And then there was this bit from the Agony Booth recap:
I just thought of something that strikes me as very disturbing. (I haven’t read this entire thread, but I don’t think this is anything that’s been mentioned before in similar threads.) When the TNG crew found Scotty in suspended animation, he was on his way to the retirement colony on some planet somewhere. I find the whole concept of a “retirement colony” to be very sad and unsettling. It’s bad enough that we 21st-Century humans warehouse our old people in nursing homes; in the Federation, they ship them off to another planet! “Out of sight, out of mind” doesn’t even begin to describe it. I imagine that visits from your loved ones would have to be a rare occurance, unless your son is a Starfleet captain or something like that.
A little while ago, I was bored, so I watched the commentary track to Star Trek: First Contact. Turns out, that wasn’t acting. Jonathan Frakes really is that full of himself.
Because instead of going “pew pew” and squeezing shots off at people you should be able to use it like a fire hose that disintegrates those you hit.
-Joe
Heck, when Noonien Soong (the cyberneticist that created Data, Lore etc.) got married, he and his fiancée went to Mavala IV. Evidently, this is the future equivalent of Vegas.
I cannot allow these gross distortions to remain uncorrected. The Norpin V Retirement Colony is known throughout the Alpha Quadrant as the finest active adult community the Federation has to offer. Located just light-minutes from the Norpin IV Advanced Organ Replication Clinic, Norpin V combines Sector 001-style amenities with the tranquil natural beauty of a new planetary system. Our community features recreational opportunities in both hemispheres; including the new Thousand Lakes facility, which offers fishing, boating, tennis, light-shuffleboard, Vulcan billiards, zero-G bocce ball, Romulan spa, a state-of-the-art holographic fitness center, and an entire subcontinent terraformed into award-winning 9 and 18 hole golf courses. Enjoy shopping, fine dining, and all the comfort and charm of upscale resort living. On Norpin V, every day is a holiday!
Anyway, Scotty was heading out there of his own free will, still healthy and of sound mind, at least if you overlook the fact that he’d apparently been wearing the same weird vest in civilian life for decades. The guy spent his entire life out in space! It’s a bit late to worry about whether any potential family on Earth wants him around.
In defense of the episode, I think the screenwriters were probably aiming for just the sort of reaction you described-- sad and unsettling. The episode was called “Relics,” after all. We’re supposed to come away with the realization that we shouldn’t dismiss the elderly, they’re worthy of respect, value them while we can, etc. The notion of a “retirement colony” is one of those features of the Star Trek universe that we’re probably not meant to spend too much time examining in literal terms.
Of course, I myself have spent far too much time mulling over hypothetical evolutionary scenarios that might result in a species with asymmetrical bilateral pigmentation, so I really have no room to talk either.
Speaking of sad and unsettling Federation practices, the idea of retirement colonies has nothing on the mental health care system detailed in the original series episode “Dagger of the Mind.”
See, by the 23rd century, advances in psychiatry have made it possible to cure nearly all forms of violent mental illness. Only a handful of people cannot be cured of criminal insanity by these techniques. So what does the Federation do with these incurably afflicted people? They keep them all locked up together inside an asylum housed in a pressurized dome on a remote planet with a poisonous atmosphere.
This seems uncharacteristically draconian, especially for a society with readily available “stun setting” and “invisible force field” technology.
Then again, I was never entirely clear on the reasoning behind the “death penalty for visiting Talos IV” either.
In an Enterprise episode, Vulcans stranded on Terra referred to pool as a “children’s game.”
Well of course: Earth billiards is only 2-D after all.
Ah.
Limited charge in the batteries, you’d run out of power quickly if you did that.
Only if you insisted they HAD to have a non-replaceable battery and be the size of a novelty cigarette lighter. Me, I’d want one the size of a tommy-gun with a backpack full of spare batteries. Or alternatively, maybe I could just take an actual tommygun, since it would appear to be far more effective and versatile. What the hell is the point of a sooper-dooper raygun that can’t take out the bad guy across the room who is sheltering behind a cardboard box?
And how come the federation has forgotten how grenades work? You’d think they would have some pretty nifty flash-bangs and frag grenades, but nooooo.
Eh? That’s not the impression I got. To me, it sounded like more of somewhere you’d move to voluntarily to enjoy your golden years. For the most part, Earth never struck me as “old-folk friendly” (except for, perhaps, the Picard estate).
The 24th century equivalent of buying that old house on the farm and spending every night on the back porch rocker, I suppose.
They have them in different sizes for different occasions. The cigarette lighter ones are lightweight, easily carried, they are there ‘just in case.’ They are carried by the officers and security routinely, when they are not expecting any trouble. Then when they are expecting trouble they have the more powerful pistol types. And for special occasions they have the phaser cannon, as seen in the original pilot.
Except we see them taking their phaser and using it to slowly blaze away at objects in an attempt to get through them.
What if it only lasts for a minute? Ask a modern soldier how he’d like a gun that can fire an entire minute on full auto with no recoil and a tracer-like effect that will let him aim pretty much perfectly.
-Joe
ASSASSINS! TRAITORS!
I tell you, Cordrazine ODs can get ugly.
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Linky no worky.
You don’t need a link. Just search for the term. You’ll find it.