at risk of getting hooked and ruining your life.

Yes, that was the whole point Yar made. It definitely wasn't like I unintentionally implied, which is that drugs make you feel good, end of story. Thanks for clarifying that!

It's just that none of the other drug episodes I saw on other shows were brave enough to even mention that particular part.

So if I may postulate a brief timeline...

One - There is some horrible disease on Onara. The Brekka offer up Fellicium as a cure. Fellicium offers no high - no cure - just a terrible withdrawl when not taken.
Two - The disease disapates on its own accord. Evolution of immunity over generations perhaps?
Three - The Onara continue to believe that the disease is what is causing them awful pain - not the drug withdrawl - so they continue to take it. Their society is addicted.

So the drug is the worst of both worlds - no high with terrible withdrawl symptoms. The Onara have no idea that it is the drug and not the disease that is affecting them.

That sounds like a pretty reasonable, potential timeline of events!

 

[Timo]

...Except Crusher's analysis indicates the substance did represent a fully working cure for the disease - so fully working that it eradicated the disease.

Apparently, it happened to also have the property of alleviating the evidently painful symptoms momentarily - and eventually, the users associated the moments of bliss during use with "lack of pain from the disease" when it was merely normal existence, and the moments of agony from withdrawal with "pain from the disease". Perhaps they failed to notice the differences in the two varieties of bliss and pain, or perhaps there were no differences to note; it would in fact be rather odd for anybody to comment on the exact quality of pain or lack thereof.

So, a slightly different timeline seems to be indicated:

1) The Brekkians do come up with a cure when Felicia suffers. The cure both relieves pain and slowly drives out the disease.
2) The disease is defeated when the whole population subjects itself to the cure long enough. Since "long enough" is also long enough for a strong psychological addiction to develop, due to the pain/relief cycles, nobody notices the victory over the disease.
2½) Matters are made worse because the drug also causes a physiological addiction. Mere pain/relief would not carry the addiction far when there would be no disease to provide the pain, but the chemical dependency produces the withdrawal pains that also perpetuate the psychological addiction.
3) Same as above.

The interesting question here is, did the Brekkians deliberately engineer the chemically addictive qualities into their product, and if so, at which point? They might initially have been selling a bona fide cure, soon realizing their sales were carried by the painkiller nature of the cure alone, and eventually also recognizing that this would come to an end unless something was done to the product. Or they might have started out with a product deliberately engineered to hook the victims, either with the painkiller property or then with that and the more insidious chemical addictiveness combines. This Crusher cannot tell.

The part about there having been a plague on Brekka, too, is speculation by our heroes, not something the instruments would be telling Crusher. Since the Brekkians dispute none of it, it sounds like confirmed fact in the end, though. (Our heroes also speculate that the cure was "narcotic" to start with, and again the Brekkians offer no objection, but whether that means chemically addictive or merely so effective in pain relief that it gives psychological addiction, we don't know.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timo]

...Also, while the Ornarans cannot repair their ships, how come the Brekkians can't do it? They may have driven down their other industries in favor of the drug trade, but they haven't dissolved their brains with the substance, either. (Indeed, which culture built the ships in the first place? Even if the Ornarans were the spacefaring tech wizards initially, contact with Brekka might have quickly civilized the latter world to the necessary tech level, too.)

So, does Picard's stratagem only work because the remaining two Ornaran ships are too badly damaged to be flown to Brekka for repairs, and Brekka has no time to construct more ships for more shipments before the addiction wears out?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Melakon]

Though I've not seen it in many, many years, doesn't Picard at one point stop the turbolift just to make a long-winded speech? It seemed absurd to me, that the script literally stops the show to drive home its point.

 

[Timo]

...Not that it would be much of a point. Picard just says that interfering can make things worse, but how this relates to the episode itself is left unclear at best. Picard has left things to run their course - but the option suggested by Crusher would in fact have made the situation better in one easily measurable way, without necessarily having any other effects.

If Crusher were to be allowed to remove the withdrawal symptoms overnight, rather than letting the Ornarans suffer their way out of them over a matter of, what, months, what would be different? The Brekkians would have less time to think up a Plan B, but they would still be getting what was coming to them as Ornara recovered. What difference could any Plan B make there, especially remembering that Brekka had no industries with which to prepare against retaliation? Would the Ornarans be less pissed off if they were cured quickly? More pissed off? More likely to thank Starfleet and join the Federation? Less likely?

"Symbiosis" is a clever use of the strictest Prime Directive interpretation for doing good, but Picard should stop when he's ahead: there's no real reason to hinder Crusher from helping further, other than keeping the letter of the PD unviolated (which is a cute twist of the knife in the Brekkian wound, but not a point of merit for the PD or for Picard).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Though I've not seen it in many, many years, doesn't Picard at one point stop the turbolift just to make a long-winded speech? It seemed absurd to me, that the script literally stops the show to drive home its point.

A chance to gas-bag about the Prime Directive? His favorite subject? Picard would stop during a warp core breach for that!