Home Soil

The Enterprise pays a visit to a group of terraformers. There’s just one problem: that terra may not be theirs to form. There’s something going on on the planet, and all signs point to aline life. Except for the life part. Murder! Mystery! Shiny objects! All of this and more when we put Home Soil in the Mission Log. I thought it might have made for a more interesting story if the life forms weren’t intelligent, or maybe were dying out or confined to a small portion of the planet. Would the planet have still been considered unsuitable for terraforming on ethical grounds? I am reminded of those stories today of property developers whose projects and investments might be stymied by the discovery of some endangered species in the area, and how the arguments for and against protecting them play out. I think this episode presented some really interesting questions. Sometimes, science fiction (including Star Trek) can be a little fantastical, which is entertaining but not realistic. This plot line seems like a very real thing that could happen in the future. I can see the headlines now: “Terraforming Tragedy: How the Federation Almost Wiped Out An Entire Intelligent Species” and “Non-Organic Life: How This Discovery Will Change the Way We Look At Life” and “Should We Be Terraforming? (Opinion).”