Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 02:07:20 -0800
From: Levi@spirit4tag.com.au (Graham Levi and Cecilia Levi)
Subject: Mission Of The Darians.
Hi Everyone,
Yes, now that the New Year is here its time to start thinking
again. I have been pondering the episode Mission To The Darians. This episode
focuses on two ideas 1) purity of a race and 2) what price survival. How far
would we go to live. The Darians exploit other people, are cannibalistic not
just for food, but also body parts for transplantation, to futher the lives of
true pure Darians.
The novelisation of the story is bleak. In contrasting both
stories it is an interesting tale. The novel could never have been done on TV.
The censors are a bit sensitive. The graphic nature of the Darian society and
its treatment of mutation and difference just wouldn't make it to the screen.The
termination of Lowery and Helena's examination for conformity were quite
horrific.
It is interesting to consider that this idea of purity has
been one
of the C20th's greatest problems. Salam Rushdie is here in Oz at the moment
discussing this idea. The Darian story deals with this well. It is Koenig that
puts together the pieces of this paraistic group and their plans for the
Alphans.
Although, when Koenig brings back his traumatised away team to Alpha, he is
unable or unwilling to answer Carter's question, if it happened on Alpha
would you have chosen differently. Koenig can only quip, Remind me to tell
you some time!
What price do we hold on life? On Alpha they have limited
resources
and limited time. How long could they expect to last? 10 years 20 years? Will
they be forced to make decisions like the Darians or are they(we) above this?
It certainly wasn't above the sophisticated nations of Germany and Japan
through WW2. It is happening in Bosnia now, and in 70 other small bushfire
wars during
1995.
The other episode to deal with this issue was The Exiles. Tony
asks John "What sort of people are we" and "Is survival all important"? What
is the
price for life. An interesting issue that gives us a lot of food for thought.
Hmmm...
Your Fellow Alphan,
Cecilia.
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 06:20:11 -0800
From: Kimmurphy@aol4tag.com
Subject: Re: Mission Of The Darians.
This is one of my favorite episodes for much of the reasons you so eloquently
outline. This is a difficult episode to watch but a must-see for 1999 fans.
The whole point of this episode--"At what price survival" is well done,
bettter than one or two TREK episodes which had very similar plots. I for
one would think the Darians had quite a struggle with the notion of purity
when they started accepting donor organs. After all, these are not Darian
organs they are implanting.
As an example, a friend of mine--a breast cancer survivor who had a
life-saving mastectomy--has a great deal of difficulty accepting what has
happened to her. Breast jokes still, even after 5 years, make her very
sensitive. She still views herself as mutilated. When asked if she would
consider reconstructive surgery, she says bluntly that she has no desire for
"the butcher who did this to me" to do anything else. In contrast, another
friend who lost her reproductive system when she was in her 30s to
fibrocystic disorder, had her right foot badly mangled in an accident in her
early 40s, and lost most of her sight in her right eye to glaucoma and
cataracts in her late 40s deals with what happened to her with jokes about
having zippers installed to facilitate access and getting extended warranty
on her bodywork, treating all of it as just another step she had to take in
order to keep on living, working, and raising two children by herself. I'm
wondering how the Darians feel sometimes when they get these outsider organs
put into them--whether they are bitter about their purity being destroyed or
if the will to survive is so strong that they would view this as a miracle
and keep going.
Food for thought...
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 11:34:53 -0800
From: Anthony (anthonyd@zeus.argo4tag.net)
Subject: Re: Mission Of The Darians.
We do this *now* with organ transplants all the time...and even with animal
to human transplants!!! So, I guess a partial answer is out there...survival
at any price!
Another example...look at the story about the people stranded in the Andes
mountains after their plane crashed...did they not eat the dead??? What
would you have done?
Great discussion so far...OK, we didn't start with Breakaway, but at least
we started! :-)
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 21:35:15 -0800
From: Levi@spirit4tag.com.au (Graham Levi and Cecilia Levi)
Subject: RE; Mission To The Darians
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to reply to Kimberly's post on "Mission To The Darians".
I think this episode has become my personal favourite because of its dark
and psychological insight into an aspect of humankind that really isn't all
that glamourous or noble. I agree that Space 1999 had that reality edge that
other Sci-Fi shows have not attempted or watered down so that issues become
unrecognisable.
I don't want to bag Star Trek but it is very guilty of this.
Yet it can do it. The best and most confronting Star Trek episode was
"Violations". It
was about the issue of rape and personal privacy. The novel that confronts these
issues in Space 1999 is EC Tubb's "Earthfall". The issue of rape and privacy
on Moon base Alpha is very well considered, and slightly disturbing.
On the issue of organ donation and purity, the Darians state
that this only started to occur long after the accident. Their screening of
perfect specimans to use in transplantation is so calculating that it really
is obscene.
In the novel, Helena's examination for purity is most meticulous and terrifying.
Yet in true style she stands there and takes it.
On a more personal level, I do see the need and sorrow involved in
this issue. It is odd, but friends of mine were discussing how we were all
brought up within the Catholic faith as children, and the issue of Donar
transplants came up as a topic that we all remember as being contentious. I
agree
totally with it, as it saves lives. I just don't agree with the selling of
body parts or exploitation of any group including animals to facilitate
survival. As
a race we should know when our time is up. I don't make this comment lightly. My
father was involved in one of Australia's worst industrial accidents when I
was 7 years old. I couldn't believe the plans for surgery, tissue thearpy
and transplantation that they had lined up. At 7, I wished for his death to
avoid all that - he was already totally traumatised, why add to it? I know
he was only 32,
but the price of survival was just too high.
I suppose this aurgument of "What price Survival?" will continue.
I suppose it is a symptom of our inward looking lives - the me generation.
How highly do we value ourselves in the scheme of things? - I am not being
religious here - just pragamatic. The Darians probably looked at themselves
as pragmatic,
but was it just a justification of evil. Koenig believed that it was. The
character was totally shocked by the Darians and their eventual plans to
exploit the Alphans as breeding stocks for their transplantation process.
Sorry if this topic is a little heavy. I just think it was a real
strength of Space 1999 to look at issues in a realistic fashion without
heroics and the "isn't humankind the greatest" angle.
Your Fellow Alphan,
Cecilia.
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 06:40:22 -0800
From: jquimby@utmmg.med.uth.tmc4tag.edu (Jeanette Quimby)
Subject: Re: Mission To The Darians
Hello everyone,
I hope all had a nice New Years holiday. I thought I would add my thoughts
to the Darians survival and purity debate.
Their quest to have only the true and pure Darians would have been met with
their gene bank - in which Joan Collins character explained to John Koenig -
contained the pure genetic material of the true Darians. If the gene bank
had not been destroyed and knowing that their technology was "highly
advanced" - they may have been able to create a perfect "test-tube" Darian
once they found a hospitable environment. But keep in mind, she stated that
they were sterile - not necessary unable to carry a child, but unable to
conceive. Thus, the need for the "organ donors" could also be for one of
two purposes: First, prolong the life of the original Darians so that they
could carry a child (if the problem was only with conception and not
carrying to term) and thus be born from a pure Darian. The second option
would be if the Darians were also unable to carry a child, then they would
also need to heavily screen the "surrogate" mother to carry this child.
Even if the child is "pure" Darian material, she/he would still be nourished
with the blood of the unpure Darian. So the surrogate would have to be
thoroughly screened to prevent rejection of the fetus, as well as
transmission of any contagious diseases (in human terms, possibly hepatitis,
AIDS) to the fetus.
But, again, if their technology is advanced, there might not even be the
need for the maternal factor to carry a child - but then with "test tube"
babies. But this hypothesis is in a sense answered by the fact that if it
were possible for them to "grow" the genetic material into Darians without
the use of a surrogate, why not grow pure organ donors - at that point
though they might not have been so willing to harvest from true Darians as
compared to the abundance of mutated Darians. Would they have gone so far
to survive to "grow their own pure replacement parts"?
The question of what would you do to survive is highly personal and even
under the conditions that the Darians were under, the individual still
controlled the outcome. Sure, they could force you to have surgery. But if
your concious could not deal with taking another life to prolong your own,
what would you do? No, you wouldn't necessarily have to call Dr. Kervokian,
but you could have attempted to contact and educate the donor group
(mini-mutiny?). You have the technology, but you don't have to use it
selfishly only for your individual group. Share the knowledge.
Again, what price for our own survival. Working in the Texas Medical Center
and seeing the research (basic science, animal, human), as well as seeing
patients take the risk on an unknown cancer drug while others don't in the
quest for survival, can make you wonder to what extent you would go to
prolong your life. As a parent, that decision is equally challenging - to
what extent would I go to prolong my child's life in a life-threatening
situation?
When looking at Mission of the Darians - you could equate that to the 1940s
and Hitler - in his quest to create a pure race and his experimentation in
the concentration camps (as well as killings of the unpure Germans -
mentally and physically handicapped) - The Darians though did it for "true
survival", Hitler for what he thought was "survival of the fittest". Two
cultures/ societies clashed (for reasons other than the camps originally).
At the conclusion of the war, we were all horrified as to what he had
attempted to do with the Genocide of other cultures and Mengele"s experiments.
The question would be - would John Koenig knowing Earth's history have made
the same choice as the Darians? Personally, I think not (Even though he
could not directly answer Alan Carter at the end of that episode). His
outlook was always for the survival of the "entire group". Yes at times
they did send out a "survival" group (Black Sun), but the decision for the
composition of that group was made by the computer, not by him, as was the
decision for Simmonds to go in the one pod was also made by the computer -
if Simmonds had not hijacked it.
But also notice the shows mentioned were in Year I, when there was also a
"command team" for decision making. Would the "team" make the decision for
survival of an elite group no matter the consequences - like the "command
group" of the Darians. Thus, the decision would not have been John Koenig's
alone, but the decision of the Dr. Russell, Dr. Bergman, Sandra, Kano, Paul,
Alan, (and anyone I missed on the team), with Koenig probably having veto power.
Oh well, enough ramblings. I better get back to work!
Jeanette
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 15:02:57 -0800
From: Levi@spirit4tag.com.au (Graham Levi and Cecilia Levi)
Subject: Re;Mission To The Darians
Hi Everyone,
Jeanette brings up some interesting points about the Darians.
The point about the gene bank is an interesting aspect to their survival. I
just can't see this particular group using surrogate mothers for their pure
gene stock. Maybe that's what they had in mind for the Alphans - like
brooding mares.
They would probably try to carry the children themselves, so that no
contanimation would occur. This leads to the question of - What would they
do with the survivors of level 7 and others when their journey was complete?
They couldn't let mutations run around near they new race of Darians.
This problem of growing body parts is interesting as well. If
the Darians were that sophisticated with technology why didn't they attempt
this? I suppose in Jeanette's line of work she would see all types of
experiments and stories concerning this issue. She would see both sides
fairly well.
I agree with the statements about Koenig. Knowing Earth History
he would make other choices. The character doesn't seem to believe in the
cult of the individual, rather he is a serious believer in the idea of
community. It is through community and shared struggle that the Alphans will
survive.
Yes, all the shows mentioned were from Year 1, I also
mentioned "The Exiles" from Year 2, as some of the issues dealt with
overlap. I agree that the choices the Alphans would make would be a team
approach - the community winning out.
Your Fellow Alphan,
Cecilia.