Did CBS Steal the Tardigrade Idea?
- Thread starter Prax
- Start date
Plus Stamets is based on a real person.
The burden of proof is on the game developer and I don't see anything that supports his claims. If I were cynical I'd say this was a desperate attempt to get media attention.
The burden of proof is on the game developer and I don't see anything that supports his claims. If I were cynical I'd say this was a desperate attempt to get media attention.
What are the odd that they both had to be big and blueDoh.
Ripper isn't blue. He's shiny and black. Discovery just uses a crap-ton of blue lighting that makes him reflect blueish light in certain scenes.
I've been reluctant to weigh in until now because I wanted to take the time to wonder about it.
I think all of these are possible. Either the Disco writers were fishing for inspiration, the gamer is also a good hacker who can crack classified files, or as Doc Brown would say "It could be just an amazing coincidence." Especially if Tartigrades were a hot idea and the DSC writers were thinking back to VOY's "Equinox" when there was another time aliens were powering a starship.
In the absence of proof there's no way to way about any of these three. BUT, I lean the most towards Tardigrades being a hot topic and the DSC writers recycling a VOY idea, especially since Bryan Fuller used to be a VOY staff writer. Who knows if this idea was thought of to be used before he left?
I think all of these are possible. Either the Disco writers were fishing for inspiration, the gamer is also a good hacker who can crack classified files, or as Doc Brown would say "It could be just an amazing coincidence." Especially if Tartigrades were a hot idea and the DSC writers were thinking back to VOY's "Equinox" when there was another time aliens were powering a starship.
In the absence of proof there's no way to way about any of these three. BUT, I lean the most towards Tardigrades being a hot topic and the DSC writers recycling a VOY idea, especially since Bryan Fuller used to be a VOY staff writer. Who knows if this idea was thought of to be used before he left?
Last edited:
Tardigrades should show up in more shows. They look cool, can survive in space and can also be called waterbears or moss piglets. There should be a children's book about a brave little tardigrade who learns the value of friendship in the cold vacuum of space.
I'll be honest and say that I haven't read the past fifteen pages yet, but the developer's claim was, and is, utterly silly. There's no alignment between the described characters and Discovery's.
And the Tardigrade thing? Oh dear. Leaving aside that (as noted above) Disco's Tardigrade isn't blue, there's also the simple fact that Tardigrades were in the public eye in 2014, having been featured in Neil deGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane's Cosmos, which exulted reverently about the creature's ability to survive in space and its sheer ancientness.
The Tarigrade was used extensively in the show's marketing (and appears in every episode's opening credits). Cosmos debuted two months before this developer announced his game.
And the Tardigrade thing? Oh dear. Leaving aside that (as noted above) Disco's Tardigrade isn't blue, there's also the simple fact that Tardigrades were in the public eye in 2014, having been featured in Neil deGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane's Cosmos, which exulted reverently about the creature's ability to survive in space and its sheer ancientness.
The Tarigrade was used extensively in the show's marketing (and appears in every episode's opening credits). Cosmos debuted two months before this developer announced his game.
That is not remotely "everything that can be found about tardigrades in space". The vast majority of what can be found are hundreds of science journal and news articles about the two space missions in 2007 and 2011 carrying tardigrades into space, or about their survivability in space as extremophiles. Seems like a pretty plausible source of inspiration.Actually, if that really is everything that can be found about "Tardigrades in space" (and considering something like Ant-Man both came after DIS and the Tardigrade-frenzy and has a logical reason to appear in that movie) - just going on VISUAL similarity - this graphic actually proves how laughably close the DIS tardigrade and the game tardigrade are.
What I presented in the graphic was some (not all) examples of oversized and/or spacefaring tardigrades in genre fiction and online art that have come out since the reveal in 2007/11 that they could survive long term exposure to the vacuum of space by desiccation, plus an earlier (pre-2007) example of a similar looking (but not a tardigrade) eight-limbed alien from TAS and a very Ripper-like blue alien of the same species who was a member of the crew from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers books to show that even before the tardigrades in space thing was known it was possible to arrive at a similar concept.
I posted that graphic as a counterpoint to the contention that the idea of oversized and/or spacefaring tardigrades was not in the science or genre-savvy public's consciousness at the time of Discovery's conception.
Ant-Man and the Wasp's concept art stage would have taken place months to a year before ST: Discovery premiered in late-September, 2017 (AMatW actually began filming in August 2017 before DSC premiered), and as I mentioned, the "tardigrade craze" all these properties were inspired by dates back to 2007 and 2011 when it was revealed they could survive in space and in 2014 when they were featured on Cosmos several times.
No. With the exception of Em/3/Green from TAS-The Jihad and P8-Blue from Starfleet Corps of Engineers, which are included because they're "vaguely tardigrade things" preexisting in Trek, the rest are explicitly identified as being tardigrades by name and appearance, and are all oversized relative to the people facing them or spacefaring or both.
If the original criticism that the idea is too obscure not to be stolen doesn't work out, shift gears and take the opposite tack that the idea is too generic.
There's also the tardigrade story of parallel gene transfer which was later debunked as documented here. It shows that they definitely look at news stories for inspiration in their writing.
Yeah because "instantaneous cosmic travel" is such a bold new concept nobody's thought of before...
The rest of the "similarities" are on the level of "this person is gay and that one is a redhead", so this whole "case" essentially rests on the existence of a tardigrade that can space travel and the fact that both shots look kinda blueish.
Well everyone knows blue was invented by Yves Klein in the 60s, so that settled, and the imaginative leap from "there's these ancient things that can survive in space" which was widely publicized prior to both productions to "maybe there's an evolved version of this thing that can travel through space" is really very tiny.
And as extremely unlikely as it is that there was a giant conspiracy to rip off this obscure game, even if they did do it there's a simple fact remaining that you can't actually patent a big tardigrade anymore than you could patent a space whale, talking cats, ninja rabbits or shapeshifting lizard people, so whichever way you look at it this whole thing seems to be just another excuse for the usual crowd to wag their fists at evil CBS, lousy producers, crappy writers and all the assorted evildoers ruining Star Treks and childhoods... don't let common sense stop ya.
I have seen comments posted elsewhere (YouTube mainly) that suggest that the Tardigrade in the game was also called 'Ripper'. I am sure they must be getting that wrong, but if true could anyone confirm this? Has anyone played the game? Tried to do my own research but found nothing regarding the name of the Tardigrade.
Well the claimant himself doesn't mention that on his blog, and given that he went to "it also has an African lady!" one would imagine he would have included the exact same name being used were that the case. I daresay that is YouTube commenters being fanciful.
Found the source of this misunderstanding. It came from TrekYards
. Video Link
Last edited:
They're normally so reliableFound the source of for this misunderstanding. It came from TrekYards
Again, presumably, yes. But you don't know when they were filmed or how it fits together or not. You are speculating, like the rest of us. Maybe he's right, maybe he's not.
That they are real is irrelevant, so there's no use in bringing that up over and over. The issue is how they're used and presented on the show, and whether that's lifted from another work. And I don't know how "popular" you think they were.
They're microscopic, useless and ugly. So, no.
Yeah because "instantaneous cosmic travel" is such a bold new concept nobody's thought of before...
Again, you're taking great pains to isolate each element from the other to make them seem generic, when as mentioned over and over and over it's the convergence of several elements that raises questions for some of us.
Nobody has made this claim.
Great pains? It quite literally took me one sentence to explain the similarities.
Your "team" on the other hand has been weaving pages and pages of ludicrous self-contradicting spins...
They're microscopic, useless and ugly. So, no.
.
So is your mother......
Is what a tardigrade would say to that comment.
Easy now. No personal comments. Even from a tardigrade by proxy.
I think you meant to quote @carlosp. Or maybe you're making a Firefly joke that I don't get.Doomcock is an entertainer first, whacko conspiracy trufan second.*
*Got a nice little Patreon goin'.
Similar threads
