TOS - Immunity Syndrome

[RobbyB1982]

I don't see how the creature could affect the galaxy by just multiplying, since not only is the interstellar space enormous, unlike the Crystalline Creature from TNG, it doesn't seem to go for planets and mostly killed people by accident.

Because if it doubles itself every time it adds up fast.

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Even as big as the universe is, it starts getting getting out of hand pretty fast. You have a million of those things in 20 splits.

And we don't know what resources it consumes to do it. Something that big has to get fuel from *somewhere*.

Of course if it does that once every million years that's not too bad but if it does annually? Or monthly? However big space is that's going to become a problem for *someone*, *someplace* eventually. Especially if gets more complex.

[Al-1701]

As for the ridiculousness of the concept ... I'll admit, I'm by no means well-versed in exobiology, but to me it seems far more plausible that a planet-sized single-celled organism could exist than that life on alien planets would evolve to look exactly like humans (not counting some pointy ears or bumpy foreheads).

TNG had an explanation for that. Ancient alien race seeded the galaxy with DNA, which led to things coming out similar.

Still crazy, but at least *a* explanation beyond "thats what the makeup can afford."

Though, they could have just said it's a case of convergent evolution. A tetrapod with two arms, two legs, head on top, binocular vision, and stereoscopic hearing is an effective body structure for an intelligent tool user and spacefaring races will be intelligent tool users by default.

As for the amoeba. It did just ate a star system. It could be that was the resource it needed to begin mitosis. Meaning, every time an amoeba divides, it must eat all life in a star system.

[Swiftbow]

As for the amoeba. It did just ate a star system. It could be that was the resource it needed to begin mitosis. Meaning, every time an amoeba divides, it must eat all life in a star system.

Yes, I recall it being pretty clear that the amoeba was drawn to energy, and solar systems were full of it. It then devoured said energy until everything around it was dead, which it did to the previous star system, and the Intrepid, and was doing it to the Enterprise.

It wasn't a conscious being, so it was doing all of this fairly passively. It didn't even realize the Enterprise was inside it... all the defenses were autonomic. Did not reduce its threat level, though, which was enormous.

I'm looking forward to Chuck discussing the Crystalline Entity, which, to me, is just as great a threat as the space amoeba (and the Doomsday Machine), but somehow gets a pass for being borderline intelligent. (Its level of intelligence seems to vary between episodes.)

[Mabus]

I don't see how the creature could affect the galaxy by just multiplying, since not only is the interstellar space enormous, unlike the Crystalline Creature from TNG, it doesn't seem to go for planets and mostly killed people by accident.

Because if it doubles itself every time it adds up fast.

2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024

Even as big as the universe is, it starts getting getting out of hand pretty fast. You have a million of those things in 20 splits.

And we don't know what resources it consumes to do it. Something that big has to get fuel from *somewhere*.

Of course if it does that once every million years that's not too bad but if it does annually? Or monthly? However big space is that's going to become a problem for *someone*, *someplace* eventually. Especially if gets more complex.

Well yeah, that's what made me think. Unlike the crystalline entity, it mostly sits there and doesn't do much. So maybe the division process is very slow? It is the size of a planet. I assume since it feeds from nothing it's probably some interdimensional creature, so it still draws "food" from another dimension. Also, the episode mentions that the amoeba will affect anything on a radius of 1 LY, which is not that impressive, since most star systems are many more LY away (unless the closest one was closer than 1 LY). It would have been nice to mention if the creature can travel at warp, that way it's clear that they can't let it go, since it doesn't even have to pass through a star system to kill all life there. Or maybe they did and I missed it.

[Al-1701]

I'm looking forward to Chuck discussing the Crystalline Entity, which, to me, is just as great a threat as the space amoeba (and the Doomsday Machine), but somehow gets a pass for being borderline intelligent. (Its level of intelligence seems to vary between episodes.)

Intelligence means it can be negotiated with. Yes, it is still a threat, but it could be convinced to avoid planets with intelligent life. The Amoeba and Planet Killer can't be negotiated with.

[clearspira]

I'm looking forward to Chuck discussing the Crystalline Entity, which, to me, is just as great a threat as the space amoeba (and the Doomsday Machine), but somehow gets a pass for being borderline intelligent. (Its level of intelligence seems to vary between episodes.)

Intelligence means it can be negotiated with. Yes, it is still a threat, but it could be convinced to avoid planets with intelligent life. The Amoeba and Planet Killer can't be negotiated with.

Its like the Wraith from Stargate. Yes - you ''can'' talk to them - but the end problem is the same: they aren't killing us because they want to (mostly), they are killing us because they need to. We need to eat food, they need to eat Soylent Green.

As long as that remains true; there CANNOT be peace between us and the Wraith/Crystalline Entity. Why would it choose to starve to death? And yes, Picard mentions that they may be able to create a new source of energy for it, but ''may'' and ''can'' are two very different things.

[TGLS]

Its like the Wraith from Stargate. Yes - you ''can'' talk to them - but the end problem is the same: they aren't killing us because they want to (mostly), they are killing us because they need to. We need to eat food, they need to eat Soylent Green.

As long as that remains true; there CANNOT be peace between us and the Wraith/Crystalline Entity. Why would it choose to starve to death? And yes, Picard mentions that they may be able to create a new source of energy for it, but ''may'' and ''can'' are two very different things.

Well, let's be fair to the crystalline entity. It's eaten 12 planets yet only killed thousands of people. It can apparently subsist on other biological matter (or it just destroy golf courses for fun). In the classic BDO tradition, it might simply be unaware that other intelligent life exists.

[Fianna]

A lot depends on how literally we want to take Lore's comments about making a deal with the Crystalline Entity.

[Artabax]

As for the ridiculousness of the concept ... I'll admit, I'm by no means well-versed in exobiology, but to me it seems far more plausible that a planet-sized single-celled organism could exist than that life on alien planets would evolve to look exactly like humans (not counting some pointy ears or bumpy foreheads).

TNG had an explanation for that. Ancient alien race seeded the galaxy with DNA, which led to things coming out similar.

Still crazy, but at least *a* explanation beyond "thats what the makeup can afford."

And that is the Worst episode evah.
Evolution has a plan.
Therefore Humans will become Salamanders.
Evolution has NO plan. That's logical Captain.

[Thebestoftherest]

I almost think would have made more sense if they somehow devolved.