Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Discussion – Valles Marineris
Pike leads the crew into a stellar storm, sending the Enterprise back 65 million years.
3 replies on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Discussion – Valles Marineris”
I mostly enjoyed it. The “surprises” were easy to predict, though. Spoiler: if the Federation didn’t realize that Mars was home to an advanced civilization in the past, wouldn’t the Martian tech need to be biodegradable? I see no other way to get there.
Yeah, there are some sizable holes but it’s about the circular nature of time that you’re supposed to be paying attention to.
I did like how they dropped a hint with the Iridium right from the start. Earth has an “Iridium Layer” from the meteor impact that killed off the dinosaurs (fallout around the planet). Geologists use it as a date marker when digging. Earth’s crust is notoriously lacking the mineral.
Also, the story is basically “The City on the Edge of Forever” scaled up. If you’re going to copy a Trek episode, why not go with one of the best.
It was fun enough, but the A plot and B plot really required timelines that were at least an order of magnitude different (the former requiring significantly longer timescales to come to fruition), even with the handwavium of changed orbits. But then we wouldn’t have had the reaction to La’an’s punch, so…
The nod to “Doctor Who”, which also had a similar timeline outcome from an episode, was a nice touch though, and I’m in two minds as to whether they were trying to give a nod to Ray Bradbury’s short “A Sound of Thunder” as well or not.
I mostly enjoyed it. The “surprises” were easy to predict, though. Spoiler: if the Federation didn’t realize that Mars was home to an advanced civilization in the past, wouldn’t the Martian tech need to be biodegradable? I see no other way to get there.
Yeah, there are some sizable holes but it’s about the circular nature of time that you’re supposed to be paying attention to.
I did like how they dropped a hint with the Iridium right from the start. Earth has an “Iridium Layer” from the meteor impact that killed off the dinosaurs (fallout around the planet). Geologists use it as a date marker when digging. Earth’s crust is notoriously lacking the mineral.
Also, the story is basically “The City on the Edge of Forever” scaled up. If you’re going to copy a Trek episode, why not go with one of the best.
It was fun enough, but the A plot and B plot really required timelines that were at least an order of magnitude different (the former requiring significantly longer timescales to come to fruition), even with the handwavium of changed orbits. But then we wouldn’t have had the reaction to La’an’s punch, so…
The nod to “Doctor Who”, which also had a similar timeline outcome from an episode, was a nice touch though, and I’m in two minds as to whether they were trying to give a nod to Ray Bradbury’s short “A Sound of Thunder” as well or not.