I remember sitting with a roommate, smokin' a fatty and watching the TNG episode "Genesis", then he turned to me and said, " What if Data caught the disease? He'd be all, 'Hey, I'm the wheel!'" LMAO!
Of course, Data and the wheel share a common ancestor, but for him to devolve into a wheel makes as much sense as Barclay devolving into a spider. If anything, he would devolve into a transistor. 😉
@@sinisterintelligence3568 lol, there were too many good times…we made a book to record these moments! My other fave ST comment was another roommate saying, “On Star Trek, when all else fails, it must be those damn aliens!”😂
he is basically, a walking computer, so I think he would de-evolve, into an abacus. or maybe his brain, would start running on windows 95 (internet edition). Or, a TRS-80, with MS-DOS. LMAO
I want to see just one episode in Star Trek where someone tries to explain something with evolution and another character interrupts them, saying that this is not actually how evolution works.
There were a few episodes where Seven would point out that sort of stuff early on, but then she caught whatever strange thing afflicted the rest of Voyager.
When it first aired, I refused to believe any group or individual could misunderstand basic science like this. I preferred to believe the writers were actively trolling us. It was a bet to see just how many ridiculous mockeries of real education they could get in a single episode.
These 'evolution' episodes where all written by one person? My theory that someone was trying to sneak 'creationism' into Star-trek isn't as flimsy as it should be....
I would've liked that. After all, it is often emphasized how much Data is alike a human. If you poke him, doesn't he bleed? And he is "fully functional"
The problem with these episodes comes from not just getting specific things wrong (which Trek does in other sciencey stuff and few people mind that much), but from a fundamental and pretty much ubiquitous in fiction misconception about biological evolution that's probably almost as old as Darwin publishing his ideas. Evolution is almost always depicted as getting "better". Growing more complex, more intelligent, stronger. "More evolved", so to speak. The reality being that there is no such thing. By evolutionary happenstance, humans have incredible intelligence, but it's not an inevitable "endpoint" of evolution nor are we guaranteed to follow the path to even more intelligence. We're not "more evolved" than, say, tapeworms. We're pretty much as good at being humans as tapeworms are at being tapeworms. But emotionally and story-wise, it doesn't "feel" right, so evolution is simplified to "organisms getting objectively better and better and better". This idea of "evolution makes species better at stuff objectively and generally" is arguably rooted in, or at least taking notes from, racist ideology of the Victorian era. Early ideas that humans are "advanced" lower apes or that animals from previous eras in Earth history were "less evolved" were very prevalent in Victorian and early 20th century fiction, such as "lost world" narratives or early depictions of dinosaurs as "primitive" clumsy brutes for no good reason. The idea that evolution will "lead" us to having a second heart or telepathy or whatever is a distant echo of that early misunderstanding and, thankfully, more subtle than "people from continents other than Europe are less advanced because Biology", which was fashionable for a time. So of course, Star Trek having humans arbitrarily change into salamanders "because evolution" is funny on its own, but it reflects the writers' (and pop culture's in general) stubborn notion that evolution happens for a Reason with a big "R". It's a "we're on the path towards being X, whatcha gonna do?", which is always silly, but more noticeable at a glance when "X" is "salamanders" rather than "superhuman".
An honorable notion should go to the "inofficial" finale (end of Fourth season with one more season being added as an afterthought) of Babylon 5 with the various futures, including one "a million years in the future" where humans have become the new energy beings, very close to the vorlons like Ambassador Kosh.
read All Tomorrows for a cool story about human evolution where evolution is depicted as the horrifically blind process it really is (and also humans are modified by an alien species that hates us, but hey, that’s evolution too)
The notion of a modern navy warship leaving an armed device floating away in the ocean currents, and the captain hopping out into a rowboat to go fetch it, is hilarious. Also, I feel if Riker _were_ "de-evolving" into a homo habilis or homo erectus or whatever, it wouldn't exactly rob him of his entire mind? Maybe he'd get a lot worse at numbers and letters, but, like, Picard would probably find him chilling in a corner somewhere, and Riker would just respond with an exasperated shrug and eye-roll and go back to whatever he was wasting time with while waiting for someone to fix it. Probably eating snacks and watching porn or something.
Should've had him devolve into Homo Florensis so it's just River behaving normally, but Frakes has to walk around on his knees the whole episode. I can imagine a few quips from riker about how he can't reach the consoles anymore only for data to remind him he at least still has his mental faculties. Then they hear Worf coming down the hall and Riker just looks up at Data and says "pick me up, and start running."
OK, you got all the evolutionary biology correct (and accurately characterized a certain scientist), but you missed the key objection. If a random webcam jockey and RUclips comedian from some podunk town on the East coast can get it right, how can a group of professional science fiction writers in Los Angeles fuck up the science so spectacularly? None of this stuff is that hard. They were getting paid to write it. They're in a big city with major universities packed with SF nerds who'd be overjoyed to consult on a show like Star Trek. You'd think a science fiction writer would have some respect for the "science" part of the term. What went wrong? Wasn't there a single competent person familiar with some basic science anywhere on the staff who would have raised a hand and said, "Uh, actually…"? What these episodes tell us is that there is a serious flaw in the culture of the production of entertainment. It would have taken so little effort to correct these egregious misconceptions, and better science might have made for a better show, yet that effort wasn't made. That tells me that at least in these instances, the goal of the Star Trek franchise was to churn out garbage for uncritical consumption rather than to make quality media.
It's the evolution equivalent of that clip from Limitless where the cop/fbi agent/whatever holds up a computer power supply and says "We got his hard drive". It straddles the line somewhere between "the average audience member won't notice" and "I dare you to put that in and see if Berman catches it" without realising Rick Berman was too busy harassing the female cast members to notice the science in the script being wrong.
@@PZMyersBiology Wait, he is parodying ~you~? What's with 14:13 then? I thought that was a reference to Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris? ETA: finally got to the end XD
I always wonder how things like this got made - how many people had to read this script before it was filmed? The director, the producers, the actors - and yet somehow this absolute rubbish made it onto the screen.
The process Pokemon go through is actually metamorphosis, but the Japanese version didn't use the right term apparently because of an unfortunate homonym (the word for 'metamorphosis' can also be read as 'perversion', the word for 'evolution' can also be read as 'progress').
I always head-cannoned that Barclay was related to an alien in his family history and that species Evolved from a spider-like creature. Loving the lecturer character he speaks almost exactly like a former uni lecturer I had. It’s spooky! 😂
It’s a specific famous misogynist busybody who took being right about the lack of any gods existing to mean his other beliefs are beyond question. P-Bo is a reference to a less prominent associated one who was about being a doofus at the time this video came out
Oh man, I was just waiting to hear, uh, Dichard Rawkins complain about how airport security confiscated his honey, and how that's a victory for Islam. Great analysis as always! I think the thing that has always bugged me about the way evolution is depicted in Star Trek is that it's more compatible with Intelligent Design creationism than evolution by natural selection. I don't mind it when there's a reason for it in the Trek "mythos," as in The Chase. But episodes like Threshold and the Phlox statement you pointed out might actively contribute to misunderstanding about science.
I mean, this is a far future society filled with hundreds of inter-fertile, intermingling sentient species, so while humans may not be descended from spiders, any given human maybe could be?
@@jasonknott6787 I think there are -- but most of them choose cosmetic surgery to blend in with the society they live in. (I do have an alternative theory that relies on taking ST technobabbly serious, though.) Long version: Altering the "shit on the forehead" seems to be a pretty trivial procedure, and in "Sub Rosa" (five episodes before "Genesys") Beverly talks about having changed her eye color the same casual way one would talk about, say, dyeing one's hair. So it's definitively possible that most hybrids (especially 2nd generation and later) would alter their appearance. Personally, I've always wondered if those cosmetic alterations are pretty commonplace in ST why we don't see more people with "obvious" bodymods, just like some people today have blue hair, piercings or a tattoo. Imo, it's pretty strange that everyone in ST chooses to look like they'd fit right into a 1990s TV family show. Literally every human in ST, including villains and edgy teenagers, seems to go for the same beauty ideal (a mixture of "effortless-looking natural beauty" and a Barbie/Ken doll aesthetic) for some reason. Maybe people in the future feel more pressured to fit into a very confined niche, depending on the planet they come from... definitively would explain why there are so many planets of hats where everyone has the same character concept. Or maybe the Eugenic Wars have caused a social taboo against visible bodymods. Alternatively, maybe people who have a wild mixture of Andorian, Klingon, Reman, Spider-Person, Salt Vampire and Tribble genes just naturally resemble earth humans. After all, the human form is the "average" form of humanoids according to canon (this is the reason why 99% of all people look *exactly* like humans) whereas the "shit on the forehead", telepathic powers etc are adaptions to extreme environments. Maybe those adaptions eventually cancel each other out or are surpressed by the "normal human" bits that all of those species seem to carry... bc for each "spider gene" our hypothetical hybrid *could* end up with there are at least 5 "non-altered" versions of the same gene. In fact, some genes may only "activate" in conjuction with other genes, so maybe the chance that our hybrid is basically indistinguishable from an earth human is even higher. (This is somewhat realistic and even more likely in the ST universe where supposed "junk DNA" can spontaneously do some really *crazy* and unpredictable stuff when they respond to seemingly random stimuli.)
@@jasonknott6787 "After all, if history teaches us anything, it's that if humans can have sex with something, they definitely will. " Not sure what history you've been studying, but from what I've read, Bestiality (which is what you're proposing here*) is, was, and always has been an exceptionally niche practice. It's not like there have been cultures where fucking, say, Chimpanzees (our closest living relative), or Dogs (probably our closest animal associates) has been normal, and the "all the people from 'over there' lose their virginity to a sheep/goat/donkey" stories always turn out to be bullshit. I'll concede that humans have bred with things that were, to all intents and purposes, very-nearly-almost-human-but-not-quite (other sapiens, and we have no idea whether the two groups regarded each other as 'people' or not), and will in all likelihood end up having sex with machines that are virtually indistinguishable from humans (think Replicants), but we've no serious history of attempting to breed with other species, outside of a handful of very disturbed individuals. *sleeping with, or having children with, a human from a radically different country, culture and background is literally just doing it with another human.
@@robynkolozsvari I actually thought it was a good gag, I just think it went on for way too long. I think the video would've been better if it went back to a normal format once the gag was done.
"I have better things to do with my time, such as using my influence to quietly blackball feminists from secular conferences and appearing on podcasts hosted by accused sex criminals..." I screamed! The entire skit was just brilliant and layered and on point for the kinds of things it was digging at too. Your effort and time that goes into your vids is always appreciated.
So much of popular culture doesn’t understand evolution. Pokemon is frankly the worst. I’m an evolutionary biologist, and getting DMs on Twitter from people thinking evolution is like in Pokemon is frankly torturous.
I can live with fiction taking such liberties, but there are "doctors" that try to explain YEC is more reasonable cause Evoltuion "teaches pokemon concepts"... Hovind is one of the most annoying examples of this with his blob lying in waiting for 100 million years to then decide spontaneously to become a dog and being sad that no female dog decided to evolve for them. And while the Charlatans selling this crap may not actually believe it their brainwashed followers accept it unquestioningly...
@@10000spidersinatrenchcoat It also was a game mechanic that works pretty well. Digimon did even one better, turning most of the "evolutions" into a reversible thing just for the action climax "powerboost" necessary for the narrative structure so the spectacular effects were usable many many times (okay it also kind of sucks that so much was reused all the time, buying time like the transformations in most of the Senshi team style series from Sailor Moon to Power Rangers) Still it should be painfully obvious that this has got nothing to do with biological evolution in any respect...
@ 18:30 "Star Trek solves this problem (that nothing can go faster than light) by inventing subspace, in which the ships can travel many times the speed of light." *Pushes glasses up nose* Actually, Star Trek warp drive seems to be related to Alcubierre drive, the "warp" part refers to warping normal space around the ship. "Subspace" explains how a ship that's 30 light years from Earth can have a facetime conversation with an admiral back at headquarters, they use "subspace radio", radio being able to go much faster in subspace than in real space. In the episode "Schisms" the aliens abducting people come from some subspace dimension. So warp uses real space and subspace is like parallel dimensions with different laws of physics. Other than that episode I don't recall any other time that Trek characters actually traveled into or through subspace.
There are lots of things wrong with being a Calvinist. Even if you are not Mother Nature. One of the most reproachable forms of evangelical reformation humans have come up with yet.
“Going a long way for a vague inside joke that only a small fraction of your audience will get.” I see you, Steve. Good meta-commentary about this video.
@@MyMagnificentOctopus So he really does talk like that. I don't think I've ever heard him speak, except briefly when he was playing himself in an episode of Dr Who.
I know science in star trek is often comically wrong, especially in genesis. But i thought it was a fun watch. Barclay turns into a spider monster, it makes no sense but its fun to watch him scare picard. And worf being a terrible crab monster is fun too.
I am 40 seconds into this video and I already want more of this series. It's perfect. Everything about it. Topic? Perfect. Level of satire? Perfect. Performance of a unique and funny character? Perfect. I think you've found your wheel-house with this one Steve.
That was kinda confusing. Dawkins was always weird, he never seemed able to distinguish between metaphorical and literal statements. But when he was younger he wasn't offensively weird.
An intersting evolution problem comes up in the episode "Homeward." When Nikolai moves the villagers to a new planet, if these poeple survive and become the dominant species of the planet, they could never come up with a theory of evolution. Well, at least as far as their own species is concerned. They will have no relation to the native life on this new planet. They will be a society of creationists, and they will have no scientific evidence to disprove this idea.
@@logiciananimal Or the Federation could just go back and tell them. The Prime Directive only makes some sense if we engage in Starfleet's "hit it and quit it" style interventionism.
And while we might explain this as "Oh, well they're a technologically advanced species, so they'll always have a record of this", but for how long? We humans in real life are a technologically advanced species, yet the mountain where the US stores its nuclear waste has signs written in several languages so that if generations thousands of years in the future find it, they would stay away from it. To sum it up: "This is a message from us who considered ourselves a powerful culture. This is not a place of honour, no great deed commemorated, nothing of value in store. What's in here is repulsive to us and was dangerous to us as it is to you. It is a place to be shunned"
I always thought that it would be an interesting piece of connective tissue if they had related the ancient humanoid from The Chase to the Changelings. Since Salome Jens plays the humanoid and the female changeling.
@Steve, please know that I listened to 4 minutes and 50 seconds of this before not only realizing it was a parody, but that it was YOU as the professor...good job.
paul clayton to be fair, all humanoids in trek were placed there by a founding species which existed millions of years ago using their own genome. So it isn’t entirely out of the question.
I think Enterprise mentioned gene therapy for Humans and Vulcans after T'Pol and Trip's child dies. I haven't seen that episode in years, though. Could be wrong.
Pokemon mostly just uses the word "evolution" to describe metamorphosis; which probably sounds less incorrect in Japanese. There are a few references to actual change-between-generations evolution in Pokemon too, and they don't really get it wrong.
My opinion seems to be on the minority, but I loved that character, and I would be happy to see more of him in the future. Maybe it's because of how I was sold on Dawkins Bull shit about 10 or more years ago.
Tired of people telling him to stop politicizing his videos, Steve creates this beautiful 6 minute opening which is basically a wonderful puree of all his content. Outstanding, sir.
Generally speaking, every time science fiction tries to incorporate evolution as a plot point, they get it REALLY wrong. But Star Trek is one of the worst offenders. I don't think I've seen a single time when the principle has been invoked in any series of Star Trek and the writers have shown they know what it is or how it works.
I actually did part of my dissertation on evolution in TV space opera, mostly Babylon 5. I enjoyed this video; the examples you give highlight the genre’s investment in progressivist evolution. Both Star Trek and Babylon 5 also invoke full-on Neo-Lamarckian evolution toward super beings with beings like the Metrons and Organians in the TOS and Shadows and Vorlons in B5. In general, the Neo-Lamarckian view is divorced from ecological context (and selective pressures). As an out-group, I’d put forward Lexx as a TV space opera in which “human” history is cyclical rather than progressive and the universe highly ecologically contextual. Thanks for diving into these issues and giving me a chance to spout off!
Some people feel you are burning Dawkins, some people said Thunderf00t, and I realized that it actually works for either one :-) (Although thunderf00t is a chemist )
I thought you'd talk about "Distant Origin" from the third season of Voyager. They determine the alien they encounter must be evolved from hadrosaurs. Not as extreme as the examples you present, and, as I recall the science isn't as bad, but another example of the idea of evolution following a predictable path towards the intelligent, humanoid form.
I think many of the people registering their displeasure with the Dawkins bit are inadvertently giving glowing reviews. Yes, the man is gear grinding. Steve nailed that.
Threshold kind of broke Voyager's whole premise. They could just use warp 10 to get home in no time, then simply have the doctor reverse all the mutations.
Frankly, Star Trek doesn't understand science, period. As a life time fan the long running claims of science realism in Trek have always been befuddling.
Going to be quite honest here... I tapped the video and put my phone in my pocket...and thought for a good 5 minutes that I was listening to Richard Dawkins. Only feeling a bit silly when I checked a notification and saw you, Steve, with the wig etc. I actually laughed! 10/10 would listen blind again!
sinwithagrin That sounds so hilariously contrary to reality that one would be inclined to imagine that your words are parroting some nonsense retweet rather than a realistic conclusion reached from a misapprehension of things he’s said or done.
Funnily enough, I saw this episode a couple of weeks ago and thought similar things. What stood out more to me was how blasé everyone was once it was over. I mean, there's civilians with a school on the Enterprise. "Mummy, why are you trying to eat my face?" Also, great work Steve. I just found your channel a week ago and am currently binging through all your stuff. Gonna check out your podcast too when I get time. Keep up the good work.
The Chase drives me nuts. It's the worst explanation given for the fact that human shaped is the only shape actors come in, which is something people aren't even really paying attention to, so it doesn't need an explanation.
This is the coolest thing I've seen in some time. I like the Dawkins satire both mechanistically and because he seems to have become a completely different person in the last 20 years. It's now hard for me to separate his deep knowledge of evolution and his revolutionary early thought experiments from his often insane social and political commentary. Thanks!
“...where they find Riker, who seems his usual self.” That’s the joke me and my brother would always make when we watched this episode, way back when. Riker was always the brunt of all our jokes, whether he was constantly planting his foot on Data’s console or kicking his leg around a chair when sat down in Ten Forward. Fucking Riker...he often comes off like the high school star quarterback. Well, at least he likes jazz.
Somebody needs to talk about the voyager episode when the doctor was trapped on a planet where Voyager was a museum. Voyager never explained that episode
Do you mean "Living Witness"? Season 4 Episode 23. A backup copy of the doctor is activated 700 years in the future. Too long to explain but you can google it.
This is why I enjoy your channel. In this video I don’t know if you thought this would be funny on its own or if you knew you were going to get grief over discussing this subject and thought “if I’m going to be called an intellectual snob I might as well go full Lebowski” either way I enjoy your humor Steve Shives
I hate data's description of introns as well. They are not obsolete junk. They are actually very important for gene expression. They allow genes to make multiple different expression products, and also help enhance gene expression by stabilizing the pre-mrna with the splicing machinery. When we make constructs in the lab we often leave an intron in to help the expression. Also just preventing the splicing by "activating" the introns would probably just immediately kill you since most of your gene products would be thrown out of frame and would therefore be non-functional.
it also bothers me that humans and all of the aliens can for some reason eat food from each others planets. the reason we can digest and use food for energy is because everything on earth evolved from a common ancestor, and therefore uses the same basic building blocks (sugars, amino acids, nucleotides etc...) there is 0 reason any alien flora or fauna would use the same building blocks since they evolved completely independently of humans, they wouldn't use DNA for genetic material, there is no reason they would use amino acids for building blocks of proteins (or whatever you could call their equivalent) and so anything made of this stuff would be completely indigestible by humans and vice versa.
dilithium crystals or not the energy source, it more like the piston of the engine. they work by focusing the near infant matter-antimatter explosion, more focus more speed
1) @2:00 Never mind burns; Steve took a phaser and VAPORIZED Richard Dawkins and Harvard. The call out of the bs was excellent 2) Genesis was so, so wrong and so deeply bad 3) Trying to make sense of a Voyager. Yikes. But seriously, thank you for pointing out the abandoned babies bit because I thought I was crazy to think about that. Janeway had babies and ABANDONED THEM ON A PLANET SOMEWHERE. 4) @24:30 OMG, that was an ouch! 5) Mother Nature is NOT a Calvinist- this is a phrase for a T- shirt!
@@Terminalsanity Dawkins definitely does both of those as well. Honestly I blame him for pushing online atheism in that direction, after he discovered Twitter.
Well done, I particularly congratulate you on depicting the sanctimonious git as he deserves. You did a nice job covering the problems with most TV writers trying to use technical concepts as the basis of conflict in an episode. I hope Dr Myers gives this Trek, Actually a good review.
I remember sitting with a roommate, smokin' a fatty and watching the TNG episode "Genesis", then he turned to me and said, " What if Data caught the disease? He'd be all, 'Hey, I'm the wheel!'" LMAO!
Of course, Data and the wheel share a common ancestor, but for him to devolve into a wheel makes as much sense as Barclay devolving into a spider.
If anything, he would devolve into a transistor. 😉
LMAO love it love it... at first was like huh ?? data de-evolve... that was good quick mind thanx friend 🙏🙂🖖V3
@@sinisterintelligence3568 lol, there were too many good times…we made a book to record these moments! My other fave ST comment was another roommate saying, “On Star Trek, when all else fails, it must be those damn aliens!”😂
@@clarissathompson Sounds like you were on a 5 Blunt Mission hehehe
he is basically, a walking computer, so I think he would de-evolve, into an abacus. or maybe his brain, would start running on windows 95 (internet edition). Or, a TRS-80, with MS-DOS. LMAO
I want to see just one episode in Star Trek where someone tries to explain something with evolution and another character interrupts them, saying that this is not actually how evolution works.
I side with sfdebris that the best time for that is the episode where neelix gets the disease that turns you into an atom bomb.
There were a few episodes where Seven would point out that sort of stuff early on, but then she caught whatever strange thing afflicted the rest of Voyager.
I can’t hear anything over that shirt.
it's loud , isn't it?
(edit - spelling)
WHAT? I COULDN'T HEAR YOUR QUESTION OVER THAT LOUD SHIRT. I THINK MY EYES ARE DEAF.
THANK YOU STEVE! I'M SURE I'D HAVE LOVED THE VIDEO!
I am liking that shirt just wish it was short sleeved. I do not do long sleeves. 😀
WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THAT SHIRT!
That shirt has taken him hostage and wants to be sent back to the 70s.
I think "Branon Braga doesn't actually understand evolution" would be more fitting.
Brannon Braga also doesn't actually understand Star Trek.
When it first aired, I refused to believe any group or individual could misunderstand basic science like this. I preferred to believe the writers were actively trolling us. It was a bet to see just how many ridiculous mockeries of real education they could get in a single episode.
To paraphrase SFDebris: "Brannon, how can you run a science fiction show,when you apparently don't understand neither science nor fiction?"
Eh
I'm all for criticizing that particular man, but TOS had issues with it too.
These 'evolution' episodes where all written by one person?
My theory that someone was trying to sneak 'creationism' into Star-trek isn't as flimsy as it should be....
What I don't get about the Genesis episode is why Data didn't devolve into a MacBook Pro? Not enough time exposed to the virus?
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
That and android.
No DNA?
Data clearly evolved from an arch linux desktop.
I would've liked that. After all, it is often emphasized how much Data is alike a human. If you poke him, doesn't he bleed? And he is "fully functional"
The problem with these episodes comes from not just getting specific things wrong (which Trek does in other sciencey stuff and few people mind that much), but from a fundamental and pretty much ubiquitous in fiction misconception about biological evolution that's probably almost as old as Darwin publishing his ideas.
Evolution is almost always depicted as getting "better". Growing more complex, more intelligent, stronger. "More evolved", so to speak.
The reality being that there is no such thing. By evolutionary happenstance, humans have incredible intelligence, but it's not an inevitable "endpoint" of evolution nor are we guaranteed to follow the path to even more intelligence. We're not "more evolved" than, say, tapeworms. We're pretty much as good at being humans as tapeworms are at being tapeworms.
But emotionally and story-wise, it doesn't "feel" right, so evolution is simplified to "organisms getting objectively better and better and better".
This idea of "evolution makes species better at stuff objectively and generally" is arguably rooted in, or at least taking notes from, racist ideology of the Victorian era. Early ideas that humans are "advanced" lower apes or that animals from previous eras in Earth history were "less evolved" were very prevalent in Victorian and early 20th century fiction, such as "lost world" narratives or early depictions of dinosaurs as "primitive" clumsy brutes for no good reason. The idea that evolution will "lead" us to having a second heart or telepathy or whatever is a distant echo of that early misunderstanding and, thankfully, more subtle than "people from continents other than Europe are less advanced because Biology", which was fashionable for a time.
So of course, Star Trek having humans arbitrarily change into salamanders "because evolution" is funny on its own, but it reflects the writers' (and pop culture's in general) stubborn notion that evolution happens for a Reason with a big "R". It's a "we're on the path towards being X, whatcha gonna do?", which is always silly, but more noticeable at a glance when "X" is "salamanders" rather than "superhuman".
An honorable notion should go to the "inofficial" finale (end of Fourth season with one more season being added as an afterthought) of Babylon 5 with the various futures, including one "a million years in the future" where humans have become the new energy beings, very close to the vorlons like Ambassador Kosh.
read All Tomorrows for a cool story about human evolution where evolution is depicted as the horrifically blind process it really is (and also humans are modified by an alien species that hates us, but hey, that’s evolution too)
The opening was funny in concept but overstayed it's welcome.
Yes
Agreed
@@killwalker If you played it at 1.75 normal it was a lot better paced.
Wasn't that the point?
I agree. I enjoyed the send-up of Dawkins, but it didn't work as a prolonged framing for the main content. They didn't complement each other.
The notion of a modern navy warship leaving an armed device floating away in the ocean currents, and the captain hopping out into a rowboat to go fetch it, is hilarious.
Also, I feel if Riker _were_ "de-evolving" into a homo habilis or homo erectus or whatever, it wouldn't exactly rob him of his entire mind? Maybe he'd get a lot worse at numbers and letters, but, like, Picard would probably find him chilling in a corner somewhere, and Riker would just respond with an exasperated shrug and eye-roll and go back to whatever he was wasting time with while waiting for someone to fix it. Probably eating snacks and watching porn or something.
Should've had him devolve into Homo Florensis so it's just River behaving normally, but Frakes has to walk around on his knees the whole episode.
I can imagine a few quips from riker about how he can't reach the consoles anymore only for data to remind him he at least still has his mental faculties. Then they hear Worf coming down the hall and Riker just looks up at Data and says "pick me up, and start running."
Breaking: Richard Dawkins has been rushed to the hospital with third-degree burns on his back side.
Sorry to ask , who is he?
@@sunnybecky81 author of The God Delusion (atheist book) and The Selfish Gene (evolution book where he coins the word meme.)
Haha. Love it. Him and hitchenson really sour people on atheism. Oh And Maher. Atheism as guise for islamaphobia and misogyny. Blech.
Dawkins. I thought he was burning Thunderf00t
@@sunnybecky81 The former Mr Layla Ward.
OK, you got all the evolutionary biology correct (and accurately characterized a certain scientist), but you missed the key objection. If a random webcam jockey and RUclips comedian from some podunk town on the East coast can get it right, how can a group of professional science fiction writers in Los Angeles fuck up the science so spectacularly? None of this stuff is that hard. They were getting paid to write it. They're in a big city with major universities packed with SF nerds who'd be overjoyed to consult on a show like Star Trek. You'd think a science fiction writer would have some respect for the "science" part of the term. What went wrong? Wasn't there a single competent person familiar with some basic science anywhere on the staff who would have raised a hand and said, "Uh, actually…"?
What these episodes tell us is that there is a serious flaw in the culture of the production of entertainment. It would have taken so little effort to correct these egregious misconceptions, and better science might have made for a better show, yet that effort wasn't made. That tells me that at least in these instances, the goal of the Star Trek franchise was to churn out garbage for uncritical consumption rather than to make quality media.
Also, I used to have that shirt, but I got better.
It's the evolution equivalent of that clip from Limitless where the cop/fbi agent/whatever holds up a computer power supply and says "We got his hard drive". It straddles the line somewhere between "the average audience member won't notice" and "I dare you to put that in and see if Berman catches it" without realising Rick Berman was too busy harassing the female cast members to notice the science in the script being wrong.
Thanks for selling me the shirt so cheaply, by the way.
@@PZMyersBiology Wait, he is parodying ~you~?
What's with 14:13 then? I thought that was a reference to Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris?
ETA: finally got to the end XD
I always wonder how things like this got made - how many people had to read this script before it was filmed? The director, the producers, the actors - and yet somehow this absolute rubbish made it onto the screen.
Steve: Star Trek doesn't understand evolution.
Pokemon: I'm about to end this man's whole career.
The process Pokemon go through is actually metamorphosis, but the Japanese version didn't use the right term apparently because of an unfortunate homonym (the word for 'metamorphosis' can also be read as 'perversion', the word for 'evolution' can also be read as 'progress').
@@jy3n2 Wait, I knew that henkai and hentai sounded the same, but not that hentai ALSO meant metamorphosis!
I always head-cannoned that Barclay was related to an alien in his family history and that species Evolved from a spider-like creature.
Loving the lecturer character he speaks almost exactly like a former uni lecturer I had. It’s spooky! 😂
It’s a specific famous misogynist busybody who took being right about the lack of any gods existing to mean his other beliefs are beyond question.
P-Bo is a reference to a less prominent associated one who was about being a doofus at the time this video came out
Oh man, I was just waiting to hear, uh, Dichard Rawkins complain about how airport security confiscated his honey, and how that's a victory for Islam.
Great analysis as always! I think the thing that has always bugged me about the way evolution is depicted in Star Trek is that it's more compatible with Intelligent Design creationism than evolution by natural selection.
I don't mind it when there's a reason for it in the Trek "mythos," as in The Chase. But episodes like Threshold and the Phlox statement you pointed out might actively contribute to misunderstanding about science.
Also, judging from Tom's appearance, is Voyager saying at some point human evolution will turn us into Pepe the Frog?
All hail the Hypno Toad!
Oh gods, I have screamed at the TV during SO MANY episodes where this kind of silliness has come up.
I mean, this is a far future society filled with hundreds of inter-fertile, intermingling sentient species, so while humans may not be descended from spiders, any given human maybe could be?
@@jasonknott6787 Seriously. I saw headlines about that and I was like "Yeah, no shit, of course our ancestors boned neanderthals."
I like to fantasize about that.
@@jasonknott6787 I think there are -- but most of them choose cosmetic surgery to blend in with the society they live in.
(I do have an alternative theory that relies on taking ST technobabbly serious, though.)
Long version:
Altering the "shit on the forehead" seems to be a pretty trivial procedure, and in "Sub Rosa" (five episodes before "Genesys") Beverly talks about having changed her eye color the same casual way one would talk about, say, dyeing one's hair. So it's definitively possible that most hybrids (especially 2nd generation and later) would alter their appearance.
Personally, I've always wondered if those cosmetic alterations are pretty commonplace in ST why we don't see more people with "obvious" bodymods, just like some people today have blue hair, piercings or a tattoo. Imo, it's pretty strange that everyone in ST chooses to look like they'd fit right into a 1990s TV family show. Literally every human in ST, including villains and edgy teenagers, seems to go for the same beauty ideal (a mixture of "effortless-looking natural beauty" and a Barbie/Ken doll aesthetic) for some reason. Maybe people in the future feel more pressured to fit into a very confined niche, depending on the planet they come from... definitively would explain why there are so many planets of hats where everyone has the same character concept. Or maybe the Eugenic Wars have caused a social taboo against visible bodymods.
Alternatively, maybe people who have a wild mixture of Andorian, Klingon, Reman, Spider-Person, Salt Vampire and Tribble genes just naturally resemble earth humans. After all, the human form is the "average" form of humanoids according to canon (this is the reason why 99% of all people look *exactly* like humans) whereas the "shit on the forehead", telepathic powers etc are adaptions to extreme environments. Maybe those adaptions eventually cancel each other out or are surpressed by the "normal human" bits that all of those species seem to carry... bc for each "spider gene" our hypothetical hybrid *could* end up with there are at least 5 "non-altered" versions of the same gene.
In fact, some genes may only "activate" in conjuction with other genes, so maybe the chance that our hybrid is basically indistinguishable from an earth human is even higher. (This is somewhat realistic and even more likely in the ST universe where supposed "junk DNA" can spontaneously do some really *crazy* and unpredictable stuff when they respond to seemingly random stimuli.)
@@jasonknott6787 "After all, if history teaches us anything, it's that if humans can have sex with something, they definitely will. "
Not sure what history you've been studying, but from what I've read, Bestiality (which is what you're proposing here*) is, was, and always has been an exceptionally niche practice. It's not like there have been cultures where fucking, say, Chimpanzees (our closest living relative), or Dogs (probably our closest animal associates) has been normal, and the "all the people from 'over there' lose their virginity to a sheep/goat/donkey" stories always turn out to be bullshit.
I'll concede that humans have bred with things that were, to all intents and purposes, very-nearly-almost-human-but-not-quite (other sapiens, and we have no idea whether the two groups regarded each other as 'people' or not), and will in all likelihood end up having sex with machines that are virtually indistinguishable from humans (think Replicants), but we've no serious history of attempting to breed with other species, outside of a handful of very disturbed individuals.
*sleeping with, or having children with, a human from a radically different country, culture and background is literally just doing it with another human.
@@jasonknott6787 Because prosthetics for all extras are expansive :P
I tend to think of the use of the word "evolution" in Star Trek as just shorthand for "whatever this process is that's changing them biologically." 😂
there is a word for it and it's "Metamorphosis"
I see a bunch of folks disparaging your Dawkins bit so I wanted to let you know I enjoyed every long and drawn out minute of it!
the bit is torturous but in the best of ways
@@robynkolozsvari I actually thought it was a good gag, I just think it went on for way too long. I think the video would've been better if it went back to a normal format once the gag was done.
@@StormsparkPegasus Being verbose and going on for too long is kind of Dawkins thing, so the bit is fitting.
I hope you go to jail for that couch you murdered to make that shirt.
"I have better things to do with my time, such as using my influence to quietly blackball feminists from secular conferences and appearing on podcasts hosted by accused sex criminals..." I screamed! The entire skit was just brilliant and layered and on point for the kinds of things it was digging at too. Your effort and time that goes into your vids is always appreciated.
So much of popular culture doesn’t understand evolution. Pokemon is frankly the worst. I’m an evolutionary biologist, and getting DMs on Twitter from people thinking evolution is like in Pokemon is frankly torturous.
I don't remember, but I think the original translation was more akin to "metamorphosis" than "evolution."
I was the target age for Pokémon when it came out and understood it was just being silly for fun... maybe people are dumber than I hope
I can live with fiction taking such liberties, but there are "doctors" that try to explain YEC is more reasonable cause Evoltuion "teaches pokemon concepts"... Hovind is one of the most annoying examples of this with his blob lying in waiting for 100 million years to then decide spontaneously to become a dog and being sad that no female dog decided to evolve for them. And while the Charlatans selling this crap may not actually believe it their brainwashed followers accept it unquestioningly...
@@10000spidersinatrenchcoat It also was a game mechanic that works pretty well. Digimon did even one better, turning most of the "evolutions" into a reversible thing just for the action climax "powerboost" necessary for the narrative structure so the spectacular effects were usable many many times (okay it also kind of sucks that so much was reused all the time, buying time like the transformations in most of the Senshi team style series from Sailor Moon to Power Rangers) Still it should be painfully obvious that this has got nothing to do with biological evolution in any respect...
Pokemon evolving isnt evolution, its basically metamorphasis. Pokemon ahould have called it that
The 70's wants its shirt back to cover its loveseat.
I would actually say the 60’s wants it shirt back to be traded for some drugs at Woodstock. ✌🏼
When do we get the Hunyboye/Whirly debate?
YES! That would be so awesome! Can you do this Steve?
Not sure they'd have much of anything to disagree on.
this would be amazing
Omg, yes. Steve. Do this.
@ 18:30 "Star Trek solves this problem (that nothing can go faster than light) by inventing subspace, in which the ships can travel many times the speed of light." *Pushes glasses up nose* Actually, Star Trek warp drive seems to be related to Alcubierre drive, the "warp" part refers to warping normal space around the ship. "Subspace" explains how a ship that's 30 light years from Earth can have a facetime conversation with an admiral back at headquarters, they use "subspace radio", radio being able to go much faster in subspace than in real space. In the episode "Schisms" the aliens abducting people come from some subspace dimension. So warp uses real space and subspace is like parallel dimensions with different laws of physics. Other than that episode I don't recall any other time that Trek characters actually traveled into or through subspace.
Rawkins: "Mother Nature is not a Calvinist."
Me: "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
Or Hunyboye, as the case may be
I so loved that joke, and the prolonged pause as he waited for laughter.
There are lots of things wrong with being a Calvinist. Even if you are not Mother Nature.
One of the most reproachable forms of evangelical reformation humans have come up with yet.
@JohnnyTheWolf
And Hobbes himself would have likely been a Calvinist in his youth
I think I might tell The Professor that She kind of is.
This whole episode had me in stitches, and the Richard Dawkings conceit elevated this to pure gold. Fantastic work!!!
10:31 they find riker, who seems his usual self
Okay, a Horrors of Spider Island reference? EXCELLENT!
I came here for Star Trek. I'm 3 minutes in and I just witnessed a murder.
"...that scene that steve forgot to talk about"
Lol
A month later and i still get the love? Thanks brother 😀
How stoked are you for ST:Picard?
The not-Dawkins scenes were annoying, mainly because of how slow he talks.
Playback speed controls made it a little better. 1.75 was still intelligible, but it dragged a lot less.
it was slow even at 1.5x normal speed :-) was a good opening bit but was over played.
Though credit where credit is due, I have to set Dawkins to fast playback too, so I guess Steve did capture his style.
“Going a long way for a vague inside joke that only a small fraction of your audience will get.”
I see you, Steve. Good meta-commentary about this video.
@@MyMagnificentOctopus
So he really does talk like that.
I don't think I've ever heard him speak, except briefly when he was playing himself in an episode of Dr Who.
Wow, that shirt hurts.
It's the sort of item that would have made an old tube-style TV set buzz. I am in envy, sir.
I know science in star trek is often comically wrong, especially in genesis. But i thought it was a fun watch. Barclay turns into a spider monster, it makes no sense but its fun to watch him scare picard. And worf being a terrible crab monster is fun too.
I am 40 seconds into this video and I already want more of this series. It's perfect. Everything about it. Topic? Perfect. Level of satire? Perfect. Performance of a unique and funny character? Perfect. I think you've found your wheel-house with this one Steve.
Dressing up as young Richard Dawkins while quoting him in his later years confused me at first, but once I figure it out, it gave me LIFE! LMAO
That was kinda confusing.
Dawkins was always weird, he never seemed able to distinguish between metaphorical and literal statements.
But when he was younger he wasn't offensively weird.
I watched this just shortly after Steve's episode on why he no longer identifies as part of the "New Atheist" community.
"Mother nature is not a Calvinist". I'm going to use that!
I can't describe how much I love that line!
An intersting evolution problem comes up in the episode "Homeward." When Nikolai moves the villagers to a new planet, if these poeple survive and become the dominant species of the planet, they could never come up with a theory of evolution. Well, at least as far as their own species is concerned. They will have no relation to the native life on this new planet. They will be a society of creationists, and they will have no scientific evidence to disprove this idea.
This is one reason why the Prime Directive has merit (which is not to say it should be sacrosanct).
That's a fascinating point!
@@logiciananimal Or the Federation could just go back and tell them. The Prime Directive only makes some sense if we engage in Starfleet's "hit it and quit it" style interventionism.
And while we might explain this as "Oh, well they're a technologically advanced species, so they'll always have a record of this", but for how long? We humans in real life are a technologically advanced species, yet the mountain where the US stores its nuclear waste has signs written in several languages so that if generations thousands of years in the future find it, they would stay away from it.
To sum it up: "This is a message from us who considered ourselves a powerful culture. This is not a place of honour, no great deed commemorated, nothing of value in store. What's in here is repulsive to us and was dangerous to us as it is to you. It is a place to be shunned"
I can't believe you ruined a set of drapes to make this video. :)
The timing and delivery on, "Worf turns into...Doomsday or something..." almost made me spray my beverage. Good one, sir.
I always thought that it would be an interesting piece of connective tissue if they had related the ancient humanoid from The Chase to the Changelings. Since Salome Jens plays the humanoid and the female changeling.
@5:34 should skip you to the actual Trek, Actually bit
Not going to lie. I loved Genesis. Freaked me the hell out as a kid. Still one of my favorite episodes.
That "men of science" bit was on point.
@Steve, please know that I listened to 4 minutes and 50 seconds of this before not only realizing it was a parody, but that it was YOU as the professor...good job.
i mean any show where species that evolved on different planets but can somehow interbreed
suggests it doesn't know much about biology
paul clayton to be fair, all humanoids in trek were placed there by a founding species which existed millions of years ago using their own genome. So it isn’t entirely out of the question.
I think Enterprise mentioned gene therapy for Humans and Vulcans after T'Pol and Trip's child dies. I haven't seen that episode in years, though. Could be wrong.
I mean, I always ascribed to this being made possible by future tech and medical practices...?
@@DayneGodwin same was implied way before when people pointed out spock's existence is --- illogical.
@@tonoornottono
Yep. They did give canonical answer to the problem, showing that their science advisors did earn their money.
Fridge logic: 3 days.... 3... days unable to use replicators... 3 days of the crew eating eachother....
Steve: Star Trek Doesn't Actually Understand Evolution
Me: Let me introduce you to Pokémon
Pokemon mostly just uses the word "evolution" to describe metamorphosis; which probably sounds less incorrect in Japanese. There are a few references to actual change-between-generations evolution in Pokemon too, and they don't really get it wrong.
what about digmon
That professor bit was funny but I'm so glad it wasn't the whole video because he speaks really slow.
ah yes this is why I now watch everything at a 1.75 speed boost
He was kinda Shatnering. Just a bit.
@@deannaalbert672
Interesting verb.
My opinion seems to be on the minority, but I loved that character, and I would be happy to see more of him in the future. Maybe it's because of how I was sold on Dawkins Bull shit about 10 or more years ago.
Tired of people telling him to stop politicizing his videos, Steve creates this beautiful 6 minute opening which is basically a wonderful puree of all his content. Outstanding, sir.
Generally speaking, every time science fiction tries to incorporate evolution as a plot point, they get it REALLY wrong. But Star Trek is one of the worst offenders. I don't think I've seen a single time when the principle has been invoked in any series of Star Trek and the writers have shown they know what it is or how it works.
This was beautifully produced. Thank you so much for this absolute GIFT.
Threshold is the best Voyager episode ever. If you disagree...
Then you don't have a vacuum for a brian. It sucked.
the one with the clowns had to be the worst, I couldn't even finish that episode
@JohnnyTheWolf
Voyager is usually at its best when it embraces the ridiculous.
The scientist giving the talk is quite annoying. Less of that.
He was hilarious. Unfortunately the audience didn’t get his wrt humor. I’d love to see more of him.
More boring than annoying. I like Steves points of view on things but his bits really need work.
Keep trying new things! But yeah, this parody felt a bit long to me.
The annoyingness is entirely intentional.
I actually did part of my dissertation on evolution in TV space opera, mostly Babylon 5. I enjoyed this video; the examples you give highlight the genre’s investment in progressivist evolution. Both Star Trek and Babylon 5 also invoke full-on Neo-Lamarckian evolution toward super beings with beings like the Metrons and Organians in the TOS and Shadows and Vorlons in B5. In general, the Neo-Lamarckian view is divorced from ecological context (and selective pressures). As an out-group, I’d put forward Lexx as a TV space opera in which “human” history is cyclical rather than progressive and the universe highly ecologically contextual. Thanks for diving into these issues and giving me a chance to spout off!
Now I'm really hoping this Professor character get his own series.
Patrick Wall Called “How To Make A Shirt That’s Also A War Crime”.
Some people feel you are burning Dawkins, some people said Thunderf00t, and I realized that it actually works for either one :-)
(Although thunderf00t is a chemist )
I thought you'd talk about "Distant Origin" from the third season of Voyager. They determine the alien they encounter must be evolved from hadrosaurs. Not as extreme as the examples you present, and, as I recall the science isn't as bad, but another example of the idea of evolution following a predictable path towards the intelligent, humanoid form.
Oops. I don't know anything about Richard Dawkins, so I missed that it wasn't a generic cariacature.
Dawkins has become a generic character.
Paris should have evolved into a star baby.
I'm an evolutionary biologist so my eyes lit up when i saw this in my sub feed when i got home... yes posting before watching.
I think many of the people registering their displeasure with the Dawkins bit are inadvertently giving glowing reviews. Yes, the man is gear grinding. Steve nailed that.
Threshold kind of broke Voyager's whole premise. They could just use warp 10 to get home in no time, then simply have the doctor reverse all the mutations.
Thats what I through too. The doc would feel side effects from the warp 10 jump. So it wouldn't have been a issue to reverse the symptoms.
Frankly, Star Trek doesn't understand science, period. As a life time fan the long running claims of science realism in Trek have always been befuddling.
Going to be quite honest here... I tapped the video and put my phone in my pocket...and thought for a good 5 minutes that I was listening to Richard Dawkins. Only feeling a bit silly when I checked a notification and saw you, Steve, with the wig etc. I actually laughed! 10/10 would listen blind again!
Yeah, I think this was overindulging a bit.
Honestly, Olly Thorn probably has a better, and more accurately representative shirt you could have borrowed for this character.
@sinwithagrin When and where was Olly transphobic or antisemitic?
sinwithagrin That sounds so hilariously contrary to reality that one would be inclined to imagine that your words are parroting some nonsense retweet rather than a realistic conclusion reached from a misapprehension of things he’s said or done.
What is with minor Star Trek characters becoming iguanas. Data's cat and Tina need to start a support group.
Funnily enough, I saw this episode a couple of weeks ago and thought similar things. What stood out more to me was how blasé everyone was once it was over. I mean, there's civilians with a school on the Enterprise. "Mummy, why are you trying to eat my face?" Also, great work Steve. I just found your channel a week ago and am currently binging through all your stuff. Gonna check out your podcast too when I get time. Keep up the good work.
"Show me the evidence. Show me the evidence. Show me the evidence..."
The Chase drives me nuts. It's the worst explanation given for the fact that human shaped is the only shape actors come in, which is something people aren't even really paying attention to, so it doesn't need an explanation.
Especially when ENTerprise later on showed that the Trek universe has (had?) more diverse non-humanoid species like some of the Xindi.
This is the coolest thing I've seen in some time. I like the Dawkins satire both mechanistically and because he seems to have become a completely different person in the last 20 years. It's now hard for me to separate his deep knowledge of evolution and his revolutionary early thought experiments from his often insane social and political commentary. Thanks!
Taking 5:34 to deliver one reference (not even a joke, just a reference) is self-indulgent even for you.
“...where they find Riker, who seems his usual self.” That’s the joke me and my brother would always make when we watched this episode, way back when. Riker was always the brunt of all our jokes, whether he was constantly planting his foot on Data’s console or kicking his leg around a chair when sat down in Ten Forward. Fucking Riker...he often comes off like the high school star quarterback. Well, at least he likes jazz.
wildsmiley I always like the way he walked out of room. Passes through a door and looks in the opposite direction to where he’s going to go!
It's because Frakes has a bad back, and those motions hurt less.
I appreciate the soft focus of the "projected" content on the screen. Threw me right back to college.
okay, the professor was hysterical. i love how deliberate your speech patterns were. 10/10 would recommend for viewing.
Sorry, but the opening monologue got annoying after about the first minute. This is the first time I had to skip parts of one of your videos.
Fractal Apocalypse - Coming to a shirt near you!
This "Stuffed Shirt "professor let the air out of Star Trek's evolution tyres! You should shedule him more often! LOL!
Sadly a lot of people don't like his ponderous manner.
Somebody needs to talk about the voyager episode when the doctor was trapped on a planet where Voyager was a museum.
Voyager never explained that episode
Do you mean "Living Witness"?
Season 4 Episode 23. A backup copy of the doctor is activated 700 years in the future. Too long to explain but you can google it.
Dude, how big is the door in that lecture hall?
GameHammer Classic Gaming Its so when that shirt becomes sentient and tries to kill everyone they can get out faster.
I can't tell which is more frightening; the shirt or the wig.
Great episode! Also Congrats on hitting 100k subs.
This is why I enjoy your channel. In this video I don’t know if you thought this would be funny on its own or if you knew you were going to get grief over discussing this subject and thought “if I’m going to be called an intellectual snob I might as well go full Lebowski” either way I enjoy your humor Steve Shives
I hate data's description of introns as well. They are not obsolete junk. They are actually very important for gene expression. They allow genes to make multiple different expression products, and also help enhance gene expression by stabilizing the pre-mrna with the splicing machinery. When we make constructs in the lab we often leave an intron in to help the expression. Also just preventing the splicing by "activating" the introns would probably just immediately kill you since most of your gene products would be thrown out of frame and would therefore be non-functional.
it also bothers me that humans and all of the aliens can for some reason eat food from each others planets. the reason we can digest and use food for energy is because everything on earth evolved from a common ancestor, and therefore uses the same basic building blocks (sugars, amino acids, nucleotides etc...) there is 0 reason any alien flora or fauna would use the same building blocks since they evolved completely independently of humans, they wouldn't use DNA for genetic material, there is no reason they would use amino acids for building blocks of proteins (or whatever you could call their equivalent) and so anything made of this stuff would be completely indigestible by humans and vice versa.
You perfectly skewered the worst of academia.
Fell out of my chair laughing.
dilithium crystals or not the energy source, it more like the piston of the engine. they work by focusing the near infant matter-antimatter explosion, more focus more speed
Brannon Braga wrote Genesis and Threshold (and Identity Crisis) as an outlet for his TF kink
Okay, your "labored inside joke" transition took Professor Rawkins to a whole other level. Perfect timing!
Well Steve... after all... Evolution is a mystery. *HHH music kicks on
Steve, you are absolutely killing it with these wigs!
I still love that Spot, a previously male cat, gave birth to kittens while an iguana.
Why isn't that shirt available on your merch site?
1) @2:00 Never mind burns; Steve took a phaser and VAPORIZED Richard Dawkins and Harvard. The call out of the bs was excellent 2) Genesis was so, so wrong and so deeply bad 3) Trying to make sense of a Voyager. Yikes. But seriously, thank you for pointing out the abandoned babies bit because I thought I was crazy to think about that. Janeway had babies and ABANDONED THEM ON A PLANET SOMEWHERE. 4) @24:30 OMG, that was an ouch! 5) Mother Nature is NOT a Calvinist- this is a phrase for a T- shirt!
You really nailed the boring professor lecture on this 👌
Good job XD
Also great side tangent I love your content
Matt Taylor or Dawkins?
I think its a mismash of Dawkins, Harris, and a few others.
Lawrence Krauss? Or are there just that damn many skeptics that fit that description, damn.
Sam Harris
@@Terminalsanity would work for Dawkins too.
@@Terminalsanity Dawkins definitely does both of those as well. Honestly I blame him for pushing online atheism in that direction, after he discovered Twitter.
The professor gag was funny for 5 minutes. Then it was annoying. Don’t ever do it again :D
I just noticed that you had reached 100K subs! Congratulations Steve!
Well done, I particularly congratulate you on depicting the sanctimonious git as he deserves. You did a nice job covering the problems with most TV writers trying to use technical concepts as the basis of conflict in an episode. I hope Dr Myers gives this Trek, Actually a good review.
"They find Riker... who seems his usual self" :D :D :D