The "Game Changers" Game

[Marsden]

I have a proposal for a game that hopefully can also be a good forum for discussion.

Short background: My person biggest complaint about Star Trek is events happening that would have a real impact not only on the characters themselves but their whole "world" hence they are "game changing"

The game is to name at least one from every episode from The Cage through The Counter-Clock Incident. I encourage anyone to submit differing view points about why an event may not be truly game changing but in each case I'd ask substantiation of that point, either for or against. Some episodes may have more than one, some may not have any. I think we can find a lot. BTW, it can be a technological or non technological breakthrough, discovery, or a cultural/sociological change. Don't limit yourself to new tech, although that's a big source of course but things could really change how people live in this universe all over.


I'll kick it off now. The recent production order viewing just got through This Side of Paradise and I always thought the discovery of The Spores and their potential healing properties. Why wouldn't the Federation set this up as a special kind of healing resort? Person terminally ill, send them to Omicron Ceti Three, a good dose of spores and monitor them until they are healed. Done. Big Pharma would be pissed but I don't see how this isn't a fundamental change of life for everyone in this section of the galaxy. The Federation controls it but I'm sure people that want healing from outside the Federation would be interested too. It could cause worlds to join that might not have been too sure, it might cause wars to possess it even. People from all over Earth, Vulcan, anywhere could be healed of so many diseases. I doubt it would cause an "eternal life" situation but it would certainly stop premature death for many and cause more people to live longer and better. It doesn't seem to have a downside as all you need to do to remove the spores is to mildly agitate the person after they are cured. Show them a picture of a deceased family member or tell them a sad story and pow spores be gone. Fistfights were just for expediency, Kirk or Spock didn't punch LEILA but she lost them and she had them for years. I just don't see a downside except other Empires wanting control of it or transportation difficulties of millions or more beings visiting the resort.

Please comment and discuss . Thank you

 

[Marsden]

Wow, nobody.

Is it a bad idea?

 

[Commishsleer]

Time Travel of course.
If I was Kirk I would go back in time and arrive on Deneva a week earlier or why not save the Giant Amoeba civilisation, or Captain Garrovick, or Pike...

There's also the kironide from Plato. Why wouldn't some unscrupulous warlord get a hold of it and try to take over planets?

 

[Qonundrum]

"Spock's Brain" showed not only a machine that can instill advanced subjects into a person's brain (like 'The Matrix') that, if improved on, could have had more permanent effects.

Dope 'em up with paradise spores and then matrix up their gray matter and voila...

 

[Marsden]

Time Travel of course.
If I was Kirk I would go back in time and arrive on Deneva a week earlier or why not save the Giant Amoeba civilisation, or Captain Garrovick, or Pike...

There's also the kironide from Plato. Why wouldn't some unscrupulous warlord get a hold of it and try to take over planets?

You would think they would try to time travel more, but then again it does seem dangerous unless your show runner wants to launch a spin off.

That kironide business really bothered me for a long time but some of the other posters here said it would only work "on that planet" so that seemed to reign in my ire.

Good choices!

"Spock's Brain" showed not only a machine that can instill advanced subjects into a person's brain (like 'The Matrix') that, if improved on, could have had more permanent effects.

Dope 'em up with paradise spores and then matrix up their gray matter and voila...

That's one I didn't think of. I'm always seeing things and then posting and it seems to leave everyone at a loss for words. That's great! I mean, so the knowledge is temporary, have a team taking turns with a backup team transcribing everything while the first team is using it. The Fabrini medical files seem to fall into this category too.

Here's another one, Exo III. All of the existing androids are gone, ok. Why not make a bunch more from security officers and have "them" escort Nomad! Why do you have to let your guys get killed. I bet those Andromedans would have been in for a big surprise if they tried their polyhedron trick on android security.

 

[Commishsleer]

Yes you'd think there'd be people clambering for the brain transplant knowledge in both " Spock's Brain" and "I, Mudd" or even body transfer in "Turnabout Intruder".

What about the "Cloaking Device" from "The Enterprise Incident" ? Why didn't they use that in further episodes?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

These aren't new ideas, but:

The Omicron spores could have healed Captain Pike, if Spock hadn't kidnapped him and marooned him on Talos IV.

Four billion people die in the teaser of "The Changeling," just to show that the situation is serious. Kirk could have used the time travel method from "The Naked Time" to go back and save them. Likewise, but in an unrelated alternate universe, you'd think somebody would insist on saving the JJ-Trek planet Vulcan, but they don't.

One thing that makes this especially hard to explain is that they went way back in "Assignment: Earth" for nothing more urgent than historical research. And Kirk instantly thinks of time travel when an alien force is shaking us down for humpback whales.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

In "Who Mourns for Adonais?" we discover that the Greek gods were real, and they were alien visitors.

That would trigger an interdisciplinary earthquake, and electrify numerous fields of study. It would change humanity's story about itself. But in the world of Star Trek, the reaction is "Meh. Whatevs." The series is episodic, so it's never mentioned again.

 

[johnnybear]

What about the "Cloaking Device" from "The Enterprise Incident" ? Why didn't they use that in further episodes?

I should imagine the cloaking device was taken immediately to a Starbase and left there for the boffins to explore and I'd guess the Romulans were probably complaining to the Federation over their theft of their secret weapon! Plus in TNG we discover that the Federation are not allowed to use cloaking technology as an agreement with the Romulan Star Empire! That is until Ds9s The Search anyways!
JB

 

[Phaser Two]

There's also the kironide from Plato. Why wouldn't some unscrupulous warlord get a hold of it and try to take over planets?

I think it only worked on that planet.

Four billion people die in the teaser of "The Changeling," just to show that the situation is serious. Kirk could have used the time travel method from "The Naked Time" to go back and save them. Likewise, but in an unrelated alternate universe, you'd think somebody would insist on saving the JJ-Trek planet Vulcan, but they don't.

One thing that makes this especially hard to explain is that they went way back in "Assignment: Earth" for nothing more urgent than historical research. And Kirk instantly thinks of time travel when an alien force is shaking us down for humpback whales.

Well . . . and destroying Earth in the process, so that was pretty important. As to AE, I can fanwank that they were a highly trained team of time-travelers and that the timeline interference would be minimal compared to rescuing everyone from the Malurian (?) system, but yeah. That's tough to explain.

left there for the boffins

 

[Marsden]

In "Who Mourns for Adonais?" we discover that the Greek gods were real, and they were alien visitors.

That would trigger an interdisciplinary earthquake, and electrify numerous fields of study. It would change humanity's story about itself. But in the world of Star Trek, the reaction is "Meh. Whatevs." The series is episodic, so it's never mentioned again.

That's the kind of sociological shift I was talking about, too. That would be huge news. What about the (vaguely) depicted emergence of Christianity on the Roman Planet (BC). I don't know what the Federation would say but there would be lots of people very interested in visiting, or at least monitoring from a short distance, what is happening there.

 

[johnnybear]

Claudius Marcus was eventually overthrown and their society went into a great decline but is now picking up somewhat similar to the world after the fall of our Roman empire!
JB

 

[Phaser Two]

That's the kind of sociological shift I was talking about, too. That would be huge news. What about the (vaguely) depicted emergence of Christianity on the Roman Planet (BC). I don't know what the Federation would say but there would be lots of people very interested in visiting, or at least monitoring from a short distance, what is happening there.

These are great comments. And not only that, but didn't the Sahndarans spend time on Earth in the same time period? I always thought that someone should have asked them what they thought of Apollo.

 

[Marsden]

These are great comments. And not only that, but didn't the Sahndarans spend time on Earth in the same time period? I always thought that someone should have asked them what they thought of Apollo.

It seems like they should have known each other. I wonder if they did and the gods and Platonians had a falling out because the Plationians didn't seem like the serve and worship type.

Add Gary Seven and his "organization" to the mix and it seems like Earth is getting visited all the time.

Wasn't there a Phase II plot that heavily implied the Klingons visited Earth in the past and just round ships, ie. flying saucers?

 

[Phaser Two]

Wasn't there a Phase II plot that heavily implied the Klingons visited Earth in the past and just round ships, ie. flying saucers?

Good call on Gary Seven. Earth is very important. I can dig that.

Did they go that route in Phase II? Or was there a throwaway line about that in the DS9 episode with Quark, Rom and Odo visiting Roswell? ("Little Green Men"?)

 

[Marsden]

I wonder about the Medusans. What are they? How can ugliness cause insanity?

The effects and description make them sound like energy beings again. Not quite like Organians, but Kollos seemed like a random pattern of flashing lights, like the Zetarians turned to 11. Maybe the light patterns cause something like a super shock therapy effect on a humanoid brain through the visual nerves. That could be why Vulcans can use the visor.

 

[johnnybear]

The thing is the Sahndarans or Platonians were powerless until they got the Kironide so they would have been like any other human on the earth! Although they may have had the much longer lifespan as hinted in the episode!
JB