#Star trek augment

[harley-rose25]

trek thoughts: Vulcans are geneticly modified, perhaps?

Vulcans are too well evolved for their planet, like, evolutionary adaptions to the environment make sense of course, but they just seem like theyre too adapted. I mean, for example, T'pol told Cp. Archer that she didnt need sunglasses because her inner eyelids protected her eyes; humans also evolved on planet revolving a giant ball of molten rock and plasma but we didnt evolve build in sunglasses.

Vulcans also possess more strength than should be necessary. Why are they 3+ times stronger than the average human? Partially because of higher gravity, possibly partially because of cultural differences; Vulcans seem to place a higher value/need on being physically strong and healthy, likely the need to keep others from taking their mate is a strong evolutionary catalyst, but I feel like theres more.

What about their telepathic abilities? How does a species evolve something like that? Especially given that their telepathy coupled with their violent intense emotions makes for what one would think is a bad combination. It makes sense they almost blew themselves up.

[deepspaceballet]

i adore in fics when people find out about julian’s enhancements and then julian lets down his guard and people can see an actual a change, like suddenly there’s something unfamiliar about him? something much deeper and mature? not because everything about julian before the revelation has been a SHAM or anything, i just like the idea of all these intelligent people having totally underestimated julian, the young, naive doctor, when really julian’s been one step ahead of them the whole time, letting them see him a certain way. the concept of others finally getting to see they had the wrong idea, especially back when they sort of saw julian as somewhat less than, the whole time. it’s about that moment of oh. he’s been the smartest guy in the room the whole time. them suddenly not seeing naivety, but seeing power. that. i like that.

[incorrectly-quoted-queers]

The inner workings of Julian Bashir's mind: On the first day of my new, thrilling post, I met a beautiful, brilliant alien woman named Jadzia Dax. I have decided to hyperfixate on her. After all, who could possibly intrigue me more than a beautiful, brilliant alien woman?

The inner workings of Julian Bashir's mind after meeting Elim Garak: WhAt tHe fUcK wAs ThAt?!

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Un-augmented Julian Bashir who programs a special button on his AAC device just for talking to Garak. It makes a loud incorrect buzzer noise.

[ladyylavenderrr]

Watching “Melora” with Julian’s backstory in mind is pretty interesting. Now, we obviously can’t fault Julian for being “out of character” in this episode because, keep in mind, his backstory and status as an augment hadn’t even been thought up yet. Still, if we ignore that and look only at canon, Julian being seemingly gung-ho about “fixing” Melora’s disability is pretty noteworthy. Even if Melora was doing this willingly, Julian’s major trauma comes from his own disabilities being “cured” without his permission as a child. I’m not going to comment on whether or not the way disability was written in this episode was overall good or not. I feel like some was good, some was bad, but I don’t think I know enough to give my two cents on this topic.

The point is, I really do wonder how Julian feels during this episode. I definitely don’t think his reaction makes zero sense even with his backstory in mind, but how he can still feel so eager to “fix” this person’s disability (or at least pretend to be eager), is something to explore. I’m thinking a lot of internalized ableism at the very least. (The backstory he gives about seeing a girl die when he was 10 was definitely interesting as well. Is it even true? Is he making up fake origin stories for why he became a doctor to obscure the truth?)

[wisteria-lodge]

I am currently in the middle of First, Do No Harm, a Garak/Bashir fic where it is a plot point that male human augments don't have body hair. Because, well...

they DON'T. (come on, you know I'm right.)

(for context, half these people have literally just escaped being marooned on a desert planet. They *haven't* been shaving)

EDIT: I tried to post some photos of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Riker, Picard, and a bunch of the guys from Enterprise as a point of comparison, because all of them demonstrably DO have body hair. But that was just too sexy for the Mature Audience filter, so just. Know that's a thing, I guess.

[allsortzofcrap]

great moment in "doctor bashir i presume" where bashirs secret is revealed and there's a pause before the scene change where o'brien looks towards zimmerman (horny evil tech support doctor?) in a way that i like to believe is him contemplating if it would be worth it to murder him

[spocks-husband]

I'm so obsessed with Jack. He's such a random background character in ds9 but I'm IN LOVE WITH HIM.

MY HUSBAND IS SO CUTE I LOVE HIM SM 😭😭 I WANT HIM SO BAD

[spockvarietyhour]

Tactical Grappling "The Augments"

[baylardian-1]

these were originally gonna be a part of an ask from @singeart about the kids meeting Janeway (real) in AU, but i got so hyperfixated on Dal and also the episode Crossroads that now it's just a standalone Crossroads dump lol

mainly just doodles surrounding Dal obviously seeing weird thresholdy janeway for the first time, and also a few about how like shes a lizard girl and would probably experience brumation down on an icy planet haha. i figure at this point with what we know likeeee hologram janeway would prooooobably be aware of what she'd look like post-Threshold,,, given what she knows about certain events on voyager and stuff like Molly and all that.

[timaeuslover001]

Let me tell you how warped people are today…

So I got my whole blog deleted

Someone and I know who flagged my page and got it deleted

so I was commenting on how I hated a Star Trek storyline that they have in deep space nine about Bashir being mad at his parents because he had augmented genes and how he took it was they didn’t love him enough and that he’s like a creation more than a person which was so stupid because all they did was heal his learning disability and they clearly loved him. They clearly were affectionate towards him. They didn’t treat him any less human than any other children. They just healed a problem that he had .

And somebody commented back-and-forth with me about how his parents took away his ability to write to choose, and I was confused about why that would be an issue because if any parent who had a child who had any kind of disability of any kind they would want them healed because who wouldn’t want to be healed from blindness, having no limbs one limb Missing fingers missing eyes.

Not only doesn’t make it an easy quality of life, but you also get to engage other things as well that in richer life more.

And we just got to the whole back-and-forth and she just twisted my whole words to make it seem like I was over here making it seem like disability disabled people aren’t people and that they were not enough and that they don’t have quality of living and I didn’t say that, I said these parents Love their children to want to see them have a better quality of life.

No one said anything about being a person or being valued because a lot of parents are very unconditionally loving to their children, especially the ones that have extensive needs. These people sacrificed our whole lives for their kids.

Parents shouldn’t be able to do that or the parent isn’t able to do that they do it because that’s their children.

Confused why she would even care because I’m pretty sure they were pro life and so that means that they’re pro abortion so that means that the parent or the mom could choose to do whatever with the clump of cells that she chooses to do with the baby definitely confused I can’t imagine how healing your child of any disability or lack they may have in their physical body is somehow worse, as opposed to getting rid of a fully healthy and capable of baby.

They didn’t throw Bashir in the trash. They didn’t abort Bashir because he was disabled. They just said we can fix this if there’s a way to fix it we can fix it..

Idk how many parents in real life may have done that they don’t document those at the abortion clinic. Even if it was it wouldn’t be socially celebrated. People would tell any mom who thee away her baby because of a disability that she’s terrible woman and mother.

Doable people are protected and provided for in our society. They are loved and respected and even catered to . It’s ILLEGAL to not have any ramp accessible business in the USA. You even have to have bars for the bathroom for the disabled and at hotels.

So I’m confused what this persons “proof “ or point was

But I had a problem with the storyline because of how he reacted, and how he was completely missing his parents intentions of doing that as was the person who got my page deleted was missing the entire intentions of doing that. And it was very OOC of them.

This is crazy we live in

Like here are these people who have to do all these extra steps that they eventually get used to who can’t function, but or can’t function by themselves, depending on the severity of the disability or not or what it is and you wanna make it seem like having full functional ability of your life and creating an easier life for you a bad thing?!?

[aspiringnexu]

I know y'all love redesigning Star Trek aliens to be more alien and I love it too, but has anyone thought of doing that... to the Star Trek humans?

Like, nothing big, nothing fancy, but who says that by the 23rd century we won't collectively decide to use our crazy medical know-how to... you know, give us our tails back? We have tail bones, we used to have tails at some point in our evolutionary history. I have to believe that in a future where surgery is so advanced that you can believable mimic a different species so completely that only a blood test can catch you out that we'd have the ability to give humans tails again.

Its not augmentation, we aren't improving anything, we're just adding a thing we used to have. For aesthetics, really. And, as a species, we do love our aesthetics.

(Extra fun if its prehensile.)

[fate-motif]

@ memory alpha he’s! not! human!

[trekessayist]

Eugenics in Star Trek: a Disabled Perspective on Genetic Augmentation

Not the essay I wanted to write, to be honest, but I was scrolling through the DS9 tag and violently reminded of the dubiousness that Augments are treated with by the writers. It has never sat right with me how Augments get treated, both in-universe and by writers.

So let me start by pointing out that I think some of the Augment storylines were really well-written, and others sucked. Enterprise's Augment storyline sticks out as the absolute worst of the bunch, though apparently that was one of the better-received storylines. But I digress.

The problem with Augments is that, of course, their concept is based in eugenics. They're established in Space Seed to be remnants of a worse time on earth, people "improved" so much by genetic alteration that they believe themselves to be the superior humans, going so far as to wish to kill other humans. They're a very clear reason why genetic augmentation as a whole was banned on earth, later carrying over to Federation law as well.

This includes ALL forms of genetic augmentation, with no nuance. This becomes especially clear when it comes to Illyrians, who are banned from joining the Federation and Starfleet despite arguably genetically augmenting their own bodies for a noble purpose.

In Deep Space Nine, this culminates in Julian Bashir having to hide his status as an Augment to be able to have a career. It's clearly a sore point for him, and he really struggles with the concept of his authenticity as a person. I'm reminded of the one post talking about how Kukalaka, his teddy bear, serves as a physical reminder that even before his father took him to be augmented, he was fixing up or "healing" his teddy bear when it was broken or "sick", that becoming a doctor was in that sense the only path that felt authentic to his personality.

The other Deep Space Nine Augment storyline involves Julian's efforts to help a group of Augments who came out of the process still "defective". Which is still a great storyline in my opinion, despite its flaws.

And I understand that the Federation attitude towards Augments is an example of an idealistic society that isn't flawless, which is in many ways what DS9 represented as a whole. So I feel the storyline is very much relevant to the series.

Still, the issues it (and later Augment storylines) presents are painful to watch, especially as a disabled person whose struggles are largely genetic issues exacerbated by their interaction with one another in my body.

In the first place, while I understand the decision to outlaw genetic modification as planet earth, or even as the Federation, because I understand why the decision was made, I don't feel that that's a proportional response to what happened in the past. As mentioned before, even beneficial genetic augmentations are banned, as seen with the Illyrians. That means that for people with genetic diseases cannot get meaningful help in a time and place where that should definitely be possible.

Looking at what I experience, should I be expected to consume painkillers my entire life? Physical therapy twice a week to keep up the strength in my muscles? Spend time having ligaments and tendons regenerated every so often? When a small genetic alteration could be a cure that doesn't require repeating? Degenerative diseases and conditions will degenerate if you don't continuously control them, even in the utopia of Star Trek.

So in the first place, the complete disallowance of genetic augmentation in the Federation is harmful. But then what do you do with people who were augmented either way, as a humane and just society? Especially when they didn't have a choice in the matter because they were a child? Do you accept them and take care of them, recognising that if you teach a child it is fundamentally different and therefore deserving of ostracisation and scorn, it will start to hate those who are different from it? Will you allow them to lead normal lives, with normal careers, like normal people? Will they be allowed to have children and start families, like normal people? Will you allow them the dignity of a peaceful life?

No, why would you? The ones that turn out poorly are tossed into a hole and forgotten about! The ones that turn out well you presumably don't hear about, because they can hide it better! Ignore the problem exists, why not? Whatever could go wrong?

Which then also becomes difficult to watch as a disabled person, because that's what the "failed" Augments are, they're disabled. Whether they display autistic traits or OCD symptoms or other mental (or physical) impairments, they are disabled. They may or may not have been disabled before their augmentation, but they certainly are now. And so their treatment becomes an issue of how the Federation treats its disabled citizens. And the answer seems to be: not very well!

So the ongoing storylines with Augments, and the 'organic android' storyline in Picard season 1, are two different sides of what is essentially only a debate on disability rights, and whether or not we deserve to exist. It's a conversation that gets so little nuance from the shows, but one that requires it.

The show could have gone the nuanced route. Legalise genetic augmentation so you can regulate it. Outlaw the modification of children and those who cannot consent. Give people the choice to change their bodies, should they desire or see a need to. The better you regulate it, the more you can prevent cases like the people in DS9, the more you can use the techniques to help people, the less you ostracise the people who did get augmented or who would like to get augmented.

But instead, all sides of the conversation within the series are advocating for eugenics, for genocide. Khan and his Augments, wanted to eradicate non-Augments, who they see as lesser, as inhibited, as small. Richard Bashir, and presumably the parents of the other augments, wanted to get rid of their children's disabilities and impairments. And the Federation is trying to eradicate Augments, by denying them lives, livelihoods, by ostracising and scorning them and throwing those you can visibly tell are different into a cell somewhere you don't have to think about them.

And I, as a disabled person, would simply like to watch Star Trek without being reminded that people would want me dead.

[strangenewwords]

why. why were the enterprise mirror episodes SO AWFUL?!

[hitrone]

Well, I got the idea that Arik was Archer's first boyfriend, and they dated during the academy