INS: Oh, those wacky Ba'ku
- Thread starter eyeresist
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I would assume not, but the effects are vaguely covered.
Aside from that, Geordi's eyes are literally the way his Dna made him. If, as is often in trek, his Dna reasserts itself, then he would lose his sight. I believe the future version of Geordi from voyager also has ocular implants.
No, I don't think so.
I wonder what the radiation would do to a tattoo? A tattoo isn't part of you bodies DNA, the ink is a foreign substance under your skin, would it disappear?
I have some friends who've had ornamental scarring done, what about those?
And while we're at it, do all the women on the planet repeatedly have their hymens grow back?
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Tattoos I expect would remain because of how they work....the scarring logically must go....the human requires more knowledge of Baku reproductive anatomy, so ask Picard. However they also specify that for some reason the cellular regeneration only kicks in after a certain age, so there may be rituals ranging from the icky to the mad rush to the woods for teenagers at harvest festival time.
The cloners certainly thought it was. They asked if he was born blind, he said yes, and then they only made clones of Riker and Pulaski not Geordi
If he was born like it, and it is not caused by physical injury during gestation or birth (which is unlikely tbh) then it's caused somewhere along the line by his genetic code. It's pretty much there from the first episode, and part of why he still has the visor at that point.
There are new therapies mentioned, but none of them are as effective, which given the borderline magical level of Trek medicine, must make it a pretty deep seated condition.
Or a plot conceit to keep him wearing it, which was the whole point of his character, so Trek's magic suddenly fails then necessary.
The radiation would have gone through and fixed all that like it did with everyone else. The Son'a were genetically maipulating themselves to the point of falling apart from the sheer level of invasive surgery and augmentation, yet they were already healing by the end of the movie after a few hours on the planet.
Geordi's condition, spending an entire night and morning watching a sunset and sunrise would have been adequate to fix him.
Again. the magic fails when plot requires it to.
The radiation would have gone through and fixed all that like it did with everyone else. The Son'a were genetically maipulating themselves to the point of falling apart from the sheer level of invasive surgery and augmentation, yet they were already healing by the end of the movie after a few hours on the planet.
Geordi's condition, spending an entire night and morning watching a sunset and sunrise would have been adequate to fix him.
Again. the magic fails when plot requires it to.
The affects of the Ba'ku radiation would wear off normally because people age normally. Entropy still exists. The radiation is temporary.
But that doesn't explain how an organ that grows back or is repaired would degenerate again. Even if it was a genetic variation from childbirth. Once that genetic damage is repaired, what logic or science would describe why that genetic damage would return? Nothing is stated that the Ba'ku radiation rewrites genetic code. If blindness was Georid's natural state and not the result of defect, then he should have remained blind. Repairing genetic damage is not rewriting the genome. If I took a blind silverfish to the Ba'ku homeworld, shouldn't it remain blind because that is it's natural state?
Simply saying "because that was his natural state" is not logical or scientific. That's as much "handwavum" as anything else. Script logic.
It's clear from the screen grabs that Geordi still has some kind of implants. Those look like fake eyes and not LaForge's natural eye color. It is a defining feature of his character. In-universe it's clear something happened that undid the repairs made in "Insurrection."
But that doesn't explain how an organ that grows back or is repaired would degenerate again. Even if it was a genetic variation from childbirth. Once that genetic damage is repaired, what logic or science would describe why that genetic damage would return? Nothing is stated that the Ba'ku radiation rewrites genetic code. If blindness was Georid's natural state and not the result of defect, then he should have remained blind. Repairing genetic damage is not rewriting the genome. If I took a blind silverfish to the Ba'ku homeworld, shouldn't it remain blind because that is it's natural state?
Simply saying "because that was his natural state" is not logical or scientific. That's as much "handwavum" as anything else. Script logic.
It's clear from the screen grabs that Geordi still has some kind of implants. Those look like fake eyes and not LaForge's natural eye color. It is a defining feature of his character. In-universe it's clear something happened that undid the repairs made in "Insurrection."
Actually, the radiation is at a high enough level to bombard nearly the entire surface of the planet, through the atmosphere, from a great height, from a thin slice of material from certain vantage points, and enough to keep the Ba'ku alive through high exposure even though they live in a temperate zone away from the equator.
So...the levels of radiation must be awfully high. Building a starbase right above them with a passive collector on the bottom, would expose everyone inside to either the same or higher level than those all the way down on the planet.
You could live on said station in equal or better health, and open a Fountain of Youth Spa, where everyone could stay a week every year and have the same benefit as the Ba'ku, who would be clueless to it being in orbit. Or just be standing there shaking their little amish fists at the big day spa in the sky.
The Son'a were just complete morons, the amount of money they could have made from the Ferengi alone they could have bought a whole star system. *And* bottled some of the particles every month to ship to their paradise planet in latinum lined ships to live on.
Morons I tell you.
Also yes any damage undone by the radiation should stay that way unless the person was damaged in exactly the same way later again. It's one very vindictive form of radiation. Always so clingy.
So...the levels of radiation must be awfully high. Building a starbase right above them with a passive collector on the bottom, would expose everyone inside to either the same or higher level than those all the way down on the planet.
You could live on said station in equal or better health, and open a Fountain of Youth Spa, where everyone could stay a week every year and have the same benefit as the Ba'ku, who would be clueless to it being in orbit. Or just be standing there shaking their little amish fists at the big day spa in the sky.
The Son'a were just complete morons, the amount of money they could have made from the Ferengi alone they could have bought a whole star system. *And* bottled some of the particles every month to ship to their paradise planet in latinum lined ships to live on.
Morons I tell you.
Also yes any damage undone by the radiation should stay that way unless the person was damaged in exactly the same way later again. It's one very vindictive form of radiation. Always so clingy.
Oh I quite agree, but that's what happens. Dna in trek often works in rather unscientific ways (Genesis anyone? Spider Dna...fish Dna...acid spitting Klingons.....) and this seems in keeping with that. It's just as unscientific that he would basically grow a new set of eyes, which is basically what's shown.
The Son'a weren't morons. They were gaping, spewing a**holes. They knew that what they were doing would destroy any chance the Ba'ku have of continuing to live on their hidey hole of choice, and condemn them to the same fate the Son'a faced when they were exiled, which was probably Ru'afo's main goal. It was all an elaborate setup to force the Ba'ku to be mortal.
In the movie, it seems the radiation only affects those on the planet. Probably due to gravometric waves or macguffinium in the atmosphere.
I think you are the only one who believes this.
From what I've read, getting actor feedback is generally useful for long-running TV or movie series, in terms of serving the characters. And it's not like Piller was contractually obliged to include each fool suggestion he received. If he changed the scripts accordingly, it must ultimately because he thought he could make it work.
If you read Fade In, it's because Stewart was now producer and had script refusal.
It's an interesting book as you see him start with idea a, then have almost totally rework it into story a b and c. Then even the version to be shot gets changed, and the money gets cheap on fx sequences. Meanwhile, Piller tries to stay cheerful as possible.
And to elaborate on the magical cure thing, I would say that it comes over, and is intended to be, more of a fountain of youth thing for a post war, almost afraid of aging itself, group of people. It's pretty much how doughty dougherty puts it, and Trek medicine prior to now has been shown to be extremely advanced. Grow you a new spine sir? No problem! Replace most of your brain? Meet doctor Bashir! Reverse pesky viral degradation of your entire system? Here's your hairbrush and transporter beam!
We even know that there are alternatives for Geordi pretty early on, but he chooses to stick with what he knows. It's why the sunset makes for a great scene, but seems a little odd when placed next to his character gimmick....he's all about overcoming a disability, and thriving with the difference that requires. It's a theme in trek: genetic augmentation to overcome things bad, the slightly muddled story in Memory....
Trek is, in some ways very anacronistically considered when the majority of it was made, very anti transhumanism. Look at the borg.
Geordi is one of very few exceptions, and even that comes with a 'the wheelchair is part of who I am and I don't need to change that to function in the world' style positive message.
If he permanent drops that, the message is changed.
They can change the message. Change is good!
I am not sure ' you are disabled but can still do stuff and be a valuable member of a group' is a message than can easily be changed for a good reason. Geordi works fine the way he is, and the blindness/eyes thing is a character trait unique to him, much like B'Ellana being half human etc.
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