Other Worlds

Star Trek is my all-time favorite science fiction TV series. In this post, I want to take a deeper look inside the Star Trek universe itself and talk about an important technicality of commanding a starship.

Several important caveats: this topic was never addressed in the Series Bible (that we know of), episodes were not always written by the same writer, and the story editor and/or producer were not always able to keep things consistent, even within the same season. The point is not to focus on the seeming inconsistencies, but to try to come up with a plausible mechanism for everything to co-exist.

This episode’s topic: The Self-Destruct Sequence or Who’s the Captain?

In the Original Series episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, the Captain, Science Officer, and Chief Engineer had to voice-authenticate themselves to the main computer and recite a code sequence. The Captain then initiated the self-destruct countdown.

This seems reasonable. The computer can examine voice patterns and can authenticate the person from that voice. The use of a random code sequence would prevent the splicing together of previous utterances of the persons into the correct code sequence to start an unauthorized self-destruct (the computer does not seem to be able to tell where a person is — remember Ben Finney in “Court Martial”). Assuming the code sequence is subsequently changed (assuming it CAN BE — it’s presumed to be a one-use code!) or cannot be used a second time, then all is well.

However, in the third movie, Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov use the exact same code sequence to initiate the self-destruct sequence. There are several problems here. Kirk may or may not still be in command of the Enterprise; it’s in Spacedock to be decommissioned. Scotty is officially Captain of Engineering on the Excelsior. Why would the Enterprise’s computer think he is authorized? Ditto for Chekov: he was last the Executive Officer of the Reliant. This brings into serious question how much the computer trusts who is giving it orders. Certainly it can have voice patterns for every Star Fleet officer. But it seems to blindly trust that whoever has the correct code sequence is authorized to use it to initiate the self-destruct sequence. It’s also beyond belief that the code sequence is the same in the time between these two events. It’s a deliberate breaking of the fourth wall to have it remain the same.

In various Next Generation episodes, the Captain and First Officer must voice authenticate and verbally agree to initiate the auto-destruct sequence. There’s no more command sequences. Since the computer now knows where an individual is, this makes sense.

However, there is an underlying issue I’d like to examine. How does the main computer know who is really in command?

In the Original Series episode “The Doomsday Machine”, Commodore Decker attempts to take command of the Enterprise in the absence of Captain Kirk (and being a ranking officer in addition). He is ultimately thwarted when Kirk orders Spock to relieve Commodore Decker, “on my personal authority as captain of the Enterprise”. The episode was a psychologically-focused episode and Decker did not remain in command for long, so the question cannot be resolved.

In The Next Generation, it appears that the ship’s computer decides who is in command. When Captain Picard is captured by Cardassians, Captain Jellicoe is appointed captain. There is a short ceremony in which the computer acknowledges Jellicoe’s authority. Another ceremony occurs when Picard resumes command. There are a few questions here.

How does the computer recognize an authorized transfer of authority? Presumably it must consult with Star Fleet Command, otherwise there could be a transfer of authority under duress. Can command be transferred to someone not a member of Star Fleet? I would expect not.

In another Next Generation episode, Data locks the rest of the crew out of the computer by applying an encryption key. While the key is probably long enough to not be guessed or easily computed, the fact that the Second Officer, on his own authority, can prevent the Captain from issuing commands is troublesome.

One episode in which we can give the computer a pass is when Captain Picard is transformed into what his body was like decades ago. The computer refuses to accept his voice commands, but he can still issue commands via direct entry. Although this does raise a question about an officer having a cold or laryngitis, it seems a reasonable safety feature, given the option of entering commands from a terminal.

I’ve probably missed other episodes or situations that raise questions about this subject. Maybe I’ll cover them in a future article.

A world that isn’t a natural world (or planet), but is instead an artificial world (or ship); a “world ship”. This trope most often occurs in science fiction, in both literary and visual expressions, but can be found in other genres.

My first experience with this concept was the original Star Trek episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”. Although not explored or explained in much detail, the world ship Yonada is large enough to have a functioning society for hundreds of years and the population has mostly forgotten that they are on a ship.

This would be a fascinating world to set a game in. The characters could be an exploration team of some sort, just like in the episode. They could either be obvious outsiders, again, like in the episode, or they could attempt to sneak their way inside, either to gather information, or possibly steal something of value.

Another possibility would be to play inhabitants of Yonada. Perhaps there is a rebel group that knows the truth of their situation and has somehow managed to remove the Instrument of Obedience, so they cannot be killed (and/or tracked?) by the Oracle. They might be searching for a way to free themselves from the Oracle’s control, or simply waiting for an opportunity (such as a group of explorers from outside Yonada).

There’s a huge opportunity to create and explore the culture of Yonada. What’s the total population? How many people know the truth: is it a very few persons, or a whole level of society? What is the economy like? Is there agriculture or do they use hydroponics? What about animals? Do people “work”, or do they just exist, doing almost nothing?

Given that the entire population lives underground, I could envision a whole mythology that discourages exploration or observation of the sky. Agriculture could be fungi-based, or regular or genetically-modified crops grown hydroponically. Or there could be “interior suns” that generate enough energy for photosynthesis to take place.

The author Gene Wolfe wrote a series of books collectively called “The Book of the Long Sun”, which takes place aboard a “generation” ship, and provides a lot more cultural information, though much of it is revealed through the characters’ limited point of view; there’s seldom an “omniscient” description of the situation. From what I can remember, the “long sun” is a reference to the fluorescent tube-like shape of the “sun” in the ship.

Arthur C. Clarke’s novel “Rendevous with Rama” is similarly devoid of a complete explanation of the Rama spaceship (although the Rama II sequel trilogy does posit one). However, both the Long Sun and Rama ships could be potentially useful places to explore, and the Long Sun ship is large enough for characters that were born on it.

If you want to use a pre-existing game system and setting, have a look at Metamorphosis Alpha. This game was originally published in 1976 and has had version updates and reprints of the original first edition. It posits a large generation ship that suffered a catastrophic accident that led to mutated creatures due to radiation.

Other settings include “megastructures”, which are much larger than “ordinary” ships. The smallest of these are the GSV ships in Iain Banks’s Culture series. Next up would include the Halo objects from the game and book series. A giant leap beyond that is Larry Niven’s Ringworld. Both the Culture and Ringworld universes have “magical” technology, so it might be difficult to put characters into true personal danger. Additionally, the Ringworld is so gigantic that most “ordinary” campaign plots would take up a miniscule area of it; anything epic enough to affect a large segment or the entirety of the Ringworld would be largely beyond the characters’ abilities without some kind of deus ex machina.

An interesting take on a generation ship involves concepts similar to what would eventually be used in the Matrix movie series. In MmegaZone 23 Parts I and II, the main characters are on a generation ship, but are somehow hypnotized or otherwise manipulated into believing they are on Earth (however, the ending of Part II is much grimmer than the end of the Matrix series). I’ve always wanted to run a game where I could spring such a surprise plot twist on my players. The campaign would then transmogrify into an effort to find out “the truth” and/or a control center where presumably the Folks Who Know can be found.

The Hollow Earth tradition has a long history in mythology and literature. In this post, though, I do not intend to cover the history of the concept, but rather talk about how I created my own Hollow Earth, the Inner Earth.

My vision for the Inner Earth came in a single image in my mind: a huge cavern inside which a pillar stood and inside which was a winding stairwell that provided access to and from the surface. I decided to make as consistent and realistic a Hollow Earth setting as I could and present it to my role-playing gaming group.

In addition to thinking about the ecology of this kind of place (how is it lit, what about air and water circulation, erosion, and so on), I also populated it with multiple races and myths to explain how this place came to be. Naturally the myths of the different races were not entirely in agreement with each other.

I include a few of the myths I created for this world.

How The Folk, the Helpers, and the Mahars Came to Be

Plumed Serpent and his brother Smoking Mirror lived in the Earth from the time the Earth was formed. They each desired for companions other than themselves. Plumed Serpent fashioned the Folk on his first try, and was content. Smoking Mirror was less skilled, and he rejected his first creation. On his second attempt, he created the Mahars and was content. His first creations wished Smoking Mirror would be their companion, but Smoking Mirror drove them away. Plumed Serpent asked the Folk if they would adopt his brother’s creation, and they agreed. This angered and shamed Smoking Mirror.

Note: Plumed Serpent and Smoking Mirror are the two main adversaries. They are among the many “gods” in this world. The Folk are the people that the characters would meet: the Mahars are the bad guys of the Earth. Yes, I stole the word (and some ideas) from “At the Earth’s Core”.

What the Sky Is

When the Earth was young, demons broke into the Earth by smashing their way through and came in through the Up. There was a huge hole in the Up, and through it was what Plumed Serpent called the Sky. Plumed Serpent, his brother Smoking Mirror, and the Brethren all fought against the demons. They were not successful in driving away the demons, so they had to abandon a portion of the Earth to the demons. The gods used their power to seal away the hole to the Sky behind impenetrable walls.

Note: “Up” is the word used for the “ceiling” of the Inner Earth. I envisioned the hole in the Up was created from an impact event.

I deliberately chose names from Meso-American mythology, since I envisioned the primary access point from the Surface Earth to the Inner Earth to be where the Great Pyramid of Cholula was later constructed.

My gaming group seemed to enjoy the setting, though they were more interested in getting back to the surface than learning about the myths and history of the inhabitatns. That was okay with me, though, since I had a lot of fun writing the descriptions and legends of the Inner Earth.

Glorantha is my favorite (role-playing) gaming world. I first got interested in it in middle school, when it was the official game setting for RuneQuest II (although it had featured in Chaosium’s two board games, White Bear and Red Moon, and Nomad Gods). The RuneQuest system was different from the D&D system, and Glorantha was different from the Medieval European setting that most other game worlds were based on.

Created by Greg Stafford, the Glorantha of RuneQuest II was mostly limited to the area known as Dragon Pass, which was currently being fought over by the (good guy) Orlanthi (worshipers of the storm god Orlanth) and the (bad guy) Lunar Empire (worshipers of the Red Moon). Underneath that overarching conflict were smaller regions with histories that strongly suggested a further backstory. These included Snakepipe Hollow, Prax, and the cities of Pavis and Boldhome. Humans weren’t alone on Glorantha either. Other races included the Aldryami, Mostali, and the Dark Trolls.

One of the most intriguing premises of Glorantha was the widely varied pantheon of deities. The presence of the gods of Glorantha were indisputable; magic was everywhere.  There was the Orlanthi or Storm deities, the Seven Mothers of the Lunar Empire, the nomadic deities of the plains of Prax, the deities worshiped by the trolls, and even the deities of Chaos. But even with all this detail, the setting was still mostly constrained to the Dragon Pass area. That would soon change.

The publication of RuneQuest III by Avalon Hill also led to an expansion of knowledge about the rest of Glorantha, especially the southern continent of Pamaltela.  Yet the level of detail was slimmer because of the sheer size of Glorantha; it was impossible to go into the same level of detail that Dragon Pass had been pubished.

Eventually, more information about the Lunar Empire was published, starting with the Solar beliefs which the Lunar belief originated.  More material has been published at both the local level (Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes) and at the “global” level (The Guide to Glorantha).

I have been lucky enough to play in Glorantha for many years; I’ve made the campaign log and chronology available for download, and I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been a player in the games run by the folks who have created and expanded Glorantha. I finally got to run a campaign in Glorantha (The Colymar Campaign).

Thank you, Greg, for creating Glorantha and allowing so many of us to share in your vision.

This blog is intended to be a place to discuss other worlds, whether those are in games (role-playing, board, or other), literature (science fiction and fantasy), TV shows, or movies.

I had originally decided to make this a podcast series, but have since changed my mind and will do this as a blog. It’ll take much less of my time, and probably much less time to read my articles rather than listen to them.

I plan to cover (at a minimum): Glorantha, the Mobile Suit Gundam universe, Known Space, the 1920s, world-ships, and hopefully lots more.