At first blush, it might appear that the Gorns overreacted a tad at our colony on Cestus III. After all, couldn't they have just talked to us instead of massacring us?
And then I thought about it from the Native American perspective. If they knew the future, really the only move to make when the first Europeans showed up was to kill every damned one of them and make sure none ever got home (which, incidentally, is what Kirk planned to do with the Gorn--not talk, but punish).
Something to ponder.
A lot of American Indians or Native Americans lived far from the places where the first European explorers arrived. So if they had any mystical ways of seeing the future they wouldn't have been able to do anything about it anyway.
And can you explain how a even a coastal group with canoes would be able to wipe out the crew of an exploring ship? Most explorers had a few cannons on htier ships, which frighten away attackers in canoes. And of course the explorers could pull up anchor and sail away in their small ship, smashing any canoes which got in thier way.
Oh wow, that would have defeated the purpose.
Of our crowd, I enjoyed this episode the most. The first half is brilliant, especially as a sequel to "Balance of Terror" (no agonizing about the decision this time--Kirk knows what to do...but does he?) and the second half is, well, not perfectly effective, but pretty good, and certainly memorable.
But this second time around, I really found myself sympathizing with the Gorns. Especially if you go with the idea that the Gorns and Romulans were neighbors (something that was part of the Star Fleet Battles universe), and the Romulans had already made incursions on Gorn space. Humans and Romulans probably are indistinguishable to the Gorns (though maybe not -- even the Horta could tell Spock for his pointy ears...) so as soon as Romula-types showed up, the response was obvious..
And again, if the Wampanoag knew what was coming, they might have slaughtered the
Mayflower crew rather than help them. Without prior knowledge, that would seem ruthless. With prior knowledge, it seems prudent[/QUOTE].
...But this second time around, I really found myself sympathizing with the Gorns. Especially if you go with the idea that the Gorns and Romulans were neighbors (something that was part of the Star Fleet Battles universe), and the Romulans had already made incursions on Gorn space. Humans and Romulans probably are indistinguishable to the Gorns (though maybe not -- even the Horta could tell Spock for his pointy ears...) so as soon as Romula-types showed up, the response was obvious.
The Star Fleet Battles universe is not canon. There is very little canon evidence of where the Romulans and the Gorn live realtive to each other.
And I don't see any wisdom in trusting the various space maps seen in various productions. Thee is no official frame store for how data about the
Star Trek universe arrives in our universe centuries earlier - and their probably never will be one. So it is making a big assumption to assume that any visual aspects of
Star Trek are accurte - possilby only the data in the scripts is accurate.
Besides, even if the Gorn have been attacked by Romulans, Klingons, Kzinti, Cardassians, Orions, or all of them, they ought to be able to recognzie th sensor readers from the ships of their enemies and notice that Federation starships have different enrgy signiaturures than any of their enemies, and thus might possibly not be hostile.
And again, if the Wampanoag knew what was coming, they might have slaughtered the Mayflower crew rather than help them. Without prior knowledge, that would seem ruthless. With prior knowledge, it seems prudent.
So how would the Wampanoag capture the
Mayflower? Remember that the Pilgrims were the cargo, not the crew, of the
Mayflower. The
Mayflower would have anchored, and some of the crew would have rowed boats to and from the shore to unload the Pilgrims and their goods. I imagine that by 1620 the Wampanoag would have heard stories about white men with their hand guns, and the cannon on sailing ships.
Possibly the Wampanoag woldn't have dared to row their canoes out to the
Mayflower, depending on how far out it was anchored, and whether the Wampanoag went far out to sea to fish.
The best strategy would be for the Wampanoag to wait for a calm night and have hundreds of warriors row out to the
Mayflower. But if it was a bright night, the watch might spotted the approaching uninvited canoes, raised the alarm, and the sailors may have fired cannons and/or pulled up the chchor to sail away. And of course if the Wampanoag's massacred the Pilgrims on shore first that show their hand, and the
Mayflower would sail away, perhaps shooting a few cannonballs at any Wampanoag targets they saw. Actually the Pilgrims and crew, except for exploring groups, spent the winter of 1620-21 aboard the
Mayflower.
Europeans were hardly new to the Wampanoags in 1620.
In 1614 English Captain Thomas Hunt visited the Patuxet tribe of the Wampanoag Confederation near Plymouth, Mass. and abductedat 20 persons including Tisquantum or Squanto. Hunt sold some of them as slaves in Spain,but Spanish friars freed someof them, and educated and tried to convert them. Squanto made his way to England somehow, and in 1619 squanto sailded from Newfoundland to New England with Thomas Dermer. Patuxet was abandoned, because the village had been wiped out by one of the terrible plagues of Old World diseases.
Squanto settled with other, surviving Wampanoags. In June 1620 Wampanoags attacked the returnng Dermer, The
Mayflower arrived in Massachssetts on November 19,1620 and must have been often sighted by various Wampanoags.as it sailed along the coast and eventually anchored in Plymuth Bay over the winter. Samoset, who had been a prisoner in England, made contact with the Pilgrims on March 16. Squanto and Samoset played big roles in negotiating the treaty between the Piligrims and Massasoit on March 22, 1621.
I also note that the first eventually successful English colony in what would become the USA was Virginia, founded in 1608, and the first European settlment in the futire USA was St. Augustine, Floridia, in 1565. So 1620 would have been much too late to think about keeping Europeans ignorent of North America.
And I may wonder whether the majority of present day Wampanoags would wish that Europeans never come to North America and to be living the lifestyle their ancestors lived in AD 1600. And also, if many Wampanoags do wish that, whether it would be a sensible thing to wish for.
What always bothered me about the Metrons (and other iterations) is the way they dealt with the situation. They could have just as easily stopped the pursuit and helped the two species find a better way to deal with the problem. They complain about how violent these "lesser" species are, but then solve the problem through ... violence! I don't think those Metrons are as highly evolved as they think they are ...
Yes, the Metrons could have told the two ships that their battle was stopped. They could have ordered the two ships to return to their homes in peace and warned their governments against any attempts at continuing the conflict. They might have ordered the Federation and the Gorns to abandon all claims to Cestus III and all the star systems nearby, or else.
