Automated updates: 2022-02-10
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John Colagioia
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@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ To clarify, let's imagine a third, more generic version of the previous situatio
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> **ROBERT**: A few years ago, somebody broke into my apartment and burglarized my stuff, and---
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> **JASON**: Hey, hey, hey, not **everybody** is a burglar, man! I've certainly never stolen a television from someone, let alone broken into someone's home, you know.
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> **JASON**: Hey, hey, hey, not *everybody* is a burglar, man! I've certainly never stolen a television from someone, let alone broken into someone's home, you know.
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> **ROBERT**: But my point was---
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@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ In the past few weeks, I've seen...not "a surprising number" of comments online
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I'm talking about this in the context of software, but there's something like the sentiment in every industry. The most generic version of this, looks something like the following.
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> People **say** that we shouldn't reinvent the wheel, but sometimes you probably know how to make a better wheel or might get a lot out of a new kind of wheel.
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> People *say* that we shouldn't reinvent the wheel, but sometimes you probably know how to make a better wheel or might get a lot out of a new kind of wheel.
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There are other versions that blame the problem on "managers" as some abstract group that (somehow) doesn't know anything about the actual work and exist to slow everyone down. There are versions imagining some weird [cancel culture]({% post_url 2020-07-12-tolerance %}) unfairly destroying the careers of people who choose to re-implement things. And there are versions that don't bother trying to justify the idea of redoing existing work.
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@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ And as a final example has long been found in textbooks and certain kinds of man
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In the [Free Culture Book Club](/blog/tag/bookclub), I make a third use of the content advisory, which dovetails to some extent with the other two: Setting expectations to defuse arguments over the work itself. That is, at the same time that I want a traumatized person to know that "this story contains non-consensual touching," I also *don't* want to hear from the prissy types who want to object to the mere presence of profanities, sex, people of color, or whatever. I think of those advisories somewhat like a carnival ride sign, distinct from the "prepare yourself" angle.
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> You must be at least **this** mature to engage with this work.
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> You must be at least *this* mature to engage with this work.
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In this context, we might say that maturity largely consists of accepting that a lot---but sure, definitely not *all*---of what people lump into a category of "morality" is completely arbitrary, and often chosen more to reinforce long-standing oppression than to improve society. In plain English, I'm not interested in a discussion about a story where one participant is just angry that (picking a random demographic...) bisexual people exist. Comparative legitimacy of reaction aside, it's a similar situation, where both should know what they're getting into, so that it doesn't provoke a disproportionate or dangerous response.
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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
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tags: [scifi, startrek, closereading]
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summary: <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i> The outside world in Star Trek
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thumbnail: /blog/assets/beautiful-reefs-ocean-reef-underwater-coral-reef-marine-biology-1633325-pxhere.com.png
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proofed: true
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---
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@ -82,13 +83,13 @@ The bad news is that it's only the first page of the story, and Foster's prose i
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Assuming that this narration is meant to be "in character" and not one fan playing to others, this entire discourse seems to suggest that people with psychological disabilities are considered by Federation society to be simultaneously worthless and pseudo-mystical---sort of a psychiatric version of the [noble savage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage) stereotype---while also giving us some indication of the status that Starfleet officers have in society.
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> Few probes, even unmanned ones, had flown further outside the galactic rim than the **Enterprise** was now speeding. Starships were too expensive to operate and too scattered for Starfleet Command to waste them on, say, just convoying experiments from world to world.
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> Few probes, even unmanned ones, had flown further outside the galactic rim than the *Enterprise* was now speeding. Starships were too expensive to operate and too scattered for Starfleet Command to waste them on, say, just convoying experiments from world to world.
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Given that we've watched the *Enterprise* deliver food and medicine, this gives us some indication of how Starfleet prioritizes scientific research. Even here, we're told that the mapping mission is actually incidental; the crew is actually visiting the Time Planet---from [*The City on the Edge of Forever*]({% post_url 2020-07-23-edge %})---which we're told that the *Enterprise* does often enough that Kirk merely finds the visits gratifying, rather than thrilling. They're taking the long way around, exiting the galaxy, to get the mapping done on the way.
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Given that we've watched the *Enterprise* deliver food and medicine, this gives us some indication of how Starfleet prioritizes scientific research. Even here, we're told that the mapping mission is actually incidental; the crew is really visiting the Time Planet---from [*The City on the Edge of Forever*]({% post_url 2020-07-23-edge %})---which we're told that the *Enterprise* does often enough that Kirk merely finds the visits gratifying, rather than thrilling. They're taking the long way around, exiting the galaxy, to get the mapping done on the way.
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What does the not-its-designated-name-of-course Time Planet have to do with this story? Nothing, but it'll be relevant *next time*.
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> Of course, the spatial engineers and physicists were agreed that it was impossible for any form of matter to travel faster than warp nine. Kirk though that this belief was simply a modern superstition. It had also been said that man would never be able to fly or, wonder of wonders, exceed the speed of light.
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> Of course, the spatial engineers and physicists were agreed that it was impossible for any form of matter to travel faster than warp nine. Kirk thought that this belief was simply a modern superstition. It had also been said that man would never be able to fly or, wonder of wonders, exceed the speed of light.
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Whatever the warp scale actually is, warp nine represents some sort of hard limit, which some people believe will soon be surpassed. Maybe interestingly, there has actually been an implied issue, since I can only find two episodes---[*The Changeling*]({% post_url 2020-08-27-change %}) and [*Is There In Truth No Beauty?*]({% post_url 2021-03-18-beauty %})---where the *Enterprise* moves faster, both under some outside influence, and Scott says "Impossible. It can't go that fast," in the former. [*The Enterprise Incident*]({% post_url 2021-02-25-incident %}), [*The Paradise Syndrome*]({% post_url 2021-03-04-syndrome %}), and [*The Day of the Dove*]({% post_url 2021-04-01-dove %}) all get the *Enterprise* to warp nine, but no faster.
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@ -148,13 +149,13 @@ Foster's own franchises often use "Patrick O'Morion" as an unexplained expletive
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> "That is what I thought. However, if that expression of exclusivity is intended for my benefit, Captain, you ought to know by now that it's misplaced."
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While this is just used as a reason to get Spock and McCoy to bicker, Spock is basically explaining [microaggressions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression). In this case, Kirk is suggesting that only humans are curious.
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While this is just used as a reason to get Spock and McCoy to bicker, Spock is basically explaining [microaggressions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression). In this case, Kirk is unintentionally suggesting that only humans are curious.
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> As soon as everyone had recovered fully from the effects of transporter dislocation...
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Huh. Apparently, at least in this adaptation, *everybody* suffers some sort of effect from the transporter, but most people just ignore it and dismiss the complaints of those who don't.
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> "**Enterprise**," came the prompt reply. Kirk was gratified. That gal would make a fine captain someday. "Uhura speaking."
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> "*Enterprise*," came the prompt reply. Kirk was gratified. That gal would make a fine captain someday. "Uhura speaking."
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I wonder if this line was inserted as "damage control" from the confusion around [*Turnabout Intruder*]({% post_url 2021-07-29-turnabout %})'s infamous comments (possibly) about women as captains.
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@ -162,7 +163,7 @@ I wonder if this line was inserted as "damage control" from the confusion around
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I don't even know what to do with the information that Kirk was also a gymnast, at some point in his life.
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Incidentally, this little vignettes of Kirk and Spock hitting the buttons to unlock doors occasionally references the approximate sizes and shapes of the aliens who crewed the ship. It accidentally raises an interesting point that I didn't notice with the episode, even though it mostly goes through the same motions: The plot sets up this ghost ship as interesting, then abandons the entire idea, with no hints of information gleaned from the adventure. Instead, it's half the episode introducing the thing that introduces the antagonist.
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Incidentally, these little vignettes of Kirk and Spock hitting the buttons to unlock doors occasionally references the approximate sizes and shapes of the aliens who crewed the ship. It accidentally raises an interesting point that I didn't notice with the episode, even though it mostly goes through the same motions: The plot sets up this ghost ship as interesting, then abandons the entire idea, with no hints of information gleaned from the adventure. Instead, it's half the episode introducing the thing that introduces the antagonist.
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> McCoy murmured, "I heard something like that, once. Not exactly the same, but close. Ever hear electric cello, Jim?"
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@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ tags: [scifi, startrek, closereading]
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summary: <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i> The outside world in Star Trek
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thumbnail: /blog/assets/landscape-nature-rock-wilderness-mountain-architecture-746291-pxhere.com.png
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offset: -21%
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---
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@ -203,7 +204,7 @@ At this point, we finally get into the episode, more or less the same flow.
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Two weeks into these adaptations, and I have many problems with Foster's writing, but the man knows how to lay out a room...even if "IandB" looks like a typo.
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> "There are few Vulcans on the **Enterprise**, Captain. I'm not likely to forget any, let alone a commander."
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> "There are few Vulcans on the *Enterprise*, Captain. I'm not likely to forget any, let alone a commander."
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Through the original series, the only member of the crew that didn't look entirely human was Spock, even when we've encountered other ships, except for the *Intrepid* in [*The Immunity Syndrome*]({% post_url 2020-12-10-immunity %}). We saw a navigator with three arms, last week, then Thelin and mention of other Vulcans this week, so maybe Starfleet has finally decided to take Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work seriously.
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@ -241,7 +242,7 @@ This is potentially an interesting twist. If sehlats have some empathic ability
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Another item to add to the list of possible evidence that Vulcan was conquered, here, is that ultra-pedantic Spock previously referred to Tasmeen as a "month," but the word implies association with a moon.
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> The writing unthinking vines of the carnivorous **d'mallu** did not ponder on the near miss. They merely recoiled and reset as the plant---with the inherent patience of all growing things---arranged itself once more to wait for less elusive prey.
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> The writing unthinking vines of the carnivorous *d'mallu* did not ponder on the near miss. They merely recoiled and reset as the plant---with the inherent patience of all growing things---arranged itself once more to wait for less elusive prey.
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It seemed worth mentioning that the plant has a name.
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@ -249,7 +250,7 @@ It seemed worth mentioning that the plant has a name.
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While it's surprising for them to admit it, it's *not* surprising that Vulcans traffic heavily in gossip. It fits neatly with the idea of shaming people for deviating from stereotypes that they would make sure that the group participating in the shaming is large and has a long memory.
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> It was a thick purr now, rough and mechanical. He scanned the dark horizon wishing, wishing for a battery of portable lights from the starship. But the **Enterprise** had not even been built yet. He didn't have so much as a flare.
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> It was a thick purr now, rough and mechanical. He scanned the dark horizon wishing, wishing for a battery of portable lights from the starship. But the *Enterprise* had not even been built yet. He didn't have so much as a flare.
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At times, it's been hinted that the *Enterprise* is a relatively old ship, sometimes even considered obsolete. But it's less than thirty-three years old, based on calculations above.
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@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ This unfortunately means that anybody who's trying to read along with the series
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This story begins with shore leave after *The Survivor*, so I'll try to remember to return to it then, to pick up any references that I might have just skipped, this time.
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> While Valeria was still something of an outpost world, its larger cities offered sufficiently sophisticated fleshpots to satisfy the more cosmopolitan tastes of certain of the **Enterprise**'s crew. And her rural attractions sufficed to assuage the nerves of the less adventurous.
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> While Valeria was still something of an outpost world, its larger cities offered sufficiently sophisticated fleshpots to satisfy the more cosmopolitan tastes of certain of the *Enterprise*'s crew. And her rural attractions sufficed to assuage the nerves of the less adventurous.
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@ -100,11 +100,11 @@ This story begins with shore leave after *The Survivor*, so I'll try to remember
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> He returned to the **Enterprise**. Two days later the last member of the crew had been rounded up, brought back on board, and either treated for accumulated cuts and bruises, formally bailed out, or sobered up.
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> He returned to the *Enterprise*. Two days later the last member of the crew had been rounded up, brought back on board, and either treated for accumulated cuts and bruises, formally bailed out, or sobered up.
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So...*that*'s what shore leave looks like.
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> Once back in free space, Kirk set the **Enterprise** on a course that would bring it 'round in a wide swing to pass close by Rifton, one of the Federation's seven principle Starfleet bases.
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> Once back in free space, Kirk set the *Enterprise* on a course that would bring it 'round in a wide swing to pass close by Rifton, one of the Federation's seven principle Starfleet bases.
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Rifton might be named for [the New York hamlet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifton%2C_New_York) primarily known for including the site of [Sojourner Truth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth)'s birth.
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@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ The hilariously dissonant term "peaceforcer" aside, this basically confirms what
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We don't get to know many members of the security team, so we can't say what effects this training actually has. However, generally speaking, in *our* world, this has the effect of training officers to see everything as a likely threat that they should use deadly force on.
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> "Get me engineer Sco---" She stopped in midphrase. Chief Engineer Scott was in no condition to program a coffee pot, much less handle complete realignment of the **Enterprise**'s generators. "Get me Subengineer Hondo McDuff."
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> "Get me engineer Sco---" She stopped in midphrase. Chief Engineer Scott was in no condition to program a coffee pot, much less handle complete realignment of the *Enterprise*'s generators. "Get me Subengineer Hondo McDuff."
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Hondo appears to be a Shona African boy's name, though that's clearly not the intended context, here. It's also a surname from various parts of the world---famous people with the name come from Equatorial Guinea, Germany, Japan, Mauritania, and Zimbabwe---and McDuff is sometimes given as a name to children. My point is that we can't guess much about this person, except that she's probably a woman.
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@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ As mentioned, this adaptation is the third and final story of **Star Trek Log Tw
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Carrying on with the tradition of Foster naming minor planets after African cities, [Kinshasa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinshasa) is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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> He wasn't surprised Starfleet Command had diverted the **Enterprise** from escort to survey duty. The discovery of a potentially colonizable unclaimed world took precedence over any but the direst emergency. It was interesting, pleasant duty. And if Vice-Admiral van Leeuwenhook had pulled a few strings to get the **Enterprise** the choice assignment, well, it was only a reward for a job well done.
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> He wasn't surprised Starfleet Command had diverted the *Enterprise* from escort to survey duty. The discovery of a potentially colonizable unclaimed world took precedence over any but the direst emergency. It was interesting, pleasant duty. And if Vice-Admiral van Leeuwenhook had pulled a few strings to get the *Enterprise* the choice assignment, well, it was only a reward for a job well done.
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> It was imperative to make an official survey and lay claim to the world quickly---before the Klingons, say, or the Romulans discovered it. Inhabitable worlds were not all that common, and competition for expansion was fierce.
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@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ Weirdly, [anaphase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphase) *is* a legitimate te
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Synopmist appears to be original to this episode. The [syn-](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syn) prefix refers to things being together, but the *word* has a meaning in chemistry referring to the angle of bonds. And, of course, "mist" is a conventional English word, but I can't make anything of that, and the name definitely doesn't conform to any generic drug stems.
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> Role reversal was always difficult. **They** were the aliens, not the Phylosians.
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> Role reversal was always difficult. *They* were the aliens, not the Phylosians.
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This is almost a clever twist on Foster's part, but...they're in space to "seek out new life and new civilizations." Isn't the entire concept of the show that our crew are perpetually the aliens? Is it different, just because their hosts resemble artichoke-themed octopodes? Actually, I'd probably watch an **Agmar the Artichoctopus** series.
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@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ We find the adaptation for this episode as the first story in **Star Trek Log Th
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> "Code SCRP-D-220. You've just programmed two hundred and twenty chocolate raisin pies into the month's menu. And the captain hates chocolate raisin pies. Get busy and fix it."
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> "Yes, ma'am." Colotti shook her head at her own idiocy and started on the tedious task of erasing and resetting the faulty program she had just fed into the **Enterprise**'s galley computer.
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> "Yes, ma'am." Colotti shook her head at her own idiocy and started on the tedious task of erasing and resetting the faulty program she had just fed into the *Enterprise*'s galley computer.
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Planning meals in as much as a month in advance is still common among institutions. Chocolate raisin pies are, in fact, a traditional recipe. And from what I can tell from comparing a few recipes, Kirk is almost certainly justified in hating them.
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I'm trying to think of an earlier instance that we've seen in the franchise of someone consuming entertainment. Gary Mitchell reading poetry back in [*Where No Man Has Gone Before*]({% post_url 2020-01-23-trek-no-man %}), maybe.
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> "I don't know if a **personal** estimation of another being is subject to log regulations, Spock. But knowing our quarry as I do, I'd rather not give him any ammunition he can use later---including anything even vaguely libelous." He stopped, stared hard at the cloud-wreathed globe swimming in the crowded starfield.
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> "I don't know if a *personal* estimation of another being is subject to log regulations, Spock. But knowing our quarry as I do, I'd rather not give him any ammunition he can use later---including anything even vaguely libelous." He stopped, stared hard at the cloud-wreathed globe swimming in the crowded starfield.
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From this, we know that Mudd's eventual trial will require submitting the *Enterprise* logs as evidence, and that a [libel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation#Libel) charge---printed defamation, which gives some impression of how these logs are thought about---is a serious enough accusation that it could derail the trial and put Kirk's private feelings in the spotlight in a way that he'd rather not have scrutiny.
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> A Klingon sat next to a Tallerine, who seemed tiny compared to the huge Berikazin on his right. Next to the representative of that warlike race sat a beautiful woman from the Orion system. An Edoan was seen near her, from the same world that had given Lieutenant Arex birth. A Vulcan rested at ease beside him. One could also see a Gorn and a human in the assembly.
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> There were also three aliens representing races no one in the Federation would have recognized, for they were as foreign to Federation knowledge as was the Tetroid ship the staff of the **Enterprise** had observed here. Yet they waited in harmony with their nine spiritual brothers and sisters.
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> There were also three aliens representing races no one in the Federation would have recognized, for they were as foreign to Federation knowledge as was the Tetroid ship the staff of the *Enterprise* had observed here. Yet they waited in harmony with their nine spiritual brothers and sisters.
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I wasn't even going to mention Gruyakin, since I can't find a reference to it that doesn't lead back to this episode. But the important bit, here, is that expeditions aren't recorded until they reach a certain size or put down roots.
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> "It doesn't sound like a headache, Jim. I could be wrong. I hope I **am** wrong. I'll check our Caitian references. The important thing is to find her. If she's lying unconscious in a corridor somewhere...Let's hope she's just sitting somewhere in a daze."
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> "It doesn't sound like a headache, Jim. I could be wrong. I hope I *am* wrong. I'll check our Caitian references. The important thing is to find her. If she's lying unconscious in a corridor somewhere...Let's hope she's just sitting somewhere in a daze."
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This is surprising concern and apparent expertise from McCoy about a non-human member of the crew being ill. However, you'll note that he effectively *prolongs* the crisis by avoiding telling the Captain what could be wrong. A few paragraphs later, though, he also dismisses the missing member of the crew as "probably not serious." So, I guess that his concern was only temporary.
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Again, pheraligen isn't a generic drug name. More importantly, though, you'll notice the casual way that McCoy explains how the Federation---both Starfleet and random worlds---slip drugs into the food supply, explicitly to keep the population docile without their knowledge. You'll notice that it's not even considered a medical issue, where you would presumably have some form of [informed consent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent).
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> The engineer looked embarrassed. "From a costume ball I went to, Captain, several years ago. I went dressed as a Fiorellian and a real female Fiorellian mistook me for a male of her species. To complicate matters, **she** was costumed as a human female. So it was doubly disconcertin'."
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> The engineer looked embarrassed. "From a costume ball I went to, Captain, several years ago. I went dressed as a Fiorellian and a real female Fiorellian mistook me for a male of her species. To complicate matters, *she* was costumed as a human female. So it was doubly disconcertin'."
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Here's Scott---after volunteering to dress up as a cat in order to knock out a female colleague, I might add, which definitely seems on brand---talking about that party he went to, where everybody was dressed in the interstellar equivalent of [blackface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface). Also, ever the misogynist, he isn't aware of a more concise term for "a human female," such as *woman*.
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We find the adaptation for this episode as **Star Trek Log Eight**. The last four books in the series cover one episode apiece.
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> "Captain's log, stardate 5537.1. The **Enterprise** is embarked, for a change, on a routine follow-up mission---to search for a survey ship overdue for repot-in in the vicinity of Epsilon Scorpii, last known to be investigating the system of a G4 sun designated Lactra on Federation starcharts."
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> "Captain's log, stardate 5537.1. The *Enterprise* is embarked, for a change, on a routine follow-up mission---to search for a survey ship overdue for repot-in in the vicinity of Epsilon Scorpii, last known to be investigating the system of a G4 sun designated Lactra on Federation starcharts."
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Weirdly, [Epsilon Scorpii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Scorpii) (ε Sco, about 65 light years from Earth) is named Larawag from a [Wardaman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardaman_people) word---not Lactra, the name of the star in the episode---though the names do bear some mild resemblance to each other. Larawag is probably best known for representing [Ceará](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cear%C3%A1), the Brazilian state, on the national flag. Foster has changed star names before, and seems to have delighted in filling his background with non-European names, so it's surprising that he didn't make the change, here.
|
||||
|
||||
> "Keeper-animal relationships have always been fluid, Bones," observed Kirk, "even on Earth. We have one category for ourselves and one for most other animals. But then there are the primates and the cetaceans. Intelligent behavior is often a question of artificially applied standards. Maybe the dolphins consider is part of **their** zoo. On this world I think we ought to be flattered if they've put us into the latter category. In any case, they've taken the precaution of putting us behind bars."
|
||||
> "Keeper-animal relationships have always been fluid, Bones," observed Kirk, "even on Earth. We have one category for ourselves and one for most other animals. But then there are the primates and the cetaceans. Intelligent behavior is often a question of artificially applied standards. Maybe the dolphins consider is part of *their* zoo. On this world I think we ought to be flattered if they've put us into the latter category. In any case, they've taken the precaution of putting us behind bars."
|
||||
|
||||
I raised the question of why we haven't seen any non-human animals treated as peers in the post about [*The Gamesters of Triskelion*]({% post_url 2020-11-26-games %}), and this at least hints at the most troubling possible answer: Humans haven't gone to the trouble of trying to communicate, with Kirk not having the foggiest idea what dolphins think.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ Last time, I talked about the similarity in McCoy's rhetoric to white supremacis
|
|||
|
||||
There's a chance that our mystery world may have been named for [Lin Boqu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Boqu), though it's probably pronounced similarly to the French [*beaucoup*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beaucoup#French), which was imported into English by soldiers after the World Wars as a kind of all-purpose semantic magnifier.
|
||||
|
||||
> "What **we** recognize as life forms a very narrow band in the spectrum of possibilities, Captain."
|
||||
> "What *we* recognize as life forms a very narrow band in the spectrum of possibilities, Captain."
|
||||
|
||||
This series should probably be more notable for how often the crew got blindsided by the presence of intelligent life, just because it comes in a form that they hadn't seen before. At least Spock is aware of the problem.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ We've seen this sort of behavior before, even earlier in this post and later in
|
|||
|
||||
It's subtle, but this tells us that Earth's first century of interplanetary and interstellar spacecraft were designed to minimize disruption to fluids (like air) that it might pass through, despite interplanetary space having few such fluids. We have actually already seen hints of this, with the *Botany Bay* from [*Space Seed*]({% post_url 2020-06-11-seed %}) bearing some resemblance to 1950s military submarines.
|
||||
|
||||
> Captain O'Shea of the **Huron** probably fell about midway between fiction and reality. Outwardly there was little to distinguish him. He was of average build and temperament, exception the special sole of his left shoe, constructed to accommodate the fact that the one leg was a number of centimeters shorter than the other one. On such minutiae do careers in Starfleet hang.
|
||||
> Captain O'Shea of the *Huron* probably fell about midway between fiction and reality. Outwardly there was little to distinguish him. He was of average build and temperament, exception the special sole of his left shoe, constructed to accommodate the fact that the one leg was a number of centimeters shorter than the other one. On such minutiae do careers in Starfleet hang.
|
||||
|
||||
Episodes like [*The Terratin Incident*]({% post_url 2021-10-28-terratin %}) and *The Ambergris Element* have led me to point out how few affordances Starfleet provides for hypothetical officer who might not be significantly different from a human. Episodes like [*The Menagerie*]({% post_url 2020-03-26-trek-menagerie-1 %}) and [*Is There in Truth No Beauty?*]({% post_url 2021-03-18-beauty %}) have similarly hinted to us that Federation society has no room for those living with disabilities. This seems to come close to splitting the difference, suggesting that O'Shea---the freighter captain---faces serious discrimination because his legs aren't the same length.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ There's also reference to how some believe that "small living quarters...made fo
|
|||
|
||||
Episodes like *Is There in Truth No Beauty?* have suggested that the transporters make some small fraction of users feel ill, but Foster seems to indicate that it's a universal problem.
|
||||
|
||||
> No, the **Huron** might very well have gone down on shipping schedules as just one of those infrequent vessels marked "never arrived---cause unknown," if it weren't for the fact that the ship was to meet the oncoming **Enterprise** in free space. Something Kirk doubted her attackers had known, or they would have taken care to leave no one alive. They had made a mistake.
|
||||
> No, the *Huron* might very well have gone down on shipping schedules as just one of those infrequent vessels marked "never arrived---cause unknown," if it weren't for the fact that the ship was to meet the oncoming *Enterprise* in free space. Something Kirk doubted her attackers had known, or they would have taken care to leave no one alive. They had made a mistake.
|
||||
|
||||
While we've seen plenty of evidence of fragile and broken supply chains, *mysterious* gaps are rare.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ We find the adaptation for this episode as **Star Trek Log Nine**. The final fo
|
|||
|
||||
This version of events, interestingly, follows directly from the events of [*The Eye of the Beholder*]({% post_url 2021-12-09-beholder %}), starting out by dropping off the team we met there.
|
||||
|
||||
> With all the ship's operations functioning smoothly, he was able to lean back and relax slightly. The small portable reader screen set into the left-hand chair arm was playing back the half-legendary story of how one Matthew Jeffries first conceived of the Constitution Class vessels, of which the **Enterprise** was but one of many now.
|
||||
> With all the ship's operations functioning smoothly, he was able to lean back and relax slightly. The small portable reader screen set into the left-hand chair arm was playing back the half-legendary story of how one Matthew Jeffries first conceived of the Constitution Class vessels, of which the *Enterprise* was but one of many now.
|
||||
|
||||
The half of the legend that's true is [Walter Matthew Jefferies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Jefferies), set designer on **Star Trek**. In later installments of the franchise, the narrow maintenance tunnels in the ship are referred to as "Jefferies Tubes" in his honor. The term was apparently in use during the *filming* of the original series, but never made it to an episode.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ An interesting oddity, here, is that the Klingon captain introduces himself as K
|
|||
|
||||
The phrase "Frankenstein unbound" doesn't actually have much of a history, though, instead seeming to be coined (based on the excerpts available from Google NGram results) by then-contemporary science fiction author Brian Aldiss, with the release of his 1973 novel **Frankenstein Unbound**, where his character (Joe Bodenland) travels back in time from 2020 to meet Victor Frankenstein.
|
||||
|
||||
> "I was just thinking, Jim. The Pandronians, according to Commander bn Bem, might be able to handle this attack with their own weapons. All they need is a sufficient supply of the dissolution drug. I've been producing drugs in large quantity all my life. I don't see why the **Enterprise**'s organic synthesizers couldn't turn out all the drug the Pandronians need."
|
||||
> "I was just thinking, Jim. The Pandronians, according to Commander bn Bem, might be able to handle this attack with their own weapons. All they need is a sufficient supply of the dissolution drug. I've been producing drugs in large quantity all my life. I don't see why the *Enterprise*'s organic synthesizers couldn't turn out all the drug the Pandronians need."
|
||||
|
||||
This seems to confirm the idea that the *Enterprise* manufactures drugs as needed based on formulas with trade names---I originally raised the idea when discussing [*Requiem for Methuselah*]({% post_url 2021-06-24-methuselah %}). Oddly, since there shouldn't be much reason for McCoy to manufacture drugs at scale on the *Enterprise* or in his life as a doctor, this might also confirm my off-the-wall theory from [*The Infinite Vulcan*]({% post_url 2021-09-30-infinite %}) that the McCoy family might be in the pharmaceutical business.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ Compare this to Walking Bear's introduction in the episode, where he's just a me
|
|||
|
||||
I want to know more about this alleged extinction of orphans. Do parents just...not die? Has the life expectancy crashed, so that the current generation is likely to die before its parents? Are children expected to follow their dead parents into the cremation chamber? Are family relationships loose enough that fostering or adoption is enough to erase the trauma of losing parents? As far as I know, the only real alternative to becoming an orphan is death...which I guess would explain extinction.
|
||||
|
||||
> "**Hmmm**?" Uhura snapped out of her daydream. "Sorry, Captain. When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to tell me all the old handed-down fairy tales. Some of the stories revolved around the exploits of a god called Myoka Mbowe. It translates roughly from the Swahili as **winged snake**."
|
||||
> "*Hmmm*?" Uhura snapped out of her daydream. "Sorry, Captain. When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to tell me all the old handed-down fairy tales. Some of the stories revolved around the exploits of a god called Myoka Mbowe. It translates roughly from the Swahili as *winged snake*."
|
||||
|
||||
Not only can I not find any evidence of a Myoka Mbowe that doesn't point directly back to this adaptation---suggesting that African subcultures learn about ancient Mesoamerica, but the rest of the world does not---but this also doesn't appear to be a valid translation. The closest that I can find is *nyoka mwenye mabawa*, which has some similar phonetic elements, but was definitely transcribed wrong somewhere along the way.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ Not only can I not find any evidence of a Myoka Mbowe that doesn't point directl
|
|||
|
||||
Look, I can't help it if the most insightful thing that Scott has said was effectively an admission that his obsession with violence and rage against non-humans (and women) is rooted in a need to wield a surrogate phallus as overcompensation for a perceived deficiency. They're *his* words, not mine...
|
||||
|
||||
> They had been exquisitely rendered by a careful, expert hand, he would have said, had he not seen the entire city raised from---**not the dust, Kirk**, he warned himself. **Don't get biblical---you've encountered races with matter-manipulation abilities before**.
|
||||
> They had been exquisitely rendered by a careful, expert hand, he would have said, had he not seen the entire city raised from---*not the dust, Kirk*, he warned himself. *Don't get biblical---you've encountered races with matter-manipulation abilities before*.
|
||||
|
||||
It's been a while since we've muddied the waters of religion in the Federation, and this is...clearly not helpful. There's something of Christian mythology that apparently resonates in Kirk, but he's also dismissive of it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,179 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: Real Life in Star Trek, The Counter-Clock Incident, part 1
|
||||
date: 2022-02-10 17:37:28-0500
|
||||
categories:
|
||||
tags: [scifi, startrek, closereading]
|
||||
summary: <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i> The outside world in Star Trek
|
||||
thumbnail: /blog/assets/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e000693.png
|
||||
offset: -37%
|
||||
proofed: true
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Disclaimer
|
||||
|
||||
This is a discussion of a non-"Free as in Freedom" popular culture franchise property with references to a part of that franchise behind a paywall. My discussion and conclusions are free, but nothing about the discussion or conclusions implies any attack on the ownership of the properties. All the big names are trademarks of the owners and so forth and everything here should be well within the bounds of [Fair Use](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use).
|
||||
|
||||
## Previously...
|
||||
|
||||
The project was outlined [in this post]({% post_url 2020-01-02-trek-00 %}), for those falling into this from somewhere else. In short, this is an attempt to use the details presented in *Star Trek* to assemble a view of what life looks like in the Federation.
|
||||
|
||||
This is neither recap nor review; those have both been done to death over fifty-plus years. It *is* a catalog of information we learn from each episode, though, so expect everything to be a potential "spoiler," if that's an [irrational fear](https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/aug/17/spoilers-enhance-enjoyment-psychologists) you have.
|
||||
|
||||
Rather than list every post in the series here, you can easily find them all on [the *startrek* tag page](/blog/tag/startrek/).
|
||||
|
||||
## The Counter-Clock Incident
|
||||
|
||||
Here's the final episode in **The Animated Series**, though we'll still have some material from the adaptation to finish, after we're done.
|
||||
|
||||
> Captain's log, stardate 6770.3. The Enterprise is on course for the planet Babel, where ambassadors from all Federation planets are waiting to honor the Enterprise's distinguished passenger, Commodore Robert April, first captain of the USS Enterprise, and for the past twenty years, Federation Ambassador at large. Now seventy-five years old, Commodore April has reached mandatory retirement age.
|
||||
|
||||
We have obviously heard of Babel before, in [*Journey to Babel*]({% post_url 2020-10-15-babel %}).
|
||||
|
||||
Starfleet, at least, has a mandatory retirement age.
|
||||
|
||||
Finally, we're introduced to a commander of the *Enterprise* preceding Pike, working in civilian service for twenty years. We can probably assume that April didn't become an ambassador immediately after leaving command of his ship, and so presumably served as its captain maybe a decade before that. So, the *Enterprise* is probably older than most of its current crew. In the United States Navy, the [Iowa-class battleships](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa-class_battleship) survived for about sixty years, but they were each out of service for decades at a time; all have since been recycled. The [USS Los Angeles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Los_Angeles_%28SSN-688%29)---a submarine with a crew complement of 134, and so probably more comparable to the *Enterprise* than a battleship with thousands on the crew---was in service for about thirty-six years. In other words, the *Enterprise* appears to be an old ship.
|
||||
|
||||
> **MCCOY**: And it's nice to know the lady is as intelligent as she is beautiful. Much like the flower she carries.
|
||||
|
||||
While I don't think that nitpicking has much of a place in these posts, I do want to point out that, in being condescending towards a woman, McCoy has lost his train of thought and compared that woman's intelligence to a flower that we were just told is wilting.
|
||||
|
||||
> **KIRK**: It's a native of Capella IV, isn't it?
|
||||
|
||||
[Capella](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capella) IV is the setting of [*Friday's Child*]({% post_url 2020-10-22-friday %}).
|
||||
|
||||
> **SPOCK**: Excuse me, Captain. You asked to be notified when we made visual contact with the Beta Niobe nova.
|
||||
|
||||
That nova was a plot point from [*All Our Yesterdays*]({% post_url 2021-07-22-yesterday %}).
|
||||
|
||||
> **UHURA**: Captain, the universal translator has the answer. The woman is speaking the same universal language we speak, but she is speaking in reverse.
|
||||
|
||||
This might help explain why the translator doesn't ever seem to actually get used during episodes: If they're feeding the audio in after the fact, then however it works may not be fast enough to be used in real-time.
|
||||
|
||||
> **KARLA**: I am an explorer of space. I was caught unaware when Amphion, previously a dead star, went nova and came to life. I was pulled into the star. But instead of burning up, I passed into a universe where everything operates in reverse to my universe.
|
||||
|
||||
[Amphion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphion) is the name of an assortment of characters in Greek mythology. It's an apt name, being Greek for "native of two lands, a reasonable metaphor for gateways between universes.
|
||||
|
||||
> Captain's log, supplemental. We are proceeding to Karla Five's planet, Arret.
|
||||
|
||||
In the reversed universe, "Arret" is named for "Terra," the Latin name for Earth commonly used in science-fiction, after [the Roman goddess](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_%28mythology%29). Calling the planet [Htrae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_World) might have caused trademark issues. And yes, it's weird that some names (Amphion, mentioned above, or Karla) are spelled normally and some are reversed.
|
||||
|
||||
Note, however, that this is the closest that we've gotten, so far, to seeing Earth in Kirk's time, not that we see much of it. And the fact that the two names we hear both refer to names in ancient Earth mythologies suggests that Arret probably bears some similarity to Earth, though the speed of Karla's single-occupant ship suggests that it might be the equivalent of far into the *Enterprise*'s future.
|
||||
|
||||
> Captain's log, stardate 6770.1. Time continues to flow backward for us. We have set course for a dead star in this anti-matter universe that corresponds with the nova Minara in ours. We're being pulled by Karla Five's unmanned vessel, which is equipped with enough positive matter armament to ignite the dead star into life.
|
||||
|
||||
Minara is a reference back to [*The Empath*]({% post_url 2021-05-06-empath %}), another episode involving a planet threatened by its star about to nova.
|
||||
|
||||
> **SPOCK**: As a Vulcan, I age the slowest. I will be capable of assuming command longer than anyone else. But even I will become too young to know what to do.
|
||||
|
||||
All evidence in the franchise, so far, has suggested that Spock isn't much older than Kirk. The rate that he ages in the future is irrelevant, since he won't be getting older. In other words, Spock just wanted to declare himself the strongest person there.
|
||||
|
||||
> **APRIL**: They can enter the transporter. It retains a memory of their original molecular structure.
|
||||
|
||||
This lazy plot device---using the transporter to fix any problems by "resetting" characters---first showed up in [*The Terratin Incident*]({% post_url 2021-10-28-terratin %}). I didn't bother to mention it there, since all I really have to say is that it basically plagues the franchise to this day, even though it siphons the drama out of almost every tense situation. However, now that they've used it *twice*, I couldn't stay quiet...
|
||||
|
||||
> **SARAH**: But what about us? We don't have to use the transporter. We can remain young, live our lives over again. You could command a starship once more.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> **APRIL**: What a blessing to be able to live one's life over again, if the life you've led has left you unfulfilled. No Sarah, I don't want to live it all over again. I couldn't improve one bit on what we've had together.
|
||||
|
||||
And here's another recurring issue that continues to plague the *Star Trek* franchise, the idea that aging and death are some cosmic reward for being productive, and therefore "good" people would never seek out immortality, or even an extended life.
|
||||
|
||||
> **UHURA**: In view of Commodore April's heroic actions aboard the USS Enterprise this stardate, we are reviewing his mandatory retirement, and will consider his appeal to remain Federation Ambassador at large.
|
||||
|
||||
I guiltily enjoy how this is treated like some huge victory for labor rights, when Starfleet hasn't committed to anything more than setting up an appointment for some anonymous committee to meet.
|
||||
|
||||
## Foster Adaptation
|
||||
|
||||
We find the adaptation for this episode in **Star Trek Log Seven**.
|
||||
|
||||
The first chapter shows the construction and launch of the *Enterprise*, forty years prior, giving an age to the ship. Commodore van Anling promotes April to Captain, as they discuss Franz Joseph's design for the ship. The Franz Joseph in question is probably not [the Austrian Emperor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria), more likely a reference to the late [Mr. Schnaubelt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_%28artist%29), who more or less created the market of reference material claiming to be produced from inside a fictional universe. When you hear fans joke about the *Enterprise* not having restrooms, that's a reference to their absence in Schnaubelt's floor plans, because his books were taken seriously to an almost absurd extent.
|
||||
|
||||
> "Activating warp-drive, Captain." Kursley turned to the prime engineering board. She eyed her subordinates, then muttered a silent liturgy. It might have been a prayer, might have been something else. She engaged the energies of a sun.
|
||||
|
||||
Apart from the ship's first chief engineer being a woman, here's another entry in the "people in the Federation *might* be religious, but maybe not" tally. The word liturgy doesn't necessarily denote anything religious, but it's worth pointing out that Foster would have written this not long after ["Vatican II"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vatican_Council), which brought the word into common use.
|
||||
|
||||
> On billions of speakers, the aged but enormously respected voice of the Federation president, Samuel Solomon Qasr, sounded from a chamber on the moon: "In the name of the United Federation of Planets, for the United Nations of Earth, the Planetary Confederation of Forty Eridani, the United Planets of Sixty-one Cygni, the Star Empire of Epsilon Indii, the Alpha Centauri Concordium of Planets, and all other peace-loving, space-going peoples---I christen thee *Enterprise*!"
|
||||
|
||||
Apparently, the Federation is led by a president, and the post involves itself in christening spacecraft. We also get a list of what---given that he speaks for them---must be sub-states within the Federation, including name-dropping [40 Eridani](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_Eridani), [61 Cygni](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/61_Cygni), [Epsilon Indii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Indi), and [Alpha Centauri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri).
|
||||
|
||||
The adaptations since [*Balance of Terror*]({% post_url 2020-04-16-trek-balance %}) have identified 40 Eridani as the location of Vulcan. You can find 61 Cygni all over science fiction, since it's only eleven light years from Earth, but was probably mentioned because the aforementioned Franz Joseph Schnaubelt's **Star Fleet Technical Manual** identifies that solar system and government as the home to the Tellarites. You might remember Epsilon Indii being mentioned in [*And the Children Shall Lead*]({% post_url 2021-03-11-children %}), though the Star Empire is another creation of Schnaubelt, which he identified as the home solar system of the Andorians. And presumably, you're already familiar with Alpha Centauri, being our Sun's nearest neighbor in space, presumed throughout science fiction to be the location of the first human colony beyond our solar system.
|
||||
|
||||
> The Federation Exploration Territory was enormous beyond comprehension, and it was but a minuscule portion of this tiny section of the galaxy. Battle cruisers were too expensive, their personnel too valuable to be tied up on anything as wasteful as a shakedown cruise.
|
||||
|
||||
I suppose that the "Federation Exploration Territory" must be space claimed by the Federation, since we haven't seen much evidence of any entity known *prior* to the series that might assign exploration tasks like this.
|
||||
|
||||
> "Captain's log, supplemental to entry of 5536.3. Said retirement age being a bureaucratic aberration---arbitrarily decided on by a cluster of smug civil servants without regard to individual capability or overall Starfleet efficiency---and a regulation badly in need of overhaul." He clicked off.
|
||||
|
||||
Wow. Kirk is just jumping right in to eviscerate the idea of civilian oversight of Starfleet, and demanding that we wring every big of productivity that we can from our elderly.
|
||||
|
||||
Seriously, April can start a business or just travel with his wife. It's not like they're putting him to death.
|
||||
|
||||
> "I never claimed it was, Captain. On Vulcan such things are determined with rather more regard to reason."
|
||||
|
||||
In case you were worried that Spock might be "soft on old people," nope, Vulcans believe that you should work until you can no longer function.
|
||||
|
||||
Not quoted because it's not relevant to our project, but it's mildly interesting to note that the interactions on Arret justify my reference to Htrae, above, with Kirk wondering how it could be the middle of the night, when the planet's star---which the Arredians refer to as their moon---is high in the sky.
|
||||
|
||||
> "No, Captain, preliminary sensor readings indicate it's nothing like the [white hole] we encountered near the Milky Way's Shapely Center.
|
||||
|
||||
Most likely, Spock is referring to [*The Magicks of Megas-Tu*]({% post_url 2021-10-07-megas-tu %}), though the terms "white hole" and "Shapely Center" aren't used in that episode. To my knowledge, the latter isn't a formal astronomical term, but rather is probably a reference to [Harlow Shapely](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlow_Shapley), who---among other things---determined that Earth wasn't anywhere near the center of the galaxy.
|
||||
|
||||
> "You think it will work, too, Bob?" She appeared uncertain now. "Hasn't it been tried before, and found not to? I seem to recall experiments. If it worked, everyone could have near immortality, simply by having their youthful selves recorded for transporting and then, upon aging, entering transporters to be reintegrated according to their preserved youthful records."
|
||||
|
||||
Foster at least acknowledges how this resolution effectively damages the dramatic nature of the fictional universe. But maybe more interesting for us, Sarah suggests that Federation scientists have been actively experimenting with using the transporter for life-extension. It looks like not everybody is on-board with the weird fatalism shown by this and other episodes.
|
||||
|
||||
> Most of the experience had faded to the memory of a distant dream for Kirk, but there was one resurrected bit of personal history that had stuck with him.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> He had a picture of a small, feisty boy in preschool, with the instructor hovering over his computer terminal, bawling him out for running mock battles with math keys instead of practicing computation tables.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> "Jimmy Kirk, I've told you and told you," she scolded. "If you keep wasting your time with such nonsense you'll never amount to anything!"
|
||||
|
||||
We last heard about Kirk's school days in [*The Terratin Incident*]({% post_url 2021-10-28-terratin %})'s adaptation, where we learned that a teenage "Jimmy"'s physics teacher also had unkind things to say about him.
|
||||
|
||||
This reinforces the idea of school as a largely abusive space, though extended to a younger age than we previously new. It also gives us some idea of what those schools look like, with kids stationed in front of computer terminals while instructors monitor them. That honestly sounds like a combination of the worst of all possible approaches to teaching, to me, so it's no wonder that none of the teachers are supportive: They're probably not trained...
|
||||
|
||||
Later, we find out that Spock has been reminiscing about I-Chaya, in reference to [*Yesteryear*]({% post_url 2021-08-26-yesteryear %}).
|
||||
|
||||
> "I'd give a lot to see what Starfleet accounting's going to do with *those* figures! Either they'll have to refigure the basis for computing pensions, or else you can retire tomorrow with a full commodore's pension and a whole lifetime to enjoy it in."
|
||||
|
||||
It has been a while since we last spoke about money. We see in Kirk's hypothesis that military pensions have managed to not becoming privatized. This also suggests that Starfleet might have some trouble paying a large pension to a long-lived retiree, in this case the Aprils regaining roughly fifty-five years of life.
|
||||
|
||||
> All they met were shocked, stunned, and envious. Hopes did not fall even when inquiries into the transformation by friends old and new revealed the methodology necessary to achieve the radical alteration. None present regarded the dangers of diving into a nova seriously---old men have nothing to lose. It made some of them bolder than the newest recruit.
|
||||
|
||||
The Aprils attend the Babel conference in their still-youthful bodies, giving us some insight into how the powerful among the Federation view aging. Interestingly, we leave them there, suggesting that the couple opts out of returning to their calendar ages, with Starfleet effectively accepting that as an excuse for allowing him to continue to work.
|
||||
|
||||
## Conclusions
|
||||
|
||||
This episode---at least in the adaptation---gives us an age of forty years for the *Enterprise*, as of this episode, and identifies its designer. The same passage introduces us to the characters who would have been the "cast" of a show about April's crew, along with the Federation President at the time and some sub-governments within the Federation.
|
||||
|
||||
This episode *almost* shows us Earth, at least the same planet in an alternate universe.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Bad
|
||||
|
||||
Even though he's also complimentary, McCoy is extraordinarily condescending towards Sarah April, taking pains to center her beauty while praising her intelligence. Spock, similarly, tries to insist that his slower aging process also means that he'll get younger at a slower rate; the episode even mostly proves him wrong, showing that this is just posturing to look stronger than the rest of the crew.
|
||||
|
||||
Kirk, in the adaptation, also continues to show us the animosity between Starfleet and the Federation government.
|
||||
|
||||
For their parts, the Aprils make it clear that "normal" people in the Federation don't believe that older people should retire or should strive for a longer life...unless they weren't productive the first time. We've seen this idea of tying a person's value to their productivity in other episodes, but this seems clearer.
|
||||
|
||||
Interestingly, the adaptation disagrees with and diverges from this position, informing us instead that---at least among powerful people like ambassadors---there's a massive market for technologies that might reverse aging, even if they're dangerous.
|
||||
|
||||
Through Kirk's memories, this episode also gives us another glimpse into the Federation's educational system, apparently self-guided with instructors who do nothing to educate or support students, but do berate and insult them.
|
||||
|
||||
The adaptation also reminds us of the importance of money in Federation life, and the need for good pensions, in order to allow the elderly to survive after retirement.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Weird
|
||||
|
||||
We have more evidence---or maybe lack of evidence, depending on how you look at it---that there's some sort of awareness of religion in the Federation, but it might not be treated as more than secular ritual.
|
||||
|
||||
## Next
|
||||
|
||||
Next up, we read a story by Foster, originally pitched for the third and never-produced fourth seasons of the original series, which I'll call *Worlds Apart, Part 1*.
|
||||
|
||||
#### <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i>
|
||||
|
||||
* * *
|
||||
|
||||
**Credits**: The header image is [Firework Nova](https://images.nasa.gov/details-GSFC_20171208_Archive_e000693) by NASA Goddard, in the public domain by NASA policy.
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue