Dear Johnny Fanboy,

I have a nit-pick which applies to both Star Trek and Doctor Who.

In the episode Miri, in the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, the crew discover a planet that is an exact replica of Earth. Now, I can accept the fact that this unnamed planet is inhabited by people who look human. This sort of thing happens all the time in television sci-fi, and can be explained by parallel evolution (creatures evolving in similar ways under similar conditions). I can even accept that the people use the same written language as we do, because a later episode [The Paradise Syndrome] explains that a race called the Preservers seeded the human race throughout the galaxy.

However, I find it far too much of a coincidence that the planet's continents and oceans look exactly like those of Earth. What possible explanation could account for two separate planets being affected by exactly the same tectonic forces at exactly the same time?

On a similar note, the final William Hartnell Doctor Who story, The Tenth Planet, introduces the planet Mondas, Earth's long lost "twin". Again, no explanation is given as to why the planet's continents look exactly like those of Earth. How did such a duplicate planet come into being?

Lawrence Michaels

Johnny Fanboy replies:

I can think of two explanations.

First of all, some kind of spatial anomaly, similar to the one encountered by the starship Voyager in the episode Deadlock, could have duplicated the planet Earth at the quantum level. Our solar system would then have ended up with two virtually identical planets.

Alternatively, the other Earth could have slipped through a flaw in the fabric of space/time from a parallel universe or alternate reality.

That explains the origin of Mondas (or Earth, depending on which you think came first), but how did Miri's planet end up in another solar system?

I would suggest that Miri's planet is the Star Trek universe's equivalent of Mondas. Like Mondas, it could have drifted through space out of our solar system. Unlike Mondas, Miri's world appears to have stopped drifting by the time Kirk and his crew discover it, probably having been captured by the gravitational influence of a Sol-type star. By sheer good fortune, the planet's new orbit was stable and just the right distance from the star (perhaps the Preservers had a hand in that). The human population, who may well have been living in underground shelters like those used by the Mondasians in the audio drama Spare Parts, then found they could emerge on to the planet's surface.

It is notable that Miri's planet has something else in common with Mondas. In both cases, the planet's population took steps to artificially prolong their lives through medical science. The people of Miri's world used virology to greatly extend their lifespans, while the Mondasians turned to cybernetics. It is possible, therefore, that both races had suffered shortened lifespans and/or sterility as a result of their long journeys through space.

Return to: