<hal@rain.org> wrote:
> This was a really sad story. It was bad enough that the crew felt so
> miserable about being "only copies". I don't recall any of the crew
> members pointing out that it doesn't matter what they are made of, what
> matters is what they make of themselves. It was inconsistent that people
> who pride themselves about being open minded about superficialities,
> treating their holographic doctor as a real person, would be so upset
> to learn that they are not made of meat.
Actually, I thought this was consistent. Some of the crew expressed a desire to go to the Alpha quadrant and continue with their lives. Other crew members pointed out that Starfleet would never accept alien replacements for their officers, so their careers would be over. The crew's families would not include them in their families, instead they would try to find their human relatives. I thought this made perfect sense. They didn't say the were less valid than the original crew, they merely recognized that they couldn't take over the lives of the original crew. I.E., their copied identities were already in use by someone else, and they would not be able to continue with their own identities.
-- Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.