Enterprise 11-20-02

[Mark]

Enterprise - Singularity

As the Enterprise nears a black hole, members of the crew are exposed to radiation, which causes them to become increasingly obsessed with mundane tasks. Trip, for example, can't stop tinkering with the captain's chair, while Phlox is fiercely determined to find the cause of Mayweather's headache.


Ah, yes. More Phlox. Is anyone familiar enough with radiation sickness to explain if this behavior they are suggesting is a likely result?

 

[DanMcS]

Mostly, you just get nauseus, develop really nifty tumors, your hair falls out, and you die. Not that this has ever stopped anyone anywhere from ascribing strange powers to 'radiation'.

Or, as I once saw on another gaming list, "Radiation doesn't give you superpowers and a +5 to strength. It's more like sterility +10 and cancer +5."

 

[Umbran]

Mostly, you just get nauseus, develop really nifty tumors, your hair falls out, and you die.

Strictly speaking, this is a little bit off...

"Radiation sickness" is an overall term for an acute sicness brough on by exposure to larger doses of ratiation. Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, skin lesions. Secondary health problems may develop due to suppression of the immune system. In general, it's what happens when to many molecules in your body get ionized at once. It's a general disruption of the body systems.

Tumors are a separate issue. They are a long-term result of ionization damage to your genetic material.

Basically, radiation sickness is the issue in the days after a massive exposure. Cancer is the issue years after exposure.

In any case, "radiation" should not be causing really specific behavioral changes, unless of course it's damage to a very specific area of the brain. Not something that'll happen from a full-body dose...

 

[Crothian]

Ya, but this is Black Hole radiation, totally different from our radiation

 

[myrdden]

Umbran is correct in his statements.

In order for radiation to effect the nervous system, the person would have to be subjected to essentially a lethal amount of radiation directed at the brain and not the whole body.

Maybe it's those darn, pesky tachyons?

I missed this one due to work. Now I have to wait until Sunday to watch it.

Myrdden

 

[Mark]

Hmmm... Now I am seeing the the promos that they are calling it a "Disease" but is that the actual medical clasification of Radiation Sickness?

 

[Crothian]

What an odd radiation that only effects the Bridge Crew.

 

[Mark]

Hee hee hee... I'm enjoying the obsessiveness that everyone is displaying.

 

[Crothian]

Hee hee hee... I'm enjoying the obsessiveness that everyone is displaying.

It's amusing, but I think the tone would have been better if it was much less serious.

 

[Mark]

It's amusing, but I think the tone would have been better if it was much less serious.

Reminds me a bit of TOS where the episode was melodramatically serious through most of it until it got to the chuckle at the end.