Duplicate Earth from the episode "Miri"

[SteveTack]

I'm making my way through the first season episodes; the last one I watched was Miri. It's the one where an anti-aging experiment went wrong, and all that's left on a planet are children who are hundreds of years old.

OK, so the initial setup is that the Enterprise runs into a planet that is an exact duplicate of Earth. Pretty good WTF moment. I mean, how could that possibly happen, right?

But when the episode ends, that isn't explained at all, unless I missed something. Wha...? Is that element introduced simply as a way to justify using the Andy Griffith Show sets?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well they've used other sets that look like Earth to represent alien planets, so I'm not sure that was a reason.

 

[Sandoval]

I'd go with super-powerful aliens creating duplicate Earths as easily as we duplicate documents with a photocopier.

I'm not entirely sure why they would want to do this but it is comforting to have a spare Earth. It's always handy to have around.

Like a spare set of car keys.

 

[SteveTack]

I'd go with super-powerful aliens creating duplicate Earths as easily as we duplicate documents with a photocopier.

Who'd want to copy that dump?

 

[Sandoval]

10 Osmonds.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Nah, on that Earth the Olsens were never born. (biological accident killed off all adults in the 1960s, remember) The Osmonds were though and were probably bonk bonking people on the head in duplicate Ogden..

 

[Dukhat]

I'm making my way through the first season episodes; the last one I watched was Miri. It's the one where an anti-aging experiment went wrong, and all that's left on a planet are children who are hundreds of years old.

OK, so the initial setup is that the Enterprise runs into a planet that is an exact duplicate of Earth. Pretty good WTF moment. I mean, how could that possibly happen, right?

But when the episode ends, that isn't explained at all, unless I missed something. Wha...? Is that element introduced simply as a way to justify using the Andy Griffith Show sets?

It wasn't explained because they didn't think it was necessary to explain it. They had no idea that the show would be as popular as it was and that future people would be scrutinizing stuff like this, and at the time they just pulled the "duplicate Earth" idea out of their ass to justify using 1960's building architecture. Of course it was completely unnecessary, since other planets (such as Beta III in "Return of the Archons") had the same architecture but without any silly duplicate Earth explanation to justify it.

 

[Botany Bay]

I'm making my way through the first season episodes; the last one I watched was Miri. It's the one where an anti-aging experiment went wrong, and all that's left on a planet are children who are hundreds of years old.

OK, so the initial setup is that the Enterprise runs into a planet that is an exact duplicate of Earth. Pretty good WTF moment. I mean, how could that possibly happen, right?

But when the episode ends, that isn't explained at all, unless I missed something. Wha...? Is that element introduced simply as a way to justify using the Andy Griffith Show sets?

Welcome along SteveTack.

No explanations are given onscreen, but if you pick up the James Blish novelization of the episode, he creates a backstory from memory. I think some of the original novels have their own explanations, too.

This was the first time we see an Earth-like planet in TOS, and "another Earth!" was all they came up with as a reason for using a Hollywood backlot as a planet. "Hodgkins' law of parrallel planet development", and the Preserver aliens all came much later.

It's interesting that they had nothing better than "another Earth!" because in Roddenberry's pitches to the networks he would reassure the execs that Trek could be done on a TV budget by reusing old wardrobe etc lying around in storage.

 

[jayrath]

The Shatnerverse novels address this in great detail, suggesting that Miri's world (or our own, or both) was created as control in a grand experiment conducted by the Preservers. The Trek Lit board here generally scorns Shatner's novels, but I find his three Preserver books extremely compelling.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Doesn't quite fit the Preservers MO.

SPOCK: Yes. The obelisk is a marker, just as I thought. It was left by a super-race known as the Preservers. They passed through the galaxy rescuing primitive cultures which were in danger of extinction and seeding them, so to speak, where they could live and grow.
MCCOY: I've always wondered why there were so many humanoids scattered through the galaxy.
SPOCK: So have I. Apparently the Preservers account for a number of them.
MCCOY: That's probably how the planet has survived all these centuries. The Preservers put an asteroid deflector on the planet.
SPOCK: Which has now become defective and is failing to operate.
MCCOY: And we have to find that deflector and put it back into working order, otherwise
SPOCK: Precisely, Doctor.

They don't created entire worlds, they just rescue and relocate species/cultures in risk of extinction. I think we'd notice if a large population segement from "Western Civilization" disappeared.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Oh dear God, is it Tuesday already?

Somebody post that section from the pitch, wouldja?

 

[Robert D. Robot]

I think Slartibartfast is responsible.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Love his fjords.

 

[shivkala]

^
Lots of Fjords on Miri's planet, eh?

 

[Botany Bay]

The "Parallel Worlds" concept is the key ...

... to the STAR TREK format. It means simply that our stories deal with plant and animal life, plus people, quite similar to that on earth. Social evolution will also have interesting points of similarity with ours. There will be differences, of course, ranging from the subtle to the boldly dramatic, out of which comes much of our colour and excitement. (And, of course, none of this prevents an occasional "far out" tale thrown in for surprise and change of pace.)

The "Parallel Worlds" concept makes production practical by permitting action-adventure science fiction at a practical budget figure via the use of available "earth" casting, sets, locations, costuming, and so on.

As important (and perhaps even more so in many ways) the "Parallel Worlds" concept tends to keep even the most imaginative stories within the general audience's frame of reference through such recognizable and identifiable casting, sets and costuming.

Gene Roddenberry, STAR TREK, First Draft, March 11, 1964

 

[Silvercrest]

^Which really doesn't address exact duplicates of the Earth with landmasses accurate down to "I can see my house from here!". All it says is "quite similar."

Who'd want to copy that dump?

Well, there are rumors of this hyperspace bypass project...

No explanations are given onscreen, but if you pick up the James Blish novelization of the episode, he creates a backstory from memory. I think some of the original novels have their own explanations, too.

As I recall, the James Blish story ignores the "duplicate Earth" aspect altogether and makes a point of describing land masses that are very different from Earth. To explain the human population, he establishes that it's an Earth colony which was lost for something like 700 years (!).

 

[wissaboo]

If asked I suspect they would have said that a humanoid in a similar environment would likely follow a similar evolutionary path. Their brains would likely be quite similar and therefore they would create similar architecture and art.

but really it was to use sets already existing around the lot and save tons of money

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

About the duplicate Earths...

Spoiler: Earths

AFAIK, the Shatnerverse directly attributes them to the Preservers. Miri's planet, Magna Roma, Omega IV, are all direct Preserver 'creations'. There is also at least one duplicate of the planet Vulcan as well.

Me, I prefer the explanation given by this board's own Nerys Ghemor in her fanfic. I know I keep saying this, but it's true. She suggests that the aforementioned duplicate Earths are not in fact duplicates; they are all Earth itself. Meaning, they are various parallel universe versions of Earth. They appeared because the Enterprise had temporarily, due to spatial instability, slipped into the universes where those Earths existed.

 

[scotpens]

Lots of Fjords on Miri's planet, eh?

Not to mention Cadillacs.

 

[Kalontas]

It did stretch my suspension of disbelief as well. I was expecting some sort of explanation with some kind of... time warp or some para-scientific explanation of "there's a rift in space and time which accidentally correlated development of the two planets, by affecting the probabilities - but now that the rift is gone, the planets have differed significantly in their history".

I suppose that Hodgkins law is better than nothing, but still makes me scratch my head. Did they really need a duplicate Earth for a story about ancient children and adult-killing plague?