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Would you choose the Omicron Ceti III life, as seen in This Side of Paradise ?

Captain Tracy

Captain Tracy

Commander
Red Shirt
In the episode 'This Side of Paradise', Dorothy Fontana and Jerry Sohl showed us a Que sara' sara' lifestyle and culture where there is perfect health, perfect happiness, perfect harmony, total acceptance, and genuine love and respect for everyone under the influence of the spores.

However, there is also no progress, no personal ambitions, no struggle for survival; nor any motivation of defining oneself separate of the collectivism of sustaining the unity of the colony.

If YOU had the option to live on Omicron Ceti III, and live the life and lifestyle as provided by the spores; would you?
 
I discovered a while back that how people see this depends on whether they've only seen the episode or read the Blish adaptation. A deleted scene from the original script, also present in the Blish adaptation, makes it clear that the spores have a degree of consciousness:

SPOCK
The spores themselves are alien, Jim.
They weren’t on the planet when
the other two expeditions were attempted…
that’s why the colonists died.

KIRK
How do you know all this?

SPOCK
They… told us. The spores have a kind
of telepathy, but it’s subtle, almost a feeling…

KIRK
Where did they come from?

SPOCK
Impossible to tell. It was so long ago and so far away…
perhaps the planet does not even exist any longer.
They drifted in space until finally drawn here…
They actually thrive under Berthold rays. The pod plants
are only a repository for thousands of
these microscopic spores until they find a host.

KIRK
What do they need us for?

SPOCK
There are millions upon millions of them, Jim.
They do no harm… but they want a body.
In return they give the host complete health and peace of mind.​

I’ve always been as familiar with the Blish version as the aired version, so I didn’t even realize until a few years ago that the explanation of the spores’ semi-sentience wasn’t in the actual episode. As Dave Eversole suggested in the analysis I linked to, it gives the episode more of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel than the aired version did. If you only see the spores as kind of a drug, then life on Omicron Ceti III might seem benign, but if you know what the script intended, and what's in the novelization, then it becomes clearer that it's more like enslavement.


But even without that part, I don't think what we see in the episode is benign at all. "Genuine love and respect for everyone under the influence?" No. That's not genuine, it's brainwashed. The spores compel people to try to force the spores on other people. They compelled 429 out of 430 Enterprise crewmembers to betray their oaths and abandon their duties, and almost compelled Kirk as well. Does that sound remotely like free will? Every single person in the crew experiencing a complete inversion in their priorities, ending up behaving exactly the same way as the colonists even though it goes completely against everything they believe in? No — no matter how normal they might seem, this is a complete takeover of the personality, a complete destruction of individual will. It’s exactly the same as Landru in "The Return of the Archons," just without the Red Hour. Anyone who’s not of the Body is compelled to get in line. The compulsion doesn’t have to be violent to be evil. Gentle, tender force is still force. The spores' influence is physical and mental enslavement, the loss of individual choice, freedom, and identity. It's far more malevolent than it superficially appears. That's the whole point of the episode.

It's also the meaning of the title. It's from the closing lines of the poem "Tiare Tahiti" by Rupert Brooke: "Well this side of Paradise! .... /There’s little comfort in the wise." Meaning that here on Earth, on "this side" of the divide between life and afterlife, there's little comfort in the idea of Heaven, because it's unattainable while we live. In the context of the episode, it means that anything that looks like paradise is an illusion or a trap, because life can never be that idyllic. It's not saying that struggle and striving are preferable to an idyllic, harmonious existence; it's saying that the choice doesn't actually exist.
 
Christopher said:
I discovered a while back that how people see this depends on whether they've only seen the episode or read the Blish adaptation. A deleted scene from the original script, also present in the Blish adaptation, makes it clear that the spores have a degree of consciousness:

SPOCK
The spores themselves are alien, Jim.
They weren’t on the planet when
the other two expeditions were attempted…
that’s why the colonists died.

KIRK
How do you know all this?

SPOCK
They… told us. The spores have a kind
of telepathy, but it’s subtle, almost a feeling…

KIRK
Where did they come from?

SPOCK
Impossible to tell. It was so long ago and so far away…
perhaps the planet does not even exist any longer.
They drifted in space until finally drawn here…
They actually thrive under Berthold rays. The pod plants
are only a repository for thousands of
these microscopic spores until they find a host.

KIRK
What do they need us for?

SPOCK
There are millions upon millions of them, Jim.
They do no harm… but they want a body.
In return they give the host complete health and peace of mind.​

I’ve always been as familiar with the Blish version as the aired version, so I didn’t even realize until a few years ago that the explanation of the spores’ semi-sentience wasn’t in the actual episode. As Dave Eversole suggested in the analysis I linked to, it gives the episode more of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel than the aired version did. If you only see the spores as kind of a drug, then life on Omicron Ceti III might seem benign, but if you know what the script intended, and what's in the novelization, then it becomes clearer that it's more like enslavement.


But even without that part, I don't think what we see in the episode is benign at all. "Genuine love and respect for everyone under the influence?" No. That's not genuine, it's brainwashed. The spores compel people to try to force the spores on other people. They compelled 429 out of 430 Enterprise crewmembers to betray their oaths and abandon their duties, and almost compelled Kirk as well. Does that sound remotely like free will? Every single person in the crew experiencing a complete inversion in their priorities, ending up behaving exactly the same way as the colonists even though it goes completely against everything they believe in? No — no matter how normal they might seem, this is a complete takeover of the personality, a complete destruction of individual will. It’s exactly the same as Landru in "The Return of the Archons," just without the Red Hour. Anyone who’s not of the Body is compelled to get in line. The compulsion doesn’t have to be violent to be evil. Gentle, tender force is still force. The spores' influence is physical and mental enslavement, the loss of individual choice, freedom, and identity. It's far more malevolent than it superficially appears. That's the whole point of the episode.

It's also the meaning of the title. It's from the closing lines of the poem "Tiare Tahiti" by Rupert Brooke: "Well this side of Paradise! .... /There’s little comfort in the wise." Meaning that here on Earth, on "this side" of the divide between life and afterlife, there's little comfort in the idea of Heaven, because it's unattainable while we live. In the context of the episode, it means that anything that looks like paradise is an illusion or a trap, because life can never be that idyllic. It's not saying that struggle and striving are preferable to an idyllic, harmonious existence; it's saying that the choice doesn't actually exist.
Click to expand...

Truly a great post, very insightful; yet, with all that said - and, said so well - what is your definitive answer to the question as posed?

Vger23 said:
Fuk no. That’s not life. It might be cool for a little vacation, but not as a permanent way of existence. One of the themes of TOS, in fact a predominant theme, is that there is no such thing as paradise or utopia.
Click to expand...
No ambiguity here. There's one for the "No" column.
 
Captain Tracy said:
Truly a great post, very insightful; yet, with all that said - and, said so well - what is your definitive answer to the question as posed?
Click to expand...

My answer is that the question as posed is invalid, based on a false premise and a misrepresentation of the facts. It is illegitimate to frame the question as a choice between alternatives, because there is no choice when one of the options is coercive. It doesn't count as "perfect health" when you're infected by mind-controlling parasites. It doesn't count as "total acceptance" when you're not allowed to keep your own priorities and loyalties and are forced to prioritize subservience to the spores above all other goals. It doesn't count as "genuine love and respect" when it's merely brainwashed conformity. However benign it may superficially appear, the influence of the spores is no different from Borg assimilation -- an infection that forces every individual to behave as a member of a collective that seeks to forcibly infect others.
 
@Christopher You are quite correct in your evaluation regarding the stark reality of the hypothetical as put forth; however, in the spirit of the game - being how it was presented on TV - would you care to register a Yes or No vote?

plynch said:
Except they seem happy.

Throw out the OP’s waxing eloquent and take the ep as aired.

Would you choose that life?
Click to expand...
Those are not my Words-of-Waxing; but rather, the amalgamated speeches of Sandavol and McCoy; and, Kirk.
 
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Ríu ríu chíu said:
And I care about this...why, exactly? :shrug:

Look, @Christopher is right: The entire premise of this thread is worthless, because there is no choice. Anyone infected by the spores is brainwashed. The spores don't offer a choice. They use force. They're no better than the Borg.
Click to expand...

spores that change the way people think. let me find an analogy.

a small yeast spore attaches itself into grain harvested outside a farm in Iowa where the ghost of Shoeless Joe keeps forcing impoverished failed boomer writers to build baseball stadiums and the poltergeist of Kennesaw Mountain Landis keeps tearing them down. anyway the spores turn the flour with the aid of heat and water dough, gobbling up sugars in the wheat and farting out carbon dioxide. And the bread is then baked into buns that are then packaged into plastic wrap, kept broken and in storage for weeks and finally served on a double header at the new Yankees stadium with a long cylindrical sausage meat thing stuffed into it suggestively. Aspects of the bread add to the joy of the consumer sitting in the nosebleeds, along with that overpriced Lite he's drinking, again thanks to yeasts.

Ok it wasn't a great analogy but I tried. I was just trying to say our moods are already modified constantly by outside organisms.
 
XmasCV330 said:
spores that change the way people think. let me find an analogy.

a small yeast spore attaches itself into grain harvested outside a farm in Iowa where the ghost of Shoeless Joe keeps forcing impoverished failed boomer writers to build baseball stadiums and the poltergeist of Kennesaw Mountain Landis keeps tearing them down. anyway the spores turn the flour with the aid of heat and water dough, gobbling up sugars in the wheat and farting out carbon dioxide. And the bread is then baked into buns that are then packaged into plastic wrap, kept broken and in storage for weeks and finally served on a double header at the new Yankees stadium with a long cylindrical sausage meat thing stuffed into it suggestively. Aspects of the bread add to the joy of the consumer sitting in the nosebleeds, along with that overpriced Lite he's drinking, again thanks to yeasts.

Ok it wasn't a great analogy but I tried. I was just trying to say our moods are already modified constantly by outside organisms.
Click to expand...
Very good point; and perhaps, this same reasoning might be where we get the maxim: "You are what you eat." from?

King Bob! said:
Who we are is largely defined by forces outside of our control. We have this illusion that we are in complete control.
Click to expand...
Truth.
 
Ríu ríu chíu said:
Look, @Christopher is right: The entire premise of this thread is worthless, because there is no choice. Anyone infected by the spores is brainwashed. The spores don't offer a choice. They use force. They're no better than the Borg.
Click to expand...

This is not correct; because, as specifically stated in the hypothetical, you are in point-of-fact being offered a choice.

Being, you have the choice not to go to Omicron Ceti III.

Here is the premise again:

"If YOU had the option to live on Omicron Ceti III, and live the life and lifestyle as provided by the spores; would you?"

There is your choice.

You have the option not to live on Omicron Ceti III; and therefore, not become infected by the spores.

Whereas, @Christopher - who, in the end, never definitely answered the hypothetical; interestingly enough - focused and elucidated upon a wholly tangential aspect of the spores themselves - while quite astute in it's composition - yet, in doing so, set-up a narrative which by-passed the choice presented as a condition provided in the hypothetical.

And, by you following the misdirection provided by focusing those tangential aspects, a mental disconnect occurs between the stated choice provided you in the hypothetical; if, one follows that train of thought down the tangential rabbit hole - moves a person mentally away from the very basic choice provided as a matter-of-fact.

Lawyers often employ this same assimilation/dissimulation tactic in order to shift the mental focus of a jury away from the overt facts and the specific question of a case, and re-direct their mental focus to facts which are tangential to actual legal question before them.

It's sort of like having your mind altered and clouded by the spores, only using words.


JonnyQuest037 said:
No. I don't really want to wear an olive green jumpsuit for the rest of my life.
Click to expand...

Personally, I envisioned you in something more the lines of a bright red Elvis jump-suit, with Spicean Flame Gem sequins. :lol:
 
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