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Mycelial mire: Tech in Trek

NewHeavensNewEarth

NewHeavensNewEarth

Commodore
Commodore
Discovery is doing its best to introduce new tech and new concepts in a time period seen by most people as "the past" with regards to most of their favorite series (TOS, TNG, etc.). It's a tricky dance, without a doubt, but it touches on something that I think is one of Star Trek's greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses.

Every time I ask someone, "Star Trek or Star Wars?" the roots of their answers are almost always similar in the following ways: People who pick Trek says it's appealing because it's easier to bridge today's world and today's technology with what they see in ST, making it more realistic and easier to connect with. Star Wars, on the other hand, (in a galaxy far far away) is more for folks who lean towards fantasy with none of the technobabble, unless you're really into midichlorians (if that even qualifies).

But the chronology of Star Trek seems to turn into a straightjacket where introducing new concepts and ideas like the mycelial network is met largely with ridicule and disdain, in light of the wider canon of what's been established.

With just a few exceptions, from TOS to Voyager, very few NEW concepts or NEW tech were introduced. Just stronger phasers, stronger torpedoes, faster warp drive, more complex robots/androids, sassier holograms. In some regards, this continuity is familiar and comforting. But if Star Trek actually wants to expand and inspire in the way that TOS really inspired many of today's scientists (and culture at-large), I think it might have to finally leap past 2400 in the timeline in whatever series comes next in order to break out fully from that straightjacket.

Picard's new series will push the chronology, but will it push the bounds of our imagination the way that TOS did? Discovery is doing its very best to do so within the confines of the chronological sardine can, but I would love to see more, especially with none of the backlash of the hardcore chronologists.

With that in-mind, here are some of Q's last words to Picard at the end of TNG: "That is the exploration that awaits you; not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence." Bring it.
 
BillJ said:
I just treat Discovery as a reboot. Problem solved.
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This. I'm all for shaking things up in a prequel and defying expectations, but they built two entire series' around the premise of distance in space, which Disco renders completely moot 120 years before.

This is a pseudo-prequel reboot that puts all of Trek tech from TNG/DS9/VOY into the pre-TOS era (last episode we saw the "poor man's holodeck" from VOY: "Equinox"), and rewrites Spock's backstory by giving him a human sister. Yes, some may like to play mental gymnastics and pretend everything fits perfectly but I don't see the need - and neither do the producers and designers that keep adding more and more cool and imaginative technology to the show.
 
I'm not quite seeing the "problem" part here. I mean, if failure of an introduced cool technology or phenomenon to see further use is a problem, then we have tackled it one way or another already, back when TOS featured this problem between its individual episodes.

Timo Saloniemi
 
If you want to convince laypeople that Trek is more grounded and connected to today, I'm skeptical that the way to do that is by building your show around concepts like a space fungus that ties together all life in the universe and lets you instantly jump from place to place with the help of an inexplicably giant version of a microscopic Earth creature. That might as well be Star Trek's midichlorians.

Part of the appeal you identiifed, IMO, is that the show's never really tried to be that far out. Most everything is easily recognizable: The Enterprise is a ship, dilithium crystals are coal, phasers are guns. Oher than the necessary plot convenience of transporters, Trek tech tends to be fancier versions of what people already know or can easily imagine, not cutting-edge extrapolations of tomorrow or highbrow science concepts.

TBH, I think people worry too much about making Trek seem futuristic. I can't imagine it matters one whit to a non-diehard whether Trek characters talk to each other with viewscreens or holograms. It's only long-term fans who need endless novelty to make it seem more futuristic.

Personally, I'm not all that interested in having my imagination challenged by made-up technobabble. I don't watch for grand visions of the future but for what the show has to say about us, today.
 
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While I agree with you in general about the difference between people who like Star Wars vs. Star Trek, it's important to note Star Wars is actually much, much more conservative as a franchise than Trek is. Part of that is because the setting is a largely technologically stagnant culture, and part of that is because the movies themselves span only about three generations. But Star Wars has never retconned anything. The Millennium Falcon looks almost exactly identical from the first time we see it in ANH to what it looks like in Solo.

I do think it's true however that Trek being established in the mid 1960s means a lot of aspects of the show seem anachronistic to us today. For example, Starfleet vessels are way, way less automated than we would expect given a logical progression of modern technology. Super-intelligent AI is rare. Nothing resembling a futuristic internet seems to exist. People still age and die, just like today (even if they have slightly longer lives). Other aspects of the show - like the existence of psychic powers and basically all humanoid races being able to interbreed - likely would never have happened if not for the time period the show was established, and the conventions of SF at the time (John W. Campbell was an important early Sci-fi publisher and had a strange interest in ESP - nowadays if you put those sort of things in a sci-fi book people will call it slipstream science-fantasy). This is part of what gives Trek its own flavor - a sort of genre of itself. If you were designing a 21st century space adventure show from the ground up today it would look very, very different.
 
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Jadeb said:
Personally, I'm not all that interested in having my imagination challenged by made-up technobabble. I don't watch for grand visions of the future but for what the show has to say about us, today.
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But I think that was part of the magic/appeal of TOS. It walked that line of taking people where they'd never gone before, while also addressing social issues like racial strife. It evoked awe, marvel and also made people take a hard look at society at the time. Inventors of certain medical gadgets, for example, credit Star Trek with inspiration for some of their creations that are based on things like tricorders.

When you consider the advancements made just from 1919 to 2019 (or 1819 to 2019 if you want to get really crazy), it really does seem like each ST series is stuck in a time capsule where the improvements are mainly cosmetic. That's part of why Voyager really frustrated me. It was supposedly a prototype new version of starship, but the only "new" things about it were warp engines that tilt, bio-neural gel packs that were completely irrelevant, and a holographic doctor who was basically an import of the "Data" concept of an artificial lifeform going through self-actualization, sentience, legal rights, etc. And Voyager ended up in a remote part of the galaxy where...drum roll, please...all the species could've easily been Alpha Quadrant species in terms of similarities. The Kazon were the biggest threat, but somehow the Borg were no match for Voyager.

These are all reasons that I love Discovery so far. Not just for the tech, but also the "otherness" of it. Technology aside, the 2 things I've been begging for are:
1) make space dangerous again, and a true adventure
2) make aliens to be truly ALIEN again, with cultures that are truly alien to us and require us to stretch our brains

Up til now, it's been easy to sum up each alien race in a single breath. Klingons are grumpy and like to fight. Romulans are cunning. Vulcans are serious. Ferengi are greedy. The Borg are concise and like to assimilate. The Q are basically all-powerful humans without being humans.

Q said over & over that humanity had so much potential, but all that ever added up to was Picard realizing a paradox - which was actually all thanks to Data - and Wesley going off with the Traveler after halting time. That's it. So in a broader way, I'm begging that sci-fi in general go back to LEADING the way in expanding our horizons with regards to technology, culture, and the human experience, rather than playing follow-the-leader and making cosmetic changes to things that are no longer alien or innovative. I think Discovery is off to a good start with that, and if it does amount to imaginative reboots across the board (for TOS, TNG, etc.), we have some thrilling viewing to look forward to.
 
Definitely! I apologize for picking on Voyager so much, but their 1 big attempt at creating a truly "alien" species - namely, Species 8472 - went in total reverse when that species took on human form (to infiltrate Starfleet), and then what did we discover? They were EXACTLY like us, and Chakotay even struck up a relationship with one of them. Yes, they were still alien in form and fluidic space, but they totally ditched the "otherness" in favor of being yet another mirror image of us.

I think the broader mission of showing different species working out their differences is a noble one, but it doesn't require having species that mirror us in our values, outlooks, ambitions, etc. Part of the power of it is in maintaining big differences, and still finding a way to co-exist. And going back to the topic of the social relevance of Star Trek, I think that's unbelievably important and relevant for today's society.
 
Star Trek is about different kinds of people, even people of different species, working together in harmony and showing how their diversity is their greatest strength. It’s something we still need as a society, especially the US where it is made. The tech and setting is just a function of the story, it isn’t the point of the show.
 
Awesome Possum said:
Star Trek is about different kinds of people, even people of different species, working together in harmony and showing how their diversity is their greatest strength. It’s something we still need as a society, especially the US where it is made. The tech and setting is just a function of the story, it isn’t the point of the show.
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That sums up my point very well, except that I think we can have it both ways - the multicultural message along with pushing the frontiers in other arenas, just like how TOS did. Even picking up a science journal can give a writer ideas, and none of it has to overshadow the complex interplay between characters. Rather, it can enhance them and avoid simply rehashing old plotlines.

I was very nervous about Mudd's time loop episode being a metaphorical time loop for old plotlines getting rehashed, but it turned out to be a fresh take on the idea (or fresh enough, anyway). The tech side of it didn't overshadow the interplay between Michael & Ash. Instead it enhanced it in an impactful way. I think all tech - in that kind of balance - can accomplish something similar that enhances the entire series.
 
NewHeavensNewEarth said:
That sums up my point very well, except that I think we can have it both ways - the multicultural message along with pushing the frontiers in other arenas, just like how TOS did. Even picking up a science journal can give a writer ideas, and none of it has to overshadow the complex interplay between characters. Rather, it can enhance them and avoid simply rehashing old plotlines.

I was very nervous about Mudd's time loop episode being a metaphorical time loop for old plotlines getting rehashed, but it turned out to be a fresh take on the idea (or fresh enough, anyway). The tech side of it didn't overshadow the interplay between Michael & Ash. Instead it enhanced it in an impactful way. I think all tech - in that kind of balance - can accomplish something similar that enhances the entire series.
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I think the spore network is a perfect example of how to blend science with a emotional story. The science is based on actual research done by a scientist named Paul Stamets, just taken to an extreme. But it was really about Paul pushing himself and conflicting with his husband who had to care for him medically. It also allowed him to grow from a man obsessed with his work to the point where he was neglecting Hugh to a man who could finally appreciate life and those around him. He’s even at peace with it being mothballed because he did very great things with it, but there is more to life. Just look at his interactions with Tilly at the beginning and now.
 
I think we're seeing eye-to-eye. :) New tech and new concepts, in a balanced way, take Star Trek from being more than a space drama, and revitalize the series for a new generation. Character development is always paramount, but it can all work together in a beautiful way. It can capture people's imaginations once again.
 
As long as the most important element of Trek is there, the love instructors, then all is good.
 
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