star trek: alloyed blood
Jan. 26th, 2010 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eliyesSometime yesterday, when I was in a very strange place sleep-wise, I came across a post that I have, after getting a solid 8 hours rest, thought of an intelligent comment for. So of course I have spent the last 3 or 4 hours looking for that post, and failing utterly to find it.
That poster was reading nuTrek fic and having some (completely justified) issues with mischaracterization, especially of Uhura and to a lesser degree McCoy. Now, not having read the fics in question (and lucky me, sez I!) I can't got into specifics.
Here's what caught my eye: she made the point that it should be impossible for Uhura (or any human) to unintentionally become pregnant with Spock's child, because of blood. Vulcan blood is copper-based and human is iron-based. It makes sense that Sarek and Amanda had to jump through a bunch of medical hoops to have Spock, and indeed I've read some very enjoyable books involving the doctors who spent half a decade figuring it all out for them.
I repeat, it makes sense.
However, canon does not support it. In Star Trek canon, people with these different blood chemistries can interbreed handily. You think Sela's Romulan father called in specialists to get a child on Tasha Yar? And how about that "prison" Worf found where Romulans and Klingons have been secretly interbreeding? They didn't have a specialist geneticist there. And what about all those Bajoran/Cardassian kids? Bajorans have red iron-based blood like humans, and Cardassians don't (although it's probably not copper-based).
This is one of those instances where rational science and Star Trek don't really mix, but we pretend they do. So while I agree with that poster that it shouldn't be possible, the fact is that in Star Trek, it just might be.
That poster was reading nuTrek fic and having some (completely justified) issues with mischaracterization, especially of Uhura and to a lesser degree McCoy. Now, not having read the fics in question (and lucky me, sez I!) I can't got into specifics.
Here's what caught my eye: she made the point that it should be impossible for Uhura (or any human) to unintentionally become pregnant with Spock's child, because of blood. Vulcan blood is copper-based and human is iron-based. It makes sense that Sarek and Amanda had to jump through a bunch of medical hoops to have Spock, and indeed I've read some very enjoyable books involving the doctors who spent half a decade figuring it all out for them.
I repeat, it makes sense.
However, canon does not support it. In Star Trek canon, people with these different blood chemistries can interbreed handily. You think Sela's Romulan father called in specialists to get a child on Tasha Yar? And how about that "prison" Worf found where Romulans and Klingons have been secretly interbreeding? They didn't have a specialist geneticist there. And what about all those Bajoran/Cardassian kids? Bajorans have red iron-based blood like humans, and Cardassians don't (although it's probably not copper-based).
This is one of those instances where rational science and Star Trek don't really mix, but we pretend they do. So while I agree with that poster that it shouldn't be possible, the fact is that in Star Trek, it just might be.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-27 02:17 am (UTC)Never mind the "might be", this is a topic where individual writers will just have to make their own choices because "canon" shot itself in the head.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-27 02:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-27 02:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-27 02:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-27 03:11 am (UTC)Still, it gives for some... interesting... half-breeds. Personally, I'm holding out for a Horta/Betleguesian cross. X3
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-27 12:00 pm (UTC)