Forbidden Planet references in Trek Lit?

[Idran]

If we have to go to outer space to get the raw materials we need for our technology, there's no "sustaining" in sight. Like, ever.

Exploiting what we have down here is a lesson we have to learn first, or space mining is for naught. If we can't make spaceships without lithium, we aren't worthy of spaceships - but we certainly can make automobiles and cell phones without it, if we just bother to try.

Timo Saloniemi

There's by definition no indefinite sustaining at all, though. Raw materials of any sort on Earth are finite, and every recycling process suffers loss. Thermodynamics is even more tyrannical than the rocket equation.

 

[Christopher]

If we have to go to outer space to get the raw materials we need for our technology, there's no "sustaining" in sight. Like, ever.

Exploiting what we have down here is a lesson we have to learn first, or space mining is for naught.

Not really, since most things are enormously more abundant in space than they are on Earth. You want helium, the Sun is giving off a nigh-endless supply, not to mention the vast amounts that can be mined from Saturn's atmosphere, say. You want minerals, there are thousands of times more in the Main Asteroid Belt than even exist in the Earth's crust, let alone could be practically mined. So there's no way one planet's needs could possibly come remotely close to depleting the resources of the Solar System.

Any advanced civilization would be out of its mind to consider one single planet its primary source of mineral wealth when there's a whole star system to exploit. Mining here on Earth is not only scratching at a far more meager supply, but it's fouling our own nest in the process. Yes, we need to learn responsible resource management so as to keep our environment sustainable, but moving mining and other polluting industries to space will help the environment.

 

[Idran]

If we have to go to outer space to get the raw materials we need for our technology, there's no "sustaining" in sight. Like, ever.

Exploiting what we have down here is a lesson we have to learn first, or space mining is for naught.

Not really, since most things are enormously more abundant in space than they are on Earth. You want helium, the Sun is giving off a nigh-endless supply, not to mention the vast amounts that can be mined from Saturn's atmosphere, say. You want minerals, there are thousands of times more in the Main Asteroid Belt than even exist in the Earth's crust, let alone could be practically mined. So there's no way one planet's needs could possibly come remotely close to depleting the resources of the Solar System.

Any advanced civilization would be out of its mind to consider one single planet its primary source of mineral wealth when there's a whole star system to exploit. Mining here on Earth is not only scratching at a far more meager supply, but it's fouling our own nest in the process. Yes, we need to learn responsible resource management so as to keep our environment sustainable, but moving mining and other polluting industries to space will help the environment.

This too; a much better counterargument than mine.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

So judging from the thread drift, I'm assuming that no one else recalls any specifics on Forbidden Planet references in any Trek novels.

 

[Cyfa]

Memory Beta's article on Altair IV has references to the Krell. It seems the information comes from the FASA RPG: The Federation.

 

[Christopher]

Honestly I think people take the whole "Forbidden Planet was the proto-Star Trek" thing too literally. Yes, it was an influence, one of several, but it wasn't some sort of zeroth pilot or something. It's a separate work in a separate reality, similar to Trek in some ways but very different in a lot of others. You could just as easily call it an antecedent of Lost in Space -- the flying-saucer spaceship, the barren planetscape, the Robert Kinoshita-designed robot as a major character. Its matte paintings of the Krell city influenced multiple works, e.g. The Time Tunnel, Colossus: The Forbin Project, and Babylon 5. And of course Robby the Robot himself went on to an active career in countless movies and TV shows. Forbidden Planet is a major influence on lots of subsequent mass-media science fiction. Star Trek doesn't have some special claim to it.

 

[Indysolo]

I've always felt that the original series episode "Requiem for Methuselah" shared a lot in common with Forbidden Planet eg. Flint/Morbius and Rayna/Altaira.

A brief moment of a Forbidden Planet sound effect/music is heard when M-4 first appears.

Neil