Kendra Eberhart

This is a bit of a sticky situation and not just because there is a life at stake. The question I am asking myself though is, who are these parents to request an intervention in the first place. On top of that, since we are not talking about a federation world then elements of the prime directive are still in effect. Specifically the species right to self governance. Simply put I can't see why I would go to this planet to even investigate, however since I am on this planet in the scenario then I guess it would be worth talking to the would be groom. But unless the groom made a compelling plea for help I wouldn't interfere further, its not my place, I have no reason to. I might not agree with all religions or cultural traditions but was raised to respect them all the same. This also being a guiding principle of starfleet: accepting cultural differences.

I agree that I too would move in to assist, it is the right thing to do on the off chance that the distress call is genuine and also because I am sure a starfleet regulation requires all able ships to respond to distress calls. HOWEVER, since we know of these pirates and their tendency to ambush ships, even without the knowledge of they holographic technology, I would go in with weapons and shields up. And run full sensor sweeps just to make sure the supposed ship in distress is really in distress. Or it will be about to be in distress....

Perhaps the best analogy i could make, and this is strictly in my opinion, shuttles are almost like cars. Cars ferry people from point A to point B and that is exactly what shuttles do when a starship in unavailable or impractical. The Delta Flyer and even runabouts could be described as camper vans. Yes they can ferry people around but they also have that handy bed and kitchen sink. As such they are used for more then simple ferrying of people. And let us not forget that Voyager had a limited number of auxiliary craft so it makes sense that the Delta Flyer would be used predominantly (seeing as it was better equipped and armed for missions in unexplored/hostile territory). Anyway that is the logic behind my assertions.

You know, I kind of disagree with this. Bonding with family and the like is important but what you really have to think of is that this technology is really impractical. I mean in the sense that transmitting a hologram across space is incredibly complex particularly at longer distances. The more efficient solution is transmitting videos to and from. And what you would gain by having that hologram is of marginal benefit really.

There have been many wonderful uses of this technology though I voted for holographic doctors. Not necessarily because we specifically need so many doctors but rather because the technology could create so many other in demand positions. If you can't have robots, the least you can have is holograms, right?

Because the Flyer pretty much replaces the entirety of the Voyager in many missions. Its a fully sledge starship in its own right.

Yep which is why I choose not to vote for the runabouts from DS9, also the Delta Flyer really really isn't a shuttle (I mean just consider how its used! And I think this is the limiting factor). So I know I am shooting myself in the foot but I am going to vote for the Enterprise E's captain Yacht. Just because the type 9 wasn't on the list.

Ok I just have to say it: Under no circumstances should grappling a ship ever be a good idea!!! Seriously. I went with the solar flare attack, because despite being planned beforehand its such a great spur of the moment life saving idea. On the whole though, most examples that could be found are way too situational or zany to ever really work twice, so I don't know how good a tactic they could possible be then. I suppose the lesson to the story is that sometimes it pays to think a fraction longer for that outside the box solution instead of simply shooting til the last ship floating.

I suppose the one thing I like about the soloton wave or even graviton catapult methods is that it probably is in line with something that present day earth is likely to invent to make space travel just that much easier, before practical ftl is developed. Though I don't think they have as much potential as weapons as you think because they would probably cause to much damage to ships crossing space lanes at the wrong times. What's good of a weapon that you can't control, an all that.

Yeah sure and while your at it, you might just accidentally fry the machines keeping the people alive, killing them to, not freeing them. Seriously though, this question is wholly dependant on the context it arises. If the terms pre-warp and or prime directive are used then that's it, sadly. In any other situation, I believe that the is a clause in the star fleet regulations saying that officers must prevent slavery, which this would classify as, though I might be mistaken. If I'm right though, starfleet gets to go war with the machines. Yay.

I feel that most alternate fall somewhat into one of two categories. Either the warp variant is a technology that is faster then warp but comes complete with "handy" draw backs. On the other side you have methods that wouldn't look out of place on that other long running SciFi show, you know the one with the round wormhole creating device. Just to put it out there, I would never consider a stargate-by any other name cool in the context of trek, to me its just not what trek is about. The enterprise wasn't cool because of the planets it visited but rather it was an amazing location in itself. You can't say the same about a Stargate or trajector pads or ancient gateway thingy. Similarly I feel that most non warp alternatives don't do enough to set themselves apart. They are either weirdly impractical to be cool or simply warp travel dressed up as something different. Take the hirogen subspace corridor's, yes the technology could be quite interesting but when the corridor network goes everywhere, what's the point. That's why I think that qsd is the coolest. Its a speed increase with unique limitations, but in the end it allows for much the same as warp does. Given time it would also allow us to create brand new ships that focus on the qsd rather than warp/qsd hybridization.

In a way, legal drama themed trek episodes are among the most core examples of what trek is all about. Going where no man has gone before doesn't just mean discovering new planets but also new ways of thinking about society and this is what these episodes do so well. On the whole they are incredibly well written, engaging and thought provoking. My personal preferences though are to the examples such a "A measure of a man". "Author Author" is also in much the same vein but who could seriously pick that over some of those lines made by Picard in "A measure of a man". To me, these episodes show as I mentioned above, that people aren't just sitting by 21st century law analogs, but continuing to explore and create legal systems for a brighter tomorrow.

I think that we ought to be careful how we define a racial stereotype in this context. Maybe I am picking at straws here, but what we are really talking about is concepts deeply ingrained in a particular race and or society. So yes, we expect to see these traits in all examples of said species and when they aren't they the results are either truly amazing or spectacularly awful. Personally though I think "stereotypes" are only a bad thing if they are just put there as some shallow expected trope. Racial stereotypes give a lot of room for character development in the sense of why the character agrees with or bucks the trend of a particular stereotype which makes for a much more 3 dimensional character. So in short I always try to build the character I want by keeping said stereotypes in mind. On the flip side, this issue also extends to things like how we write the adversarial forces within our stories. I think we all, at one time or another, decided to write the Klingon or Romulan or Cardassian "bad guys" in such a way keeping with certain racial stereotypical traits as a way of making a particular plot point work.

I thinking I am going to be a bit of the black sheep here by saying, I am glad that Voyager didn't land all that often. I mean they said time and time again that getting home was all that mattered so having random episodes of them landing doesn't particularly serve that goal from a OOC perspective. I also tend to think that this technology is in the same vien of saucer separation. Sure its cool and occasionally useful but not prominent. And nor should it be, I mean like because I can't think of a long term mission where a starship is better off on the ground rather then in space with the aid of transporters and shuttles. Yes these instances could happen which allows for some potentially great storytelling for us, but these are really the fringe cases. It is also worth pointing out that it seems the trend is for bigger and bigger ships, so this technology probably has been or about to be discontinued in terms of starship design.

Interesting topic indeed and answers depend deeply on specifics as previously mentioned. Personally I really love the idea of organic ships but it takes a certain type of people/setting to make them work. The idea of sentience is always a problem be it with holograms or bio-ships. Perhaps it could be said that if the ship is fully sentient some sort of service contract could be barted into just like contracts star fleet personnel agree to when they sign onto star fleet therefore negating any potential ethical concerns.