The death penalty for visiting Talos IV

[Search4]

Hmmm. I think Starfleet/the Federation is missing an opportunity here. Perhaps they want to reserve the Talosians for the most dire threats? How about the Talosians versus the Borg Queen? Mind control her and... the threat ends.

 

[Gotham Central]

It wouldn't do any good to ignore the Talosians: Pike had stumbled onto their planet by chance (presumably thanks to taking a rare shortcut so that his casualties could get medical care), but the Columbia had reached the world as well, and growing human traffic would soon become a problem (Joe Tyler: "Our new ships can-").

The planet had to be quarantined no matter what, and General Order 7 is probably just that, a very general order about quarantine procedures. But a quarantine would call attention to the planet, and would draw in all sorts of scavengers. If Starfleet pretended there was a mild risk, a great many adventurers would come; if it pretended there was a serious risk, a select few daredevils would decide to get rich by being bolder than others. No matter what, somebody would come. So a death penalty makes sense: it eliminates everybody but the craziest daredevils, and allows for their swift execution afterwards.

As for Spock, it rather seems he was already under the influence of Talosian mind control: an excellent reason for Starfleet to gun him down at once. Except that he apparently was under that influence without having recently visited the planet. And Kirk later fell under the influence without ever having visited Talos (he saw the Mendez illusion in the shuttle), establishing that all quarantine measures were futile, and the death penalty could be dropped.

Timo Saloniemi

Actually Pike did not stumble across the world by chance...he was chosen by the Talosians. Vina says as much during the cage. Not only that, they took steps to ensure that he would come to the planet when it looked like he was going to ignore the distress signal. Again, the points out the futility of quarantining the planet...the Talosians were perfectly capable of reaching out whether ships were near by or not.

 

[Timo]

Actually Pike did not stumble across the world by chance...he was chosen by the Talosians. Vina says as much during the cage.

At most, Vina appears to be saying that Pike was the individual picked from the group of people who responded to the fake distress signal.

And it does seem Pike's ship was the only one to hear this radio transmission. If it really was a radio transmission, then it must have been going through space that was devoid of all but the random human/UFP traveler, or else everybody would have heard it.

Of course, it may be that Pike only encountered the telepathic illusion of a radio wave, and was indeed handpicked from a large crowd. But he and Starfleet would not have any particular reason to suspect that: this plot-within-plot speculation would only explain things that could be more simply explained by assuming the Talosians indeed had a radio beacon and a telepathic weapon capable of reaching no farther than the planet's orbit. Hence the quarantine could still be considered a prudent measure.

Looking at this objectively, rather than through the eyes of Pike or Kirk or an optimistic Starfleet, the Talosians do seem awfully ignorant of humans initially, before studying up on Pike. Of course, the claim that "we only now discovered you love freedom fiercely, therefore we can't use you" could be a silly lie invented to cover up for, say, an already scored Talosian success (they had some sperm from Pike or something) or an embarrassing failure of some other sort (they frantically tried to telepathically stop #1 from blowing them to kingdom come, but that didn't work), or whatever.

Really, the Talosians appear so ignorant that it seems doubtful they ever really had Vina. The poor girl may well have been dead or mostly dead, rather than merely disfigured...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TOSalltheway]

[ Why is visiting Talos 4 a worse crime then mass murder? ]

Very simple answer. Fear. Talosians could take over the minds of humans and potentially lead to the downfall of Earth and the Federation.......

......But then again they did control minds from light years away to see an illusion of Comodore Mendez.

 

[Green Shirt]

Washington State still has the death penalty, but we only use it once every decade or so (you have to go out of your way to receive it). Most of the time you receive a lessor penalty.

Wow, a school with a death penalty? Sounds like a tough place.

 

[T'Girl]

^ In Washington, you got to watch out for those landlords.

 

[Knight Templar]

I'm wondering just how much of Spocks "hijacking" of the Enteprise was reprogramming the computers and how much it was the Talosians controlling it.

Obviously to operate the briefing room viewscreen, the Talosians had to have not only telepathic but telekinetic control over the computers from literally light years away.

I think the whole "Talosians are dangerous because of their ability to create illusions" is a bit of a misdirection.

If the Talosians can control the most powerful starship in the fleet from light years away then they probably could control entire fleets of ships from light years away.

This made them a power on a scale with the Organians. Perhaps even stronger. Remember when the Organians were preparing to stop the Klingon and Federation fleets from fighting?

One of the Organians said "This will be hard".

 

[Maurice]

The Menagerie is so full of logic holes that I never watch it. If I want to see Pike and Co. I'll watch The Cage.

 

[Warped9]

Washington State still has the death penalty, but we only use it once every decade or so (you have to go out of your way to receive it). Most of the time you receive a lessor penalty.

Wow, a school with a death penalty? Sounds like a tough place.

 

[Timo]

I'm wondering just how much of Spocks "hijacking" of the Enteprise was reprogramming the computers and how much it was the Talosians controlling it.

Obviously to operate the briefing room viewscreen, the Talosians had to have not only telepathic but telekinetic control over the computers from literally light years away.

I don't think it's necessarily obvious at all. Spock originally attributed the Talosian rummaging through Enterprise records (and the approaching destruction of the ship, as well as her engine problems) to pure mind control; he speculated that the Talosians were making the crew push the wrong buttons. This would nicely explain what was happening with the viewscreen as well.

Remember also that we have no idea whether Talos was transmitting a realtime signal to the ship, or whether Spock was just playing a recording. The "Starfleet" claim that a signal from Talos had been observed was faked, after all!

Remember when the Organians were preparing to stop the Klingon and Federation fleets from fighting?

That, too, could have been achieved without telekinesis, just with mass illusions (and it is indeed the likelier scenario, as truly searing-hot weapons and control panels would probably have been physically damaged, just like a searing-hot Kirk or Kor would have been injured). And although the Organians claimed to be exerting basically galaxy-wide influence there, that, too, could have been an illusion...

The Menagerie is so full of logic holes that I never watch it. If I want to see Pike and Co. I'll watch The Cage.

Oh, dunno. The clip show at least takes the dullest bits out of the original clunker.

Timo Saloniemi