The Drumhead- best ST episode

[Mojochi]

I'll bite

Am I the only one who was especially disturbed when Satie brought up Picard's assimilation? The man was violated...he was mentally raped and had his knowledge turned against the Federation in what was - up until that point - the biggest massacre in Federation history.

It was imho a sign of unscrupulous tactics, which they employed a LOT of, especially her Betazoid assistant, who used a lie in the hearing to try to trap the person on the stand, & then after buttering up Worf with a dismissal of the Khitomer Romulan stuff in his past, dragging it out to attack him later on. They're supposed to play like the not so subtle stench of desperate witch hunters

 

[Ragitsu]

I'll bite
It was imho a sign of unscrupulous tactics, which they employed a LOT of, especially her Betazoid assistant, who used a lie in the hearing to try to trap the person on the stand, & then after buttering up Worf with a dismissal of the Khitomer Romulan stuff in his past, dragging it out to attack him later on. They're supposed to play like the not so subtle stench of desperate witch hunters

I'm displaying my historical ignorance here, but...were similar tactics exploited by McCarthy and his toadies?

 

[Mojochi]

^ Well, it depends on how you view it. The entirety of McCarthyism was built on guilt by association. You didn't even have to do anything... Just personally have associated, to any minimal degree, with a person who had identified as communist or had been under similar investigation, or written questionable content etc... To be in jeopardy of indictment

So the actual Simon Tarses investigation, where there was an actual foreign spy aboard, & the appearance of sabotage, was kind of legit at one point. Clearly, if the Klingon HAD sabotaged the engine, investigating the possibility of him having gotten help from within is a reasonable tact.

From the point of everyone knowing the explosion was an accident however, everything happening after was all kinds of McCarthyism, trying to drag in Picard & Worf, & smear anyone standing in they way etc...

Actual McCarthyism had a similar ignition point too, the conviction of alleged spy Alger Hiss on perjury charges, & the debate about his actual guilt still goes on. There was nothing as clear cut to my knowledge as The Enterprise's explosion backing it. So IMHO, they got a little more actual legit suspicion to hitch their wagon to... At 1st.

 

[Oddish]

Nope, your logic is very sound and the "necrosis rule" really amounts to a suggestion. The intent is to prevent some clown from replying to a bunch of old threads with a couple of words or a smiley face to artificially build post count. The fact that your comment was very thoughtful made me leave the thread open.

That actually makes sense, now that I think about it...

The nasty result of McCarthyism shows in the movie "The Majestic". Jim Carrey's character finds himself targeted by the "commie hunters" because he attended the meeting of a club with an innocent-sounding name with a girl he wanted to impress, as a college student. Nothing harmful, nothing sinister. His face says it all, when he says of the club: "They were communist?!"

I am a man with no love for communism or any of its derivatives, but I know that Aaron Satie's words were true: when the Bill of Rights is subverted, everyone is in danger.

I wish that Simon Tarses's fate had been made properly canonical, but take comfort in the fact that in Trek Lit, he weathered the revelation of his actual bloodline, and went on to a successful Starfleet career as a doctor and an officer.