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Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance Episode 3 – Compliance Lessons from Where No Man Has Gone Before

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider Where No Man Had Gone Before, which aired on September 22, 1966, Star Date 1312.4. The first Star Trek episode was made (not counting the pilot episode, The Cage), although not the first aired. It differs from subsequent episodes in that there is no “Space, the final frontier” voice-over during the theme song at the beginning.

Story

The Enterprise discovers a 200-year-old ship recorder from the SS Valiant near the galaxy’s edge. Shortly after, the Enterprise passes through an unknown phenomenon that causes major damage and knocks out navigators Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (both of whom have high ESP ratings). When Gary recovers, he begins to acquire telepathic and telekinetic powers. Kirk alarmed at the prospect of having his ship taken over by an increasingly powerful and tyrannical Mitchell, is convinced by Spock to maroon Mitchell at the lithium cracking plant of Delta Vega. Dr. Piper has no explanation for what is happening. Gary kills Lee Kelso and escapes from his imprisonment. Kirk follows him and can destroy him with the help of Dr. Dehner, who is also beginning to acquire the power but kills herself in the process.

Commentary

We take a deep dive into into compliance lessons drawn from the episode’s plot, emphasizing the importance of root cause analysis, risk management, adaptability, ethical leadership, monitoring and controls, balancing innovation with safety, effective team communication, and understanding human behavior in the context of compliance. These lessons are crucial for building and maintaining effective compliance programs in any organization.

Key Highlights

·       Plot Summary of Where No Man Has Gone Before

·       Key Compliance Takeaways

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

 

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Episode 54 – Bread and Circuses

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode Bread and Circuses, which aired on March 15, 1968, and occurred on Star Date 4040.7.

On a routine patrol, the Enterprise happens upon space debris from the S.S. Beagle. This survey ship disappeared 6 years ago, commanded by Captain R.M. Merrik, an academy associate of Kirk. When Spock projects the path of the wreckage back in time, he discovers a civilization of modern-day Romans on Planet 4 of the 892 System. The extreme similarity of the 892 System’s civilization to the Roman Earth is apparently a coincidence, demonstrating, according to Kirk, the validity of Hodgekin’s Law of Parallel Planet Development.

Scott prepares to disrupt power to the entire planet from the Enterprise just as Kirk is about to be executed on live Roman TV. Scotty beams up the away team just before their cell is crisscrossed with machine gun fire. Back aboard the Enterprise, Uhura discovers that the escaped slaves were not sun worshippers but worshippers of a different “son”: the Son of God.

Compliance Takeaways:

1.     Being a CCO or compliance professional requires many soft skills.

2.     Do you translate your compliance documents into the local language?

3.     Does your compliance program enhance and enrich cultural diversity in your organization or acerbate the differences?

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

Categories
Blog

Farewell to Lt. Uhura

The Star Trek world and family lost one of its dearest members on Sunday with the passing of Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Nyota Uhura. George Takei spoke for many of us when he wrote on Twitter, “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.” The role of Lt. Uhuru was truly ground-breaking for television in the 1960s; a black woman was an officer of a naval ship (well OK combined services); manning a key role on the executive leadership team of the Starship Enterprise. For a television show which premiered only a couple of years after the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, her role was almost revolutionary.

Indeed, as noted by Jake Tapper on Twitter, perhaps her biggest fan was Dr. Martin Luther King. After the first season of the show, she was considering leaving but reconsidered after meeting Dr. King at an NAACP fundraiser. She said he introduced himself as a fan and grew visibly horrified when she explained her desire to abandon her role, one of the few non-servile parts for Blacks on television. Nichols told Entertainment Tonight, “Because of Martin, I looked at work differently. There was something more than just a job.” As reported in The Hollywood Reporter, “He told me that Star Trek was one of the only shows that his wife Coretta and he would allow their little children to stay up and watch,” she recalled. “I thanked him and I told him I was leaving the show. All the smile came off his face and he said, ‘You can’t do that. Don’t you understand, for the first time, we’re seen as we should be seen? You don’t have a Black role. You have an equal role.’ “I went back to work on Monday morning and went to Gene’s office and told him what had happened over the weekend. And he said, ‘Welcome home. We have a lot of work to do.’ Said Roddenberry in the documentary, “I was pleased that in those days, when you couldn’t even get Blacks on television, that I not only had a Black but a Black woman and a Black officer.””

Adam Bernstein, writing in the Washington Post, said, “Nichelle Nichols, an actress whose role as the communications chief Uhura in the original “Star Trek” franchise in the 1960s helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star William Shatner one of the first interracial kisses on American prime-time television.” He went on to say, “On the bridge of the starship Enterprise, in a red minidress that permitted her to flaunt her dancer’s legs, Ms. Nichols stood out among the otherwise all-male officers. Uhura was presented matter-of-factly as fourth in command, exemplifying hopeful future when Blacks would enjoy full equality.”

On the subject of that kiss, the first inter-racial kiss went to Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra but was simply a “peck on the cheeks.” Her kiss with Shatner was anything but a peck on the cheek. Bernstein wrote, “Her most prominent “Star Trek” moment came in a 1968 episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” about a group of “superior” beings who use mind control to make the visiting Enterprise crew submit to their will. They force Kirk and Uhura, platonic colleagues, to kiss passionately.” But if you watch the episode, I as recently did for its upcoming treatment on my podcast series Trekking Through Compliance, you will see that it is something very different than a passionate kiss, as it was forced onto the characters of Kirk and Uhura by beings who controlled their minds. In rewatching the entire episode, it is a troubling episode with this kiss perhaps the most troubling seen.

The Hollywood Reporter said of that kiss, “When NBC execs learned about the kiss during production, they feared stations in the Southern states would not air the episode, so they ordered that another version of the scene be filmed. But Nichols and Shatner purposely screwed up every additional take. Finally, the guys in charge relented: ‘To hell with it. Let’s go with the kiss,” Nichols wrote in her 1994 book, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. “I guess they figured we were going to be canceled in a few months anyway. And so the kiss stayed.”

Even though Star Trek, the Original Series went off the air in 1969, “Nichols’s continued association with Uhura at Trekkie conventions led to a NASA contract in 1977 to help recruit women and minorities to the nascent space shuttle astronaut corps.” Nichols said of that recruiting effort, “I went everywhere. I went to universities that had strong science and engineering programs. I was a guest at NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command], where no civilian had gone before. “At the end of the recruitment, NASA had so many highly qualified people. They took six women, they took three African-American men … it was a very fulfilling accomplishment for me.”

In many ways, the fight for equality that Nichols participated in is still ongoing. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is under attack in many states across the nation, with states such as Florida and Texas considering legislation which prevents companies from DEI initiatives such as those by pioneers such as Nichols.

Sunday, we lost another pioneer in the fight for DEI and social justice but from a very different world from Nichols. That pioneer was Bill Russell, and his world was sports. Please join me tomorrow when I pay tribute to Russell.

Categories
Daily Compliance News

August 1, 2022 the Farewell to Lt. Uhuru edition

In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
• UAW is trying to shed the legacy of corruption. (NYT)
• Former Blue Bell CEO goes to trial. (Reuters)
• Bill Russell passes. (AndScape)
• Nichelle Nichols dies. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Episode 37-I, Mudd


In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider episode I, Mudd, which aired on November 3, 1967, and occurred on Star Date 4513.3.
The Enterprise finds Harry Mudd (Harcourt Fenton Mudd) on a planet and the “ruler” of 500 robot women. Mudd is being studied by the robots, who are accommodating but refuse to let him go. The androids tell Kirk people from the Andromeda galaxy built them. However, the civilization that constructed them was destroyed by a supernova, so the androids were left without supervision. Now they have found a new purpose in Mudd. Spock makes inquiries and discovers that there are 207,809 androids and, most importantly, that they seem to be controlled by some central coordinating power.
The robots find people too destructive and plan to take over and “serve” all humans in the galaxy to control them. Kirk leaves Harry on the planet with his attendant robots to serve as an example of human failure to them. The robots are also reprogrammed to carry out their original task of rendering the planet fit for human life. As a final blow to Mr. Mudd, Kirk also leaves behind several android copies of his shrewish wife, Stella.
Compliance Takeaways:

  1. Why continuous monitoring is a mandatory part of any compliance program.
  2. Will AI take over compliance? (Answer: No)
  3. As a CCO, you are only limited by your imagination.

Resources
Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein
MissionLogPodcast.com
Memory Alpha

Categories
Greetings and Felicitations

John Champion and MissionLogPodcast.com, Part 1-The Journey Begins

Welcome to the Greetings and Felicitations, a podcast where I explore topics which might not seem to be directly related to compliance but clearly influence our profession. In this episode, I begin a two-part series with John Champion, one of the founders of MissionLogPodcast.com. John’s original mission was to do a podcast on every episode of Star Trek, beginning with TOS, TAS, the movies, TNG, DS9, Voyager and beyond. It began as a 14-year odyssey and has only grown in length. In this Part 1, we take up the founding of  MissionLogPodcast.com and John’s work with his original co-host Ken Ray to explore the morals, messages and meanings of Star Trek up to TNG. Highlights include:

1. The vision of Rod Roddenberry and Roddenberry Entertainment for Mission Log, a Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast.
2. Start of the podcast and working through TOS.
3. Some of the hidden gems in TAS.
4. The movies.
5. The work of Dorothy (DC) Fontana
6. The David Gerrold interview.
Resources
MissionLogPodcast.com
Roddenberry Entertainment

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

The Science of Star Trek- Journey to Babel and the Medicine of TOS

Welcome to the Science of Star Trek, a podcast series inspired by my review of Star Trek, the Original Series in the summer podcast special series Trekking Through Compliance.In this series I am joined by Astrophysicist and  Healthcare Futurist Ben Locwin. In this podcast we consider the TOS episode Journey to Babel as a starting point for the consideration of the medicine portrayed in the Original Series.
The Enterprise transports ambassadors to a conference to discuss the admission of Corridon, a star system composed of many mutually combative races, to the Federation. Corridon contains a nearly unlimited supply of dilithium crystals, but its small population and lack of strong government has allowed illegal mining operations by outsiders seeking to exploit its natural resources. To Kirk’s surprise, Sarek the 102.437-year-old ambassador from Vulcan and his his wife Amanda, who is human, are Spock’s parents. Sarek reveals that he has had three previous Vulcan heart attacks and has been taking Bengacydrine to combat it. He requires an open-heart operation, but the ship’s stores do not have a sufficient supply of blood, especially of Sarek’s rare Vulcan T negative blood. Despite the fact that Spock’s blood is a mixture of human and Vulcan factors, he provides a blood transfusion to Sarek after McCoy uses an experimental stimulant to increase the rate of blood production.
The Enterprise is then attacked by alien ship while Sarek and Spock are on the operating table, endangering both their lives. Spock, who is recovering from the operation, surmises that the perpetrators were from Orion, since Orions are known to have been smuggling dilithium from Corridon and are anxious to prevent interference.
 
Highlights include:
 
1.     Why is the TriCorder such a significant piece of medical technology, even up to today?
2.     What are the diagnostic aspects of the TriCorder?
3.     What is augmented reality and how is it being used in medical treatment today?
Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

The Science of Star Trek-Tomorrow is Yesterday and Black Holes, White Holes, and Wormholes

Welcome to the Science of Star Trek, a podcast series inspired by my review of Star Trek, the Original Series in the summer podcast special series Trekking Through Compliance.In this series I am joined by Astrophysicist and  Healthcare Futurist Ben Locwin. In this podcast we consider the TOS episode Tomorrow is Yesterday as a starting point for the consideration of the science around black holes, white holes, and wormholes.
In this episode, USS Enterprise is thrown back in time to Earth during the 1960s by the effects of a high-gravity “black star”. The Enterprise ends up in Earth’s upper atmosphere and is picked up as a UFO on military radar. Spock and Chief Engineer Scott inform Kirk of a possible escape method by slingshotting around the Sun to break away and return to their time. The maneuver is risky, since even a small miscalculation could destroy the ship, or make them miss their own era. Kirk okays the maneuver, and time on board the Enterprise moves backwards. The Enterprise is then successfully returned to the 23rd century.
Highlights include:

  1. Is a black star the same thing as a black hole?
  2. How does a white star become a black star?
  3. What is the Quality Exclusion Principle and how does it apply?
  4. What is the Chronology Protection and how does it work?
Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

The Science of Star Trek-The Naked Time and Warp Drive

Welcome to the Science of Star Trek, a podcast series inspired by my review of Star Trek, the Original Series in the summer podcast special series Trekking Through Compliance.In this series I am joined by Astrophysicist and  Healthcare Futurist Ben Locwin. In this podcast we consider the TOS episode The Naked Time as a starting point for the consideration of the science around the warp drive.
A landing party from the Enterprise beams aboard Psi 2000, an ancient planet about to break up. They find all six of the crew manning the station dead. Crewman Joey unwisely removes his gloves is contaminated by a red liquid. As Psi 2000 shows a shift in magnetic field and mass, the Enterprise begins a close orbit requiring constant vigilance. Unfortunately, an infected Lt. O’Reilly has turned off the warp engines. To restart the warp engines, matter and antimatter must be mixed in a controlled implosion. However, after mixing matter and antimatter at a colder than recommended temperature according to an untested intermix formula, the Enterprise is thrown into a time warp which causes the chronometer to run backwards. This allows the Enterprise to escape the breakup of the planet, returning it 71 hours into the past and therefore before any of the episode’s events took place.
Highlights include:

  1. Why must you suspend your disbelief for this episode?
  2. How would a warp drive work in practice?
  3. Why does E=MC²control this issue?
  4. What is antimatter?
  5. What is the time wise effect on high speed travel?
Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

The Science of Star Trek-Where No Man Has Gone Before and Phasers

Welcome to the Science of Star Trek, a podcast series inspired by my review of Star Trek, the Original Series in the summer podcast special series Trekking Through Compliance.In this series I am joined by Astrophysicist and  Healthcare Futurist Ben Locwin. In this podcast, we consider the TOS episode Where No Man Has Gone Before as a starting point for the consideration of the science around the phaser.
The Federation starship Enterprise is on an exploratory mission to leave the galaxy. At the edge of the galaxy, the ship it encounters a strange barrier which damages the ship’s systems and warp drive, forcing a retreat. At the same time, nine crew members are killed and both helmsman Gary Mitchell and ship’s psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner are knocked unconscious by the barrier’s effect. When he awakens, Mitchell’s eyes glow silver, and he begins to display remarkable psychic powers. Alarmed that Mitchell may take over the Enterprise, Kirk decides to maroon him at an unmanned lithium-cracking facility on the remote planet of Delta Vega. Once there, the landing party tries to confine Mitchell, but his powers have become too great. Kirk follows with a phaser rifle, the only time in the Original Series it was seen. Kirk uses the phaser rifle to create a rockslide, killing Mitchell.
Highlights Include:
  1. Why are there phasers being used today?
  2. Why is air the biggest problem in creating a phaser?
  3. How can you aim and shoot at a target using a phaser?
  4. How do you deal with the energy lose?