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Post by andrewlee on Mar 28, 2010 14:56:53 GMT -6
This is one of my favorite episodes about a mining colony and a silicon base creature that killed because the miners unknowingly killed many of it's eggs. Spock was fascinated by the creature's eggs which were called silicon nodules. It was funny when Kirk ordered McCoy to treat the injured creature...Horta. Dr McCoy had some cement like stuff used to build shelters and when asked why he needed it, he said "Never mind why I want it! I just want it!". In the end there was peace between the minors and the Horta. Her young helped the minors.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Apr 16, 2010 7:50:21 GMT -6
"Captain, the odds against you and I both being killed are 2,226.7 to one."
Yes, this episode is on my top ten favorites list. Nobody had ever encountered silicon based life before, and all the miners knew was that something was wrecking machinery and killing people!
The only thing that still puzzles me is how the Horta was able to recognize what a perfusion pump was for. Obviously they don't have such technology themselves, or the colonists would have detected the power output.
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Post by Atoz 77 on Apr 26, 2010 7:47:33 GMT -6
Luke reminds me that it was 2,228.7 to one. What would I do without him to back stop me?
You have to wonder about how the underground ecology works. I mean, on Earth, the energy for life ultimately comes from the sun. Plants convert sunlight into food by photosynthesis, animals eat the plants, the plants eventually die and fertilize the soil for a new generation of plants, and so on. Under the ground, it wouldn't work like that at all. The Horta might get minerals from digesting rocks, but where does the energy come from?
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Luke
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Post by Luke on May 25, 2010 11:38:28 GMT -6
I liked the part where Scotty is trying to keep the reactor going in spite ofmissing the perfusian pump. And Kirk says "kiss it, baby it, flatter it if you have to, but keep it running." Bioenergy would have to be geothermal underground wouldnt it? do you picture the Horta as like grazers or more like predators?
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Post by Atoz 77 on May 28, 2010 7:37:50 GMT -6
That's a good question. Typically grazing animals aren't that intelligent. I'd see the Horta as the silicon equivalent of a dolphin, personally.
But geothermal sounds about right. There are probably crystalline organisms deeper in the crust that convert it into a form the Horta can use. And when you think about it, Spock said the planet had no current geological activity. Could that have something to do with the Horta's life cycle?
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Post by Luke on Jun 2, 2010 10:33:24 GMT -6
Grazing animals arent intelligent, sir? What about pigs?
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Post by andrewlee on Jun 2, 2010 16:02:27 GMT -6
Pigs can be intelligent!
As for the planet not being geologically active, doesn't mean the interior is cold, but could still be warm!
I like the comparison of the Horta as the silicon equivalent of the dolphin!!
On a hot lava planet, a silicon based life form could move around without the acid the Horta had to used to get through the solid rock!
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jun 3, 2010 7:45:32 GMT -6
Exactly. Pigs are intelligent (I think Tellarites evolved from pig-like mammals), but then pigs aren't grazing animals either. They are omnivores. Of the top of my head, I can't think of any Federation race that looks like it evolved from a grazing animal.
You're right about geological activity, too. The core would still be molten. I was suggesting that it goes through periodic stages where the magma activity in the mantle falls back slightly, so that the silicon organisms that depend on it die off. This in turn causes a die off of the Horta population. They lay their eggs and die (which for a silicon organism probably means just turning into inert stone) except for a few individuals, who watch the eggs.
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Post by Luke on Jun 9, 2010 10:24:08 GMT -6
Or maybe the other way aorund.When activity slacks off that's when the eggs start hatiching.
another thing I noticed watching the episode the other day. THe Horta had killed nearly fifty people. Its hard to imagine Vandenberg waiting a whole month before calling for help from Starfleet so were talking at least a person a day. But when theEnterprise arrived the last person had been killed five days ago. What happened?
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Post by andrewlee on Jun 9, 2010 10:41:25 GMT -6
Or maybe the other way aorund.When activity slacks off that's when the eggs start hatiching. another thing I noticed watching the episode the other day. THe Horta had killed nearly fifty people. Its hard to imagine Vandenberg waiting a whole month before calling for help from Starfleet so were talking at least a person a day. But when theEnterprise arrived the last person had been killed five days ago. What happened? It could be that the miners thought they could deal with the situation without help. They may have had some problems with their sub-space communications. They could just have been negligent in contacting Star Fleet about the deaths of the miners.
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jun 11, 2010 7:51:38 GMT -6
Or maybe the other way aorund.When activity slacks off that's when the eggs start hatiching. That makes sense. You're saying that increased geological activity causes the Horta to die off. Then when it goes back to normal (like now), the eggs hatch. I have to admit that every 10,000 years sounds like an astronomical phenomenon, like maybe tidal stresses of another planetary body. The mining station had been there 50 years, and Vandenberg agreed that there was no "current" geological activity. Which it means it might have been starting to return to normal when they got there.
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jun 11, 2010 7:53:24 GMT -6
It could be that the miners thought they could deal with the situation without help. They may have had some problems with their sub-space communications. They could just have been negligent in contacting Star Fleet about the deaths of the miners. Negligence doesn't sound like a good excuse for losing 50 people. I expect that Vandenberg didn't like the idea of calling for help, especially from Starfleet. Remember Ed Appel's attitude?
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Post by andrewlee on Jun 11, 2010 9:43:36 GMT -6
It could be that the miners thought they could deal with the situation without help. They may have had some problems with their sub-space communications. They could just have been negligent in contacting Star Fleet about the deaths of the miners. Negligence doesn't sound like a good excuse for losing 50 people. I expect that Vandenberg didn't like the idea of calling for help, especially from Starfleet. Remember Ed Appel's attitude? Negligence is indeed a very lousy attitude to have for not calling for help sooner, especially when lives are at risk!!!
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Post by Luke on Jun 16, 2010 10:39:01 GMT -6
Ed Appel had a chip on his shoulder for sure. But what I'm saying is the HOrta was apparently killing people right and left but then stopped. Vandenberg told Kirk the last death had been five days ago.
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jun 18, 2010 7:46:16 GMT -6
I get what you mean now. The Horta had killed Schmitter in the opening of the episode, and when the Enterprise arrived, Vandenberg said that the last death had been five days earlier. It sounds as if she stopped to re-think her strategy, doesn't it? Obviously just wrecking machinery and killing the occasional person wasn't doing it. Maybe she was scouting around the reactor, trying to figure out which part of it was most vital.
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