Grand Unified Theory of the Original Star Trek:

[4thofeleven]

Alright, crack-pot Star Trek theory time:

 

Was discussing on another forum about all the ‘just like Earth’ planets in Classic Trek, and how there was never any explanation given for them. There’s the planet in “Miri” that’s a literal duplicate of Earth, the Roman planet in “Bread and Circuses”, and the post-nuclear war planet in “The Omega Glory”.

 

Of course, there’s also the American Indian planet in “The Paradise Syndrome”, who were the result of deliberate transplanting by an unknown alien race, and so the logical conclusion is that all the other human-duplicate populations were also the result of their activities. That’s fine, but it occurred to me there were a few more puzzle pieces that could be worked into this explanation.

 

Piece one: Gary Seven, from “Assignment: Earth”. He’s also the result of humans being transplanted off-world by an unknown alien race. These aliens then send agents like Gary to ensure Earth survives the cold war. Let’s assume these are the same aliens that transplanted the Indians – can’t be that many alien races going around transplanting human populations, can there?

 

The other piece? The planet in “The Omega Glory”, Omega IV, was a virtual duplicate of twentieth century Earth before its nuclear war – but as a result of that war, only the extremely hardy survived, resulting in the average lifespan increasing by centuries… and by the time of the episode, it had been generations since the war. So… their war must have taken place a long time before the twentieth century, possibly centuries before.

 

Put them together? Earth isn’t the planet with duplicates scattered across the galaxy, Omega IV is. Millennia ago, it was ravaged by nuclear war, descending into barbarism. A powerful alien race saved a few of its people before the war, scattering them across dozens of star systems to ensure humans would survive somewhere, holding onto a few and training them as agents to guide these new civilizations so when they entered the nuclear age, they wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of their homeworld…

 

Incidentally, there’s never been on-screen evidence that the Romulans left Vulcan under their own power – it’s possible these Preservers also worked to spread Vulcans across the galaxy – there’s also the proto-Vulcan planet in TNG’s “Who Watches the Watchers?”

 

Finally, as long as we’re tying everything together, why not go all out, and offer an onscreen appearance of these Preservers? The Vians, in “The Empath”, were a very advanced alien race with an interest in relocating doomed species. No reason they can’t be both the Preservers and Gary Seven’s trainers.


Now, if I could just work out how to tie Apollo into all this...


(Essays? What are those?)