So is the Union now at war with the Krill? I get the hesitation to go to war with earlier border skirmishes, as a bigger conflict would be seen as a holy war by the other party, but getting caught red handed trying to kill an entire planet through WMDs kicks it to a whole other level. If they try something like this once, they will try again. Defacing human corpses during their religious ceremonies is more evidence that this can’t be solved peacefully.
I did enjoy the episode, and I liked the whole eating bit, but this feels like a episode that should come later when the Union and the Krill are a bit more established. As it was it felt a little un-engaging. It was also pretty obviously a bottle episode as the Krill ship was nothing more than a bunch of corridors.
It’s my understanding (admittedly based on a half-remembered reading of Huston Smith half a lifetime ago) that the book itself is considered sacred because it contains the revelation, yes? Muslims certainly seem to consider desecrating a Koran more seriously than Christians would take desecrating a Bible.
I’m thinking the Krill’s reverence towards the Oncala is a turned-up-to-11 form of that; it’s not worthy of being contained in any lesser vessel than a grand tome stored in the temple.
It’s an alien culture and religion - it’s not even a little outrageous to imagine that they don’t make non-holy versions of their religious text. That’s a great way to keep your fundamentalist religion nice and fundamental.
Well, it seemed par for the course: Bortus is humorlessly munching on various objects. Notice – he sniffs each one, just like we would an unusual food item, as if that would insure it were edible. Then a cautious bite. No outward appreciation of taste. Remember, his species urinates once per year, their bodies are incredibly efficient. The baby is probably annoying the hell of of him and other dad – probably needs a weekly feeding and monthly diaper change. Can you imagine doing all that work?
Thing is, he IS happy when LaMarr does a good job taking out a Krill vessel with a shot to the engines, so he’s able to appreciate things. And he really dislikes talking about the Captain and XO’s marital problems, maybe hitting a little too close to home for him. He’s reserved, but not emotionless. Anyway, even Vulcans were culturally extremely reserved, and not emotionless. But I’m going off track.
I was expecting Alara to be the one who ate inanimate objects. Out of a need to boost her skeleton with denser substances than bone to support her stronger muscles under her high gravity planet.
But I’ve brought this up before, in Star Trek replicator threads, different species should have different tastes. I always wanted a particularly extra bone structure alien to say,
“You gonna finish that?”
“Finish what, Naomi Wildman, do you mean the bones of the chicken carcass?”
We watched it tonight.
I do wish that the helmsman, Black guy and artificial life form would have an airlock accident.
Certainly an interesting episode, if only for the “They will” at the end.
The helmsman drives the ship in addition to being stupid. What does the Black guy do besides be stupid?
I’m surprised that this is the first time that the slap stick has gotten into the way of the story for me. Perhaps I am beginning to think of it as Trek instead of comedy.
Yes, the navigator talked too much when they arrived on the Krill ship. Even I was thinking they aren’t ready for infiltration into the Krill. And trying to save the kids? Not sure. A good way to show they are good people, as I think he said, but maybe not the best strategy, since they can now report it was taken. Yes to being at war now? Yes to the god jokes, but I laughed at the Hertz one.
Yes, I enjoyed it. Lots of fun to me! I’m not the biggest McFarlane fan but am a SciFi fan and Trek, although won’t pay to watch ST : D.
That struck me, too. If the Krill regard that as an act of war, they may jump whole heartedly into a religious war.
Having an intact ship without the Bad Guys knowing would be advantageous, but as was pointed out, they know all about it, and probably how the crew was killed.
See, we don’t know that. The Admiral assumes that the Krill religion simply doesn’t acknowledge any sort of recognition, and the children are definitely indoctrinated to deny the value of non-Avis races. But their culture and politic may be more complicated than that. Now that the Union can study the bible, they may find more nuance. And there’s still practicality to consider, if the Krill wanted war, they would have gone to war by now. They don’t send fleets after the Union core worlds, just an occasional destroyer. Is that random? Or are they attacking encroachments to Krill space? Maybe like Romulans, they will only attack if they look like they weren’t the aggressor. Or like the Mimbari, a certain caste must make the decision. There are any of a variety of cultural, political or social reasons.
Well, Mercer is most certainly seen by the Krill the same was the Klingon see Kirk in the Trek movies. A horrible, violent, war criminal. The Krill can easily see anything the Union does the same was as the Klingons depicted Genesis – a plot bent on destruction of everything in the galaxy. I always remember the Klingon ambassador, boy, was he ever unintentionally funny.
There’s still diplomacy. Someone is repatriating the kids. Don’t know how that’s going to be handled. But some chain of neutrals is passing those kids off. Maybe two or three layers of races involved in the transfer. Races involved as the latter layers may not have much love for the Union, and may easily support Krill propaganda.
And what’s the harm if the Krill know the Union has their ship. The union can send it back, in crates, after analysis. Didn’t China do that with the spy plane they caught? It didn’t end in holy war against China, I think I would have noticed Dubya doing that.
Trying to kill hundreds of thousands with a WMD is going to war. It was only blind luck that the attack was prevented. It’s like if a random encounter with a US warship had prevented Pearl Harbour. It’s something the Union cannot ignore and keep its credibility as a military power.
Also, wouldn’t Mercer now be the hero of the Union. The mission was a rousing success and prevented a huge catastrophe. Even if the whole thing would be classified, the brass should be changing their minds about him being washed-up and move Mercer to bigger and better things.
But what if, like, when you went to get photocopies from the printing store, that charges an outrageous price because they know your office isn’t zoned for photocopiers and they’re the only game in town, you find out that the owner of the print store is an arsonist and he has a flaming molotov cocktail and he tells you, to your face, that he’s going burn your office. So not only do you stop him you also return to the office with the copies and a photocopier, for free, and all the necessary paperwork for a photocopiers licence.
