Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Just curious -- was Project Genesis ever revisited/used after Star Trek II / III?
I know "the Federation Council ordered Starfleet to squelch information regarding the project" (as per Memory Alpha), but I'm curious if it was ever referenced in other books, films, tv episodes, etc.
Within the TV series, no. Janeway mentions it once, in VOY 4x21, The Omega Directive, as another technology deemed too dangerous and powerful to keep around.
It was, however, brought up again in the novels, according to Memory Beta: There was a series of TNG novels called The Genesis Wave, and a sequel to them called Genesis Force. According to the blurbs, the Genesis Device itself reappears in the third book of the trilogy, when it falls into the hands of a religious zealot.
In the second season DS9 episode "Second Sight", there's a device that I think it similar. The thing that revives the dead sun has a similar graphic to the genesis device, if memory serves, some of the dialog pointed in its direction, and of course, the quote right before it is activated, "let there be light", is an obvious reference to the Biblical book of Genesis. Granted, that could be coincidental.
Nevertheless, when I saw that episode a few years ago, it just struck me as being almost certainly based on the Genesis device.
Icing on the cake, from the Star Trek wiki: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Second_Sight_%28episode%29
According to Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Seyetik's terraforming technology is based upon the Genesis Device as seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; "It was established Federation terraforming technology. Of course, the Genesis device didn't work, but obviously Seyetik's work is built upon the research of previous scientists. And it was a nice way to reference the movie." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
Which tells me that I wasn't completely mad to see some similarities there.
In the TNG Episode "Home Soil", the crew visit a terraforming group of scientists.
The episode explains the terraforming process which is similar to the Genesis Project: select an appropriate planet, confirm no existing life exists, etc.
From the transcript:
We take a lifeless planet and little by little transform it into an M class environment, capable of supporting life. Terraforming makes you feel a little god-like. The first phase involves selecting the planet. That's very important. It must have the right mass and gravity, the correct rate of rotation, and a balanced day and night. The planet must also be without life or the prospect of life developing naturally. The Federation determines if that's so. Then, we take over. This station is phase two. Phase Three involves water. Usually we create basins using hydraulic landscaping, but the water on this planet is subsurface, and extremely high in salt content. We are just about to begin pumping and filtering the water, removing the salt, oxygenating and replacing. Next, we introduce micro-organisms, and when the process is complete eventually, we'll have a lush, arable, biosphere.
One of the scientists calls herself the "Gardener of Edens."
The scientists also exhibit similar characteristics to the group on Regula 1: passion, obsession, impatience, and deceptiveness.
