When On Planets
 

Ok, so I was thinking earlier about every time someone beams down to and / or lands on a planet of unknown origin. They never die from some illness or anything? Ok, on occasion they may, but not on a large scale.

Just to think, firstly this planets atmosphere and general oxygen level is going to be considerably different to Earth, but also aren't there going to be loads of viruses in the air that they wouldn't have a cure for?

Take Earth for example. Not everywhere, but sometimes, depending on where you are on the planets, you can pick up different disease. Would this not then be the case for all these unknown planets that they go to?

You'd think they'd wear suits or something, but no, they transport down wearing nothing more than their starfleet uniform. They could pick up a million viruses, then transport back to the ships and give it to the crew.

Then you think of those ships / stations. All these different aliens, and they are all living in the same atmosphere and temperature.

Re: When On Planets
 

SSA they do scan the planet first to ensure it is safe and in any case M-Class worlds tend to breed very similar stuff to one another so many virus's are similar to Earth ones,when they cant scan for sum reason they might send a probe or a shuttlecraft in, on the galaxy class there are quarters for different envoiroments eg class,k,l,m,n,o,p etc etc etc so they all are breathing different stuff, any aliens who cant tlerate O2 wear suits, the tesnians for example can breath air but need 6 hours of boron gass a day

Re: When On Planets
 

But then, there are still illnesses. And you can't detect what you don't know about. No single planet is going to be exactly the same as another. Each will have many different viruses and such.

You can't scan for something that you don't know exists. And I doubt a ship will be able to scan for all the viruses. Granted, a ship would be able to tell whether a planet was suitable for life, but thats about it.

Re: When On Planets
 

True True

Re: When On Planets
 

Thas is the reason that there are biofilters in the transporter, to eliminate any viruses that may have been brought back, though going by shuttle would make my argument useless. And their scans can detect quite a lot, though you are again correct, they wont be able to catch everything.

Re: When On Planets
 

Also, they would pick up the organisms of the virus on scans. Even if they couldnt detect the virus itself, they would still pick up its biological elements.

In cases when they have not then a crewmember dies or somthing goes on with the bio-filters etc.

There is also the Voyager episode when Janeway and Chakotay caught a virus of some kind and had to be left on a M-Class planet to protect the crew.

As for different planets etc, the "Class" system is in place as an M-Class planet would support humanoid life, where as the Y-Class Planet needs EVO suits.

Re: When On Planets
 

in ENT they have to go throught decontamination mabe it was later introduced to be filtered out in the transport

Re: When On Planets
 

Have you actually watched anything other than Enterprise? What do the bio-filters do?
No offence intended but isnt that a rather silly comment.

Re: When On Planets
 

Perhaps you should watch more Voyager, bio filters have been mentioned countless times even in TOS if I remember

Re: When On Planets
 

Not to mention In Enterprise, they went through De-con after using shuttles.