I just watched Star Trek: Insurrection for the umpteenth time and I thought about the reality of the situation. For those of who not current on the movie, Capt Picard comes across a planet where some kind of radiation makes people younger. Of course, there is an evil Federation Admiral, who wants to displace the few inhabitants and use the radiation for the ‘good’ of mankind. Of course, the Capt succeeds in protecting the 600 inhabitants of the planet disregarding the explanation from the admiral of how the radiation will save lives.

I was thinking how noble that it was until I thought about it and imagined what likely would happen after Capt Picard saved the planet. I’m sure the politicians would have decided to ‘visit’ the planet for extended periods to ‘investigate’ the radiation.

Then major contributors to the politician would get an ok to set up colonies to ‘work with’ the inhabitants. Then ‘of course,’ more politicians would have to visit on fact-finding missions. Before the inhabitants knew it, they would be outnumbered by politicians ‘investigating’ how the radiation made people younger. Of course, the politicians would be there so long, their families would have to go also. After all, we couldn’t expect a politician to be on such a hard assignment without his family.

I think you can see where this is going. Many Sci-Fi stories are interesting, but I think there are great stories ‘after’ the stories. There is so much opportunity for reality to sink in, and the real events to occur. I think many Sci-Fi stories are too naive and don’t show the longer-term consequences of the stories.

What do you think, are there stories after the stories?