Worf's New Neuro System
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Not that I recall. One of TNG's lowpoints. I'd take all of season one over this stinker.
No, I don't think this comes up again, which is disappointing in many ways. It would have been interesting to follow Worf's recovery a lot farther than it went--the whole thing isn't mentioned again post-Ethics. This could have popped up in a number of different places in TNG or DS9, and, as far as I know, it never did.
Does anyone know if this was the only episode of a Trek series that talked (specifically) about Klingon anatomy? It is one of the only ones I recall.
Does anyone know if this was the only episode of a Trek series that talked (specifically) about Klingon anatomy? It is one of the only ones I recall.
DS9's By Inferno's Light Doc Bashir briefly tells Worf his injuries after fighting the Jem' Hadar all day..something about in his thoracic cavity
One reason I hate that episode is because of the primitive way they portray the Federation's technology in dealing with a back injury.
I would imagine that by the 24th century, complete reconstruction of bone, spinal discs and spinal cord/nerves would be a walk in the park.
Yet they show the technology to be lacking, (moving your legs via remote control?)
We could probably do the remote control thing now, but thankfully, science is working on reconstructing the spinal cord itself, and we may have that capability in the next 20 years.
All these reasons make this episode horribly outdated.
I would imagine that by the 24th century, complete reconstruction of bone, spinal discs and spinal cord/nerves would be a walk in the park.
Yet they show the technology to be lacking, (moving your legs via remote control?)
We could probably do the remote control thing now, but thankfully, science is working on reconstructing the spinal cord itself, and we may have that capability in the next 20 years.
All these reasons make this episode horribly outdated.
True enough. OTOH, the method of replacing Worf's spine jibes with the method of replacing Nog's leg (and perhaps various bits and pieces of Picard after his "BoBW" experience). UFP medical technology can apparently readily create new natural tissue that seamlessly replaces the lost one, and all the lingering effects will be purely psychological as the replacement tissue is a 100% accurate match of the original.
It's just that hooking up Worf's new spine would probably be a more complex job than hooking up Nog's new leg, even with 100% accurate replacements. But in VOY "Emanations", the EMH essentially pulled a repeat of "Ethics", replicating neural tissue and inserting it into the patient. Even if 90% of his casual attitude towards the operation was boasting, we might argue that technology did advance during the intervening years, and that Russell's method was fully vindicated.
Funny how the EMH had alien neural tissue down pat, but struggled with alien pulmonary tissue in "Phage"!
Timo Saloniemi
It's just that hooking up Worf's new spine would probably be a more complex job than hooking up Nog's new leg, even with 100% accurate replacements. But in VOY "Emanations", the EMH essentially pulled a repeat of "Ethics", replicating neural tissue and inserting it into the patient. Even if 90% of his casual attitude towards the operation was boasting, we might argue that technology did advance during the intervening years, and that Russell's method was fully vindicated.
Funny how the EMH had alien neural tissue down pat, but struggled with alien pulmonary tissue in "Phage"!
Timo Saloniemi
It would be an interest conjecture that the operation did not just return Worf to his previous abilities, but actually improved them, especially in the area of Worf's fighting abilities.
Most would agree that Worf was a more effective warrior post-operation. Compare TNG era Worf, to DS9 era Worf.
Most would agree that Worf was a more effective warrior post-operation. Compare TNG era Worf, to DS9 era Worf.
One might also simply argue that Worf spent his all-important formative years in an environment where he could not receive proper combat training. Only the pronounced and prolonged exposure to fellow Klingons or Klingon-equivalents in the DS9 motivated and educated him sufficiently...
It would be interesting to learn how Klingons view cybernetic augmentation. We haven't heard comments one way or the other. Would an "improved Klingon" be an abomination, either by Kahlessian tradition or because of the misadventure with the human-augment genes in ENT? Or would any improvement be welcomed as long as it provided added honor of winning?
IIRC, Worf never comments on Borg bits, nor on the remote control rig of "Looking for Par'Mach" or the like. Is this because he's neutral on such things, or because he's embarrassed and "does not discuss such matters"?
Timo Saloniemi
It would be interesting to learn how Klingons view cybernetic augmentation. We haven't heard comments one way or the other. Would an "improved Klingon" be an abomination, either by Kahlessian tradition or because of the misadventure with the human-augment genes in ENT? Or would any improvement be welcomed as long as it provided added honor of winning?
IIRC, Worf never comments on Borg bits, nor on the remote control rig of "Looking for Par'Mach" or the like. Is this because he's neutral on such things, or because he's embarrassed and "does not discuss such matters"?
Timo Saloniemi
I agree, and disagree.
When TNG was made spinal research was in its infancy, probably still in utero, infact, so it was probably seen as a pretty far-fetched idea that spinal research would advance much in the next 50 years, yet it's advanced quite a bit in the last 25 years due to any number of factors with the changing course of technology. Things like stem cells were probably barely even considered back then, yet in this episode that's essentially what they did to fix Worf's spine.
It is, however unbelievable that someone with a spinal cord injury is so screwed in the 24c, and while it could be argued that Klingon spinal research is limited Beverly makes it sound like it's pretty much a universal "it's simply something we can't do" sort of thing. Which, really, is bullshit.
In one episode she puts a device on LaForge allowing his brain to operate the cardio/pulmonary system of an injured, unknown, alien on the cusp of evolving into an energy being. If that's possible then it should be possible to put a couple of implants into Worf and he could operate his legs "via remote" with the same processes he already uses through his body's natural means. (In "Transfigurations', Geordi didn't have to do anything special to "breathe" or circulate for the alien.)
TOS was a bit more... loose with stuff like this but to use it as another example, in one episode Uhura has her entire mind blanked by the evolved Nomad probe, dialogue suggests she was simply "retaught" everything she knew by computers. So rather than ending up in a hospital and having to relearn everything she had over the last 20-some years she relearns everything she needs to know to continue her job between episodes.
Beverly asserts in one episode that the common cold had been "cured" and we see other unknown pathogens and diseases solved within hours of in-universe time and it had been boasted that the entire (human) brain had been mapped, Picard has a mechanical heart and Nog fairly "easily" gets a replacement for an amputated leg.
So the idea that Worf's spinal injury was beyond modern medical technology for the 24c is a bit hard to believe given everything we see that is possible with medicine in that time. Hell, you could simply argue all that needed to be done was run Worf through the transporter with a previous transport pattern used to rebuild the damaged part of the spinal cord.
But, nope, it's just "Sorry, you're fucked, buddy!" The best we can do is give you these stupid attachments that take great concentration and training for you to learn to use to regain only part of your mobility.
And yeah given that what happened, happened, Worf's recovery should have been touched on in at least a couple more episodes, or at the end of this episode they should have just said he doesn't need rehabilitation since he's using his own damn spine to move, but no they made it seem like he needed rehabilitation. He's fine in the next episode.
I love Ethics as an episode; definitely one of my TNG top ten for the various issues it raises and how it resolves them.
As for the tech side of things, I generally don't really pay too much attention to the details of whatever technobabble the writers need to use to create a good story. It seemed reasonably plausible to suggest that the sheer complexity of the synaptic connections at either end of a spinal cord would make it exceptionally difficult to "wire up" a replicated cord compared to a simple limb replacement or something like that. *shrug*
As for the tech side of things, I generally don't really pay too much attention to the details of whatever technobabble the writers need to use to create a good story. It seemed reasonably plausible to suggest that the sheer complexity of the synaptic connections at either end of a spinal cord would make it exceptionally difficult to "wire up" a replicated cord compared to a simple limb replacement or something like that. *shrug*
But in a world where things can be manipulated and changed at a sub-quantum "wiring up" the spinal cord and brain should be pretty easy, when a device can repair injuries with a beam of "light", getting damaged nerve cells to repair shouldn't be too difficult. And, yeah, nerve cells can't self-repair but, again, that's already something we're finding work arounds for (stem cell research which, again they didn't have much knowledge of the in the early 90s.)
Really the deal with Worf's spinal cord was a case of the story they wanted to tell over-ruling any "logic" in the universe the show takes place in.
As I said above, at the very basic level of what we know of Treknology they should have simply been able to repair the spinal cord with a recent transporter pattern to recreate the damaged/disconnected nerves.
Really the deal with Worf's spinal cord was a case of the story they wanted to tell over-ruling any "logic" in the universe the show takes place in.
As I said above, at the very basic level of what we know of Treknology they should have simply been able to repair the spinal cord with a recent transporter pattern to recreate the damaged/disconnected nerves.
Agreed. Interesting concept to explore, crap execution. And the "save" at the end with the whole "Klingons have redundant organs!" bit at the end was just bad. Not that I'd expect Klingon bodies to be like humans, but because as presented t it made the Federation doctors look like fools who had no clue at all as to what they were doing.
Yeah, the "redundant organs" thing was a bit dumb. Klingons had been friendly with the Federation for at least a generation at that point, you'd think documents and information about their anatomy and the way their bodies work would be pretty common place. It's also nice that their bodies are so adapted for battle, wounds, and have redundancies for all of their major body system.
Well, except their spinal cord is still located in a fairly vulnerable spot running down their back bone, is easily damaged, and has no backup.
Well, except their spinal cord is still located in a fairly vulnerable spot running down their back bone, is easily damaged, and has no backup.
It sure seems plausible to me, says the woman who had part of her lower spine removed. It's a very complicated area.
No offense, but it's a very complicated area today.
400 years from now, it's not likely to be especially if stem-cell research lives up to be everything it's proposed to be.
400 years from now, it's not likely to be especially if stem-cell research lives up to be everything it's proposed to be.
On a human.
Klingons could be wired so differently that it might be impossible to figure out. It's not like they'd let a Klingon live long enough in the same situation to conduct any tests on this to share with the Federation.
Besides, if you're going to complain about how backwards the tech might seem in comparison to today (not when it was filmed), hate the show for their large, clunky computers, Data for his slow processing speeds, PADDs and tricorders that do less than my phone...
It's a show created in our past set in our future. They were just making stuff up having no idea how quickly we'd progress, obviously.
Or Trek TOS for its references to “tapes,” “transistor units” and “printed circuits.” And the invalid Captain Pike being limited to saying “yes” or “no” with a flashing light.
Your phone can scan a person and map their entire body structure down to their DNA and tell you everything there is about them? I don't think there's an app for that.
We didn't have the technology now, let alone in the 90s, to instantly heal wounds without scars, cure the cold, or find the cures for unknown diseases within a day or to implant self-sufficient bionic hearts. But that's all stuff that was pretty much part of routine medical practice in the 24c. Something like a broken arm which today takes doctors, x-rays, and possibly surgery to fix was such a non-issue in the 24c that a simple thing like a splint was considered archaic medicine.
So if the writers felt that broken bones, common viruses and severe wounds were going to be treated as simply as putting on band-aid it seems a bit silly to suggest that spinal cord repair was outside of medicine's reach in the 24c. It doesn't add up to everything we seen them do and know they can do.
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^^
I think you know what I meant.
Writing for future sci-fi is a guessing game. Sometimes they're right, more often they're not. Love it or hate it, it's part of the genre.
And again, Klingon medicine and biology was notably different for humans. It's why they threw in the few lines stating so, so at least it would seem a bit more plausible than if Riker broke his neck.
I think you know what I meant.
Writing for future sci-fi is a guessing game. Sometimes they're right, more often they're not. Love it or hate it, it's part of the genre.
And again, Klingon medicine and biology was notably different for humans. It's why they threw in the few lines stating so, so at least it would seem a bit more plausible than if Riker broke his neck.
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