Dukasaur wrote:In general, the Federation was a vicious socialist dictatorship.
Remember Mudd's Women? Kirk decides to pursue Mudd's freighter for no real reason (stated reason being "smuggling" -- as if a starship on a mission of exploration and science is supposed to take time out for enforcement of unjust tariffs to begin with) and after they chase him into an asteroid field which results in the destruction of his ship, they make it sound like his fault. Talk about adding insult to injury!
Then, after various shenanigans, they discover Mudd's even greater "crime" -- he has been supplying a bunch of ugly old hags with "The Venus Drug" which makes them young and beautiful. Imagine the horror! Someone is using the advanced biochemical science of the day to help make people's lives more enjoyable!
I mean, I love Roddenberry's creativity and scientific vision, but politically he bought into every shallow preconception the socialist media has ever dreamed up.
Yeah, the worst part of Next Gen is how preachy the dialogue is. The whole "we were once a savage race but we're so much better now blah blah blah..." I mean, I understand if a writer/creator/whatever pushes his/her views onto their creation, but imo it's much better if you allow these things to unfold as part of the plot in character development, conflict, etc. Basically let them come about as consequences of the actions of the characters rather than this soapbox where the character just all out says "blah Mr. Roddenberry thinks this and this."
BBS wrote:Well, you need to have the right certificate, and the Galactic Medical Practioners Association has forbidden the use of machines which render their occupation obsolete. State-granted monopoly FTW!
Worked well for the Butlerian Jihad. The spice must flow...
tzor wrote:You said Next Gen? I'll need a specific citation for that and I'll bet you it's one of those accidental non canon ones. Replicator technology at the Next Generation level was impressive but it was bulk rearrangement on the molecular level at best. Foodstuff conversation was molecular rearrangement of an existing bio replicator food source. Replication at the detailed molecular level, especially that of complex molecules that are required for a living cell was not a part of the Next Gen Canon.
There were interesting discussions on the possible nature of replicator surgery, but while also non canon, surgery in general isn't all that discussed either. Replication of actual living tissue was out as far as canon was concerned.
I was just assuming that if you can disassemble organic material and then reassemble it, it's no hard feat to move some tissue around or repair, given there's enough of the initial mass to do so. The food part came from this episode where they're hosting two races who hate each other, and the crew's horrified that they want live animals to kill for their meals, and they get all preachy that they make synthetic meat using replication tech or whatever. If you can print out a steak, then you can repair muscle and fat tissue, etc.
-TG