73: That’s Only Evolution in the Pokémon Sense

The Edge: A Star Trek Discovery Podcast

Biology in Discovery.

Star Trek has a long history of weird science and alien biology, and Discovery continues this tradition well. More so than previous series, Discovery is able to portray things that feel a bit more truly alien. It’s obvious that the writers have a love for weird biology and want to show something different from what we’ve seen before. A lot of thought has been put into fleshing out these species, and it’s these small details that really make the world feel deep and real.

In this episode of The Edge, hosts Amy Nelson and Patrick Devlin are joined by Nicholas Paul Collinson to discuss alien biology in Star Trek: Discovery. We delve into the mycelial network and its inhabitants, the JahSepp, as well as the yeel tree and the mycelium itself. The cosmozoans—life forms that live mainly in the vacuum of space—that we have seen include the tardigrade and the gormagander. Finally, we look at the biology of the Kelpiens and the transformation they undergo.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Mycelial Network (00:06:10) Tardigrades (00:23:04) Gormagander (00:30:39) Kelpiens (00:38:26) Final Thoughts (01:03:41) Closing (01:11:30)

Hosts Amy Nelson and Patrick Devlin

Guest Nicholas Paul Collinson

Production Patrick Devlin (Editor) Amy Nelson (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Tony Robinson (Associate Producer) Lisa Slack (Associate Producer) Tom Puleo (Associate Producer) Shoaib Mirza (Associate Producer) Richard Rutledge (Associate Producer) James Muldrow (Associate Producer) Cornelia Reutner (Associate Producer) Ryan Maillet (Associate Producer) Chris Tribuzio (Associate Producer) Brian Meloche (Associate Producer) Tony Robinson (Show Art) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)