Lorian

[Aikiweezie]

Does it seem reasonable that Phlox would have learned enough by studying Lorian's DNA to assist Trip & T'Pol in successfully having a child together in the future if they wished to? Do you think he might have been given access to the future Enterprises medical databases regarding the conception of Lorian?

[Silverbullet]

I imagined that Phlox studied the Future Enterprise data base extensively while on Board. I recall in the episode that Phlox was only shown in the Sickbay where he sowed Archer his Great Grand daughters DNA proving she was related to him and then Showing T-Pol Lorains Dna telling her that Lorain was the child of the Future Enterprise T-Pol and Commander Tucker. After that I assumed that Phlox carefully studied the Data base for information on how the Phlox of the Future Enterprise had discovered and what was the method for a safe Conception and delivery of a healthy Baby to T-POl and Trip (future). Yes, the present day Phlox by Terra Prme shoud have had a good idea of what to do to help Trip and T-Pol to have children. Remember at the end of Terra Prime Trip tells T-Pol that Phlox says that there is no reason that a Vulcan and Human can't have a child. I took that to mean he would help them, that their DNA could be made compatible enough to conceive and deliver a healthy Baby.

It Would be interesting to learn what the writers would do about the blood of the child. Green copper Based or Red, Iron based. A combination of the two? That would really be intersting. While watching the Episodes of Demons and Terra Prime that was going thorugh my mind. What color was the Baby's Blood and was it copper or Iron based."

[pdsldl]

I'm sure Phlox has access to all the data from Lorian's conception and Terra Primes experiments and would have done whatever was needed so Trip and T'Pol could conceive. He was their friend/family, an excellent doctor and a romantic as well so would have done whatever he could to see that they had a child if they wanted one.

[Asso]

There is something erroneous in Phlox's figure: today, and even more in the future, Doctors (and not only them) are more and more specialized. Medicine is awfully ample and this will be much more extensive with the passing of time.
I can see a Doctor (Phlox) enough versed in xeno-cultures so as to be the better person to handle the peculiar circumstances of Enterprise or, in any case, of whatever space vessel, and particularly in emergency conditions; but from that to being able to be so a skilful geneticist, and, that's more, capable of translating the grammar in practice...

[Transwarp]

Does it seem reasonable that Phlox would have learned enough by studying Lorian's DNA to assist Trip & T'Pol in successfully having a child together in the future if they wished to? Do you think he might have been given access to the future Enterprises medical databases regarding the conception of Lorian?

Given all the psuedoscience and technobabble, I'm not sure any question regarding the Star Trek universe should start with "Does it seem reasonable..."

[Distracted]

There is something erroneous in Phlox's figure: today, and even more in the future, Doctors (and not only them) are more and more specialized. Medicine is awfully ample and this will be much more extensive with the passing of time.
I can see a Doctor (Phlox) enough versed in xeno-cultures so as to be the better person to handle the peculiar circumstances of Enterprise or, in any case, of whatever space vessel, and particularly in emergency conditions; but from that to being able to be so a skilful geneticist, and, that's more, capable of translating the grammar in practice...

Ah, but there is a long history of TV doctors being able to do things like cardiac transplant one minute and then turn around and treat cancer the next. TV medicine doesn't even remotely resemble real medicine.

I can see Phlox having a particular interest in laboratory genetics as part of his interest in multispecies medicine. In essence he is more of a space veterinarian than a physician since he's got to be so well-versed in the anatomy and physiology of many different species. I would think that a computerized database of data about every species and their conditions plus a lot of automated testing and imaging capabilities would make his task easier. He doesn't have to remember it all. He just has to remember where to look for it. I do that now as a Family Physician. It's impossible to hold everything in memory. You've got to have a peripheral database these days. All the more so in the future.

The show has already established that he's capable of creating a human clone. The lab techniques required to do that aren't so very different than what would be required to do a little genetic engineering, provided he had equipment to identify and select out individual genes. Such equipment doesn't currently exist in any practical sense, but if he can decode a genome well enough to determine the parents of an individual by his genes like he did with Lorian, one could assume that Enterprise possesses such equipment.

[honeybee]

Also, Phlox doesn't sleep except for his hibernation cycle. So, it's not difficult to imagine this as an explanation for why he not only has multiple humanoid medical degrees but some in veterinary medicine. So, while our medical system may encourage speciality, it seems Denobulans are inclined to a multi-disciplinary approach.

[Aikiweezie]

Does it seem reasonable that Phlox would have learned enough by studying Lorian's DNA to assist Trip & T'Pol in successfully having a child together in the future if they wished to? Do you think he might have been given access to the future Enterprises medical databases regarding the conception of Lorian?

Given all the psuedoscience and technobabble, I'm not sure any question regarding the Star Trek universe should start with "Does it seem reasonable..."

Well, yeah, that's true about a lot of ST things.

[Asso]

There is something erroneous in Phlox's figure: today, and even more in the future, Doctors (and not only them) are more and more specialized. Medicine is awfully ample and this will be much more extensive with the passing of time.
I can see a Doctor (Phlox) enough versed in xeno-cultures so as to be the better person to handle the peculiar circumstances of Enterprise or, in any case, of whatever space vessel, and particularly in emergency conditions; but from that to being able to be so a skilful geneticist, and, that's more, capable of translating the grammar in practice...

Ah, but there is a long history of TV doctors being able to do things like cardiac transplant one minute and then turn around and treat cancer the next. TV medicine doesn't even remotely resemble real medicine.

I can see Phlox having a particular interest in laboratory genetics as part of his interest in multispecies medicine. In essence he is more of a space veterinarian than a physician since he's got to be so well-versed in the anatomy and physiology of many different species. I would think that a computerized database of data about every species and their conditions plus a lot of automated testing and imaging capabilities would make his task easier. He doesn't have to remember it all. He just has to remember where to look for it. I do that now as a Family Physician. It's impossible to hold everything in memory. You've got to have a peripheral database these days. All the more so in the future.

The show has already established that he's capable of creating a human clone. The lab techniques required to do that aren't so very different than what would be required to do a little genetic engineering, provided he had equipment to identify and select out individual genes. Such equipment doesn't currently exist in any practical sense, but if he can decode a genome well enough to determine the parents of an individual by his genes like he did with Lorian, one could assume that Enterprise possesses such equipment.

That's absolutely true, and - in fact - I didn't want to argue about that. Simply I wanted to underline the illogicity - once more - of the show. I know people normally don't care of this sort of incongruities, but I would prefer a bit more realness even in the visionariness of Star Trek. But I know that I am speaking to the wind.

[WarpGirl]

It's a TV show. They can write whatever they think makes a good story. Personally when it come to Trek, I can accept absolutely anything. It's got nothing to do with the way life is "now" and probably will have only a very tiny bit of how life will be in the future. So when it comes to reality or getting things incorrect, it doesn't bother me like it would on a show like Law and Order.

That said Denobulans seem to live a long time and they also seem to need constant mental stimulation, I can see Phlox needing so many specialties because of his alien brain. Traditional logic be hanged.

[Dinah]

I know this may sound a bit naive, but I don't think Phlox looked at the E2 database -- at least not for information on creating Lorian. For seem reason, I think he would see that as cheating. He knows that he discovered how to do it. But if it just pulls the information out of the database, he has, in fact, learned nothing. Trip and T'Pol aren't begging him to help them produce a child immediately, so he's under no pressure. I think for Phlox the journey is as important as the discovery. It's as much about what he'll learn about Vulcan and Human physiology on the way to making the discovery as finding the answer itself.

I can think of only one thing that might change that: if he found out that Trip and T'Pol had had a number of failed attempts before Lorian was successful conceived and brought to term. He might have dipped into the database if he thought he could prevent the loss of a number of unborn children, as well as saving Trip and T'Pol from the mental anguish they would have endured because of a series of miscarriages.

[WarpGirl]

That's not naive that's BRILLIANT! But then that's just you Dinah.

[Silverbullet]

Lorain has always intersted me. He is supposed to be over 100 years old but looks as if he is in his late 30's. He is half Human. It would seem that he will live many more years. Would that mean a child Of TNt would also live as long as a Vulcan. I keep wondering what color his blood is. How about his internal Organs? Vulcan or Human, Mix of the two?

I believe that Phlox would try to learn as much as he could about how T-Pol (the older) conceived and carried Lorain to term and gave birth. He would, Of course, write a paper on it for his Denobean coleagues.

[WarpGirl]

OK I hate Lorien. I didn't find hime to be a good guy or all that likable. However I would say he looked like he was in his 40's. Also Spock has lived a very long time. In Unification it's said hes had an 80 year relationship with a certain Romulan Senator who turned out to be a bad guy. But looks mean nothing with Vulcan ages.