Hearing him out was very much an issue at that stage already - why is he saying "no" all the time, and what to?
They may not have expressed it since it wasn't going to be forthcoming any time in their schedule. Even if it were a week away, the Enterprise isn't going to hang out there for a week, so they can't ask him those questions, or ask them yet. No reason not to speculate now. Then Spock's plan is in motion.
But yes, since there is never a mention of it, it seems more likely they are never expecting any improvement, physically or mechanically.
Sure. But there were many people around to contradict Chekov, and the issue was about legal minutiae and contradicting to begin with.
When the gist is already out there, pointing out errors in minutiae often just seems like a dick move, and I can't see one rushing to step up for that honor.
There's only one death penalty. General order 4. And this ain't that.
Excuse me, Mr. Chekov, but you are failing to take into account it's not general order 4 but general order 7, and so your point of there only being one death penalty on the books is in error since you quoted the wrong order, or you are mistaken in thinking what is currently happening here isn't a capital case since you misspoke, so I would be remiss if I didn't take the time to point out that I am, perhaps from this evidence, smarter than you or at least have a better memory for which general order applies, and therefore, there is still only one death penalty on the books, general order 7, and this isn't it. I'm glad I took the time to clear that up for everybody. So let us proceed now that I have properly educated all of you on this important point of law.
And that assumes everybody there even knew since it's such an important part of their everyday lives. Mostly, I would think anyone who saw his mistake would let it slide as relatively unimportant there at that time.
Moreover, it seems unlikely that General Order 7 would really have had the word "Talos" anywhere in it - it's a general order, not a specific order. The Talos issue came and went, within a timespan of a decade or so, and tangential on General Order 7 (no doubt some sort of a general rule about quarantine) on the way. It's logical to assume that further such issues would come and go, as further starship skippers would encounter deadly threats to the very existence of existence, and then find ways around those.
They might still call it the Talos order after it gained broader applicability to other contact situations that were eventually deemed too dangerous. But I can believe that was the first and it would have the name of the planet in the GO. More likely it would just be GO 7 (capital crime, don't touch under penalty of law).
But as said, the bit about Talos was not general. So the wording of the century-old GO7 probably didn't change one iota when Pike made his recommendation and Admiral Comsol supported it - the death penalty clause inherent in all GOs was merely activated for #7 in the case of Talos. And deactivated when it no longer made sense, without GO7 itself disappearing from the books.
Pike could well have been the first captain to come across anything deemed that dangerous. Inherent in all GO's? You think they all carried the death penalty and but eventually all but one at that time were relaxed to non-capital crimes? Interesting. I think most never had the death penalty associated with them, but more than one probably did since only one was left, or so it seem to be implied.
But that doesn't make sense, as going to Talos is no longer a threat to the UFP. Or if it is, then there's nothing General Orders or death penalties can do about it.
Just cuz Spock did it and got away with it doesn't mean it's safe. The idea humanity would seek to learn that power remains, and if they did, they'd fall into the same trap (being too short sighted to see the massive downside in the long term while blinded by the apparent upside). So the death penalty remains, mostly as a deterrent.
How is that untrue of Pike? And Pike no longer is a starship captain: he's a mere has-been and commands no greater whole.
Pike was still salvageable in this plan, Mitchell was not (according to Spock).
I wonder what they did about all those suitable species they found in the Enterprise databanks? A few Halkans to go, please...
I gathered since they felt our unsuitability condemned them to eventual death, they did not have enough time to try other species. Not that I understand what they were trying to preserve. It wasn't their genes or their species, so what? They just hate to see a class M planet go to waste? They'd rather somebody worthy were using it, and they'd like to pick one, perhaps setting themselves up as gods for that species until they aged out? Hmmm, that actually sounds like something they might do. I like it! Why go to another planet and play God and kick start a culture when you can grow your own locally?
Pike would be an excellent guinea pig, now wouldn't he? It's not even as if he could refuse a Starfleet order to participate, what with his communications problems, the weight of medical opinion, etc.
In any case, while the Council was evaluating it all, Quark's granddad Gellman or Cyrano Jones would already be establishing a spa there, and the only option left for Starfleet would be to shoot down the ships of the would-be customers.
They may have already tried it and failed.
Unless it's just a case of the kironide in the muscles interacting with the kironide on the planet's crust, subtly manipulating a vastly powerful field of some sort. The kironide in the muscles alone would achieve nothing, and no planet would have that much kironide in the crust or the Federation science would already know about it.
Ah yes, the planet's perfect fields and how it made Flint immortal, but leaving it made him mortal, or similar tales of unique planetary properties in a universe of science that suggests the laws here are the same as the laws there, so that's why things are so similar. But there's always the possibility of differences. There's always that gem. I do not like it much, but if you use it, dust it off well enough so everybody can have a good look during the story.
That's the point, really - the Federation already knows about the "great power" of kironide, and even Kirk has heard about it, needing no prompting from his Science Officer. It's a known substance, so McCoy is justified in having some in his pouch. But clearly the amount McCoy has in his pouch has zero effect when applied aboard the Enterprise or on Earth, or the heroes would know more about this "great power". It only works in combination with something, and the something could be the location, but at the very least must be something specific to the location.
Kirk knows about dilithium crystals, too, but he doesn't have any in his pocket, nor the doctor any in his medikit. It's VERY rare. They said so, didn't they? Yeah, in the opening before they even beamed down – the place is filthy with kironide, a very rare but long lasting source of great power. Damn straight McCoy took a sample fist chance he got (probably while waiting for Parmen's fever to break).
Rolling on the floor coughing!
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. Well, you didn't "like" like it. Ha ha hint hint.
Unfortunately, I've been "officially" warned about duplicating posts. Normally I'd put it in the Fan Art comic section so others could enjoy it, too, but Calculon 1001001 warned me about duplicating stuff. He calls it "spamming," despite my belief it's nothing of the sort, or two posts hardly qualify, but he told me in an email he doesn't care what I think, so talking to him about seems pointless. After all, how far can you get with somebody who doesn't even care what you think? He also said he didn't care what I did in the Fan Art thread since another moderator was running that, but when I put a duplicate comic from there in a relevant thread, he apparently cared enough to give me an OFFICIAL WARNING. The board rules almost suggest "relevance" factors in, but apparently not always, and it even says a "reasonable" amount of time should pass before posting more than twice in a row, so that's two rules I broke, I guess, so BAM! But it was VERY relevant, IMO, and my first post in that thread was on August 10th, my second (in a row) on August 17th, 7 days later, and my third (3 in a row, gasp, and a comic he said he didn't care about) was on August 30th, 10 days after post number 2, or 3 posts over a period of 21 days, and that was still too quick, so what constitutes the "reasonable amount of time" in the rules eludes me as well. It has to be less than a year, I figure, since they have a rule about not posting at all after a year has passed, too. Maybe if I'm still around, I can try putting it in the comic thread then, but to do it before then, I might get banned. So I complain to you since even though you don't agree with me a lot, I always get the impression you at least care.
But we follow the adventures of our heroes. And it's the failure of our heroes, who do possess these "relatively rare" things, to benefit that is the problem here.
Oh? And did we acquire the rights to Parmen's planet? Has kironide become less rare elsewhere in the universe?
But we never get the impression the spore plants would need anything at all. They're happy just sitting there in the soil.
We get the impression they need Berthold rays. And since they do it, they seem to infect people or have some need to do that.
Then again, vampires live forever and don't exist in quantity or reproduce much if at all. If this mosquito cloud really was into reproduction cycles, then there should be lots of them around, proving they are harmless after all because having lots of them around doesn't appear to cause any discernible harm to the universe. (The same with all the reproducing threats of Trek: space amoebae, crystalline entities, whatnot. If they "are about to breed", then there clearly is no hurry, because it's way too late by definition.)
Space is big. The cloud creature doubtlessly was spawned from another before and this one has recently moved into the neighborhood, perhaps thousands of light years from its point of origin, lest we Federation types would already know more about it (or giant space crystalline entities). The amoeba was from another dimension, so that could be rare, or worse than space being big, there are infinite universes. One and only one here isn't too hard to accept.
Insect pollination is a thing Earth has done without for most of the time it has had plants. Insects aren't relevant to putting bread on the table, say (this even when grasses like wheat are relative newcomers). Perhaps 'em Trek colonists deliberately choose crops that don't need insects to pollinate them - or then choose diverse crops, and usually the ones needing insects die out because importing of insects generally fails, too.
I thought they had corn. I don't know what it takes, but that's a grass-type, and I was once told each kernel needed to be pollenated and not each plant, so if it relies on just wind, that's amazing.
The Talosians I found weird as well as the crippled Pike in the black chair and his sinister stare! The Dummies from Shore Leave, The first appearance of The Gorn, The Horta was odd when it shuffled after Kirk in the cave, The Parasites on Deneva, The Witches from Catspaw, Gorgon's true form from And The Children Shall Lead and the dead bodies and Libby Erwin's croaking from Lights of Zetar!