rhondajo
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Post by rhondajo on Nov 10, 2007 9:32:06 GMT -6
*slides into class, out of breath* whew, I ran all the way back. I just got finished checking the tos library for signs of xindi inhabitants, to no avail. So, let's start with the 2nd episode of the 2nd season, "who mourns for adonais" (I liked the first episode a ton, but I have nothing to add about it) This episode, has many points for consideration. For instance, I find it fascinating that the episode tells us that this planet was filled with more god like beings but they died of loneliness. This leaves Apollo, a snappy dresser with knees made for a mini dress (just kidding, but not really) First of all, lets discuss his ability to , as the library put it, use energy from sources outside of himself. How do you suppose this came about? Also, do you have any interesting ideas about this now extinct culture of god like creatures? What was your favorite ability? If I had these types of abilities, I would have to walk around like a 500 foot woman, I admit.Maybe onced or twice I would zap tree branches with lightening or bust up cliffs with thunder. You know All the fun stuff.
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Baggy52
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Post by Baggy52 on Nov 10, 2007 14:36:04 GMT -6
Hold on I'm going back in time for a chat with a Mister Flaux... *presses button on watch* *green transport ensues*
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 13, 2007 9:14:28 GMT -6
I don't think he really added mass to himself. It seems that he had the ability to expand the substance of his body, and thus appear larger, but it obviously took a lot out of him to do that. But this was one of my favorite episodes, too, because I've always been interested in the Greek gods. I think the end of that episode was incredibly sad. "Would it have hurt us just to gather a few laurel leaves?"
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rhondajo
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Post by rhondajo on Nov 13, 2007 13:33:18 GMT -6
I agree. That line was poignant
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rhondajo
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Post by rhondajo on Nov 13, 2007 13:35:02 GMT -6
What you said about the mass reminds me of a book I read about Odo. they theorized that since he could make himself fly and it didn't make sense that his mass would change, that maybe he pushed some of himself into a 4th dimension. Weird
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 14, 2007 8:41:46 GMT -6
From what I've seen of Changelings, they seem to defy the rules. As for Apollo, and that extra organ inside his "gorgeous" chest, it could be that his species represents the first stage in evolving into a true energy being (like the Organians). The fact that 5,000 years ago they had physical bodies and when Kirk found them they still hadn't progressed beyond that stage kind of shows you how very slow evolution works!
That aside, it's often interesting to speculate that characters in mythology might be based on real people. The movie "The 13th Warrior", for example, is a retelling the story of Beowulf, speculating that the "Wendol" were a tribe of remnant Neanderthals, their attacks being so savage they were later exaggerated into having supernatural powers.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 14, 2007 8:42:16 GMT -6
[Another interesting thing about "Who Mourns for Adonais?" -- if you've ever read the adaptations that James Blish wrote back in the 60s and 70s, he ends this episode by having Dr. McCoy appear on the bridge and announce to Kirk and Spock that Carolyn Palamas was pregnant! Since he supposedly worked from the original shooting scripts, the presumption is that the episode originally ended that way, but the scene was cut.]
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 19, 2007 8:50:41 GMT -6
So, does anyone have anything else about "Who Mourns for Adonais?"
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 20, 2007 8:49:58 GMT -6
Moving along, then -- The only weird alien life I remember from "The Apple" are those strange plants that threw poisonous thorns. Certainly there are such things as carnivorous plants, and it's not too far-fetched to imagine a plant able to somehow detect the presence of a large, moving animal. But what would be the point in firing off poisonous quills? How could it consume an animal so much larger than itself? The poison was a very quick-acting neurotoxin, ensuring that the victim would immediately drop dead. As the animal decomposed, it would then fertilize the soil immediately around the plant. The problem is that there is always the chance that an animal partially resistant to the toxin might damage the plant in its death throes. It might also attract scavengers, which by their very nature would be faster, lower to the ground and harder for the plant to target with its thorns. I wonder how long it takes the plant to replace those poison barbs?
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Baggy52
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Post by Baggy52 on Nov 20, 2007 15:04:06 GMT -6
It is possible, although not discussed, that these barbs are actually the plants reproductive system, the barbs would plant into the ground and the body of the victim would provide much needed nutrients to the growing plant. Although that is just a theory.
[Turns out Xindi study is rather limited as they prefer NOT to be dissected, and examanied. Who would've guessed?]
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 21, 2007 12:00:39 GMT -6
That's a thought! You mean the seeds are in the thorns and germinate inside the dead body? There are definitely things just as weird to be found in nature.
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Baggy52
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Post by Baggy52 on Nov 22, 2007 10:07:06 GMT -6
I was thinking that the barbs were like seed pods, much like fruit is designed to help nourish the growing seeds, I think that the "poison" might actually be enzymes that after killing the animal break down the organic tissue into compunds that the growing plant can use. Another posibility is that the barbs are there to kill anything that would harm seeds on the plant.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Nov 27, 2007 8:26:37 GMT -6
Then again, we're talking about a planet where Vaal had been strictly controlling the weather for who knows how many generations, and we don't really know to what extent the ecosystem in general was under his control. Is it possible these plants weren't really naturally-occuring plants at all, but some sort of genetically engineered security system? But that would only be necessary if there were some kind of dangerous predator around that the people of Vaal needed to be protected from.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Dec 10, 2007 9:19:59 GMT -6
In "Catspaw", Sylvia and Korob were odd little creatures, who apparently came from another galaxy, or perhaps a whole different dimension. I vote for the latter, since once that crystal was destroyed, they seemed to die and their bodies rapidly evaporated.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jan 7, 2008 8:53:44 GMT -6
Next on the list is "Metamorphosis", and the gaseous entity which Zefram Cochrane called the Companion. This has to be one of the most interesting creatures we've ever met, and it truely is a shame that Spock wasn't able to ask it more about its nature and its history. Its natural state was a cloud of ionized hydrogen, but organized in such a way that it was capable of sentient thought. It was able (probably after a number of years of trial and error) to match its electrical impulses with those of Zefram Cochrane, enough that the two of them could share their thoughts.
Now, this is interesting. Love as we humanoids know it is largely produced by biochemical processes, governed by our endocrine glands and triggered of course by associations in the brain. The Companion apparently did not have glands, but it did have a neurological system, and communing with Cochrane triggered her romantic associations, so that she fell in love with him. It's only natural, of course, that Cochrane didn't feel the same way about her until she inhabitted the body of Commissioner Hedford (because a gaseous cloud, however attractive, could not be expected to trigger a similar response in a human male's endocrine glands). He was probably reacting as much to Nancy Hedford's female body as to his purely emotional relationship with the Companion.
The Companion must have once belonged to an entire race of such creatures. Since no others have been discovered since, I suppose it is only reasonable to assume that they are now extinct.
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