Corbomite

The original Fesarius (ping pong ball model)

I'm a huge fan of imaginary science and technologies. What is the status of corbomite? Is it just something that Captain Kirk thought up on the spur of the moment or was it a pre-existing feature of the United Federation of Planets?

According to Memory Alpha, "corbomite was an actual element, symbol Ct, atomic weight 361, atomic number 140, discovered by the Federation on Starbase 27 in 2262." I love the idea of writing imaginary forms of matter into science fiction stories.

Spaceship evolution... CGI Fesarius (source)

In our universe, corbomite was "invented" by Jerry Sohl some time near the start of April 1966, while he was writing what would become the Star Trek episode known as "The Corbomite Maneuver". Back in 2012, I included "The Corbomite Maneuver" in my list of 10 interesting Star Trek episodes.

I still remember the first time that I saw "The Corbomite Maneuver" and that moment when the crew of the Enterprise and viewers suddenly realize exactly how large the alien spacecraft is! I was dazzled. Lucky for me, I did not know that the model of the Fesarius had been made using ping pong balls.

Balok's "alter ego"

Biology 101
When it comes to fictional science, I'm often more interested in biology than physics. For most of "The Corbomite Maneuver", viewers feel trapped in some silly Sci Fi plot where evil aliens endlessly torment our heroes.

Balok's new pals.

Then, finally, we learn that all of the drama in this episode was just a test, designed by Balok to learn the true nature and intentions of humans. Balok is peaceful and interested in an exchange of information.

In the original draft of the story, the aliens were described as bird-like. The entire episode could have been improved if the budget had allowed Balok to have a more alien appearance and if some time had been spent to tell us a thing or two about the aliens' culture and advanced technologies. Sadly, Hollywood amnesia would soon set in: we never got another visit with Balok and his people.

The Haploids, cover art by
Rafael de Soto y Hernandez

Today I came across an old novel by Sohl called The Haploids. I've never read this story. I love stories that involve genetically-altered humans, but I can't imagine how anyone might have thought that haploid humans were even a possibility. [However, see the related process of xhogenesis.]

In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art
by Harold McCauley and Hans Wesso

A few of Sohl's short stories are available at Project Gutenberg. If you want the same kind of excruciating experience (will this never end?) that Sohl gave us in the first half of 'The Corbomite Maneuver' then try reading 'The Hand'.

The Sedron War

The Legend of Uvadekoto

In the Asimov Reality, Earthlings were teased with knowledge of the existence of sedrons. Previously, Thomas imagined that the only source of sedronic matter on Earth was in platinum deposits. In The Legend of Uvadekoto, it was suggested that "two mass 196 nucleons can quantum entangle and resonate into a sedron", providing a way to manufacture sedrons.

Reconstruction by Zeta. Original
cover art by Gordon Davies

Zeta recently brought to my attention a story called "The Case of the Superfluous Sedrons" at the website of the Dead Widower Society. Should we take seriously the idea that the heavily touted role of sedrons in the Sedron War was all just a scam, a way to introduce Earthlings to a deceptive cover story?

According to Zeta, during the "Sedron War", all of the nuclear weapons of Earth were teleported away. As "cover", small explosions were detonated at each location where the bombs had resided. Yes, a type of sedron was later found in the residue and fallout from those explosions, but those sedrons never proved to be useful for anything other than informing Earthlings of the existence of sedrons.
Related Reading: The Atlan Intervention
Next: the Exode Saga

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Sound Science

In my previous blog post we had a flashback to 1970 and a nearly-forgotten science fiction film (Toomorrow) about a pop music band. The film Toomorrow featured a newly manufactured pop music band called Toomorrow that was hoped to become a music selling device similar to The Monkees.

The Monkees were first beamed into people's homes in September 1966 along with Star Trek. Also arriving in 1966 was Dark Shadows. As a larval science nerdling, I immediately "got" Star Trek. I was appalled by The Monkees and Dark Shadows.

House of Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows was an anomaly: a soap opera that came to feature vampires. It was broadcast in the late afternoon when kids were getting home from school. I can't blame Dark Shadows for my dislike of horror, but the show did nothing to interest me in horror and paranormal themes.

Building on the "success" of Dark Shadows, Dan Curtis brought out a series of horror and paranormal-themed movies including The Night Stalker. A parnormal-themed television program (1974), Kolchak: The Night Stalker, became a source of inspiration for Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files.

Easy Come, Easy Go

Sound Science
While The Monkees were on television, there were endless Elvis movies such as Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) written by people such as Anthony Lawrence. The bio for Lawrence at IMDB is funny.

The Sixth Sense

In 1972, Lawrence brought to television The Sixth Sense, his own entry in the"parnormal thriller" genre, a story about the adventures of a "professor of parapsychology". One episode (written by Gene L. Coon not long before his death) included William Shatner. Harlan Ellison was the story editor.

In the Ekcolir Reality

pilot

Ten years later, with the help of Nancy Lawrence, The Phoenix was brought to television (see the webpage of Diane Mullen). The instructions for writers of episodes of The Phoenix was written by Anthony and Nancy Lawrence. According to the ancient astronauts backstory for the show, aliens visited Earth 40,000 years ago and left behind Bennu and Mira, two advanced life forms with human appearance who were to awaken when Humanity was ready for them to use their "psychic faculties" to help prepare humans for alien contact.

1981 movie, 1982 TV show

The paranormal abilities of Bennu were to a great extent technology-assisted. Bennu was born on a distant exoplanet where music was a "super science". Bennu was destined to use the science of "Sonics" to help the humans of Earth to attain a higher level of existence.

blog posts in March

All this reminds me of the 1970 science fiction film Toomorrow. In that film, the alien visitors to Earth wanted to use Earthly music to save their decaying civilization (or something). In The Phoenix there was a criminal alien who specialized in "creating discordant emotion and destructive passions" and who found his way to Earth.

 Stargate was a more successful 1990's Sci Fi show that also incorporated Egyptian mythology as was done in The Phoenix. After a quick look at the original scripts and the television episodes that got made (they are on YouTube) I get the feeling that there just was not adequate financial support to make The Phoenix a viable show. By 1987 Hollywood had figured out how to make modern Sci Fi television.

Next: Alien Invasion, 1967

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