The Man Trap...why not provide salt for the creature?

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by MarsWeeps, Sep 9, 2017.

  1. Noname Given

    Noname Given Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    To be fair that like saying : "Man is only benevolent as long as he has food to eat." (Which by the way is pretty much true: https://www.inquisitr.com/135667/an...meals-away-from-anarchy-suggests-researchers/)

    If you were told by some alien when you asked for food that you'd only get it once he was satisfied you deserved it, how would you react if starving and his race was the only real source of food you had available?
     
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  2. johnnybear

    johnnybear Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Kirk and Spock might have provided the creature with as much salt as it needed if it hadn't of killed members of his crew! Plus they believed it to be a malevolent alien with the power to trick them!
    Do we really know it was ordinary salt that it wanted or was it the more tasty blood salt from the human body? Maybe it survived on Crater's jar but the thought of sampling the human flavours was more intoxicating to it!
    JB
     
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  3. MarsWeeps

    MarsWeeps Fleet Captain Premium Member

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    If that was the case, it would have chowed down on Crater long before the Enterprise showed up.
     
  4. KirkusOveractus

    KirkusOveractus Commodore Commodore

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    The very first sentence is what may be getting lost in the shuffle here. The vampire killed Darnell, then Sturgeon and Greene. After this is when it's discovered that it's a being that needs salt.

    I'm sure if it had been encountered before the deaths, there may have been an effort to sustain its life. But it killed first. Kirk's responsibility is to his ship and its crew first and foremost, along with protecting the lives of those on Federation planets, outposts, archaeological sites, etc.
     
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  5. MarsWeeps

    MarsWeeps Fleet Captain Premium Member

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    ^Yes, but once they discovered it needed salt to survive, why not make it easier for the creature to have a supply of salt and hopefully prevent more killing?

    After all, the Horta killed people and they were going to hunt it down until they found out it was just a mother defending her babies. In fact, Kirk was showing it compassion even before he knew that.
     
  6. UnknownSample

    UnknownSample Commodore Commodore

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    You mean, why did McCoy kill it to save Kirk? Rather than beginning some negotiation? That scream of Kirk's certainly convinced me it needed some shooting.
     
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  7. KirkusOveractus

    KirkusOveractus Commodore Commodore

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    Once the discovery was made, it had killed the crewmembers. There was the effort made to leave salt out, but it didn't take it. It was hunting for humans.
     
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  8. mos6507

    mos6507 Commodore Commodore

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    I think Geico ads have covered as much ground as 50 years of Star Trek at this point.
     
  9. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The difference is that as early as act one of the episode, there was a running theory that there might be something to the silicone sphere, which turned out to be the Horta's eggs. Despite the Horta's attacks, Spock, and eventually Kirk knew there was a bigger story to the event. The salt vampire is another story, as it consciously used deception to lure members of the landing party to their deaths, then beamed up to the 1701 to continue the feeding. The term "vampire" is well suited to the alien, as it was just as predatory as the classical undead creature.
     
  10. Shawnster

    Shawnster Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    By the time of the episode, however, the creature has an insatiable appetite. How many did the creature kill to satisfy its insatiable appetite for salt? Went for years sucking salt tablets with Carter, but once fresh supplies showed up, all bets were off.

    There was no "giving salt to the creature" to make it happy. It had a taste for human salt and was never going to stop.
     
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  11. FormerLurker

    FormerLurker Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Are you sure? They never go into details about how it was dining on Crater's salt. The two may have formed a symbiotic relationship where Crater would eat a massive overdose of salt, and the creature would then feed on him to sustain itself, always leaving him just enough to survive. It finally kills him on Enterprise because it believes it can no longer trust him to protect it.
     
  12. Kor

    Kor Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Roddenberry oversaw this episode and even did the final re-write.

    Then he turned around and criticized TWOK for having Kirk kill the ceti eel instead of studying it. :rolleyes:

    Kor
     
  13. urbandefault

    urbandefault Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It was killing redshirts (which is ok--that's why they're there), but then it started killing The Star of the Show. Since it was the last of its kind, there was no way to repopulate the species, and it would die eventually anyway, buh-bye.
     
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  14. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Wouldn't it be easier for the creature to just eat the salt directly? There's no reason why it can't do that.
     
  15. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Giving it salt isn't as entertaining as shooting it.
     
  16. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I can't accept the creature being a coldly calculating, intelligent player. Sure, we may get the illusion of this when it "reasons" with our heroes in the briefing room - but that's what it is, an illusion of reasoning. The creature doesn't really know Swahili or look like Nancy Crater. But it does make its victims see, hear and apparently also feel whatever they want to see, hear and feel. Intelligent conversation should be no different from pleasing looks in that respect.

    Our heroes want to hear McCoy plead for the creature in the scene. But only because they want him to play out that mandatory part so that they can proceed with the hunting down and killing. The very fact that the fake McCoy's fake argument is presented already dooms it to utter irrelevance, then.

    The actions of the creature are consistent, then, even if appearing illogical. It's not a course of action for a creature aware of all the pertinent facts and planning ahead, that much we can easily tell. The actions will not secure a supply of salt for the medium term future, nor give the creature a ride to a tastier environment. They only provide immediate gratification. But they do that in a consistent manner.

    Now, are the heroes facing a mindless beast? Or perhaps a deranged survivor of the civilization that created the buildings now in ruins? Or an extra-M-113ian monster from far away that perhaps but not necessarily played a role in the collapse of the civilization? The facts of the episode don't allow us to deduce that much. But in each and every case, the possible sapience of the creature is gone. And the only decision Kirk faces is whether to use the stun or kill setting.

    Using more of those salt traps? It's not working. And the fake McCoy's suggestion of dropping the "trap" part shouldn't make any difference. The creature couldn't tell the difference, and certainly wouldn't trust it.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
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  17. KirkusOveractus

    KirkusOveractus Commodore Commodore

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    That I'm not sure about. At the clip the vampire was draining people, it would need to feed off Crater quite a bit. He doesn't have any sign of the red circles on him.
     
  18. MarsWeeps

    MarsWeeps Fleet Captain Premium Member

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    Unless his agreement with the creature specified only certain body areas to feed from. :wtf:
     
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  19. KirkusOveractus

    KirkusOveractus Commodore Commodore

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    You went there, didn't you? You...went there.
     
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  20. Kor

    Kor Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    No doubt the ankles or the upper arms, areas we wouldn't see on screen in the episode.

    Kor
     
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