Like many people, my favorite Star Trek series to-date is the Next Generation. But since most of my information about the show came just from watching it, I may be a little down on my trivia. So here’s a question hopefully some other trekkie may be able to answer…
Are the people native to Betazed vegetarians? Of course they are all empathic, which makes them a little more touchy-feely than most people. I also know Troi was never shown eating meat, except one time when she was being affected by the “de-evolving” syndrome, where she was shown eating replicated caviar. But of course she wasn’t really herself then anyways . But the rest of the time she was shown eating chocolate. So what about it? Are they vegetarians?
(P.S. FYI I tried googling “betazoid vegetarians” yesterday and didn’t come up with much that was helpful.)
Hmm. I don’t recall Betazoids ever being shown to have empathy with non-sapient life, so I wouldn’t expect them to have a direct channel to the feelings of livestock. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re not vegetarians – Vulcans don’t have empathy with cows, eiher, but nor do they eat them.
I don’t think Betazoid dining was ever really discussed on the show. Vulcans were supposed to be vegetarians, though, because they thought the eating of meat was uncivilized and violent.
Well, Spock does meld minds with a whale, so cows may not be entirely out of the question. Who knows, maybe they don’t eat meat because they asked during a meld once, and it turns out that cows prefer not to be eaten.
Actually, I do wonder what would be the point of melding with a cow. Cows don’t strike be as being very deep thinkers.
Kirk: “Spock, Meld with that cow!”
Spock(Melding): “Eat…chew…chew…chew…chew…chew…follow herd…chew…shallow…chew…chew…eat some more…”
Kirk:“This is pointless”
Spock: “I could have told you that before. Now I feel like I’ve been watching Star Trek 5”
According to Riker in IIRC “Up the Long Ladder,” animals are supposedly no longer generally exploited for food. With replicator and cloning technology, there’d be no real need to raise animals for slaughter or by-products. But there’s also an episode, perhaps of DS9 but maybe Next Gen, in which Keiko O’Brien expresses amazement that Miles O’Brien’s mother prepared meat with her own two hands.
So, you can read that a few ways. Assuming the Betazoids were telepathic/empathic back then (reasonable enough), you could guess that—
A) They couldn’t pick up on the feelings of the animals. Either animal minds are too different, or the animal life on Betazed just happens to be unreadable. (Like the minds of Ferengi, or the Breen)
B) They could read the emotions/thoughts of the wig animals, but either didn’t care, or they actually LIKED the sensation of the feelings of a suffering animal screaming into their minds.
But again, that’s assuming the creatures were actually unhappy or suffering. But they might have been raised in such isolation that they never knew anything else. In which case their treatment might still be considered “cruel,” even if they aren’t actively suffering torment.
One might, but would one be able to find someone to argue the contrary position?
Anyways, Deanna is telepathic. She is able to communicate telepathically with others of her species and project her thoughts to at least one human (Riker, which would indicate he scored high on his Star Fleet esper tests; keep him away from the edge of the galaxy!). What she isn’t able to do is receive (for lack of a better word) “verbal” telepathic communications from other non-telepathic species. Is it established whether other Betazoids read emotions along with “verbal” thoughts? IIRC Tam Elbram (sp?) from “Tin Man” did, but he was at the extreme high end of Betazoid telepathic sensitivity. If other Betazoids can read emotions as well, that would indicate to me that Deanna’s human lineage prevents her from accessing the parts of the brain that generate “verbal” thoughts (the language centers? I’m not a brain surgeon) but she can still access the “non-verbal” parts of the brain. This is supported by that skeevey 1/4 Betazoid guy she does in one episode. He can also read emotional states but not “verbal” thoughts.
I remember some TNG ep where Picard replicated a saddle and programmed a holodeck with a horse and meadow; Picard remarks to Troi how Betazoids must be excellent animal trainers, but Troi counters Betazoids would be swept up in the passions of the animal.
Perhaps They’re vegetarians, perhaps not…I seriously doubt they can bring themselves to slaughter an animal, though.
Well, telepathy or empathy or whatever, Lwaxana Troi wasn’t able to keep a pet dog from running wild and distracting everybody from the drowning death of her first daughter (which is downright strange, since you’d think a drowning Betazoid would send out waves of telepathic panic, alerting everybody in the area).
Hey, wait a minute, I just remembered something…didn’t Lwaxana Troi say she could read the emotions of her unborn child, on DS9? And it was only half-Betazoid, to boot.
. But the rest of the time she was shown eating chocolate. So what about it? Are they vegetarians?