My Bigotry Towards the Xenophobic Talarians: Episode, "Suddenly Human"

[Needle and Spoonhead]

The "Suddenly Human" episode, which at one time garnered a very passive interest on my part, now makes me very angry at the Talarian race. My vitriol was exacerbated when I learned by actively paying attention to the episode dialogue that the Talarian's and the Federation were involved in some kind of war at one time in their respective, recent histories.

The Talarian's were vastly inferior to the Federation in regards to weapons technology. They compensated by utilizing disastrously crude, dishonorable guerrilla tactics...

When the Talarian's did not receive Jono as expected, Captain Endar begins his ridiculous posturing...

Now, my beef with these people isn't so much predicated on the fact that the Talarians stole an orphaned human - of which they were responsible for the murder of the human child's parents - and keeping Jono as one of their own while rationalizing the action by their "spoils of war" cultural precepts...

My disdain is elevated by the perception that they don't even realize how comically outgunned they are...

So the Federation puts on the kid's gloves (no pun intended) when dealing with the Talarians - even though the Talarians have no issues whatsoever in escalating a diplomatic issue into an armed conflict.

The Talarians deserved a humiliating defeat. One as ugly, and sonically unforgiving as the Alba Ra. Punishment administered with all the moral turpitude of a dagger strike into the heart of a sleeping victim...

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I could imagine a similar post made on a Cardassian web forum about the Bajorans resistance to them. Or a similar conversation going on in England about the American colonies around 1776 or so.

We don't know the circumstances of the Talarian war, whether they just started attacking the Federation out of nowhere or if they had reason to view the Federation as the aggressor. If the Federation was giving aid to their enemies or threatening their resources, or if it really was just a case of the Talarians attacking the Federation for territory.

It seems a lot like the Talarians were the aggressors, but either way, validity of cause has nothing to do with your military capabilities.

 

[Dukhat]

My disdain is elevated by the perception that they don't even realize how comically outgunned they are...

During the Vietnam war, the United States was vastly superior to the Vietcong in terms of weaponry. And yet they lost.

 

[Avro Arrow]

The Talarians deserved a humiliating defeat. One as ugly, and sonically unforgiving as the Alba Ra. Punishment administered with all the moral turpitude of a dagger strike into the heart of a sleeping victim...

To destroy strange new worlds,
To annihilate new life, and new civilizations,
To boldly crush our enemies, where no one has crushed them before!

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I admit I would be a lot more sympathetic to Jono's situation if the Talarians themselves hadn't openly murdered his human parents. I don't blame Jono's grandma one bit for wanting him back.

Yeah, yeah, it's Talarian tradition, yadda yadda. Well, screw them. Some traditions need to change, like this one.

 

[Marynator]

It is easy for us to respect another culture when we agree with it, ir even understand it. When we dislike what they are doing, and especially when we have a personal stake, it is a much purer test of our proclaimed tolerance and enlightenment. The child was a war orphan, and caring for him was part of their societal beliefs. It was difficult for us to accept but that's exactly what makes it impactful.

The Federation hates war and would not kill unless absolutely necessary. I could imagine they were very sad the Talarians went to war with them, and Starfleet likely tried to keep casualties to a minimum on both sides. The Talarians may have viewed that as a weakness at first. They are probably very proud, even when overmatched. I feel it was important to the story that the Enterprise was not physically threatened so that the conflict could remain purely a moral dilemma.

 

[Gary7]

I admit I would be a lot more sympathetic to Jono's situation if the Talarians themselves hadn't openly murdered his human parents. I don't blame Jono's grandma one bit for wanting him back.

Yeah, yeah, it's Talarian tradition, yadda yadda. Well, screw them. Some traditions need to change, like this one.

It does make you wonder... if Jono was young enough to be "deprogrammed" from the Talarian belief system. Formative years are very tricky ones and they'll cement beliefs that defy logic... something that may not be able to revisit except in adult years. I think Jono demonstrated a strong potential to be "rehabilitated." Treat the Talarian experience as being part of a cult. Because compared to the Federation, they were an inherently primitive people with basic spaceships. Jono didn't know what he was missing, so naturally he'd be compelled to yearn for his Talarian surrogate father. He needed more time to discover his human heritage, to have a sensible comparison of it against his Talarian cultural programming. I think there would be a very good chance that in time he'd come to realize how much better off he'd be within the realm of the Federation.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The child was a war orphan, and caring for him was part of their societal beliefs.

Jono was only an orphan because the Talarians made him one! It was THEIR FAULT he lost his parents. So why should the very same government that killed Jono’s parents be allowed to take him as their own?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If Jono was found when he was 3 I may agree with you. As a teenager, you're taking away everything he knows and grew up with, and doing it forcefully against his wishes. Deeming another society 'backward' because it's alien to you is the kind of extreme cultural arrogance that excuses real world atrocities.

That's basically colonization mindset.

 

[Triskelion]

^OK, interesting viewpoint. Too bad the Talarians don't subscribe to it for themselves.

 

[Kronos]

To destroy strange new worlds,
To annihilate new life, and new civilizations,
To boldly crush our enemies, where no one has crushed them before!

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

The voyages of the USS Subjugation.

 

[at Quark's]

To destroy strange new worlds,
To annihilate new life, and new civilizations,
To boldly crush our enemies, where no one has crushed them before!

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Mirror Universe intro?

 

[Nakita Akita]

The actor was sort of an annoying looking kid anyway.
That screaching that he did because he was sad needed to be done in a soundproof room.
And if you stab the captain of a ship you should be shoved out an airlock or put in the brig.
He was human and just needed to go back and live with humans.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Deeming another society 'backward' because it's alien to you is the kind of extreme cultural arrogance that excuses real world atrocities.

That's basically colonization mindset.

I never said the Talarians were backward. I just meant that they should not be able to benefit from claiming Jono, for the very specific reason that they killed his parents in the first place.

I mean, if somebody goes and murders their next door neighbors, then takes their only child, of course nobody would be in favor of that. This is basically the same thing. The Talarians killed Jono's parents, so why do they get to keep him?

 

[Riker'sMailbox]

My disdain is elevated by the perception that they don't even realize how comically outgunned they are...

So the Federation puts on the kid's gloves (no pun intended) when dealing with the Talarians - even though the Talarians have no issues whatsoever in escalating a diplomatic issue into an armed conflict.

The Talarians deserved a humiliating defeat. One as ugly, and sonically unforgiving as the Alba Ra. Punishment administered with all the moral turpitude of a dagger strike into the heart of a sleeping victim...

This is a bit...dramatic.

Let's show our moral superiority by attacking a group that cannot adequately defend itself? It is a good thing that those 24th century humans had a deep understanding that our way is just that and that other ways are allowed.

 

[DonIago]

So...they should have just killed Jono instead?

As...say...the Klingons might have?

Anyone know whether Jono makes an appearance in the novels? Respecting the Talarians' beliefs and Jono's choice today might yield dividends in the future.

 

[Riker'sMailbox]

I never said the Talarians were backward. I just meant that they should not be able to benefit from claiming Jono, for the very specific reason that they killed his parents in the first place.

I mean, if somebody goes and murders their next door neighbors, then takes their only child, of course nobody would be in favor of that. This is basically the same thing. The Talarians killed Jono's parents, so why do they get to keep him?

Because Jono decided he wanted to stay?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Because Jono decided he wanted to stay?

...Fair enough.

Anyone know whether Jono makes an appearance in the novels?

I can't remember which novels, but Endar is now the Talarian ambassador to the Federation, and Jono is a member of his staff.

 

[Roundabout]

Endar kidnapped the boy.

And Picard justified the kidnapping by returning the boy to Endar. Picard set a bad precedent where aliens may believe that they can attack and kill human colonists and then kidnap their orphaned children with impunity.

Jono's biological grandmother must have been mightily pissed at Picard. She had every right to be.

Jono's wishes should not have been the only factor in determining where he should have ended up imho.

There was child custody case in a DS9 episode called "Cardassians". The two situations are not exactly the same, but in that instance the Cardassian teenager whose custody was in dispute was returned to his biological Cardassian father, even though he had been raised by his adoptive Bajoran parents.

The Cardassian kid wanted to stay with his adoptive Bajoran parent. It was not the kid's wishes that were the sole or primary determination of where he should end up. There were other important considerations. After a hearing, Sisko ordered the boy to be taken from his Bajoran family and returned to his biological one.

 

[Marynator]

It was a part of their culture to raise the children of enemies orphaned by their war, a culture that Jono is now a part of. It suggests that they do not necessarily glorify killing but rather deem it as a necessary evil. We do not know what caused the war between the Talarians and the Federation, but it is highly probable that they did not view themselves as villains. As much as I detest war, I do not believe it is so simple to compare it to murder (for example, when our soldiers come home we do not imprison them for the lives they regrettably took while serving in duty). The Talarians did what they believed was right in good faith based on their own ethical code, and it is not our place to pass judgement on their system as being wrong. The Federation does not hold to the same line of thinking as colonial era Europeans.

I saw a movie a number of years ago with Karl Urban, that feels very similar to this type of story. It was about a Viking boy who was orphaned during a raid by his people in North America. He is found by a tribe of Native Americans and raised as one of them. Years later when he (Karl Urban) is an adult, the Vikings come back and he fights to save his new people from his old. He no longer identifies as a Viking but rather as a Native, in a similar manner to how Jono now identifies as a Talarian and not a human.

The whole point of this episode was that we as humans would have a difficult time understanding the Talarian culture, and we would view it with hostility. Captain Picard however is sufficiently enlightened to learn respect for their way of life even when he strongly disagrees with it. It would have been better if Jono's parents had never died, and it would have been great if he had been rescued right away by Starfleet and brought to his grandmother, but that is not what happened. I always felt this was a good episode: we did not get the happy ending we wanted, but we did not force our values upon someone else. This is how humanity has evolved by the 24th century!