I always found Traveller's limitation in both the space it covers and the number of races that inhabit the space rather fantastical.

The Star Wars and Brin's Five Galaxies universes with high race diversity seem to be far more appealing for travellers, if a lot more dangerous.

The SG idea wouldn't apply to Traveller universe; it is more economical to set up separate medical facilities for each race if there are only a dozen possible. SG station catered for dozens of races in the books, with some floors in the station having decidedly unfriendly life support environments to support the patient's ecological needs.

On 9 August 2014 07:08, Kelly St. Clair <kellys@efn.org> wrote:

I suspect that one difference between the classic treatments (like the Sector General books or "Expedition to Zhodane") and the more recent nightmare scenarios is that the technology used was bulky, finicky, and really only worked on one (presumed willing) subject at a time (and took some time to do so). At worst it's a psychological thriller and/or "Manchurian Candidate" scenario, not the sort of mass mind-control where you rapidly assimilate, er, re-write an entire country or world, then use them to take over the next, then the next, and so on.

And with specific regard to the SG books, per the OP's question, that's a setting where sentient life is so ubiquitous and varied that they need an equally complex classification system, and no doctor can possibly know them all. In Traveller, a doctor has to know how to treat a dozen species, *tops* - more commonly, only two or three. That's well within the bounds of personal knowledge and reference materials.

--
---------------
Kelly St. Clair
kellys@efn.org

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