Two possible effects

[zvi]

I posted the below to my journal couple of days ago, and then realized the question was appropriate for this comm:

So, that whole thing where conventional Federation warp drives were tearing apart the fabric of space-time, but, it appears, some solution must have been found for the problem, since someone thought it was a idea to build Voyager, with a cruising speed above Warp 9. (The environmental impact of gasoline distortion of the fabric of space-time by conventional warp technologies was a big part of the plot of the finale of TNG.)

Does Spock Prime remember enough of the associated engineering to tell people (a) what the problem is and (b) how to fix it? Is the problem even fixable with 23rd century technology? Does the problem even exist with 23rd century technology? Will Spock Prime give advanced technology to Montgomery Scott again, or will he give Vulcan a technological advance which allows them to turn into a civilization of pirates couriers.

Then today I was reading anne_higgins' No-Win Scenario which is not particularly germane to this comm, but which mentions that the low-level species wide telepathy was putting the Vulcans into a tail-spin, and I wondered if a large number of people from a different telepathic species would be helpful or harmful.

What do y'all think of either or both ponderances?

Comments

[illariy]

My understanding is that the species' wide telepathy link is being explored in ST: AOS because of a secondary source novel wherein a Vulcan science vessel was destroyed and Spock could feel it, or something like that.

It was actually in a TOS ep called "The Immunity Syndrome". A giant amoeba-like organism destroys the Intrepid, a Starfleet vessel staffed exclusively with Vulcans, and Spock kind of jerks back on the bridge, touches his head and then says in a dazed tone that the ship is gone and all Vulcans are dead. Or something like that. Kirk and McCoy think he's lost it and McCoy gets him to sickbay but can't find anything wrong with him. Spock is all, told you so, the pain was only momentary. They have a snarky exchange during with Spock tells McCoy that perhaps if humans, too, could feel the death of millions, they would've had a different history. He also seems to know somehow that the Vulcans never knew what killed them. Aww, what the heck, have a transcript. :-)

So that's part of the canonical evidence that all Vulcans are telepathically aware of each other.

Then there's the TOS ep "All Our Yesterdays", in which the big three accidentally travel in time. Spock and McCoy end up in an ice-age, about 5000 years in the past. Spock begins behaving strangely, eats meat, gets aggressive, flirts with a woman. McCoy figures out Spock's "reverting to his ancestors". It's never clearly explained why that should happen but fanon has it that it's because of that low-level link all Vulcans share, which at that time would have a lot of unrestrained emotion circulating around. But it's sort of speculative and it's *cough* a third season ep so make of that what you will.

I'm not familiar with TNG, DS9 and ENT to say if there's other canonical evidence or if they ever gave a more detailed explanation. From what there is, I think at the very least, all remaining Vulcans should have had a few moments of intense pain and disorientation. After that, I'm not sure. Spock bounced back quickly but that was "just" a couple hundred Vulcans. I do think it likely that many Vulcans would have problems. Many intriguing possibilities! *is an angst junkie*

[melannen]

I had completely forgotten the bit in "immunity syndrome" where Spocks hears voices crying out and being silenced! Okay, so it's canon in TOS too, just apparently was ignored for a long time. Though since Who and TOS origanally aired at the same time, I wouldn't be suprised if there was canon bleedover, too; the way the two shows drew their advanced, scientific, touch-telepathic, deeply conservative cultures with their half-human renegade-only-not has a lot in common, which I was noticing even before they both decided to destroy their home planets. :P

I had blocked out "All Our Yesterdays"; there's nothing more guaranteed to hit my embarrassment squick than "Vulcans losing control". (Though, oddly, Quinto!Spock doesn't trigger it nearly as much, maybe because it's obvious he was never quite as indoctrinated by passion's-mastery in that universe. Or maybe because he chews the scenery slightly less than Nimoy or Lenard...)