I'm an avid fan of the Cthulhu Mythos literature developed by H.P. Lovecraft and expanded on by various other authors across the decades, and I've recently been looking at how it might have influenced some aspects of the Trekverse. One story that I think draws quite heavily on Lovecraft is TOS "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" It has a number of similarities with Lovecraft's Mythos novella At the Mountains of Madness: Both take place largely in vast cave systems located underneath frozen wildernesses that house the remnants of an ancient civilization, and both refer to a race of "Old Ones" who were ultimately destroyed by their artificially-created servants - In AtMoM, the Shoggoths, in WALGMO, Ruk and his fellow androids. Has anyone else ever noticed this? It's not really too surprising when one considers that the episode was written by Robert Bloch, who had been a friend of Lovecraft's and had written a number of Cthulhu Mythos tales himself. Are there any other elements of Lovecraft in Trek?
Lovecraftian influences in Trek?
- Thread starter EJA
- Start date
I suppose the first Borg episode would qualify for that sort of experience. Their whole cyborg/vampire vibe would fit in quite well as some kind of Lovecraftian horror. Especially in their unstoppability and complete lack of communication with the crew. Lovecraft's works never struck me as having a good/evil dichotomy as rather a human/non-human dichotomy. The alien or monstrous in Lovecraft seemed to act without regard towards humanity or more like approaching life on Earth as one would approach mold in the bath tub.
Overall, I don't really see the Lovecraftian influence in the original example. The philosophy the informed Lovecraft's approach is what separates it from a monster story like Stoker's Dracula, or a Earthly mystcal tale like Machen's The Great God Pan. WALGMO has stuff that Lovecraft would use, but that doesn't make it Lovecraftian. Those same elements were used by many other writers as well.
Overall, I don't really see the Lovecraftian influence in the original example. The philosophy the informed Lovecraft's approach is what separates it from a monster story like Stoker's Dracula, or a Earthly mystcal tale like Machen's The Great God Pan. WALGMO has stuff that Lovecraft would use, but that doesn't make it Lovecraftian. Those same elements were used by many other writers as well.
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Bloch's What Are Little Girls Made Of definitely mines the Cthulhu Mythos for its dressings and trappings, and I'm Sure Bloch was open about that.
Catspaw then subverts it by having the vast alien intelligences turn out to be a couple of pipe-cleaner bugs.
By Any Other Name's Kelvans might kind of be a nod to those great and unhuman aliens of HPL as well, when we hear dialogue about just how vast and different their minds are.
Catspaw then subverts it by having the vast alien intelligences turn out to be a couple of pipe-cleaner bugs.
By Any Other Name's Kelvans might kind of be a nod to those great and unhuman aliens of HPL as well, when we hear dialogue about just how vast and different their minds are.
I've only ever read the first novel in the series, and that was a while ago, but the Invasion! saga seemed to have some similarities to the Mythos, e.g. nightmarish and horrible alien creatures from the darkness of prehistory attempting to regain the worlds and races they once terrorised eons ago. I really ought to get the whole series some time, it sounds good.
As I remember it from having read it at the time of release, DS9- Time's Enemy is best one, but has least to do with the arc. The TNG one is basically the TOS one repeated, and the Voyager one is fun but pretty much ignores everything that's been established about the supposed arc beforehand!