Makin' Babies

[Stoek]

Warp Drive! Transporters! A Moneyless "Economy"! Trek is full of fantastic elements in all its various forms, but perhaps the most fantastic are alien hybrids. Vulcan/Terran, Terran/Klingon, Bajoran/Vulcan/Terran/Betazoid.

So I was reading one of the newer Trek novels titled Losing The Peace and it features a character who is half Terran and half Vulcan. She is having a rather contentious conversation with her father giving one the sense that she was an unplanned pregnancy. This got me to thinking about another well known Vulcan/Terran hybrid who appears in a few novels, most notably Spock's World. In that book it talks about his existence having to be carefully designed by genetic engineers.

This is a feature in the tv shows as well. T'Pol and Trips daughter is the result of careful genetic engineering, meanwhile Worf and the half Klingon half Terran Kehlyr end up with a little oops that does not seem to require any intervention of any kind.

So I'm curious what peoples thoughts are, does this sort of incosistency bug you? What do you think would happen with real aliens (and let's for the sake of argument keep it to humanoid types). Or any other thoughts you might have on the subject.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

IRL, my answer would be, "Very, VERY unlikely."

But in Trekdom...considering that on Earth it's possible for certain separate species to breed, and we have the explanation that there is supposedly shared genetic code between the humanoid species on Trek, I would say that some species that are close enough should be able to interbreed. That code may even have been put into Trek species on purpose specifically to facilitate interbreeding.

IRL, successful breeding is not as difficult to accomplish as you might think. For instance, house cats can be bred successfully to the Asian Leopard Cat and the Serval. They aren't just different species from the house cat. They're members of different genii.

The degree of help required, though, should escalate as the difference between the two species increases or specialized structures are introduced that are required for survival. I think it should be more difficult, for instance, if radically different blood chemistries exist (as in the case of human-Vulcan or human-Andorian, for instance), or they're too dissimilar to each other.

IF you explain Cardassians as being therapsids rather than reptiles, I'll buy it, but I would not accept the idea of a human and a Xindi-Reptilian successfully getting it on, with or without medical intervention.

Here's an essay that I wrote on this subject, addressing it in much greater detail.

Link: "Hybrid Theory"

So in some ways my answer might be "requirements of the plot--but WITH some sense applied and not in all cases."

 

[Tiberius]

Given that we can't even breed with chimps, I honestly can't see how humans can reproduce with a species that was the result of an almost completely different evolutionary process.

But then, I don't have a problem with warp drive, so I suppose it would be hypocritical to complain about hybrid people...

 

[Admiral Shran]

If it serves the needs of the story/plot, I'm okay with it. Given all the fantastical things in the Trek universe, inter-species breeding is one I can easily accept.

What makes it easy for me to accept is that we're given at least partial explanations as to why it's possible - the fact that so many species can trace their development back to the Ancient Humanoids and the fact that the Preservers aided in their development. It also helps that on at least one occasion we were told that it was difficult even with medical assistance - such as with a Klingon/Trill hybrid.

 

[Tiberius]

Of course, the reason all the different aliens can breed with each other is because all the aliens are just humans wearing funny rubber things on their heads...

 

[MikeS]

It's beastiality. And those that argue that they're sentient beings would still frown upon my coupling with a dolphin.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Of course, on Trek, there is also the major difference that two humanoids can have a conversation and decide together what it is they want to do. You cannot have that conversation with a dolphin or with any other species on this planet. Consent cannot be given. Also, even though dolphins may be sentient, there is no proof that they have a level of intellect on par with ours, and given that disparity it makes it horribly cruel and unfair to engage in such acts. (Bestiality is, of course, inherently wrong. I'm just going into some of the reasons why that's true, and also why I don't think it applies on Trek.)

Two Trek humanoids are generally of a comparable level of intellect (and when there is a significant disparity I would say that mating should not occur, to avoid victimizing the "weaker" partner).

 

[Tiberius]

Why is it wrong? Yes, it is wrong if a person forces the dolphin, but dolphins are capable of indicating if they desire it, and they are quite ccapable of fighting back if forced against their will.

 

[Satyrquaze]

This is a feature in the tv shows as well. T'Pol and Trips daughter is the result of careful genetic engineering, meanwhile Worf and the half Klingon half Terran Kehlyr end up with a little oops that does not seem to require any intervention of any kind.

In fairness, K'Ehleyr told Troi point blank that a Klingon/Terran hybrid would require some medical help, as must have been clearly the case with her. Alexander probably less so, seeing as momma's DNA was obviously more compatable with Dad's.

The inconsistancies might well go beyond the difference of species. There are Terrans out there that are incapable of having children with another Terran without medical help.

 

[Tan Ru]

Why is it wrong? Yes, it is wrong if a person forces the dolphin, but dolphins are capable of indicating if they desire it, and they are quite ccapable of fighting back if forced against their will.

Hmmmmm............

Dolphin rape.............

That sounds like the basis for a new SyFy original series.

Or should it be LifeTime??

 

[Rojixus]

Why is it wrong? Yes, it is wrong if a person forces the dolphin, but dolphins are capable of indicating if they desire it, and they are quite ccapable of fighting back if forced against their will.

Hmmmmm............

Dolphin rape.............

That sounds like the basis for a new SyFy original series.

Or should it be LifeTime??

It would only be on LifeTime if it was a woman who was raped by a dolphin. Anyway, you forgot about Animal Planet!

 

[Satyrquaze]

^ You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals.
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Why is it wrong? Yes, it is wrong if a person forces the dolphin, but dolphins are capable of indicating if they desire it, and they are quite ccapable of fighting back if forced against their will.

That I disagree with. They are not capable of intellectualizing or communicating on our level; therefore, no equality and it is not right. Without going into a nasty example, if a being is not capable of thinking on an adult level, even if they do think, they can still be manipulated and taken advantage of. It's not that hard to convince someone who is at a lower intellectual and emotional development level (such as a child) that they want something they don't, or that society requires them not to fight. We know very well that pedophilia is wrong. Bestiality is in the exact same sick category.

 

[Deimos Anomaly]

If the writers had any background in biology this would have been handled sensibly but unfortunately it wasn't.

The result is that while certain species (eg Klingons and Trill) do apparently need medical tinkering to make it work, others (Definitely Klingon - Human, possibly Vulcan - Human, Presumably Romulan - Klingon) require no medical intervention at all.

In fact, not only can these different species produce offspring with no intervention, in at least some combinations the offspring is fertile itself (Alexander Rozhenko and Miral Paris spring to mind).

This strains credulity to the point of ridicularity. It essentially says that Humans, Romulans, Klingons etc. are genetically closer to each other than a horse and a donkey. (Which can create a mule, but due to differing chromosome counts the mule is sterile).

The idea that species originating on different planets quadrillions of miles apart, with entirely different evolutionary paths behind them on the road to sentience, should magically be genetically closer than a horse and a donkey is beyond stupid.

It's an element that really let ST down in the observation-of-hard-science stakes.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I prefer that they be consistent about the need for inter-species pregnancy to ALWAYS require medical intervention.

However, for the opposite to be the case is no more silly than the idea of humanoids evolving separately all over the galaxy.