Star Trek (TOS) had a thing for "parallel Earth development", even calling it "Hodgkin's Law" at one point. While most planets the crew visit support human life without oxygen masks and bio-suits, that doesn't mean they've not paralleled - in part or completely - Earth's ecological or societal patterns, but then I'd be blathering on about seventy episodes and not merely less than one dozen.
A high-concept notion that sometimes lands better in some episodes more than some others, for the behind-the-scenes reasons, it was a novel way to reduce costs by letting the studio borrow costumes, props, and sets from their inventory. The question is believability and suspension of disbelief to roll with the story, to see if anything beyond that holds up.
What are your takes on this concept? Can you overlook the budget-saving tricks and enjoy any ideas or character scenes therein despite it all? (There are some great lines in most of them for sure, but the bar to roll with it can be high.)
As a kid, it was just another adventure and it whizzed by me faster than that night I'd eaten undercooked chicken. As an adult, especially after 1995 or so, these types of stories really do feel closer to "Sliders" in tone - they still work if I roll with the concept, but Trek found an impressive number for such a development that was acknowledged int he show as being so highly improbable with odds - in such a short time. Then again, "Sliders" should have far more parallel dimensions where everything's 99% the same or higher, thus losing out on an interesting show if everything was just the same compared to looking outside the window to notice two sparrows flipping you the bird.
Introduced in season one, the trope - altered and later abandoned in season three, because it was arguably too far overused in season two, that didn't stop the writers from taking different tactics for landing on another "It's just like Earth!" premise - includes, but not limited to:
Sheesh, considering Kirk is saying how they can teach people across the universe about all sorts of things and not just love via his own personal example (plus, asymptomatic cooties), it's interesting when Trek decides how only Kirk can go around saying "We at Starfleet can help _____". Or maybe that was the point as "Bread and Circuses" is complex with Merick not sharing any more than he has to, as Marcus almost salivates over the thought of McCoy sharing what he knows with the locals, but I digress: Kirk bouncing and banging around the galaxy quickly has him forgetting how alien substances, which tangentially includes the not-quite-wonderfulness of pathogens (and vice-versa, too!!) can cause problems between species (e.g. "The Naked Time", pardon the digression...) How TOS didn't do more of this aspect, what with McCoy's periodic quips about other species' anatomy and how medications don't always work and this or that, especially "The Way to Eden" that features Sevrin having a risky contagion and willfully risks or engages in spreading it(!!!), is a bit amazing for the time (even if glossed over).. But instead, when in doubt, chuck on another script involving the miraculous discovery of another 20th-century-Earthlike society.
If it's not bonkers enough already, the execution tropes would also differ between playing on audiences to induce various emotional states:
I hope I didn't miss any, where "parallel development" was outright stated.
Amusingly, TOS-R also changes most planets' f/x to Earth-style with different-formed oceans and land masses, to more consistently fit "Class M" (which eschews the parallel Earth development since societies are not included), as opposed to the technicolor wonders of the original, since between 1966 and now somebody decided that a breathable atmosphere for us and life as we know it can be any color thrown at it. That said, "Mirror, Mirror", "By Any Other Name", et al, have multi-hued planets that look conceptually cool.
A fun side note, some tropes get interchanges within this format:
BONUS LEVEL:
And yet another tangent comes to mind, trope inversion, where species came to Earth and prime directed our societies somehow and then left, which include but are not limited to:
Indeed, it's amazing that Kirk isn't screaming at hunky Apollo and saying how his civilization fettered humanity's so shame on him. Shame shame make it rain (by apparently breathing (or anything else) while standing 100 feet tall, per Apollo's own silly claim.)
A high-concept notion that sometimes lands better in some episodes more than some others, for the behind-the-scenes reasons, it was a novel way to reduce costs by letting the studio borrow costumes, props, and sets from their inventory. The question is believability and suspension of disbelief to roll with the story, to see if anything beyond that holds up.
What are your takes on this concept? Can you overlook the budget-saving tricks and enjoy any ideas or character scenes therein despite it all? (There are some great lines in most of them for sure, but the bar to roll with it can be high.)
As a kid, it was just another adventure and it whizzed by me faster than that night I'd eaten undercooked chicken. As an adult, especially after 1995 or so, these types of stories really do feel closer to "Sliders" in tone - they still work if I roll with the concept, but Trek found an impressive number for such a development that was acknowledged int he show as being so highly improbable with odds - in such a short time. Then again, "Sliders" should have far more parallel dimensions where everything's 99% the same or higher, thus losing out on an interesting show if everything was just the same compared to looking outside the window to notice two sparrows flipping you the bird.
Introduced in season one, the trope - altered and later abandoned in season three, because it was arguably too far overused in season two, that didn't stop the writers from taking different tactics for landing on another "It's just like Earth!" premise - includes, but not limited to:
- Federation or human culture having already contaminated a planet, oops, via:
- Accidentally left a book behind and the locals, told to us as enjoying mimicry, spread the word then copped the mannerisms then took it way too far ("A Piece of the Action")
- Felt that giving the populace free knowledge, techniques, and so on, a new way to do order, via the good aspects only, would always end up in a better world ("Patterns of Force")
- Finding the crew of a destroyed ship and discover that the captain accidentally or is compelled to spill some beans ("Bread and Circuses")
- Doesn't give a bleep and only wants personal glory and power until they get deposed in that old staple of drama ("The Omega Glory", in multiple juicy ways)
- Coercion or Guilt ("Bread and Circuses", craftily handled so that the captain who decided to stay and spill the beans (after crash landing) would in turn die to save Kirk and co)
- Restrained meddling (don't let us be fettered by them ("Bread and Circuses" re: McCoy not being allowed to share his knowledge), and "Patterns of Force" - Melakon drugged up Captain Gill and did a nasty spin on things)
- Shiny happy coincidence, no rogue Starfleet dude here! ("Miri", "The Paradise Syndrome" - the latter introducing "The Preservers" as another means to detail humanoid life being dominant)
- Baddies contaminated it before we got the chance to, so now we have to in return, so there, hmmph! ("A Private Little War")
Sheesh, considering Kirk is saying how they can teach people across the universe about all sorts of things and not just love via his own personal example (plus, asymptomatic cooties), it's interesting when Trek decides how only Kirk can go around saying "We at Starfleet can help _____". Or maybe that was the point as "Bread and Circuses" is complex with Merick not sharing any more than he has to, as Marcus almost salivates over the thought of McCoy sharing what he knows with the locals, but I digress: Kirk bouncing and banging around the galaxy quickly has him forgetting how alien substances, which tangentially includes the not-quite-wonderfulness of pathogens (and vice-versa, too!!) can cause problems between species (e.g. "The Naked Time", pardon the digression...) How TOS didn't do more of this aspect, what with McCoy's periodic quips about other species' anatomy and how medications don't always work and this or that, especially "The Way to Eden" that features Sevrin having a risky contagion and willfully risks or engages in spreading it(!!!), is a bit amazing for the time (even if glossed over).. But instead, when in doubt, chuck on another script involving the miraculous discovery of another 20th-century-Earthlike society.
If it's not bonkers enough already, the execution tropes would also differ between playing on audiences to induce various emotional states:
- Played for outright comedy ("A Piece of the Action")
- Utterly straight (most notably "Bread and Circuses", which is downright gritty and atypically terrifying in a number of scenes. And needs to be as the trope of "parallel Earth development" was really getting atom-thin by this point.)
- Most are somewhere in between, mixing serious and comedic
I hope I didn't miss any, where "parallel development" was outright stated.
Amusingly, TOS-R also changes most planets' f/x to Earth-style with different-formed oceans and land masses, to more consistently fit "Class M" (which eschews the parallel Earth development since societies are not included), as opposed to the technicolor wonders of the original, since between 1966 and now somebody decided that a breathable atmosphere for us and life as we know it can be any color thrown at it. That said, "Mirror, Mirror", "By Any Other Name", et al, have multi-hued planets that look conceptually cool.
A fun side note, some tropes get interchanges within this format:
- Ship abandonment ("This Side of Paradise" introduced abandoning the ship, which gets used in "The Omega Glory", and used in different ways in "I, Mudd", and even for a different crew in "Bread and Circuses", etc.)
- Ship malfunction/destruction ("Bread and Circuses", et al)
BONUS LEVEL:
And yet another tangent comes to mind, trope inversion, where species came to Earth and prime directed our societies somehow and then left, which include but are not limited to:
- Who Mourns for Adonis (contamination led to the direct formation of Greek gods as a result, whoops!! Said Gods also took themselves too much via the metaphors the locals created, since Apollo didn't cause Spring to arrive by telling the crew how he brought it back by getting 50' tool then having a big sneeze, or whatever other hot air he was spewing - Kirk and co were 5000 years into the future and knew he was hiding behind a machine, like Ardra only sexier)
- The Paradise Syndrome (The Preservers went to Earth, kidnapped a bunch of people who hopefully wouldn't have noticed to create ghost stories with later on, then put them on a better planet). These cats are cool because they didn't change Earth's societies, just did a quiet but benevolent mass abductions.
- Plato's Stepchildren (aliens who left their planet, landed on ours during the Greek period and may have dealt with how many folks, buggered off, landed elsewhere and on a planet where eating the produce can create telekinetic and other fun powers. This was replicated by Dr McCoy via his portable lab pouch, and never used again, because this is Star Trek, not Space Wizards. Sounds like a cool video game from 1983, "Space Wizards". Should have made that and put it opposite the Star Trek video game circa 1983 (which is fun).)
Indeed, it's amazing that Kirk isn't screaming at hunky Apollo and saying how his civilization fettered humanity's so shame on him. Shame shame make it rain (by apparently breathing (or anything else) while standing 100 feet tall, per Apollo's own silly claim.)
