Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 3 Viewing (Spoilers)

[Ruin Explorer]

Why, when Spock looked at the orb that floated up, did he see the same little monster screeching at him that he saw when he mind-melded with Batel? In the latter instance, was he seeing Batel's Gorn DNA's embedded genetic memory of the Vezda, or are the Vezda in the orbs perhaps proto-Gorn? Are the Vezda and the Gorn related somehow? Could the Gorn be, say, genetically engineered versions of the Vezda designed to hunt and exterminate them? Or were the Gorn originally designed as host bodies for the Vezda "spirits"?

Yeah I had similar questions - i.e. is this a generic "space monster" or is this intentionally very similar to what he saw in the mind-meld?

I personally doubt they're related or that the Gorn are genetically engineered (they're too instinctual) but I could be wrong. I'm also not entirely convinced Pelia doesn't know more about them than she's telling. She's very smart, and plays her cards very close to her chest, so could easily be double-bluffing with the theatrical speech re: evil.

 

[pukunui]

I personally doubt they're related or that the Gorn are genetically engineered (they're too instinctual) but I could be wrong.

They might be merely instinctual when they’re not possessed by a Vezda spirit! That wouldn’t explain the instant antagonism, though, unless the Gorn have come to resent the Vezda.

I can’t wait to find out more!

EDIT: it’s just occurred to me that the Vezda are basically intellect devourers! They’re not brains with legs, but they essentially “teleport” into a person’s head, “devouring” their brain (thus absorbing their memories and personality). They then proceed to masquerade as the victim. You then have to kill the host body to get them to come out again.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Geordi thing with the regenerating eyes really bothered me, especially since the guy died anyway, making the comment just an irrelevant continuity error.

Geordi's problem was never his eyes alone though - it was also or primarily his optic nerves and the DNA of both. We know this from All Good Things... where they talk about the DNA in his optic nerves changing and this fixing his problem.

It's also established as genetic in The Masterpiece Society, where Geordi asserts he'd have been terminated as a single cell (and is not contradicted), which is only a viable claim if his condition was genetic.

So actually, I have to give this one to Strange New Worlds, not to the pedants (who am I often among). I think they're okay to have an eye-regenerator, because it wouldn't work on Geordi beyond regenerating his non-functional eyes and non-functional optic nerves. So if Geordi lost his eyes, sure they could get them back, but they still wouldn't work - they never worked, and they don't because of his genetics.

EDIT - Looking into this, this is further supported because the videogame Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Transinium Challenge which came out in 1989 also said his blindness was caused by an "incurable optical nerve defect". That game wasn't canon BUT it was heavily derived from the series bible and from the people who made it asking questions of the writers, so I think it's safe to say the "optical nerve defect" thing was something the writers considered to be the case from early on, even if it never made a script until All Good Things....

Also, let me say - somehow I knew this in the early 1990s, before All Good Things... came out, so I suspect it was something that a Trek writer had mentioned to a Trek zine which I read when I could get them (which I used to read, yes I know, I know - some of them were amazing though - but I couldn't get them much in the UK), or which had been discussed by one online or the like (unless there is another episode where it's mentioned - Memory Alpha is surprisingly useless here, essentially glossing over his blindness).

 

[Stalker0]

This is before the Galileo shuttle crash. Spock isn’t a very assertive commander yet. He hasn’t learned how to butt heads with stubborn arrogant scientists yet.

Or with his ex

The way I took the scene (which I agree could have been better) was this was an expedition fraught with delays. Between working just to get into the site than realizing they needed a starship, finding a starship, working with the local government to approve it which has all sorts of red tape, working out the exact agreement of what the starship can and cannot do etc… I imagine it took quite a while.

And so now if they call up top there will be more debate and delays and the local government might change their mind etc.

That’s how I took it but I fully admit it’s flimsy and could have been setup a lot better

 

[Stalker0]

Geordi's problem was never his eyes alone though - it was also or primarily his optic nerves and the DNA of both. We know this from All Good Things... where they talk about the DNA in his optic nerves changing and this fixing his problem.

It's also established as genetic in The Masterpiece Society, where Geordi asserts he'd have been terminated as a single cell (and is not contradicted), which is only a viable claim if his condition was genetic.

So actually, I have to give this one to Strange New Worlds, not to the pedants (who am I often among). I think they're okay to have an eye-regenerator, because it wouldn't work on Geordi beyond regenerating his non-functional eyes and non-functional optic nerves. So if Geordi lost his eyes, sure they could get them back, but they still wouldn't work - they never worked, and they don't because of his genetics.

EDIT - Looking into this, this is further supported because the videogame Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Transinium Challenge which came out in 1989 also said his blindness was caused by an "incurable optical nerve defect". That game wasn't canon BUT it was heavily derived from the series bible and from the people who made it asking questions of the writers, so I think it's safe to say the "optical nerve defect" thing was something the writers considered to be the case from early on, even if it never made a script until All Good Things....

Also, let me say - somehow I knew this in the early 1990s, before All Good Things... came out, so I suspect it was something that a Trek writer had mentioned to a Trek zine which I read when I could get them (which I used to read, yes I know, I know - some of them were amazing though - but I couldn't get them much in the UK), or which had been discussed by one online or the like (unless there is another episode where it's mentioned - Memory Alpha is surprisingly useless here, essentially glossing over his blindness).

Completely agree. Regenerating healthy eyes conceptually is straight forward with Star Trek tech, it’s just directed cellular copying.

But altering a failed organ to work normally requires an entirely different Solution, and likely in an area of genetic engineering that strays towards the taboos the federation has setup

 

[Rabulias]

I think there is also a meta reason they could not send someone out to call the ship. The person attempting to leave (unless it was Chapel) would have been zapped and locked them in. They wanted to hold off on that reveal and not have some random red shirt get the axe.

 

[Stalker0]

I think there is also a meta reason they could not send someone out to call the ship. The person attempting to leave (unless it was Chapel) would have been zapped and locked them in. They wanted to hold off on that reveal and not have some random red shirt get the axe.

I think you actually point out why that scene is even worse. They could have had most of their cake and eat it too here.

They find the dead body, there is some symbol on the guy that freaks the alien out, he still does his "its EVILLL!!!!" and runs out the door, and gets blasted....starting the dungeon. No flimsy "we should call the ship and didn't", its just "well we were just about to call the ship but the stupid ambassador guy ruined it for us".


I think moreso the goal was to continue drama and tension between the characters. Spock is having to wrestle between the desires of his Ex and his "new GF", as both Chapel and La'an want to go in different directions. But its done in a pretty flaky way, feels like they could have added that part in once the dungeon got going, plenty of time for Chapel and La'an to have a strong difference of opinion on what to do and Spock having to tie break without going against established protocol

 

[Morrus]

I think there is also a meta reason they could not send someone out to call the ship. The person attempting to leave (unless it was Chapel) would have been zapped and locked them in. They wanted to hold off on that reveal and not have some random red shirt get the axe.

But just changing the writing would have solved that problem.

 

[tomBitonti]

The sequencing needs the ensign to leave after finding the bodies before the doors seal.

TomB

 

[Ryujin]

I think moreso the goal was to continue drama and tension between the characters. Spock is having to wrestle between the desires of his Ex and his "new GF", as both Chapel and La'an want to go in different directions. But its done in a pretty flaky way, feels like they could have added that part in once the dungeon got going, plenty of time for Chapel and La'an to have a strong difference of opinion on what to do and Spock having to tie break without going against established protocol

Instead he made sure that they went through together, hoping the problem would solve itself. Very logical.