posted
But who would *care* if "as much as a single microbe" was destroyed in favor of the new matrix? We saw no indication that Carol or David Marcus would have been interested in protecting the lives of innocent microbes. Sure, there are people protective of lower lifeforms today, but their numbers do not seem to have increased by the 24th century. Our heroes still enjoy killing fish, our heroic doctors do their best to murder microbial lifeforms, our starship captains get commendations for blowing up space amoebas...
As regards the torp self-destruct, I would set the timers and triggers so that most of the torps would be left armed but intact. A couple of them might blow some holes to the ship, but most would bide their time until the foolish enemy tried to board the vessel...
posted
Erm...the indication was in Dr. Marcus' instructions. What, are we supposed to think she's lying to the Reliant for kicks?
Besides, there's rather a large gap between keeping a body free of dangerous microorganisms and wiping out entire species that represent no threat to yourself. That example is downright silly.
posted
I thought the mission of Chekov and Terrell was to go down there and kill whatever they found...
Then again, perhaps the Marcuses did care for the critters. How did the dialogue go? Somebody said "Maybe it is something we can transplant..." and somebody exclaimed "Transplant!" What was all that about? Did the first speaker want to save the life at any cost, while the second one just wanted to get rid of it? Who said what?
posted
I think the idea with the "transplanting" was to preserve anything that might possibly give rise to new life. I think there was a line where Chekov said, "perhaps its some preanimate matter caught in the matrix." If preanimate matter is something akin to primordial soup, I wouldn't want to be the one possibly destroying the beginnings of a planetary ecosystem. (I know there's an entry in the ST Encyclopedia, I'm just too lazy to go check it).
Also remember, the goal of the Genesis Device was to create "life from lifelessness." If there was anything at all living on the test planet, there's a strong possibility that it might alter the results of the experiment, which is a very bad thing, from a scientist's point of view.
By the way, if Chekov and Terrell went down to the planet, they are carrying millions upon billions of microbes on the exterior of the suits that would contaminate a supposedly sterile planet. (Unless, of course, the biofilters on the transporter got rid of all of those. Which is possible.)
And, with this quantum torpedo thingy, isn't it relatively pointless to destroy the torpedo magazine? I mean, wouldn't that only cause a localized explosion within the hull? It might trigger the explosion of the entire ship, but using ordnace packages for that would be much simpler and more efficient, would it not? Hmmm, an interesting gedanken, as Einstein might call it.
posted
P.S. That whole scene was something like this:
Terrell: Maybe it's something we can transplant. Carol: Wait a minute, something you can transplant? Terrell: But it might just be a particle of preanimate matter. Carol: Then again, it may not. Look, you boys have to be clear on this. There can't be so much as a microbe or the show's off. Well, why don't you take a look, but if there's . . . Terrell: No problem doctor, we'll take care of it, (or something to that effect)
Terrell's motivation for transplanting the supposed particle of preanimate matter is so that he can finally end the mission. Note that he seems tired and demoralized aboard the Reliant. Carol's sole concern is the sterility of the planet to insure accuracy of her experimental results. Remember, they only built one Genesis Device. (I'm referring to the lines,
David: I don't think there's another piece of information we could cram into the databank. Carol: Then next time it'll just have to be a bigger one. (or something to that effect) David: Who'd want to build it?
posted
Getting back to the "ORIGINAL TOPIC", does anybody know where Spock and Scotty were when the news about the new leader of the Klingon Empire was made public? Everybody knows that Spock and Scotty went to visually inspect each and every torpedo!
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