SFdebris

one would hope so... then again knowing the Federation they'd think him a misjudgged hero!

World War Z , sweet one of my favorite books. Does this mean chuck is branching our into books now. I know he did that look at Foundation but I figured that was just a one off thing.

No he isn't. He not mentioned at all.

Remember that TNG episode when they mention the number of ships called Enterprise? ;-P

Thank Goodness.

Jonathan Archer is dead to us in the 24th century. As is everyone on that ship who wasn't a timecop or Reed.

Ah Phlox was the bad, horrible, no good result of B&B mangling evolution, science and their worship of the Prime Directive.

Babylon Five and their ep Believers: A couple of aliens are the parents of a child with a medical condition that requires surgery. Only they believe that the soul will escape. In their words "Food animals are cut open."

Babylon Five handled it much better, fleshing out the characters. They even had an ep taking a good jab at the Prime Directive.

Dr. Franklin operates anyway, but the parents kill their "souless" child.

edited 4th Oct '14 7:37:04 PM by TairaMai

In all fairness the two situations are nothing alike. In B5, nothing other than the kid's life and Dr. Franklin moral well being were at stake. In Enterprise, the entire mission - upon which the survival of everyone on earth hinges - depends on the ship having its chief engineer.

And no, I'm not saying Enterprise is better than B5 (You'd have to have brain damage to say that), but I mean if you're gonna compare, at least take scenarios that actually resemble one another.

(Also that B5 episode had shit all to do with the Prime directive. It was about the RL issue of people refusing medical treatements for religious reasons. Which is something that RL doctors have to deal with. (See, for one example, Jehovah Witnesses and blood transfusions) Seriously, where the fuck does the Prime Directive even come into all this? The Aliens in the episode weren't some primitive culture like the kind the Prime directive applies to.)

Heck, that did THIS enterprise episode have to do with the Prime Directive at all??? Do you like, hallucinate it in every Trek episode?

edited 4th Oct '14 7:56:36 PM by Ghilz

You'll notice that despite being in the far past, we NEVER see any of Phlox's people as a doctor or anything else related to medicine again...

We could also imagine that one of those races screwed by him showed up to genocide his planet. And when they called to the Federation for help the reply back was... "Sorry but evolution is a fundamental fact. Extinction happens."

Phlox was the one character in Enterprise I actually liked. I know there's the genocide episode, but you have to personal canon that episode out if you want to relate to the entire show at all. Is there anything else that makes you dislike Phlox?

There were two separate eps of Babylon Five that I was referring two. One had Dr. Franklin and the cute alien kid, the other (also with Dr. Franklin) had aliens talking about not interfering with "evolution" and not helping other races.

Believers handled the issue with delicacy and fleshed out all the characters. Acts of Sacrifice showed the flaws in the Prime Directive. Dr. Phlox would be at home with the Lumati.

Mostly Phlox suffers from Berman & Bragg's Alien Of The Week (TM) writing. He's badly written, ssrly, stopping to gab while a crewmember has burns on his face? The "mating" and family structure of Phlox's people seems to be channeling on the worst aspects of Gene's writing.

A lot of what Roddenberry wanted for Troi and the Betazeds never made it to the screen. There were rumors that he wanted to one up total recall by having a four-breasted Troi. Supposedly he wrote a lot about the sexual habits of various species. Of course this is from a non-official biography . But it does explain TNG's seasons 1 & 2.

Phlox seems to be there for sexual innuendo and gags. I'm with Chuck on this: a real sickbay wouldn't have live animals in cages. Nor a "doctor" who's medical skills are an Informed Ability.

Did B&B look at the worst aspects of Star Trek Voyager and TNG Season one? Characters that are underdeveloped, alien cultures that are half-baked Planet of Hats, loads and loads of Techno Babble, plot points that go nowhere.

I tired, I really did when Enterprise first came on. Then Tripp and Archer were talking and I changed the channel. Sf Debris review of These Are the Voyages hits the mark.

edited 4th Oct '14 11:35:25 PM by TairaMai

I'm starting to develop headcanon that Denobulans have different sense of morality and Phlox act according to his civilization ethics. I wouldn't compare him to Mengele or other German Nazi doctor (or criminals like thoso), even if he should be blamed for more deaths (I don't let go Dear Doctor stuff, it's Trek worst sin). And he can't be viewed as monster by Federation since itself is corrupted by Prime Directive dogma, he probably is viewed as some kind of PD prophet.

Speaking of PD, SF Debris didn't covered Homeward episode, how many other Prime Directive episodes are still not reviewed?

Really want to see him take on For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (I think that's the one.) The TOS episode that brought up the PD, and had Spock flat out state it was better to interfere in the aliens of the week's culture and risk altering and contaminating it. Then to let them be wiped out.

I'm seeing a Phlox-shaped stained glass window, with a church choir singing his praises a la Bioshock Infinite.

JLU: Fearful Symmetry

Also the early episode viewing for the Patreon supporter is out.

Delicious Power Girl.

Technically Galatea is way younger then she looks

To be fair, "Only survivor of an alternate reality that was destroyed in a cataclysmic event meant to retcon disparate comic books into a single coherent storyline, that was itself retconned out of existence in another cataclysmic event that heralded a trend of DC fucking it's characters and continuity over until it's a complete mess, at which point they hit the reset button while simultaneously gutting core aspects of the characters, thereby alienating their main source of income," is something that you really can't fit into an animated adaptation.

If you thought Chunk was being funny about Question's entrance... thats the legit entrance

Yeah it is.

I should say I don't hate Pholx and think he gets a lot right where Neelix went wrong.

I'd make a few adjustments but there is some wisdom in that. If, say, you have a hamster-sized creature that can produce the equivalent of say.. aspirin, it could be logical to carry it on long-distance, remote trips rather than rely on your stocks running out.

But you'd not keep it IN the sick bay.

At least (unless it happen but I never saw/heard about that episode) none of those animals caused harm to patients or rest of ships. Unlike Nelix cooking.

Well there's a night in sickbay where they gotta chase a bat around sickbay while portos is marinating

Exactly. That'd be one of the things I'd change.

Actually Sickbay as a "hub" on the ship with rooms spiraling off (animal housing, decon chamber, surgery center, etc) would have been logical and allowed for a real creative design that would have fit the era.

Back in the early 2000s Fearful Symmetry was actually my introduction to Power Girl.