Our heroes run into a ‘goo planet’. A civilization that destroyed itself with runaway nano tech.
A GOOD Prime Directive episode with REAL hard choices to make. Say the ship is crippled and limps into a star system. They need resources from one of the uninhabited planets, but another planet is inhabited and on the verge of self-destruction. Make it just a benign filter that happens often, like nano-tech or something similar. How in the world can anyone of good conscience sit there and let a peaceful society destroy itself. Have a major character interfere and pay the consequences. Throw him in the stockade. And have it work FFS. Instead of that nonsense, “Whenever we interfere it always makes it worse. Horseshit.”
How bout an ep where a planet develops subspace radio WELL before it develops warp tech. One second you’re testing your new radio, and the next you hear an entire set of empires out there. Not that you’d be able to understand.
An episode where someone faces some real consequences for violating the prime directive.
“Sorry, Captain Picard, we’re removing you from command. You made a good case, but the Prime Directive clearly states it cannot be violated in any circumstances.”
Let’s see what *really *happens when the Enterprise-D is attacked and sends the saucer section (full of nonessential civilians) to “safety.”
I can imagine a Gary Larson cartoon where Geordi is in command on the so-called “battle bridge,” ready to tangle with the bad guys, and says “Hey, wait a minute … they’re ignoring us and going after the saucer … can they *do *that?!?” :eek:
The meanie in me wants an episode where Kirk is court-martialed for killing red shirts. I’m specifically thinking of “And the Children Shall lead” where he beamed two of them into space. “You mean you run a ship where there are no procedures to see if there is actually a planet at the receiving end!”
I really feel for those guys. Killed because of carelessness. I’m sure the Enterprise never went back for the bodies. Just left them floating in interstellar space. I’d convict. Hell, I’d flip the switch for his execution.
The ST fan in me wants Star Trek: the Wrath of Oxmyx. I want to see what happened after the Enterprise left. Or to see if the peace in A Taste of Armageddon held. These don’t have to be “dark” modern episodes. I’d just like to know. Maybe see if the Organians are still around.
Addendum: I’m interested in an episode or movie that explores why humans don’t get the telekenetic powers of Parmen, or why humans don’t go through the galactic barrier and become superbeings? Or if people are using the spores for medical longevity treatments, or radiation protection, or whatever. Or if they do, what happened. In general, why all those things are ignored.
I used to think John de Lancie’s Q was actually Trelane all growed up (it would explain his obsession with the Enterprise), but maybe he’s Mitchell. Hmm. It should not be possible to kill a phaser rifle resistant superbeing by dropping a rock on his head. (Dehner, unfortunately, is actually most sincerely dead.)
That’s not really a good example, because 1) Kirk didn’t kill Finney through carelessness, and 2) it was a set up. The charge was, Kirk did it with malice aforethought. In other episodes, Kirk killed plenty of redshirts through sloppy actions, and the show just wrote them off as cost of doing business, space is dangerous, etc. In the context of the show, those were real people with hopes and dreams, families. They deserve justice.
Back in the ‘80s, there was an issue of the Star Trek comic book in which Kirk got to see the consequences of times he’d interfered in other planets’ cultures. The results were uniformly bad.
1.) I’d be curious to se what happened on the planet with the Hortas (Devil in the Dark) all those years later. I know one of the Star Trek novels (one of the ones with a Dyson sphere) had hortas as crewmembers. an interesting concept, but I can’t help but think that horta digestive juices have to contain hydrofluoric acid, and the idea of volatilized HF in the air I’d be breathing gives me the willies.
2.) a visit to the Tribble home planet. I’d be curious what kind of ecosystem produced a creature like a tribble - defenseless but hugely prolific. I know that David Gerrold, who wrote the screenplay, later wrote an episode of The Animated Series entitled “More Tribbles, More Troubles”, in which Cyrano Jones (voiced, I think, by Jimmy Doohan) showed up with a “Tribble Predator”, but it needn’t have come from the Tribble homeworld – it could’ve been from some other planet, but with a discovered penchant for eating the little furballs.
Easy for you to say, Kirk. For me, having the transporter chief fail to actually check if a planet was at the other end of the transporter beam isn’t a risk I should be forced to endure.
Peter David wrote a ST novel called Q Squared that identified Trelane as a young Q, and TNG Q became his mentor for a time. Then, Trelane monkeyed with the space-time continuum, we got three alternate ST universes, and there was much rejoicing.
I wrote up a DS9 fan fiction where Garek pulls Dr. Bashir into his scheme of exposing The Prophets as frauds. I have Garek manipulating Bashir with a clever scheme to take him in a shuttle to the Wormhole so he can find dirt on The Prophets. It backfires big time. Garek makes some truly snotty comments along the way.
A First Contact episode where the natives don’t want to join the Federation, and actually have a good reason. I’m not sure what that reason would be, but I’m sure there is one. I seem to recall a novel where the locals actually chose to become part of the Klingon Empire, but I forget the details.
I was referring to the predator. I don’t think there are any on Iota Geminorum IV. At least that’s what Spock said (or implied) in “TTwT.”
Now that I think about it, it might have been developed by the Klingons, and Jones stole it from them. At least that’s what’s stirring in the dusty recesses of my memory.
