Yeah JMS talked about this with B5, and basically he said that if you want human emotion, you gotta have recognizable human features. I think it was in response to why he decided to write this glorious mfer off the show, since, he couldn’t really sell any dramatic scene with a giant bug.
Farscape is the high mater mark for inhuman characters, but they took the tract of making sure each one had eyes, a mouth, and all the standard things we read for human emotion:
When I was a kid, my favorite Star Trek alien was the crystal that called humans “ugly bags of mostly water.” I’d thought that was from the original series but I looked it up just now and I guess it was from TNG.
“They’re made out of meat.”
“Meat?”
“Meat. They’re made out of meat.”
“Meat?”
“There’s no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They’re completely meat.”
“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars.”
“They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don’t come from them. The signals come from machines.”
“So who made the machines? That’s who we want to contact.”
“They made the machines. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.”
“That’s ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You’re asking me to believe in sentient meat.”
“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they’re made out of meat.”
“Maybe they’re like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.”
“Nope. They’re born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn’t take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?”
“Spare me. Okay, maybe they’re only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.”
“Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They’re meat all the way through.”
“No brain?”
“Oh, there is a brain all right. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat!”
“So… what does the thinking?”
“You’re not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat.”
“Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”
“Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?”
“Omigod. You’re serious then. They’re made out of meat.”
“Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they’ve been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.”
“So what does the meat have in mind.”
“First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual.”
“We’re supposed to talk to meat?”
“That’s the idea. That’s the message they’re sending out by radio. ‘Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?’ That sort of thing.”
“They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?”
“Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat.”
“I thought you just told me they used radio.”
“They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.”
“Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?”
“Officially or unofficially?”
“Both.”
“Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.”
“I was hoping you would say that.”
“It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?”
“I agree one hundred percent. What’s there to say?” `Hello, meat. How’s it going?’ But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
“Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can’t live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact.”
“So we just pretend there’s no one home in the universe.”
“That’s it.”
“Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You’re sure they won’t remember?”
“They’ll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we’re just a dream to them.”
“A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat’s dream.”
“And we can marked this sector unoccupied.”
“Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?”
“Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotation ago, wants to be friendly again.”
“They always come around.”
“And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone.”
i read this story in middle school and i was just thinking aobut it, like, yesterday. it’s a goodun
the stuff with Dr. M’Benga’s Fight Juice was incredibly corny but SNW is still a lot of solid fun. I wondered what kind of energy Carol Kane was gonna bring to the ensemble and it is even weirder than I expected. The Lanthanites are an interesting idea although it is funny that pre First Contact Earth keeps getting more and more crowded with aliens.
Carol Kane’s character is deranged and I think my only concern with her is that when she talks it takes fucking forever for her to complete her scene, while other characters just sorta stare at her and nod.
This was a fun ep overall. Interesting detail that Ortegas was in the klingon war? Since she talked about being used to hiding from klingon ships. I guess she wasn’t part of the original 5 year mission.
Glad La’an’s back.
weren’t they all in the klingon war since it took place during discovery? or did i misunderstand your phrasing?
Well when Enterprise showed up during S2 of Discovery, Pike was mad at Cornwell for her having the Enterprise sit out the Klingon war. She responded that they’d sent “the best of us” out there to avoid losing Enterprise.
I guess now that I think about it, that explains why the crew were different in Disco then in SWN. Only Spock, Pike, and Una had remained between that 5-year mission, and the SWN one.
Stealing the Enterprise is always fun and I’m glad Kirk made zero appearances
Looking forward to a completely mad goblin chief of engineering though yeah I agree about how overlong the scenes are where it’s just the camera straight at her while she slowly gets through her lines and then a cut away to a raised eyebrow or whatever
This weeks SNW was a very well made classic trial episode where they just sit down and hash out a sci-fi idea in an allegorical way just some straight Trek-ass Trek. And it’s neat to see genetic modification in this franchise examined in a deeper way than “it makes you a sexy genius” or “it makes you autistic”. Plus i feel like this is the first time they specify “permanent genetic modification” which does do a lot of continuity cleanup. Anyway it would be okay if they didn’t actually dig into the weird eugenics cult aliens any further. everything about this issue is bizarre in this franchise (the federation literally does not allow race mixing on a legal level? is la’an being part augment (and how much?) supposed to be a secret despite her name being Bdolf Hitler? are any of the creepy discovery writers from that scene where Michael starts listing all the racial traits of the fed aliens still around?)
“when they didn’t know, they didn’t care” and “some of us refuse to [hide]” – are they doing x-men now? if you slingshot around the sun just right you can do civil rights allegory for eugenicists
the episode is perfectly constructed and i really like the defense attorney but
my eyebrows are up here with mixing allegories for don’t ask don’t tell, “her… status,” and racial/cultural/reglious practice re: eugenics. the status thing makes me wonder if they’re aware?
then the asylum law procedural reversal annoyed me at the end
haven’t been on a rollercoaster like this since discovery was last on
aww that really sucks. it’s not just cancelled it’s fuckin TAX cancelled. would be nice if nickelodeon could at least make a finale movie
Something is fucked up about my paramount plus sub where it’s canceled and they haven’t been billing me but it still acts like I have a sub and I can watch whatever at 4k with no ads
Seems like maybe they should fix the absolute basics of billing before shoveling brand new shows into the memory hole but what do I know about business
same here lol it rocks
i think it might be they allowlist apple purchases but don’t have the removal set up right when you cancel through an apple account
“Farscape is the high mater mark for inhuman characters, but they took the tract of making sure each one had eyes, a mouth, and all the standard things we read for human emotion:”
Cowardice. Like just do some writing. Maybe its because I’m on the spectrum, but faces aren’t that important.
Technically not every major alien character had face parts, the living ship and her son are both distinct, well written characters even with the constraints that they can’t speak directly (and they have no faces at all ofc)
