Skip to main content

biology - How does cross-species (Klingon/Human, Vulcan/Human) breeding work genetically in Star Trek?


While humanoids across the galaxy theoretically share a common remote ancestor, from what I remember each species has evolved convergently towards humanoidness by different routes. So we end up with Humans that have iron based blood vs. Vulcans with copper based blood; Klingons with three lungs and eight chambered hearts, etc for other species. These species all look similar outside, but are very different inside.



Has any episode of any ST series ever attempted to explain how these fairly different genomes can intermix usefully? vs. being a nonstarter like a shark and a dolphin hybrid (similar body design, radically different evolutionary background and genome)?



Answer



Oliver_C's comment is correct.


Starting in "Demons" and Ending in "Terra Prime" we see the failed attempts of human xenophobes to clone a Vulcan Human hybrid. This however is not successful:



Meanwhile, Dr. Phlox scrambles to find a cure for the baby, named Elizabeth (for Tucker's late sister) by T'Pol, who is dying due to defects in the Terra Prime doctors' attempts to reconcile Human and Vulcan DNA. Unfortunately, Phlox is unable to save the girl; the leaders of the soon-to-be-incorporated Coalition of Planets later request to attend her funeral.



In the Enterprise episode "E^2" we meet the alternative timeline captain of the NX-01 Enterprise named Lorian. He is the son of T'Pol and Tucker. He is explained as:



a conception made possible after Doctor Phlox found a way of combining the Vulcan and Human genomes.




This presumably means that the initial incompatibility with the species was overcome. And that Vulcans and Humans wishing to procreate would simply need to see their doctor in order to have success.


This is in contrast to the memory-alpha article on Hybrids, which claims many species are able to interbreed with or without the help of genetic technology. In fact, Humans and Vulcans are quite similar.


Obviously some species are going to be more compatible than others. Bajorians and Cardassians apparently were highly compatible, due to the high number of illegitimate children produced during the occupation of Bajor (I view it unlikely those people sought the assistance of a doctor for procreation).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more