Ancient Progenitors

[RichMerk]

I've been writing on my fanfic, and it has taken me into the realm of the Ancient Progenitors (TNG: The Chase) The very last chapter is a quickie flashback in time to their days, and one of the characters is the one that recorded the DNA message.

Here's my question:

Who was she? What position did she hold to allow her the incredible priviledge to make such an epoch-spanning missive. If a subordinate were to address her, what title would he use?

 

[Timo]

For all we know, she was a media celebrity of her times, with little or no power. Or perhaps the assistant secretary to the project leader, the one without the speech impedement or the unkempt hair and thus just as eligible for the task as the next humanoid.

Or perhaps she was nobody - a mere artifact, a synthesis of all of her kind created with egalitarian intent.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tomalak]

Can we give the Ancient Progenitors a snappier name?

Since we know virtually nothing about them, I'd say you can use creative licence.

 

[Doug Otte]

Can we give the Ancient Progenitors a snappier name?

Since we know virtually nothing about them, I'd say you can use creative licence.

"The Herberts?"

Doug

 

[Anwar]

Ron Moore said that they were the same as the Preserver aliens mentioned in TOS. So you can either call them the Preservers or the Progenitors.

 

[swaaye]

Or perhaps the assistant secretary to the project leader, the one without the speech impedement or the unkempt hair and thus just as eligible for the task as the next humanoid.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Ron Moore said that they were the same as the Preserver aliens mentioned in TOS.

He did? When?

 

[Tiberius]

I doubt they were the Preservers from TOS.

Think about it - if they were, then they were around so long ago that they seeded the primordial oceans of Earth with DNA, and were still around billions of years later to relocated Native Americans.

Species just don't last for that long. They can't possibly be the same species.

 

[Finn]

^it was never implied that it was the preservers who helped the Native Americans survive their exodus from Asia into North America. It was an exant species Chakotay met in the Delta Quadrant.

 

[Timo]

Considering that these ancients were alone in the galaxy, and knew that they were alone, they obviously had a galaxy-spanning civilization. It was thus probably more complex than all the known Trek cultures put together...

Giving a single name to such a civilization might be folly. Whatever the description of them, it should evoke the absolute grandeur of their rule - probably trillions upon trillions of beings pursuing billions of different lifestyles in millions of different nations that comprise an empire or a thousand. For all we know, there would be factions wishing to preserve the genetic material, factions so opposed to this that they'd be willing to destroy all life from the universe to stop this, and every school of thought that can possibly fit in between.

...Of course, little of this could be crammed to an epilogue of a short story. But if possible, one should avoid making these folks as small and simplistic and undiverse as, say, the Feds are.

(As for their name, I doubt they would use one. If there's nothing but them in the whole galaxy, why bother with names? They are "the people", "those who are", "us". Although the faction pursuing the project of preserving the genetic material might quite well call themselves the Preservers. They just wouldn't, COULDN'T have anything to do with the Preservers of TOS.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[RegFan]

I'd say that woman was someone (probably a scientist) involved in the project. Another possibility is that she was a leader. However, we don't know much about their civilisation and she could have been just about anything.

 

[RichMerk]

In the epilogue I wrote, set 4 billion years ago, the Ancient Progenitors are indeed split into factions over the course that their continued evolution should take. The woman who made the DNA recording is in the faction that wants to insure their indirect survival by spreading their DNA around. The other 2 major factions are interested in more direct evolution, though in radically different forms.

They do indeed enjoy a galaxy-spanning culture and technology that's in line with Clarke's Law. That's kinda why I was fishing for names and titles and such... Something completely out of the ordinary because their understanding of things is so far beyond ours.

As for the Preservers, they haven't appeared in any stories yet, so I haven't had to decide if they are the same as the Ancients. I don't know if they will ever appear, but if they do I'm ready for them: http://3d.merknet.com/free/obelisk/obelisk.html

 

[Tiberius]

^it was never implied that it was the preservers who helped the Native Americans survive their exodus from Asia into North America. It was an exant species Chakotay met in the Delta Quadrant.

I was thinking of the Classic Trek episode "The Paradise Syndrome", where the Enterprise finds a planet with a group of native Americans on it.

This episode establishes that the Preservers transplant cultures to protect them.

The aliens - Sky Spirits - that Chakotay's tribe had dealings with never transplanted anyone.

 

[I am not Spock]

I don't think there's any connection between the Sky Spirits, Sargon's people, the Preservers, and the 'Chase' Progenitors.

Nor between V'Ger and the Borg. Nor Trelane and the Q.

The Trek universe is a big place, people. With a lot of cultures with a few similarities.

 

[The Castellan]

I doubt they were the Preservers from TOS.

Think about it - if they were, then they were around so long ago that they seeded the primordial oceans of Earth with DNA, and were still around billions of years later to relocated Native Americans.

Species just don't last for that long. They can't possibly be the same species.

Who's to say that they could not last that long?
When it comes to aliens, I am prepared to be ready for anything.

 

[RichMerk]

The Ancient Progenitors could still be the Preservers. They just wouldn't still be the same bald, putty-faces they were 4 billion years ago. The trend in Trek seems to be for corporeal life to evolve into pure energy forms. 4 billion years is probably enough time for the Ancients to evolve into any sort of energy beings. Maybe they evolved into the 'Q'.

On the other hand, the Preservers used writing, which a race of pure energy beings probably wouldn't do.

 

[The Castellan]

The Ancient Progenitors could still be the Preservers. They just wouldn't still be the same bald, putty-faces they were 4 billion years ago. The trend in Trek seems to be for corporeal life to evolve into pure energy forms. 4 billion years is probably enough time for the Ancients to evolve into any sort of energy beings. Maybe they evolved into the 'Q'.

On the other hand, the Preservers used writing, which a race of pure energy beings probably wouldn't do.

I doubt every race becomes energy after so many eons.
And I doubt the progenitors would evolve into a race of pompus assholes.