Doctor Marr in Silicon Avatar said that she started devoting her life's work to the entity after the attack on Data's home planet. However, did Datalore not make it clear that the UFP was not sure what had really happened there prior to meeting Lore of course. I could be wrong, just need a clairification.
I need a clairification regarding the Crystalline Entity.
- Thread starter willg
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Well, Starfleet took no investigative action prior to "Datalore" so it doesn't seem Starfleet knew anything about the Crystalline Entity. And one would assume that the UFP would know what Starfleet knows and vice versa. So either Dr. Marr wasn't working for the UFP or Starfleet originally, or then she misspoke.
Now, what did she really say?
So, not quite the same thing as "I started this obsession right after the colony was attacked". Marr is merely stating the causal relationship: the colony was attacked and his son died, and at some later timepoint, this inspired Marr to become a Crystalline Entity hunter. Probably Marr started her "lifelong" hunt only after the events of "Datalore", then.
Timo Saloniemi
Now, what did she really say?
So, not quite the same thing as "I started this obsession right after the colony was attacked". Marr is merely stating the causal relationship: the colony was attacked and his son died, and at some later timepoint, this inspired Marr to become a Crystalline Entity hunter. Probably Marr started her "lifelong" hunt only after the events of "Datalore", then.
Timo Saloniemi
I never really understood the dilemma about killing it in Silicon Avatar. Picard compared it to a Whale eating cuttle fish, but that's not a fair comparison of its victims. It's actually a lot like the space amoeba and vampire cloud in TOS. Intelligent or not its murdering vast planet sized populations. It or us.
At least it flies against the ideas of due process and "presumed innocent" if a murder conviction is slapped on the entity before any sort of communication is made with it.
In more pragmatic terms, Dr. Marr probably condemned thousands if not millions of colonists to death by killing the Crystalline Entity before it could be communicated with. By destroying the only known example of this species, she denied Starfleet the opportunity of finding out how extensive the species was, how its behavior could be anticipated, and how it could be defended against. The other Crystalline Entities out there can now freely roam the galaxy and erase humanoid life, as nothing new was learned from the encounter in "Silicon Avatar".
Timo Saloniemi
In more pragmatic terms, Dr. Marr probably condemned thousands if not millions of colonists to death by killing the Crystalline Entity before it could be communicated with. By destroying the only known example of this species, she denied Starfleet the opportunity of finding out how extensive the species was, how its behavior could be anticipated, and how it could be defended against. The other Crystalline Entities out there can now freely roam the galaxy and erase humanoid life, as nothing new was learned from the encounter in "Silicon Avatar".
Timo Saloniemi
While that is a coherent, valid defense of the E-D crew's POV, I have to say, the time between FC with the CE and persuading it to somehow change its diet could contain a lot of ruined worlds and lives. Doctor Marr was still very much in the wrong. I do wonder, if the E-D crew had shown more grim determination than explorer's wonder, if Marr might have kept herself under control. Their attitude seemed almost preset to push the buttons of a marginal type like herself.
Still a good point, TS. But I see it as I do with Marvel's Galactus. I think its appetite would have outed, more often than not, and that the interval between contact and an alternate feeding method being developed would have been very costly.
Then again, the CE was quite afraid of starships and knew it was no match to their weapons and shields. If there only existed this single individual, as Marr seemed to think, then it could easily have been assigned a shepherd who kept it away from planets that had humanoid life. Starfleet surely would have had at least one ship to spare, a ship that could have kept on researching her chattel during the escort mission.
We never did learn what the CE ate. At Omicron Theta, it had killed the colonists despite their underground safe haven, without leaving corpses behind but also without damaging the real estate. It had not immediately destroyed/devoured the surface vegetation, either: the vegetation only died out after the Tripoli left, and was still in the process of dying when the Enterprise arrived a quarter of a century later. So did the CE return after the first starship had left, and had a bit of salad?
If so, we might decide it could eat vegetables, even if it also found people aboard unprotected spacecraft rather appetizing.
But the possibility remains that the CE eats souls, like any good scifi monster, and that the destruction of the vegetation is just a side effect - perhaps an expression of rage when the actual meal remains elusive? In that case, it would be quite a bit more difficult to give the CE UFP citizenship.
Timo Saloniemi
We never did learn what the CE ate. At Omicron Theta, it had killed the colonists despite their underground safe haven, without leaving corpses behind but also without damaging the real estate. It had not immediately destroyed/devoured the surface vegetation, either: the vegetation only died out after the Tripoli left, and was still in the process of dying when the Enterprise arrived a quarter of a century later. So did the CE return after the first starship had left, and had a bit of salad?
If so, we might decide it could eat vegetables, even if it also found people aboard unprotected spacecraft rather appetizing.
But the possibility remains that the CE eats souls, like any good scifi monster, and that the destruction of the vegetation is just a side effect - perhaps an expression of rage when the actual meal remains elusive? In that case, it would be quite a bit more difficult to give the CE UFP citizenship.
Timo Saloniemi
the crystalline entity was classic Star Trek as TNG ever did
yikes . . . that sentence was horrible . . . let's try again
I think 'Silicon Avatar' would have made an excellent episode of the original series. Unlike 'The Naked Now' it wasn't just a re-hash of an old story, but was a new story, albeit in the same formula as an original series episode featuring a large unknown space entity similar to 'The Doomsday Machine' and 'The Immunity Syndrome.'
yikes . . . that sentence was horrible . . . let's try again
I think 'Silicon Avatar' would have made an excellent episode of the original series. Unlike 'The Naked Now' it wasn't just a re-hash of an old story, but was a new story, albeit in the same formula as an original series episode featuring a large unknown space entity similar to 'The Doomsday Machine' and 'The Immunity Syndrome.'
Perhaps, but it still boils down to it or the people.
Except that your act did not involve stopping and with purpose eliminating the ants. The ep was never as simple as 'it or us', and certainly, Marr could have contributed to at least immobilizing it long enough for them to act to make it stop and maybe realize the implications of its actions, provided said non-feeding mode wasn't itself fatal. Its a tough issue, but I feel the ep failed by having the E-D all 'wonder of exploration' and Marr all 'Vengeance Is Mine'. Perhaps if the CE had died after realizing its actions, or going wild and truly needing to be destroyed because it cannot comprehend a life without such feedings, it would be different. I wonder who did Marr's psych eval. To wit : If the TOS Movie Era crew encountered the origins of the parasites from 'Operation : Annihilate', I might keep an eye on one of Kirk's nephews, be they officer or expert, wanting vengeance for their parents. Perhaps the TNG era is so far removed from such vendettas, or thinks it is, that no one could comprehend what she really wanted.
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