Miri's Planet?

[Albertese]

I always liked "Miri" - the "another Earth" thing was just one of those "Gosh, wow, cool!" little skiffy frissons; I was already buying the notion of a spaceship full of Navy boys zipping around the cosmos at FTL speeds, after all.

The thing is, the “duplicate Earth” gimmick is completely unnecessary to the story; in fact, it’s never mentioned again after the pre-credit teaser. It was just a cheap hook to keep viewers tuned in by ending the teaser on a “WTF??” note.

Wellll...

As I understand it, the Alternate Earth idea was one of Gene's gimmicks to save production cost by filming in backlots and easy to get to locations while renting easily pre-existing props. So having it be another Earth in the teaser was a nod to those in the audience who might ask "why does their alien planet look just like Staten Island?" or wherever. Plus it's a way to say "Look at what might happen here if we don't shape up," to television audiences of 1960's sensibilities.

--Alex

 

[scotpens]

^^ We saw plenty of planets resembling Earth in various historical periods throughout TOS. But the planet in “Miri” wasn’t just an alternate Earth or a parallel Earth — it was an exact duplicate of Earth, complete with the same oceans and continents! That fact is never referenced again after the Act 1 opening voice-over:

Captain's Log, stardate 2713.5. In the distant reaches of our galaxy, we have made an astonishing discovery. Earth type radio signals coming from a planet which apparently is an exact duplicate of the Earth. It seems impossible, but there it is.

 

[Timo]

So, in other words, there was not, in fact, "talk about doing TOS in a semi-serialized manner".

What? There was - there was talk about doing TOS by tying certain episodes together. That talk, or initiative, or effort, or whatever, came to (almost) nothing. If that's not "semi-serialized", then what is it?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tan Ru]

Omega Glory's planet was inhabited by the descendants of earlier Cold War space travelers.

That would be one hell of trick:

KIRK: Then we can leave any time we want to. Tracey is of the opinion these immunising agents can become a fountain of youth. There are people here over a thousand years old, Bones.

Well, if Tracey's understanding of the Year of the Red Bird is to be believed, then yes. In my own fanon, the inhabitants are no more than, say, three hundred earth-years in age.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Well, if Tracey's understanding of the Year of the Red Bird is to be believed, then yes. In my own fanon, the inhabitants are no more than, say, three hundred earth-years in age.

The planet isn't Earth, and could have a sidereal year of say .188 of that of Earth, and explain it that ways, too.

Like I said up thread, Preservers are the easiest answer to this conundrum.

 

[jayrath]

See the Shatnerverse novels for (IMHO) a very clever explanation of the duplicate earth.

As for the strangeness of early episodes, remember that it was just a jump or two up from being an anthology program. The stories were framed by a familiar family of actors, and reusable ship sets, but it was still very much "Wagon Train."

 

[Gary7]

Omega Glory's planet was inhabited by the descendants of earlier Cold War space travelers.

That would be one hell of trick:

KIRK: Then we can leave any time we want to. Tracey is of the opinion these immunising agents can become a fountain of youth. There are people here over a thousand years old, Bones.

I could be that they were the "First People", as theorized on Fringe.

 

[Ronald Held]

Maybe for those duplicate Earths, the Preservers did the work to terraform the planets?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Everything in Star Trek is unlikely and a lot of it is almost certainly nonsense. So what one buys into and what seems implausible is largely personal inclination and to some extent it's a matter of the passage of time.

Aside from the economies of doing such a show, a big part of what probably appealed to the writer and producer was just the premise that since the universe is supposed to be infinite, then almost anything might exist in it - including doubles of planets. That even if this is true it's vanishingly unlikely that the inhabitants of a given world would happen to run across their planet's doppleganger just didn't occur to them.

 

[Mistral]

See the Shatnerverse novels for (IMHO) a very clever explanation of the duplicate earth.

What is that explanation?

I rather like how our own Nerys Ghemor explains it in her VERY excellent Star Trek: Sigils and Unions fanfic. She suggests this:

Spoiler: explanation

Miri's planet, Magna Roma and Omega IV are all actual parallel universe versions of Earth itself. Kirk and crew encountered them because of instability in the barriers between universes, which the Enterprise temporarily slipped through.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

Yup

 

[scotpens]

. . . As for the strangeness of early episodes, remember that it was just a jump or two up from being an anthology program. The stories were framed by a familiar family of actors, and reusable ship sets, but it was still very much "Wagon Train."

As someone who grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, I don’t find that semi-anthology format strange at all. It was the norm for prime-time TV series then. Serialized stories, multiple plot threads and continuing story arcs stretching over several episodes or an entire season didn’t really take off until the 1980s or ’90s.

Maybe for those duplicate Earths, the Preservers did the work to terraform the planets?

Terraforming is one thing. But transforming those planets to have identical land masses to those of the Earth would require nothing less than god-like powers. And what would be the purpose? Did they think Earth’s pattern of oceans and continents looked pretty?

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Terraforming is one thing. But transforming those planets to have identical land masses to those of the Earth would require nothing less than god-like powers. And what would be the purpose? Did they think Earth’s pattern of oceans and continents looked pretty?

Actually, I pretty much see them as being pretty darn close to being that powerful, yes.

As far as it being a completely exact duplicate, it's not. There are some subtle differences, and it's missing clouds altogether.

And yeah, maybe they thought it looked pretty or that it served their purposes.

But the Preservers can be used to explain a lot. And if you don't like that explanation, go with the aforementioned Earths from alternate universes. I could buy one instance of that (Miri's Planet), but certainly not many others (892-IV, Omega IV, etc.).

 

[scotpens]

. . . As far as it being a completely exact duplicate, it's not. There are some subtle differences, and it's missing clouds altogether.

The first photos of Earth as seen from space were taken by the crew of Apollo 8 in December of 1968. Before then, every image of the Earth in science-fiction movies and television got it wrong. They always had the continents clearly visible, like a school globe, with a few wispy clouds or no cloud cover at all.

 

[SchwEnt]

About the EXACT duplicate of Earth...
It can't be a coincidence, some strange parallel development of Class M planets or whatever. Gotta be by design.

And I suppose it's possible.
Later on, we do see the Genesis Device that can literally make a planet. And that's within Federation capabilities.

What other civilizations might go beyond Genesis Device capabilities to not only make a planet, but make one according to specifications (ie another Earth)?

If you can accept the Genesis Device can make a planet, how hard is it to accept Genesis making a planet according to design? Would it be that much harder, especially for unknown advanced alien tech? What the hell, right?

Miri's Planet has gotta be some weird alien experiment at custom-making a planet. It's too precise.

Or interdimensional parallel quantum mirror reality universe works, too.

 

[scotpens]

Later on, we do see the Genesis Device that can literally make a planet. And that's within Federation capabilities.

Do you mean literally literally or figuratively literally? The Genesis Device was capable of rapidly turning a lifeless planet into a Class M world, with environmental conditions like those of Earth. But they needed a planet to start with -- the device couldn’t create a planet out of nothing.

Miri's Planet has gotta be some weird alien experiment at custom-making a planet. It's too precise.

Or interdimensional parallel quantum mirror reality universe works, too.

Yeah, either of those.

 

[SchwEnt]

^^^ Well literally literally, I guess.

Sure Genesis was intended to transform an existing planet, but didn't it end up making one in (or using) the Mutara Nebula?

 

[Silvercrest]

Maybe for those duplicate Earths, the Preservers did the work to terraform the planets?

Terraforming is one thing. But transforming those planets to have identical land masses to those of the Earth would require nothing less than god-like powers. And what would be the purpose? Did they think Earth’s pattern of oceans and continents looked pretty?

The Magratheans could do it. Maybe Slartibartfast had a thing for fjords again.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, if Tracey's understanding of the Year of the Red Bird is to be believed, then yes. In my own fanon, the inhabitants are no more than, say, three hundred earth-years in age.

The planet isn't Earth, and could have a sidereal year of say .188 of that of Earth, and explain it that ways, too.

Like I said up thread, Preservers are the easiest answer to this conundrum.

Doesn't seem to match the Preserver's MO. They seemed to like "endangered cultures" and aren't into terraforming. Both Miri and Omega seem to branch off from the 1960s. Earth I think we'd notice if a large population of humans disapeared back then.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Later on, we do see the Genesis Device that can literally make a planet. And that's within Federation capabilities.

Do you mean literally literally or figuratively literally? The Genesis Device was capable of rapidly turning a lifeless planet into a Class M world, with environmental conditions like those of Earth. But they needed a planet to start with -- the device couldn’t create a planet out of nothing.

The Genesis device turned nebular gas into a planet and a star at the climax of TWOK. Gas ain't "nothing" but it's also not a planet.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Doesn't seem to match the Preserver's MO. They seemed to like "endangered cultures" and aren't into terraforming. Both Miri and Omega seem to branch off from the 1960s. Earth I think we'd notice if a large population of humans disapeared back then.

Don't think we know about the Preservers enough to say one way or another. And it didn't necessarily have to be the 1960's.

For Miri's Planet, it could've been any time since, say, the Enlightenment, and they progressed into a society like ours. There are incidents like Roanoke where people disappear. (In fact, wasn't this sort of a VOY episode with Amelia Earhart?)

For the Yangs and Kohms, that planet doesn't even look like Earth, and you could postulate that there were post-1776 Yankees put on one side of a continent and the Chinese of any era on the other side. Eventually, those two societies collide.

The point I'm making is that there's plenty of explanations that can be contrived to explain it all away. It's what fans do, often better than the powers that be.

The main thing is to sit back, relax, and I for one enjoy William Shatner's dramatic reading. Not sure I can say the same about "bonk bonk on the heads, bad kids"