Plus, I bet there’s a significant subset of people who would want replicators banned because then “No one would want to work anymore”, or because they’re “unnatural”, or “the work of the Devil”, and at least some of them would be willing to go to war over the issue.
You know we’d have people like that if this happened here tomorrow.
I wonder how Earth got around that?
I agree; suddenly introducing something like replicators into a society is going to change things in a huge way.
Well, they explained that. The gradual development of the technology over centuries was mirrored by gradual cultural advancement, so that by the time they had this level of tech, they were mature enough to use it responsibly, without killing everyone over it.
I just rewatched it. The bit where Klyden stands up clapping Bortus and cheers “Hooray for youuu!” may be my favourite moment of the entire season. Can you believe the guy who plays him also played Dennis ‘Cutty’ Wise on The Wire? Now that’s what I call versatility!
That is a disappointingly probably correct answer.
So was the whole thing with Lysella just to introduce a new crew member for the next season? (And I also had trouble remembering who she was, and would have preferred a “previously on” recap at the beginning.)
Do you refer to Lysella? I wouldn’t believe they would carry her around as a passenger side kick thing.
Do I refer to Lysella when I mentioned her by name? In short, yes.
I don’t think she will be a new character.
He was also Tyreese on The Walking Dead.
He was Fred Johnson on The Expanse.
And if anyone has played the zombie FPS game Left 4 Dead 2, he voiced “Coach”.
Yes, Chad L. Coleman has range for sure.
But Kelly’s speech sort of implied that’s a inevitable course, which I don’t buy at all. If your cultural advancement stays in step with your technology, awesome, you invent matter replicators and quantum drive and use them for the benefit of all and eventually meet up with the Union. If it doesn’t, you probably wipe yourself out before you get outside your solar system anyway.
Maybe in a few thousand years when the Union is really advanced, they’ll set up an entire division which manages contact with more primitive societies, and even in special circumstances helps them along to a post-scarcity cultural & technological level.
That’s definitely a flaw.
I like how Star Trek handled it better. There’s no guarantee how a civilization will turn out. They may end up being a wonderful, enlightened society, or they might become an aggressive danger to everyone else in the galaxy, or they may stagnate and stay the same, or may kill themselves off. But it’s up to them to decide that for themselves, and the Federation shouldn’t interfere.
The threshold for staying away is also not arbitrary; civilizations are off-limits until warp technology is developed. At that point, they are fair game for first contact. The reason being that if they have warp, they may come to you at some point, so there’s no point in staying away.
What Kelly implied is that every civilization will eventually grow up and become enlightened someday if you just allow it to. The Planetary Union seems to have the same rule of noninterference that the United Federation of Planets does, but their justification seems to be much shakier.
I did really like how Kelly explained the concept of reputation being a currency in a post-scarcity society. That’s how Earth is in Star Trek as well, and many other worlds in the Federation, but they don’t talk about it often. I like how the discussion was made, and how Lysella got to stand in for “real life modern day people” so when it is explained to her, it was explained to the audience. That was some nice exposition.
So this episode felt like they were wrapping up the series. Maybe it will get a season 4, but they wanted a good send off if they don’t. And I think the writers wanted to fit in an explanation of “why doesn’t the federation/union help less advanced races” and they realized they never made it a plot line so they crammed it in to their wrap-up episode.
FWIW I think it was pretty good writing, it created a plausible enough explanation which Star Trek had never really bothered to do IIRC, although they probably hinted at it here and there. I thought it was a worthwhile justification for the outlook of optimistic star trek style sci-fi.
No, it came up over and over again. Check out the Memory Alpha page on the Prime Directive. It came up in just about every series they’ve done. It was a source of tension they went back to repeatedly, and it was discussed on-screen at length. The show Enterprise even showed how and why it was developed in the first place (it was adopted from similar rules that Vulcans had developed prior to the existence of Starfleet).
Here is a direct quote from Picard, from the TNG episode Symbiosis:
“The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy… and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.”
That short quote is basically the whole explanation. They also had episodes going all the way back to TOS showing the disastrous results of violating the Prime Directive, with a number of stories revolving around attempts to repair the damage done.
It is very thoroughly and explicitly explored and discussed throughout the franchise. It’s not something that Star Trek only hinted at.
Fair enough, you’re right. There’s so much star trek it’s hard to remember everything. I did think Orville took a good stab at the idea of cultural evolution/enlightenment needed to manage technological evolution.
You watch episodes like this and it’s really clear that Seth absolutely loves Star Trek.
This is the perfect episode to watch after having an edible. 
It was light and uplifting I kept waiting for something bad to happen but it didn’t. It feels good if this was the finale. It special a nostalgic like the 90s. This was a good exploration a marriage between a mortal and immortal being It was ife like Claire was marrying a god ti secure her progeny Still it was a little insensitive of her to note dress as a Kaylon at any point in the wedding or her reception. What’s up with that? I feel wish I were Swedish 
Kaylons don’t wear clothes, so quite possibly she dressed as one for part of the honeymoon.
I didn’t get that feeling at all. The way I figure it, any society that can’t adapt to the gradual development of technology will probably blow themselves up all by themselves. So whether or not you landed and gave them the magic tech, the end result would be the same.
So avoiding contamination is the safe bet. If they’re able to adapt, they will, and will eventually figure it out. If they can’t adapt, then they were doomed to begin with.