Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Season 1 Episode 18
Episode: "Home Soil"
The Enterprise arrives at Velara III, an apparently uninhabited planet subject to a terraforming operation. Shortly after the Commander Riker's away team beam down to the planet's base of operations, one of the terraformers is killed in a laser drilling accident. After a brief investigation in to how the accident occured, an attack on Commander Data invites the possibility of foul play. With the terraforming operation suspended until further notice, Data makes a discovery at the drill site that opens up the possibility that perhaps Velara III is not entirely lifeless afterall; not only that but the life form has the distinction of being completely inorganic.
Shortly upon its discovery, the inorganic life form (later referred to as a microbrain) is beamed aboard the Enterprise for study and identification.
The kneejerk reaction to the whole proposal of a concept such as inorganic life feels like an oxymoron or contradiction in terms. But just for a moment, just for the sake of the plot of this episode, give yourself permission to park the desire to write off the notion and ponder on the proposal that it might be possible to artificially reproduce be it through mechanical or electronic (or both) innovation every processes and reaction observed in a single organic cell. If the behaviour of the artificial cell is representative enough and reacts to a whole library of conditions in exactly the same way as an organic cell does, could that artificially created cell now be considered alive?
Season 1 Episode 18
Episode: "Home Soil"
The Enterprise arrives at Velara III, an apparently uninhabited planet subject to a terraforming operation. Shortly after the Commander Riker's away team beam down to the planet's base of operations, one of the terraformers is killed in a laser drilling accident. After a brief investigation in to how the accident occured, an attack on Commander Data invites the possibility of foul play. With the terraforming operation suspended until further notice, Data makes a discovery at the drill site that opens up the possibility that perhaps Velara III is not entirely lifeless afterall; not only that but the life form has the distinction of being completely inorganic.
Shortly upon its discovery, the inorganic life form (later referred to as a microbrain) is beamed aboard the Enterprise for study and identification.
The kneejerk reaction to the whole proposal of a concept such as inorganic life feels like an oxymoron or contradiction in terms. But just for a moment, just for the sake of the plot of this episode, give yourself permission to park the desire to write off the notion and ponder on the proposal that it might be possible to artificially reproduce be it through mechanical or electronic (or both) innovation every processes and reaction observed in a single organic cell. If the behaviour of the artificial cell is representative enough and reacts to a whole library of conditions in exactly the same way as an organic cell does, could that artificially created cell now be considered alive?
