Star Trek: 11 Incredible New Technologies That Were Immediately ABANDONED
How many times has Star Trek introduced a funky new toy - only to forget it moments later?
Star Trek has pioneered many pieces of technology that have since become commercially available. Those hand communicators of the '60s foreshadowed the mobile phones of the '90s and beyond. PADDs seemed to be a precursor to the iPad, though transporter technology still seems to be a way off.
Like the transporter, there are yet more technological marvels across multiple universes that are too advanced for us today. One wonders if they were too advanced for the Star Trek universe at times, as many of them simply vanished overnight - despite the tactical or navigational advantages they offered.
Higher-yield weapons or innovative forms of communication may seem cool at the moment but when the dust settled and cooler heads prevailed, they were tossed out of the nearest airlock, rarely to be spoken of again. Here we examine some of those wonders of the 23rd Century and beyond, so suddenly offered, and so suddenly taken away.
11. Borg-Aided Revivication
In Mortal Coil, Neelix discovers what truly waits for him on the other side of the great curtain. For him, it's nothing. Darkness, oblivion, and no heavenly apparitions made death seem like something he wouldn't enjoy - perish the thought. Thankfully, Seven Of Nine was there to bring him back into the light thanks to her handy leftover nanoprobes. Death is cured, and all is well, let us never speak of this again.
For episodes like Mortal Coil, the intention seems to have been exploring the philosophical nature of death, belief, and what lies between. While other properties might use heating pads and shock therapy to achieve this, Star Trek has future technology to speed things up. The problem here is that it did its job just a little too well.
When Seven brought Neelix back with the Doctor, she proved that she could reverse death. That's not just important for Neelix's story - that's the biggest medical breakthrough since retro-Salamanderism. If one were to imagine that it isn't a catch-all and that Seven's nanoprobes are finite, one would still have to wonder why catching drones isn't the single greatest prize in the known galaxy.
It certainly makes the actions of Bjayzl and her cohort a little more understandable (not that we're condoning vivisecting ex-Bs!)