Infinite diversity in infinite combinations. That’s the mantra of Star Trek fans across the world. Yet when it came to alien life the infinite combinations and diversity often came down to face-paint and prosthetics on noticeably normal people. There’s little to separate human and Betazoid aside from dark eyes. Vulcans are human looking with pointed ears. Even the reptilian Cardassians have human features buried under rubber and glue.
For all the universes evolutions, very few seemed to deviate from the pattern. Which isn;t uncommon in science fiction. After all, budgets are always low to show something truly alien and nothing gives a performance quite like an actor in a mask. Yet while Doctor Who just make a joke out of it – noting that Rose’s perception of Timelords looking like humans was reverse thinking as Timelords (Or Gallifreyans) came first – Star Trek often dodged the multitude of masks.
That was until one episode pulled it all together. The Chase.
The Chase was a story of Picard following his mentors footsteps to finish his greatest passion. Professor Galen was one of Picards inspirations. When Galen comes to the Enterprise to have his old student join him, Picard rejects it to stay on the Enterprise and then off Galen goes to die and by chance leaves Picard to follow the breadcrumbs and find what Galen was looking for; the birthplace of galactic civilisation.
Clearly having nothing else to do as Captain of the Flagship of the entire Federation, Picard gives up exploration, diplomacy and keeping the peace between warring factions to finish Galen’s research and find the progenitors.
There’s a lot of flimsiness to the plot. Picard doesn’t want to leave Starfleet and spend years on a possible theory. Fair enough. But why not give Galen a lab, give a helping hand and have the best of both worlds? Also, why does it take someone a lifetime to figure out bits and pieces only for Picard to take the mantle and solve it in a couple of days?
In addition, there’s also a lot of by the book Next Gen stuff. Not just the usual camera angles and by the book direction, but all the excitement of adventure is contained to the same walls as anything else. It’s all talk and little discovery where the entire point of the episode boils down to the conclusion over the adventure – much as it was or could be in 1993.
Moving from one point to the other, and with both allies and enemies chasing the same clues, the episode focuses on the idea that every civilisation is a piece of the galactic puzzle. Within their very DNA humans, Romulans and Klingons have a clue. And thats just a small sample. Species spread across half the galaxy all with the same genetic imprint and the same patterns. What if each of these people, who have fought and loathed each other through centuries, all have something in common?
And what if that something was their origin?
It’s a 90’s version of Belle and Lokai. We have a collection of opposing factions all combined to solve Galen’s mystery together. And only together could they uncover the truth. Centuries of evolution and they all came from the same genetic pattern implanted by a civilisation centuries before that. And only by working together can they realise that, at the very heart of each civilisation, they’re really at genetic heart, all related. One big unhappy galactic family.
It’s a very ‘Star Trek’ idea at it’s core. People of all races and creeds having a common connection that unites them all. But of course, it doesn’t. Despite facing the fact their ancestors all came from the same genetic building blocks the barriers that have evolved over time only make them ignore and resent the fact that – much like the people of Earth in our own time – the commonality of the ties that bind us aren’t as strong as the cultures that separate us for no particular reason.
In the real world we’re all from the same puddle of good, yet race class and culture separate us more than it should. So as a Star Trek story it works. For the larger lore, it works and it explains a lot of production realities in an unreal world. But for it’s lore and morality, the massive revelation never seemed to matter. Then next week, a new adventure. The next series, the next conflict. The revelation? Never mentioned again. Until now.
Armed with the core message of Star Trek, The Chase had a lot of unrealised potential both thematically and narratively. Who were the progenitors? What wondrous technology did they have to implant an entire Galaxy of their genetic structure? Can the greatest empires find enough common ground to revive their ancestors secrets?
Over 30 years later we might get some answers to those questions as the Progenitors secrets are about to be uncovered in Discovery’s final season….
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