Enterprise: Cold Station 12

[CrypticMirror]

For an organization that doesn't care much for genetic engineering, Starfleet sure seems to have a lot of top-secret research labs on the topic... Cold Stations 1 through 11 aren't just Schwan's warehouses, right?

It is a misconception that The Federation doesn't do genetic engineering, it has been stated on screen multiple times that they do do it for illness, injury, and genetic birth defects. They just don't do it for elective enhancements, because sooner or later you get murderous tyrants (or murderous zealot footsoldier-slaves who look upon you as a god) if you do. It is one of those annoying fan misconceptions that the Federation don't do it at all.

So they are still going to need to do gene editing experiments in order to keep up with research on those fields. And no doubt those fields have enormous applicability to defensive fields.

What the Federation is absolutely not supposed to do under any circumstances is use genetic editing to create genocidal diseases, DS9! The show should have been much, much, much more condemnatory on that score.

[Enterprising]

For an organization that doesn't care much for genetic engineering, Starfleet sure seems to have a lot of top-secret research labs on the topic... Cold Stations 1 through 11 aren't just Schwan's warehouses, right?

It is a misconception that The Federation doesn't do genetic engineering, it has been stated on screen multiple times that they do do it for illness, injury, and genetic birth defects. They just don't do it for elective enhancements, because sooner or later you get murderous tyrants (or murderous zealot footsoldier-slaves who look upon you as a god) if you do. It is one of those annoying fan misconceptions that the Federation don't do it at all.

So they are still going to need to do gene editing experiments in order to keep up with research on those fields. And no doubt those fields have enormous applicability to defensive fields.

What the Federation is absolutely not supposed to do under any circumstances is use genetic editing to create genocidal diseases, DS9! The show should have been much, much, much more condemnatory on that score.

Don't forget as well that facility in the TNG episode "Unnatural Selection" they gave kids telekinetic and telepathic powers (among other things). Picard or anyone else didn't even bat an eyelid at any of it, in-fact he was perfectly content to save all those kids & take them away provided they didn't carry the super aging virus.

[clearspira]

For an organization that doesn't care much for genetic engineering, Starfleet sure seems to have a lot of top-secret research labs on the topic... Cold Stations 1 through 11 aren't just Schwan's warehouses, right?

It is a misconception that The Federation doesn't do genetic engineering, it has been stated on screen multiple times that they do do it for illness, injury, and genetic birth defects. They just don't do it for elective enhancements, because sooner or later you get murderous tyrants (or murderous zealot footsoldier-slaves who look upon you as a god) if you do. It is one of those annoying fan misconceptions that the Federation don't do it at all.

So they are still going to need to do gene editing experiments in order to keep up with research on those fields. And no doubt those fields have enormous applicability to defensive fields.

What the Federation is absolutely not supposed to do under any circumstances is use genetic editing to create genocidal diseases, DS9! The show should have been much, much, much more condemnatory on that score.

Don't forget as well that facility in the TNG episode "Unnatural Selection" they gave kids telekinetic and telepathic powers (among other things). Picard or anyone else didn't even bat an eyelid at any of it, in-fact he was perfectly content to save all those kids & take them away provided they didn't carry the super aging virus.

Early installment weirdness of the highest order. We can call that retconned - like more or less everything that Pulaski did on the show. Seriously, the woman is never mentioned again.

[PerrySimm]

This was the best of the episodes in the arc. So it is a minor nitpick -- but it just happens to look a lot bigger, since it went into the episode title. Just a little lazy and goes too far down the normal Star Trek well without stopping to think about the implications. "All the Starbases have numbers, right?"

The show has been fairly inconsistent about what humanity's values are, but at this point in future-history, so much *closer* to the eras of Khan and Colonel Green, it's just hard to see Earth getting too involved with genetic research.

Would there be at least one top-secret facility? Would that facility be easier to justify, if it was operated in jointly with Earth's allies, and is intended to mainly research medical cures? Sure! It's just silly to make this place up, have it supposedly be very special, but then undermine that with this tacked-on number "12".

Because either Earth is involved with twelve to eighteen high-isolation biomedical research stations - which is a disproportional commitment of resources - or the (supposedly Vulcan-backed) Interspecies Medical Exchange is perfectly willing to reveal just how many other such facilities exist. Neither of those are particularly satisfying answers.

... What the Federation is absolutely not supposed to do under any circumstances is use genetic editing to create genocidal diseases, DS9! The show should have been much, much, much more condemnatory on that score.

It's easy to over-focus on "Extreme Measures" and the silliness of going inside the warped brain of a spy just to pontificate, but in "Inter Arma Silent Leges", you really do get the sense of extreme discomfort Bashir has, giving this lecture on the horrors of Dominion genetic plagues - while the Romulans are there trying to get pointers on how to *make* bio-weapons...

... We can call that retconned - like more or less everything that Pulaski did on the show. Seriously, the woman is never mentioned again.

They did mention Pulaski in "Who Watches the Watchers?", indirectly in "Ship in a Bottle", and - tenuously - in Voyager's "Endgame".

[TGLS]

Headcanon: Cold Stations 1-11 are just very cold places (some in space). Thus, if anyone hears about Cold Station 12, they won't think anything of it.

[CrypticMirror]

For an organization that doesn't care much for genetic engineering, Starfleet sure seems to have a lot of top-secret research labs on the topic... Cold Stations 1 through 11 aren't just Schwan's warehouses, right?

It is a misconception that The Federation doesn't do genetic engineering, it has been stated on screen multiple times that they do do it for illness, injury, and genetic birth defects. They just don't do it for elective enhancements, because sooner or later you get murderous tyrants (or murderous zealot footsoldier-slaves who look upon you as a god) if you do. It is one of those annoying fan misconceptions that the Federation don't do it at all.

So they are still going to need to do gene editing experiments in order to keep up with research on those fields. And no doubt those fields have enormous applicability to defensive fields.

What the Federation is absolutely not supposed to do under any circumstances is use genetic editing to create genocidal diseases, DS9! The show should have been much, much, much more condemnatory on that score.

Don't forget as well that facility in the TNG episode "Unnatural Selection" they gave kids telekinetic and telepathic powers (among other things). Picard or anyone else didn't even bat an eyelid at any of it, in-fact he was perfectly content to save all those kids & take them away provided they didn't carry the super aging virus.

I'd forgotten about that episode. Darn it.