Star Trek & Phil K. Dick on Enlightenment

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" reaches its climax with the vast alien entity V'ger in orbit over Earth.  V'ger sends out blasts of energy, which will destroy all carbon-based life on Earth unless Captain Kirk can supply the answers it seeks.  As a machine intelligence, V'ger cannot comprehend the validity of any other form of life.  This is a theme prevalent within Science Fiction, and is further explored in Hard SF author Gregory Benford's Galactic Center series.

At least V'ger is not arrogant.  It recognizes that it was created, and yearns to unite with its creator.  When Kirk supplies the proof that it was created by Humans, V'ger shorts out its circuitry, so that the last portion of the information it requires will be delivered by a Human.  

This time, unlike with the Klingons aboard their ships, the Humans aboard the space station Epsilon 9, and the Deltan navigator Ilia, V'ger unites with the consciousness of a living, organic being (one wholly different from itself), without destroying the other in the process.  

Up until now, V'ger has recorded carbon-based life: it has stored it like we would scan a document or photo into a computer.  It has analyzed the data gleaned from this process.  But only through becoming partly Human--only through uniting its inorganic consciousness with an intelligent, organic one--can it truly enhance its understanding of the universe.  Just as occurs with us--when we throw down our mental barriers and accept another person's viewpoint as equally relevant and insightful as our own--V'ger's paradigm, formerly limited, is blown wide open.  As Marvel writer Marv Wolfman channels the Biblical book of Genesis to suggest what is going on with V'ger, perhaps I could also reference St. Paul's epistle of 1 Corinthians.  In chapter 13, verse 11, Paul suggests how a person's consciousness can be enhanced by dedicating one's life to loving others.  "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put childish things behind me."  And in verse 12: "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face."   

In A Scanner Darkly, Phillip K. Dick compares how a human views the world to how a computer scans its surroundings.  He also suggests that St. Paul would not have studied his appearance in a glass mirror, but rather in polished metal that was incapable of generating accurate reflections.  

Through uniting with someone else whose life at first seemed completely different (and even opposed) to its own, V'ger is reborn.  It is now ready to explore the universe again.  This time, it will gain a fuller understanding of everyone and everything it encounters.  Likewise, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy have each experienced transformation.  Before they lived separately, and devoted themselves to smaller, more individual tasks.  Now each can fully reengage with his former comrades and explore the universe again.  Perhaps colorist Marie Severin hints at the rebirth of the three in the above panel, where for an instant, the blackness of space is banished, and the U.S.S. Enterprise passes through a realm of light.

Sadly, Paramount Studios booted Gene Roddenberry out the door after the movie failed to bring in the projected revenue, and in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," Kirk has lost the enlightenment he previously gained.  All too often, Human existence seems like a journey into darkness, illuminated only by occasional moments of clarity.  It would have been interesting to see what a more enlightened Kirk, freed from the bonds and limitations of the past, could have accomplished.  But then, we would have missed out on Khan controlling Chekov's mind from vast distances with an insect that crawled into the Russian's ear, exploding planets, Kirk's handwringing over missing out on a relationship with a son he never knew existed, and a Genesis planet with an entire ecosystem that is created--in an instant--from the dispersed particles of a nebula.  And all that would have been too cool and exciting to have missed out on, right?

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links
Bible Apps: 1 Corinthians 13
A meditation on allusions in P. K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly

Kirk and Spock as Parents

After Ilia vanishes from the bridge in the movie “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” she reappears aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.  Dr. McCoy determines that she is a probe, sent by V’ger, and this replica confirms that the beautiful Deltan navigator no longer lives.  Still, the probe possesses not only Ilia’s looks, but also many of the dead woman’s mannerisms.  As Commander Will Decker once had a relationship with Ilia, he gives her replica a tour of the Enterprise, hoping he can learn as much about V’ger through the probe as V’ger learns about the ship and its crew.

Spock is concerned that the Ilia replica is their sole source of information about this vast alien consciousness that is traveling toward Earth, so he steals a space suit and departs the ship.  He travels through vast chambers within V’ger, and amid the darkness, sees immense holographic images, including a planet, the Federation space station Epsilon 9 (which, like the Klingon ships, vanished amid powerful bursts of white energy), and a giant image of Ilia.

In Marvel Comics’ “Star Trek” Vol. 1, Issue #3, writer Marv Wolfman again diverges from Harold Livingston’s script.  In his version, Captain Kirk immediately learns of Spock’s unapproved jaunt, suits up, and pursues him.  

Unlike his half-Vulcan Science Officer, a crystalline swarm attacks Kirk, and must Spock delay his journey ahead of the ship. 

He jets over to Kirk, and banishes the attacking crystals with a few well-aimed phaser shots.  Kirk and Spock then journey together into V’ger. 

Instead of holographic images that illuminate the surrounding darkness, the men travel through lighted caverns.  Instead of projections powered by plasma energy, Spock deduces that V’ger’s memory is stored by highly efficient crystals, which have recorded everything they destroyed, from Ilia, to the Epsilon 9 space station, to the three Klingon ships that attacked the space cloud at the beginning of the film.  

Wolfman’s changes give us more interaction between the story’s two main protagonists, tell us more about how V’ger functions, and better link the Klingons’ disappearance to the overall plot.  By showing us caverns of light, he connects V'ger's destructive energy with its “memory,” as well as how this alien consciousness learns (or gains enlightenment).  People and things may be dead in a corporeal sense, but they remain very much alive to this vast alien entity.  Thus, Wolfman perpetuates the theme he began in Issue #1 (see last month's entry "Klingons and the Book of Genesis"), when he narrated: 

“In the beginning there was darkness.  

Then God said 'Let there be light.'  

...and the light was good.”

Of course, the humans, the Federation, and the Klingons disagree with V’ger’s assessment.  But then, V’ger cannot comprehend how its actions affect others.  As with a child, lecturing it will do no good.  Kirk and Spock must help this growing alien entity develop a more mature viewpoint, one that respects others’ rights and differences, and recognizes its responsibility as a steward of the universe.  Unfortunately, instead of having eighteen years in which to nurture their child, only a few hours remain before the cloud reaches Earth.  But then, whoever said that parenting was easy?

Dragon Dave 

Greg Bear: Star Trek Corona Part 1

Cover art courtesy of the great
Boris Vallejo

Greg Bear has written novels in other people’s universes, such as Star Trek, Star Wars, and Halo.  At first, this seemed rather strange to me.  As he has built a successful career with his imaginative Hard Science Fiction stories, he can no doubt commands large advances and royalties.  On the other hand, books written in media franchises typically pay an author a smaller advance, and little or no royalties.  When I met him at the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego in 2011, I asked him why he would solicit or accept such a work-for-hire project.  He responded that he does this because he’s a fan of these franchises, and writing a novel gave him the opportunity to explore them in greater detail.  

In the case of Star Trek, his love of the franchise is evident before one even starts his novel Corona.  In the Acknowledgements, Greg Bear mentions that he contributed illustrations for the original edition of Bjo Trimble and Dorothy Jones Hedyt’s Star Trek Concordance.  “Does this make me a trekkie?” he asks.  “You bet.”

In Corona, a team of Vulcan scientists becomes stranded on a distant outpost when the infant stars they are studying give off radiation that interferes with their ability to send and receive messages.  By the time the Federation receives their distress signal, ten years have passed, and they are presumed dead.  Nonetheless, the U.S.S. Enterprise is directed to investigate, and rescue any survivors they may find.  This turns out to be a fortunate coincidence.  The ship’s sickbay has just been upgraded with a Transporter Emergency Recovery (or TEREC) unit.  By comparing a person's originally transmitted body pattern with his or her present one, Doctor McCoy can repair injuries and cure a person's illness.  (Needless to say, Bear wrote this novel years before Star Trek: The Next Generation explored the concept further).  This TEREC unit could prove useful, as the infant stars’ radiation has damaged some of the Vulcan scientists who were in cryogenic suspension, and can no longer be revived successfully.  But Dr. McCoy’s ability to use the device may be limited, as it comes with protocols and safeguards that could limit the use of TEREC in this particular case. 

How much power and judgment should be allowed starship captains and their crews is one of the themes Bear concentrates on in Corona.  Unconstrained use of TEREC could allow Dr. McCoy to make unlimited copies of a given individual, as with cloning.  Alternatively, he could use TEREC to improve everyone aboard the Enterprise, cure all their bodily deficiencies, supercharge their muscles, brains, or immune systems, or even return their bodies to an earlier period of their lives (and by doing so repeatedly, grant them immortality).  Meanwhile, an observer aboard the Enterprise is comparing Kirk’s actions and decisions to computer recommendations.  Kirk’s judgment has often saved the ship, but no man is infallible.  Computers can sort through an infinite number of options quickly, and perhaps make a more informed choice.  So with this mission, the future of command is being determined, and Kirk, as the Defendant, represents all his fellow starship captains.

I’ve got more to say about Greg Bear’s novel, but time marches relentlessly on.  So with reluctance, I must sign off for today with the promise that this post will conclude tomorrow.  If only I had a TEREC machine, and could constantly rejuvenate myself, and enhance my brain’s functioning, so I could write more, better and faster! 

Maybe I'll telephone Dr. Rudy Wells, and order up a bionic brain.

Dragon Dave 

Boris Vallejo: a short biography

Dr. McCoy and the Lone Ranger

Before Deforest Kelley played Dr. McCoy in "Star Trek," he pursued a busy career in both film and TV.  He was particularly known for his villains, and his roles in Westerns.

In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Westerns were popular on radio, TV, movies, and in literature.  It’s easy to see their allure.  Not only do they capture the pioneering spirit, but they also pit man against a forbidding environment, facing unknown dangers.  Westerns were about survival against the odds, and building something out of nothing.  In many ways, such stories served as the prototype of Science Fiction, the genre that eventually overtook them.  We still dream of battling unknown foes, and taming wild animals and forbidding landscapes, only now on alien worlds.

"What do you say we just mosey on inside for a Mint Julep."

Given Johnny Depp’s involvement, I’ve been looking forward to seeing the upcoming big screen adaptation of “The Lone Ranger.”  I noticed the 1950s TV show on my channel lineup, and decided to watch a few episodes.  In one episode, a group of bad guys capture a stage coach and shoot everyone aboard.  Discovering that the travelers were bank executives, the bad guys change clothes, and drive the stage coach into town.  Everyone at the bank, and even the local sheriff, allow the men to use their documents to steal money from the bank.  When the Lone Ranger, intent on bringing the men to justice, rides into town, the sheriff equates his mask with that of a robber’s, and puts him in jail.  Tonto, using his broken English, gains the help of a local to rescue his friend, and the two ride off to capture the murderers. 

When the Lone Ranger and Tonto capture the baddies, the sheriff needs some convincing before he’ll see past the appropriated documents and believe this masked stranger and his Indian pal. 

The show had nearly ended before I realized the actor playing the sheriff was Deforest Kelley.  The episode was filmed in 1950, fifteen years before he would assume the mantle of Dr. Leonard McCoy, a role that gave him lasting recognition, but also typecast him and effectively ended his acting career.  Kelley’s sheriff was less nuanced than in Dr. McCoy in "Star Trek:" he seemed to alternate between suspicion and approval, with nothing in between.  But his portrayal fit the role so completely that took me that long to identify him.  His performance reveals how completely he poured himself into McCoy, once the more complex character was offered to him. 

"Dammit, Lone Ranger, I'm a doctor, not a...wait,
I am a lawman, ain't I?"

I wish Deforest Kelley could have starred in TV shows and movies after “Star Trek.”  I know he drew solace in how many kids that grew up watching “Star Trek” entered the medical profession.  Given how many times he starred in Westerns, I wonder how many young boys might have been inspired to become cowboys, and work on farms and ranches.

"Hi-yo, U. S. S. Enterprise!  Away!"

Dragon Dave

P.S.  If you have cable or satellite TV, check to see if you have COZI TV.  In addition to "The Lone Ranger," they offer a lot of other great shows from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.  

David Gerrold’s Protégé

What's bugging Mr. Spock?
(Not to mention Katalya!)

The “Star Trek” novel Vulcan!, written by Kathleen Sky, includes an introduction by David Gerrold.  He wrote this, he says, not at the invitation of the author or the publisher, but because he insisted on it.  In eight pages, he describes his friendship with Kathleen Sky, and how he has watched her grow and mature as a writer.  He describes the pride he felt when she wrote a story good enough for his anthology Generation, even though “she claims she was a student of the David Gerrold Bludgeon and Blast school of science fiction criticism,” in which he threw each manuscript into the air, and jumped up and down while yelling at her how terrible each story was. 

In my teen years, I found David Gerrold a consistent source of entertainment and inspiration.  Each month, I paged through “Starlog” magazine, seeking out his columns.  I remember how he compared Roy Neary’s experience with UFOs in Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” to that of a believer who claims to have been visited by an angel.  Reading his columns every month made me want to read his books, and I still regard two of his novels, When HARLEY was One and The Man Who Folded Himself, as all-time favorites.  Then, of course, there was his book The Trouble With Tribbles, in which he offered a behind-the-scenes view of how the “Star Trek” TV show took his story from the initial pitch stage through to a filmed episode. 

In Kathleen Sky’s novel, the Enterprise is sent to investigate the planet Arachnae.  Mr. Spock believes the inhabitants to be sentient, but the scientist sent to study them, Dr. Katalya Tremain, contends they are no smarter than insects.  The creatures resemble the bugs in “Starship Troopers,” the movie version of Robert Heinlein’s novel portrayed so vividly (and viciously) by director Paul Verhoeven.  Could the Arachaens be capable of rational thought, and worthy of joining the Federation?  This is not the only source of contention between the two officers who will lead the expedition.  Dr. Katalya Tremain, a scientist Spock has previously respected for her logic, loathes not just him, but the entire Vulcan race.

Dr. Leonard McCoy finds himself defending Mr. Spock against her attacks, when he is usually the one who derides Spock for his cold, unemotional nature.  As deplorable as he sees her racism, Dr. McCoy cannot help his growing attraction for her.  Thus he studies her as he woos her, yearning to rid her, if he can, of what he sees as an inexplicable psychological disorder.  He ends up worrying over both of them when an Arachnaen attack kills all expedition members but Katalya and Spock, and circumstances prevent the Enterprise from beaming the two back to safety.  So it is Mr. Spock, the man she hates, who must unravel the twisted threads of Katalya’s past, while the two investigate (and are attacked by) these bugs that may or may not be sentient, but are definitely lethal.

I found reading the novel again every bit as satisfying as I remembered it.  Her engrossing story left me wondering if my own efforts might be improved by “the David Gerrold Bludgeon and Blast method.”  Sadly, I may never get to know him, or receive the benefit of his opinion concerning one of the novels I hope to publish.  Nevertheless, his books, stories, and columns fed my own dreams of becoming a storyteller.  Unlike Kathleen Sky, I may not have the honor of being called his protégé, let alone become his friend, but I can envy her for the relationship she shared with the great David Gerrold.

Remembering my early influences,

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Star Trek: The Cage 

Robert E. Vardeman: Keeping Us on Course