posted
In the original Trek, Roddenberry also had scientists that he consulted with. The personal computer with monitor, the cell phone and tricorder, the hospital bed life monitors, the syringes without needles, but rather used air pressure(coming up blank on the name, darn it), lasers used for operating, plasma beams, etc., to name a few that we see today.
As to cold blooded, using your concepts, Durlans don't have blood, they just pass nutrients, and I imagine wastes from cell to cell until they are either retained by a cell or thrown from the body through the rotating of cells to the surface. They'd have to do the same with oxygen and the waste from cell respiration, too.
And our brains have multiple areas of function. We also have pathways for quicker thought/impulse transfer.
I think the all inclusive single cell ideas breaks down pretty quickly, into more than a superpower. (I know that you said it breaks down, I just think it would become unmanageable much sooner than later.)
And no wonder Durlans would have to take on a semi humanoid form whenever they go off planet! Excrement of every kind coming off their bodies at almost all times! And the eggs and sperm?! Just UGH!
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
quote:Originally posted by Candlelight: And the eggs and sperm?! Just UGH!
Ah, but they wouldn't have any. Every cell is every cell. If such a creature wants to reproduce, it simply sheds a chunk of it's body mass in a slow, deliberate, non-traumatic way. The smaller mass remains just as viable an organism (capable of respiring, circulating nutrients, etc.) as the larger 'parent' mass, but may take some time to develop a large enough mass to become fully sentient (since it's brain is it's body, and if it's body is the size of a dog, it might not have enough 'brain cells' to function at sentient levels, yet).
It splorps around, not really knowing how to do any of the fancy shapeshifting tricks or having much in the way of thoughts other than 'can I eat this?' and 'ouch, avoid eating things that are on fire,' until it's got a body mass big enough that it's distributed brain can handle grown-up thoughts like 'who am I?', 'am I alone in the universe?' and 'what chucklehead designed a parthenogentic species that reproduces without sex?'
Unlike a Carggite, once a bit of mass is shed, it instinctively avoids any attempt to 're-aborb' it, since it has a powerful drive to eate, but an equally powerful drive to not be eaten. It may retain some fragmentary knowledge or memories from it's 'parent,' but there's no guarantee at all that it's going to turn out anything like said parent personality-wise.
It's also possible that, like slugs, such shapeshifters might not normally perform this function, until they have exchanged DNA with another of their species, at which point, *both of them* bud off 'children.' Or maybe that can do either/or, having a child by themselves, or with input from another. Perhaps one of the two 'partners' will choose not to bud off a child, for whatever reason, if they have control of the process (and, given their incredible control of every other aspect of their biology, it would seem very unlikely that a shapeshifter, of any sort, would 'get in trouble' or be able to fertilize or be fertilized without very intentionally meaning to!).
Indeed, it's conceivable that, regardless of how Durlan shapeshifting works, Brande chose to leave a child behind on Durla in case he didn't make it, in his dangerous leap into the void of space. If he died before making it past high orbit, he'd at least leave something of himself behind.
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Budding is nice but not the greatest for 'evolutionary' improvement, is it? Only the very lowest of organisms do it on Earth, anyway.
But, I like your idea much better than egg laying which is what we have to work with, at the moment.
If Cham is an egg laying cold blooded entity can he ever have a relationship with anything else? When he shapeshifts, does he become become warm blooded is the original is warm blooded?
Originally it was stated that Cham didn't take on the 'powers' or real characteristics of what he copied, ie, he didn't actually become a rock or a glass of water, he just LOOKED like one.
Does your cell version change to differentiate cells and systems or just mimic their appearance?
Odo could become fire, giving off heat and light!
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
quote:Originally posted by Candlelight: If Cham is an egg laying cold blooded entity can he ever have a relationship with anything else? When he shapeshifts, does he become become warm blooded is the original is warm blooded?
That is a head-scratcher.
The Legion are supposed to have some sort of transsuits or ring function that allows them to operate in space, but apparently a chilly rain is too much for it...
[Just kidding, obviously the chilly thing was just to remind the reader that they are now cold-blooded, not because the rings/transsuits suddenly stopped working. I just like poking fun at scenes that get all meta-textual like that.]
Yera - 'Listen as I explain how the chilly rain bugs me because I'm cold-blooded, to a couple of people who couldn't possibly not already know that I'm cold-blooded!' Heh. 'Also, did you know that I'm an actress, and that Earth has undergone a recent bit of xenophobia?']
Cham - 'Who the sprock are you talking to, and why are you facing away from us?'
quote: Originally it was stated that Cham didn't take on the 'powers' or real characteristics of what he copied, ie, he didn't actually become a rock or a glass of water, he just LOOKED like one.
It's such a grab-bag. He's been shown turning into electricity-generating critters, or into large critters (that would have required greater than Durlan strength just to move their bulk around), or critters with what appears to be armor plating.
On one hand, I'd find it pretty interesting if he had to make do with 'super-disguise' and mostly humanoid forms (like Marvel's Mystique), but on the other hand, I like all of the odd forms and wouldn't mind if he could turn into a poisonous critter and bite someone, or into a giant spider and spin a web.
quote: Does your cell version change to differentiate cells and systems or just mimic their appearance?
By squeezing fluid out of cells, they can be dehydrated and become effective skeletal or 'armor' cells, all rigid like chitin or bone, but for stuff like 'form of... an electric eel!' they wouldn't be able to suddenly discharge electricity.
By messing with turgidity / surface tension, they could make some cells more sensitive to vibration (and, for convenience, put them where humans have ears, high from the ground, for optimum utility), etc.
They could turn into a big snake and bite someone, but if they injected anything, it would be either cytoplasm (wasteful!) or, horrifyingly, live Durlan cells, which might then begin attempting to devour the 'poisoned' person from within...
Ew!
quote: Odo could become fire, giving off heat and light!
Yeah, and the first other shapeshifter he met could turn into fog, and cover half of the promenade. Star Trek shapeshifters pretty much scoff at biology and go straight into high-energy physics.
I'm reminded of threeboot Cham, who claimed to be able to only take on forms, not abilities, but then turned into Lightning Lad and shot a little arc of lightning from hand to the next.
I have no freaking idea how he could do that!
Even the electric eel thing is pretty dubious, since it takes electric eels some time to build up a charge. Shapeshifting into an electric eel without also having the ability to create energy would turn one into an overspecialized fish that has all the 'zap' of two wool socks rubbed together.
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Odo's people glowed in their plasma state and were like an ocean on their home planet.
Perhaps they naturally exist as the 4th state of matter, plasma, which I guess, is a state where matter is closer to energy than matter. Is that right? We only had 3 states of matter when I was learning that stuff. sigh
Anyway, in that natural state, natural cell structure wouldn't be needed as they wouldn't be true bio-organisms. And it would be easier for them to from that state to the 5th and then energy itself. And back again.
I actually think that that would work better than any other for a true shapeshifter, not being matter OR energy, but being capable of both.
About the Chams we've actually had, I seem to remember a story where Cham was shot in the heart area or the head but Brainy saved him because Cham didn't actually have the heart or brain in the area it would have been in if he'd actually been that creature. I bring that up because that would prove that he didn't always match the insides to the outsides.
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
[snip]
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: Re: ...Durlans being cold-blooded, I really don't like that at all. Like Set, I don't see why they would necessarily have conventional anatomy given that they can turn into forms there's no way that anatomy could fit?
Since Durlans could conceivably have as much or as little human anatomy under the skin as they wanted, I don't know why this had to be specified in the first place.
From the standpoint of a character that needs stealth to do their job, like Cham, it doesn't make much sense. Somebody pats you on the shoulder on a cloudy day and your skin is cold? Or it's cold outside and you're fifty times more sluggish than every other "mammal" in the room? Bye-bye, cover.
I try not to play la-la-fingers-in-ears at continuity changes, but I think in this case I'm gonna' do just that. :/
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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I bet Gates is kicking himself over this decision now that he's stuck in the 21st century.
From: Gorilla Nebula Pub | Registered: Jul 2003
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Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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