Sfdebris.net

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/c117.php

I think Chuck's being a LITTLE unfair to the society of New Eden. Religion IS different from a government and hey, when you see something that looks preeeeetty divine as we saw with the angel's appearance, there's going to be some debate and eventually come to a decision on how to interpret it. In this case they decided the best thing to do was to merge the religions. The idea of just "letting everyone believe what they want" might work fine from a theoretical standpoint, but they were the ones actually there dealing with it and needing to figure out some way of making sense of it all. Hell, they're 2 centuries removed from the actual event itself, so maybe there was a lot more infighting and whatnot that actually occurred and this is just the official history that was decided on to try to make things more hunky-dory among them.

I'm guessing Chuck is unfamiliar with Wicca-style theology.

"But that makes no sense, and for once that fact actually matters."

Okay, that's a pretty awesome burn.

LordUltimus wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2019 12:26 am I'm guessing Chuck is unfamiliar with Wicca-style theology.

An it harm none, do what thou will?

I thought this was an ambitious episode, albeit one regrettably leaning towards the religion being "real" in a way that I, an atheist, find offensive. However, credit for trying.

That said, I think that they made the wrong decision here. This is a theocracy and those NEVER end well, and it clearly has some repressive policies already. They very much SHOULD have broken the PD and used the magic mushroom drive to bring Starfleet people in to tell the colonists that Earth is a paradise now.

I kinda wonder how the people in the church squared atheism in the mix if at all judging by science guy. Judging by the troops and equipment in the basement and video it was probably more then just people seeking shelter and prayer, might have been an aid station or command post so there was probably some atheists in that "foxhole". Were they repressed or ignored like apparently science guy's ancestors were or did they make some attempt to integrate some quasi-atheist stuff in their like "the universe" as a substitute for a god?

Would be a bit funny in a sad sort of way if its the former, even when all the religions are actually getting along atheists are still told to get bent.

Kinda wonder if there is anything Starfleet could even do for these people assuming it wasn't a Prime Directive thing, which I would think from evidence in other episodes may not apply considering its a transplanted Earth colony and they have had contact with warp capable aliens. The planet is far far from Federation space only reachable by space magic on one ship. Trying to do anything for them to reintegrate them back into the human race is to stuff them in every closet and cubby hole on Discovery to take them back to Earth, thats about it.

I do like that they discuss religion and bring up aliens with incredible abilities (natural or technological). They're Starfleet; believing three impossible things before breakfast is easy when you saw them the previous day. I'm not sure what would separate a god (small g) from a member of the Q continuum. Quinn (the suicidal Q) said they weren't omnipotent but most gods weren't either.

There was a TNG episode where Picard and Riker decide that the prime directive doesn't apply to one civilization because they're human. But there's a lot of time between STD and TNG and the directive could have been redefined or might just be being reinterpreted differently, so I'll give it a pass.

I really like the prime directive being treated in the TOS manner, where we don't have a crew facing the death of a biosphere and the response is to watch it happen and then stand up for a few minutes afterward.

That "no dead people in Starfleet" rule isn't really as rigid as Chuck makes it seem here. Spock, for instance, continued to serve long after his death. Same with Harry Kim.

New Eden features a surprisingly rare mention of Beta Quadrant in the entire franchise (I think Sulu mentions it in Star Trek VI as well as SINGLE references in DS9 and VOY). There are maps which show the Klingons and Romulans occupy Beta Quadrant but this has never really been made clear in dialogue. So basically Beta Quadrant is similar to Hufflepuff in Star Trek.