• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Tardigrade Mind Meld?

_Roger_

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Red Shirt
Hi All. In the STD SO1EO5 trailer, we see the tardigrade in distress under the strain of multiple jumps, and Michael Burnham voicing concern saying "I don't know how much more the creature can sustain." I'm going to speculate that in upcoming episodes, perhaps E05, it will be revealed that because of her Vulcan training, even lacking a Vulcan brain, that Burnham will have some degree of mind meld capability, and that she will use it on the tardigrade, to provide comfort and context, to open higher level communication, as support (like Picard with Sarek), and to gain knowledge about the c
 
Sorry, glitch, continuing... and to gain knowledge about the creature and its relationship to the spores and jump capability. Spectacular CGI possibilities here - the tardigrades's view of the interconnected stellar systems, etc. Perhaps a mind meld will provide quantum mechanical insight such that tech will be developed to jump without the tardigrade in the system.
 
Whilst I hope they try to communicate with the tardigrade and eventually succeed, I really hope they won't make the mind meld something humans can just learn.
 
Oh boy, I can imagine the uproar in the fandom should Burnham be able to successfully mind-meld with the creature. I hope they don't go that route. On the other hand, attempting to communicate with it is a solid course of action.

While your scenario is interesting, I think that it's unlikely that they will be able to successfully use the spore drive long term without the Tardigrade. Ethical considerations are a plausible reason to eventually scrap the drive and canon dictates that the DASH drive is discontinued at some point before TOS and does not become public knowledge.
 
I wasn't happy when McCoy managed a mind meld in a post-STIII comic book. So if they do it in Discovery I'm not exactly gonna be thrilled but I'm prepared for it.

Besides, humans with high ESP ratings are canon. Maybe Burnham rates higher than Gary Mitchell or Liz Dehner.
 
I hope the writers aren't stupid enough to give a human the ability to initiate a mind meld. I mean, what's next? Klingon run day care centers for human children? Vulcan comedians? Honest Romulans?
 
I wasn't happy when McCoy managed a mind meld in a post-STIII comic book. So if they do it in Discovery I'm not exactly gonna be thrilled but I'm prepared for it.

Was that issue #28 from DC Comics first run? I thought it was still a well done story and had great art by Gray Morrow.

Burnham with mind meld abilities? Why not? They really can't make it any more small universe than what it already is.
 
I hope the writers aren't stupid enough to give a human the ability to initiate a mind meld.
I held out hope the writers would be smart enough to account for basic physics and rudimentary orbital mechanics. Instead, I got effing Buck Rogers shenanigans with no sign of Wilma Deering in white spandex. Talk about disappointment.
 
I wasn't happy when McCoy managed a mind meld in a post-STIII comic book. So if they do it in Discovery I'm not exactly gonna be thrilled but I'm prepared for it.

Besides, humans with high ESP ratings are canon. Maybe Burnham rates higher than Gary Mitchell or Liz Dehner.
You had the character of "Miranda Jones" (TOS - "Is There In Truth No Beauty") who, because she was a full human telepath was 'saved' by training in Vulcan Mind techniques and even initiated a Mind Meld with Spock to reverse insanity caused by Spock looking a a Medusan without a special visor.

My pouint? In Trek canon and in the TOS era in particular we already have one fully human telepath who trained on Vulcan; so such a situation may not be all that unique if other Human telepaths are discovered.
 
Actually, I kinda like the idea of Burnham doing a mind-meld. As noted above, there is a precedent in Trek of humans having telepathic potential. (See also "Where No Man Goes Before.") Plus, I love mind-melds in general and have to occasionally be reminded that I can't put one in every book.

That it would be shocking and startling and blow some people's minds is another good reason to do it. :)
 
I'm watching an episode (The Changeling) right now where Spock mind melds with a mechanical interstellar probe previously thought to be lost. He mind melds with a bunch of circuit boards and wires. I think the writers did whatever they wanted as long as it served the plot.

Scotty gets killed and then 'repaired' back to full health. Uhura was mind wiped and gets re-educated via the computer & the help of Nurse Chapel and Dr McCoy. She goes from reading "See the Dog run" to college level in the space of the episode. She'll be back on duty in a week, they declare. Oh, and that probe? Wiped out 4 billion inhabitants in the first act. That's not depressing at all.
 
^ I should think that any being (or race) which can receive a mind meld could, theoretically, learn how to initiate one. Mind melds aren't one-way...
 
Last edited:
Now bear in mind that I don't really want this to happen, but I do wonder if that is why the writers put in the part about Sarek needing to mind-meld with Michael to save her in the flashback? Supposedly he's shared part of his katra with her. Would that make such a process easier for Michael to initiate? Would Sarek (or other vulcans) have ever tried to teach her?

Just trying to figure out why it was important to the writers for Sarek and Michael to have a telepathic bond.
 
Makes me wonder why we haven't seen Sarek since pilot night. Is he like Georgiou, one and done now?
 
Burnham being able to mind meld would also explain the nerve pinch, since I've always been under the belief that the nerve pinch actually involves a small telepathic signal to tell the victim to pass out. It doesn't necessarily mesh with Enterprise, but it works for me.

Presumably, Sarek either rewired Burnham slightly so she'd be able to send out telepathic signals (Trek humans being a race on the verge of telepathy themselves), or his partial katra exists as its own telepathic ghost, doing all the work for her as she channels it.

I don't know. I don't know how telepathy works.
 
Burnham being able to mind meld would also explain the nerve pinch, since I've always been under the belief that the nerve pinch actually involves a small telepathic signal to tell the victim to pass out.

That was how I used to see it... until we saw Data doing it Unification.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top