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in April I caught up with
Star Trek Continues and commented on the completed 1-hour-long episodes (that extended through episode #8 at that time). I also expressed my hope that we might actually get to visit a strange new world before the folks making
Star Trek Continues ran out of money.
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asteroid resident: Elizabeth Maxwell
We discover that she has purple hair,
which is the mark of the evil illegal immigrants.
left: on the Enterprise (with color!)
right: on the asteroid (black and white only) |
Here in this blog post, I comment on the last three episodes of
Star Trek Continues and the first 8 episodes of the new television program,
Star Trek: Discovery.
I guess the
Star Trek Continues budget was really tight and limited, so rather than have the
Enterprise visit a planet, all we got in
Episode 9 was a visit to an
asteroid.
Don't Ask Questions
 |
The Enterprise visits an "asteroid"
with plants,
water-filled craters
and air to breath. |
That is where the scientific absurdities
really begin to multiply and swarm. This particular asteroid has green areas on its surface and air to breath. Don't ask questions about how this contradicts the definition of "asteroid". However, once the landing party beams down, everything on the asteroid appears colorless, even the "green" plants. We are told that the asteroid's star emits an unusual radiation that inactivates
cones in the retina. Rigggggggght...
The List: from G to P
 |
Kirk working his way through
a galactic palette of alien colors. |
But, defying evolution, the residents of the asteroid still have functional cones in their retinas and they can see colors just fine as long as they have a source of light other than their star. This is demonstrated when Elizabeth is taken on board the
Enterprise. Before that dramatic moment, she didn't even know about the existence of color. Don't ask questions. Go along for the ride and watch captain Kirk make a move on Elizabeth. He probably has a list of alien conquests to complete that ranges from
green-skinned aliens to
purple-haired aliens.
 |
| biologically implausible pigmentation patterns |
Remember the 1960s
Star Trek episodes (such as "
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield") that engaged you in a 50 minute morality play? The makers of
Star Trek Continues wanted to do a show about a society with a fear of immigrants, so don't waste time questioning the absurd science.
10 is the Magic Number
 |
| It's a rock, Jim. |
Episode 10 briefly takes us to a planet. Not just a merely an asteroid, this is an actual planet! It is one of those classic Star Trek planets that can be cheaply depicted on a T.V. recording set with a bunch of silly styrofoam rocks. Like the rest of
Star Trek Continues most of the story for episode 10 takes place in space, on board the
Enterprise.
Recycled
Not only is there no new life or new civilization on the world that we briefly visit, but the plot is recycled from the original series. Once more we are taken back to the mysterious
barrier at the edge of the galaxy and once again Kirk must deal with rampaging "
Espers", people with fantastic "mental powers". The best part of Episode 10 is the cooperation between a Romulan space ship and the
Enterprise. Amy Rydell plays the same Romulan starship commander that was played by her mother in the original series.
Star Trek Continues Episode 11 brings us the inevitable defeat of the evil Espers and Kirk's inevitable promotion to the rank of Admiral. I'm impressed that so much could be accomplished by fans who wanted to make a few more episodes of the original Star Trek.
 |
Hey, with all the human-alien
sexual contacts in Star Trek,
let's call the new show STD! |
Trek 2017
2017 got us to the end of the embargo on making another official Star Trek television series. However, when I learned that the new television show would be about some silly political conflict with Klingons, I decided to not watch the show.
Also
Spore Drive
 |
Ripper, the space creature who reveals
a method to control the spore drive. |
Star Trek: Discovery jumbles together fantasy biology with fantasy physics and presents viewers with "spore drive" technology. In the original series, the episode called "
The Menagerie" shows the Enterprise on a mission to Talsos IV, about 12 years before events in the original
Star Trek television series, and
Star Trek: Discovery falls into the time window that we saw depicted in the original series.
Did the makers of
Star Trek: Discovery decided to ignore the original timeline as provided by
Gene Roddenberry or they are going to do some magical hand waving to account for the differences between the galaxy as depicted in their television show and what we already saw in the original series?
 |
| Swords in space! |
During much of my life I've been waiting for the arrival of the "
paperless society". In the Star Trek fictional universe, the paperless society finally arrives between
2254 and 2266. In "The Menagerie" (2254), reports from Enterprise crew members are routinely printed out on paper and handed to the Captain. By 2266, everyone has iPad technology and we no longer see sheets of paper on the
Enterprise. However, one thing was constant: it was warp drive in 2254 (although the term "
hyperdrive" was sometimes used) and warp drive in 2266. I can accept that there were technological advances during this time (such as invention of the iPad), but "spore drive" must have been the worst invention ever, because nobody ever talked about it after 2266.
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| Space bugs in space! |
And this is not just some isolated technological blip.
Star Trek: Discovery introduces an entire active branch of science (astromycology) and an assortment of life forms that exist in outer space, starting with a swarm of
space bugs.
Since
Star Trek: Discovery launched on T.V., I've wondered: could we judge this television show as
science fiction, or, rather, only as ground-up Hollywood fantasy/adventure sausage with some space ships sprinkled on top? I have no objection to exploring the idea of life forms that could exist in outer space. And if the Klingons are only running around on the set in order to create a sense of urgency for pushing ahead with dangerous spore drive experiments, then maybe I can accept the Klingons, too.
The Mycelial Network
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| Will astromycology disappear into a Muddy time warp? |
I like the idea of a "
subspace" that is a part of the universe not yet known to Earthly science. According to
Star Trek: Discovery, humans spent years studying forms of life that could access the "
mycelial network" in subspace. Apparently Ripper's species was able to harness the mycelial network for interstellar travel, and the crew of the
Discovery was able to learn from Ripper how control a form of spore drive that can push a space ship quickly through space. What can possibly go wrong? I'm ready to blame a Harry Mudd time warp for making all of astromycology disappear by 2266.
Biophys
There is a long tradition in science fiction and fantasy of blurring the boundary between biology and physics. For example,
Poul Anderson imagined that a gene mutation could endow people with the ability to travel through time. Larry Niven had the weird idea that you could "
breed humans for luck". In my view, these crazy jumbled mixtures of biology and physics most often reveal a profound ignorance of biology on the part of science fiction story writers who had training in the physical sciences. I suspect that Star Trek's fictional science of astromycology is simply another one of these flights of fancy that falls outside of science fiction and takes us into the domain of fantasy.
2018 update. Apparently (I have not watched any episodes of STD) the whole astromycology plot thread was just a plot device for moving people to and from some
parallel universe.
Next:
Planet 117
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