Trek Medicine

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

This is a general thread for questions about Trek-era medical care.

I'll start: in SNW's "A Quality of Mercy" (haven't watched, but read this on MA), old alternate Pike proves his identity to present Pike by recalling a story about Pike's first pony, Sir-Neighs-a-Lot, who had to be euthanized after the creature broke a leg. [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Sir-Neighs-a-Lot]

That's still a thing in early 23nd century Federation medicine? No advances in equine orthopedics? I mean, at the very least, let the creature live out its days in happy retirement with no riders.

 

[Oddish]

Don't forget...
* "Tuvix". Using the transporter to de-combine two people who have been mixed together on a genetic level: No problem.
* "Duet". Curing a knife-wound. No, can't do that.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Yeah, but combine the stab wound with Marritza's lack of will to live/guilty feelings/peace over (choosing) dying for another's crimes against Bajoranity? That's a lot to overcome.

 

[Oddish]

And consider the torture Miles gets in "Hard Time"... Bashir basically says that there was no memory implants used. The memories Miles received were perfectly ordinary ones, they just were experienced much faster. So if they're ordinary memories, and it's established that a Federation physician can erase ordinary memories... why is Miles stuck with them?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Maybe due to the nature of the memory dump, he needs to be weaned off them a few at a time - removing that huge chunk of trauma all at once will do more damage.

Kind of like pulling a weapon out of your gut after you've been stabbed; while the first (irrational) instinct is to do so, it's better to leave it in to curb the bleeding, until a doctor can carefully remove it.

 

[Deks]

And consider the torture Miles gets in "Hard Time"... Bashir basically says that there was no memory implants used. The memories Miles received were perfectly ordinary ones, they just were experienced much faster. So if they're ordinary memories, and it's established that a Federation physician can erase ordinary memories... why is Miles stuck with them?

Trek has a penchant for ignoring established technology.
DS9 was one of the worse offenders in this regard. As the series went on, pre-established technologies were used less and less or not at all (or utterly ignored) for the purpose of drama.
Mind you, DS9 isn't the ONLY offender here, TNG and VOY did it too.
If you recall, in both TNG and VOY, early seasons medicine was portrayed as being capable of doing a LOT of things... and then in the later seasons... it was ignored.

 

[Ovation]

So…Star Trek.

 

[Oddish]

Maybe, but this was especially dumb. Bashir is effectively saying: "It's known that our memory alteration technology can erase any conventional memories from anyone whose neurology is similar to human. These memories were time-compressed, but otherwise completely conventional, and the recipient was human. So of course, I can't erase them."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Regarding Pike's horse, we're not talking splitting two individuals accidentally combined by the transporter, or erasing false memories from someone's mind. It's a horse with a broken leg, on Earth.

 

[Oddish]

Regarding Pike's horse, we're not talking splitting two individuals accidentally combined by the transporter, or erasing false memories from someone's mind. It's a horse with a broken leg, on Earth.

It does seem like it would be an easy fix. Just sedate the animal, use a bone fusion unit, and Sir Neighs-a-lot rides again!

 

[1001001]

Forget all that “technology”.

All you need are bats and slugs.

 

[Deks]

So…Star Trek.

I'd wish they let go of the nonsense of ignoring pre-established technology and just work with what is already there and develop on top of that.
The tech doesn't have to be dumbed down to get a dramatic episode... good writers work within the established universe and technology to create the drama that uses what is there.

 

[FredH]

This is a general thread for questions about Trek-era medical care.

I'll start: in SNW's "A Quality of Mercy" (haven't watched, but read this on MA), old alternate Pike proves his identity to present Pike by recalling a story about Pike's first pony, Sir-Neighs-a-Lot, who had to be euthanized after the creature broke a leg. [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Sir-Neighs-a-Lot]

That's still a thing in early 23nd century Federation medicine? No advances in equine orthopedics? I mean, at the very least, let the creature live out its days in happy retirement with no riders.

Star Trek medicine, like Star Trek science and technology in general, always operates according to what is most dramatic for a given story. Which means, yes, it’s wildly inconsistent and nonsensical. They should all be running around with psi powers from that drug from the “Plato’s Stepchildren” planet, and they should all be immortal because of the transporter. But they’re not, and they’re not going to be, and if a story needs somebody to die from a hangnail, they just will.

 

[FredH]

Maybe, but this was especially dumb. Bashir is effectively saying: "It's known that our memory alteration technology can erase any conventional memories from anyone whose neurology is similar to human. These memories were time-compressed, but otherwise completely conventional, and the recipient was human. So of course, I can't erase them."

Chewbacca Defense: Say a lot of words quickly to distract the viewer, then sum up with “So we can’t.”

 

[FredH]

Regarding Pike's horse, we're not talking splitting two individuals accidentally combined by the transporter, or erasing false memories from someone's mind. It's a horse with a broken leg, on Earth.

That leg was really, really broken, you see.

 

[Oddish]

But they’re not, and they’re not going to be, and if a story needs somebody to die from a hangnail, they just will.

And when they pull that, there will always be people like me who call them on it. We gotta remind them that we're not dumb, or they'd try to get away with even worse.

QUOTE: That leg was really, really broken, you see.
Struck by lightning, right? Whole leg was vaporized?

 

[FredH]

And when they pull that, there will always be people like me who call them on it. We gotta remind them that we're not dumb, or they'd try to get away with even worse.

Sure! But realize they’re just going to keep right on doing it anyway. Because when it comes right down to it, with the technologies they’ve got available, basically no one should ever die short of a cataclysmic warp core breach — but the stories will become a lot less interesting if they stick to that, so they won’t, ever.

That leg was really, really broken, you see.
Struck by lightning, right? Whole leg was vaporized?

Biggest damn killer rabbit you ever saw. All that radiation from WW3.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Star Trek medicine, like Star Trek science and technology in general, always operates according to what is most dramatic for a given story.

I suppose they could have chosen literally any other specific memory Pike may have other than sad pet death had, like a bad breakup/puppy love crush from childhood, to prove Future Pike was truly Past Pike's future self.

They should all be running around with psi powers from that drug from the “Plato’s Stepchildren” planet,

It supposedly doesn't last forever/work off-planet.

 

[Oddish]

I think the point is to point out a parallel between future humans and present ones, to show that while the world may change, people are still people. One of my favorite similar stories is teenage Sisko's story of the girl he had a crush on. Shows that even 350 years from now, a boy will still agonize over asking a girl out. But it also humorously reminds us that it's still the future... when Ben's next love interest moves in, he asks her out before they're finished beaming in the furniture.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I think the point is to point out a parallel between future humans and present ones, to show that while the world may change, people are still people.

Fair enough. What else does Pike like besides horses?