Reply-Reply to Regexkind: Conflicting Memory
regexkind replied to your post “DS9: Memories”
I thought the in-episode explanation is that you can purge *all* of someone's memories or not really any at all
I went back and watched the start of the ep again and you’re right! Bashir says the only way he could erase the memories is by erasing ALL of O’Brien’s memories.
So, it seems like the DS9 writers, to explain why Hard Times could happen, were trying to say the Fed had the tech to erase all of a person’s memories(or memory engrams? I think that’s what Bashir calls them in Sons of Mogh), but not the ability to selectively edit memories.
But, this explanation is another case of the DS9 writing team playing fast and loose with canon. In Pen Pals, Dr. Pulaski selectively edits Sarjenka’s memories of her time on the Enterprise through the same “memory wipe” procedure Bashir uses on Kurn. And, with Kurn, Bashir says he’ll remember that he’s Klingon(and, necessarily, what that means as a cultural matter), and “virtually everything he needs to know to survive”; the writers treat this info as independent of identity which I’m a bit |:T about tbh.
I can’t find or remember any other situations where the Fed’s ability to influence memories was relevant, but I kinda feel like the issue’s come up in other eps as well, without having the limitation Bashir claims here (:T