transporter army

[Phoenix219]

If the first copy made of someone after he's been disintegrated is really him then what of the second copy?

Thats the big mindscrew. If its all real organic matter (neither one is going to lose integrity or die or fall apart or anything) and the memories are absolutely identical then ... can you even tell which one came first? How could one be more real then the other? They are BOTH you. Welcome to the world of Thomas Riker.

This type of stuff used to come up for debate a lot on the Heroes message board early during the (much maligned and many lost opportunities) 4th season. The entire personality and every memory of one deceased character was imprinted into someone else (complete with DNA based shapeshift).... if you remember everything you have ever done, and you look in the mirror and see yourself.... who are you?

 

[φ of π]

They did something similar in Farscape, too. Just so they could have Ben Browder in both story arcs...

 

[retroenzo]

They did something similar in Farscape, too. Just so they could have Ben Browder in both story arcs...

To be fair though, I think the original plan was that they'd 'fix' it at the end of the episode but they decided to stick with the two Crichtons, and personally I think it worked. They also didn't have a simple fix to resolve it at the end of the story arcs neither.

 

[UnknownSample]

It seems to me that Picard just said to Moriarty whatever he wanted to hear to make him agree to be put back into storage indefinitely which in the end is exactly what they did to him.

That is exactly how the episode was intended, and, I think, filmed originally. The tipoff that Moriarty was able to walk off the Holodeck was meant to be that drawing he did, of the Enterprise, that survived intact out in the corridor. Look at Picard's shifty eyes as he tells Moriarty he's trapped and why... I don't know if people actually get shifty eyes when lying, but they do on TV. Roddenberry had them change the ending. I think his quote was "We can't make Patrick a liar." I suppose Kirk shouldn't have lied about Corbomite either...
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I think this came out in Cinefantastique.
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On transporters and copies, I love that people can pursue both sides so well and so creatively and in such detail, but there's too much certainty. So many of the "can'ts" mean "it seems impossible today". I fall back on the idea that these people (in Starfleet, not the writers or producers) are a lot smarter and more knowledgeable than us. If we could get all the way to the end product (these devices) in our thinking, we'd actually be inventing these technologies. Lots of counter-intuitive breakthroughs stand in the way...

 

[soornge]

it is a standard of all sci fi that the evil twin has to live

 

[jaime]

it is a standard of all sci fi that the evil twin has to live

Really?
I can't think of any.
There's a few stories that head into altruistic self sacrifice, or something bordering on it, but I don't know of many doppelgänger stories where the evil twin lives.

Though Worf in the book Needs of the Many is left grey.