Idea for a race/species

I was watching an episode of VOY the other day (stop booing); the one where some race claims that Harry is one of them, implanted in a human womb to blend with humans and then bring the genetic/cultural diversity with him back to the planet.

Well, that semi-plausible idea got my idea factory working. I thought of a creature, a non or semi sentient creature on some world. It has a unique ability: it can absorb DNA from other creatures, and then uses that DNA to replicate traits found in the donor. For example, it touches (or eats, or bites or whatever the method of transfer) a turtle, it starts to develop a shell. It samples grass, it begins to develop photosynthesis. I know in the real world this would be a stretch, but in ST, we see changes in genes imediately changing the host, so at least on some level, it does work in ST.

Ok, so these creatures go about their little lives, changing genes, passing them on, occupying various niches as they absorb new traits from other animals. Then one day, a ship lands on the planet. Who they are in not important, but some chance encounters with the creatures give the creatures a huge boost. They bypass millions of years of evolution: they are given advanced evolved traits (bipedialism, developed brains, and possibly more if the crew are beings with traits like telepathy!) Suddenly, the crew of the ship finds primative bipeds where before there were only small crawling creatures. What happens next?

If you played this as an adventure for your cast, you could rp the ethical dilema of what they had done: they have just radicaly altered the biosphere of this world. Or you could go for just the adventure: Science team is now surrounded by these new bipeds, who are quite aggressive, and they need saving (or to get out, if your running the science team). Perhaps the creatures are developing mentally as well as genetic/physically, and want to worship/learn from/steal tech/steal genes from the science team.

Or all this could have happened in the past, and this new Species (we'll call them Darwins) is active in your cast's sector. They may be the new bad guy ("The Darwins! They call them the Genetic Borg!") Or maybe they are the 'species of the week' and just the latest scientific mystery to unravel in this strange new universe. It would be interesting to find a race that has 'evolved' in the last hundred years, rather than millions.

Or maybe they are allies of the FED, or even (big stretch here) new members, or perhaps just protected by the FED (i could see the FED Science Council setting up a quarantine on the planet, to both study and protect these creatures.

I know I've left the details of the creatures vauge (i just had a passing thought that maybe they have a lifespan like mayflies...they live for a short time, reproduce and die. Or maybe they are like a phoenix; they get new genetic material and then die, with new offspring left in their passing).

Thoughts?

Like the... Flood... ?

I see the major problem in feasability. How would such a creture procreate? No I am not talking of details, but the fact that having offspring with a partner would be impossible if there is such a radical DNA-difference. Additionally how do you define a species with a non-constant DNA? How do you see it is the same species and not another one?
While I like the idea as such, I don't think it would be possible in Trek, at least without a twist. Maybe only one member of the species is capable of this fast adaption ( maybe a Q involved? ) and the characters have to deal with a person capable of sentient thoughts but without any proper education.

Stupid power outage while I was typing my answer....

I very much like this idea, but I agree Evan has some valid points.

In order for this species to be able to reproduce, we could assume that the "trait aping" ability of this species only adds some characteristics to the Darwin, but does not change the individual as a whole - a Darwin might grow a shell if it encounters a turtle, but it won't turn into a turtle. Also, they could have some way of reproducing that never change no matter how much mutations they acquire (maybe something like fishes). And finally, a newborn Darwin could be a "blank slate", an original Darwin with no particular trait from its parents. On the other side, a Darwin could be able to absorb the mutations from another Darwin, hence allowing any mutation to spread very rapidly among their population.
(as for Darwins with different DNAs being able to successfully breed, that is not much of a concern in the Trekverse, where any species is apparently able to breed with one another)

And then, I think the capacities of the Darwins depends on what one intend to use them for.

If they're to be an ethical dilemma for the PC, then their trait absorption could be slow (days or weeks before they start aping a characteristic), and not very specific - a Darwin encountering a turtle could either grow a shell, scales, or gain an extended life-span, but not all at once. And a Darwin encountering a sentient creature could only gain sentience, but not any knowledge the creature has. Thus, the Darwin could evolve like a group of mismatched Neanderthals, but not further. This would not prevent the players to have some serious decisions to take after this huge interference into a primitive species. And if that's not enough, there might be some bad guys out there who wants to understand how the Darwin work for their own nefarious purposes.
(an alternate twist would be if one of the player was sterile or belonged to an extinct or very rare species, and discoverd he had the chance to recreate his species with the Darwin - or, such a character could be a bad guy who wants to alter the Darwins as he sees them fit).

On the other side of the scale, if they're to be an überspecies (and they certainly have this potential), like a genetic Borg, their adaptations can be quite quick and only require minimal contact. Depending on how powerful you want them to be, the Darwin could absorb a new DNA trait in matter of hours, possibly stacking them with no limit, and being able to pass them to their siblings or offsprings with a simple contact (of course, if you want them less dangerous, they could be unable to pass a change from one to another, or their offspring could be only "original" Darwins or share only some traits with their parents).
They could very well be the new übervillain of the series ("We will add your biological distinctivness to our own. You will teach us all you know, then we will replace you, as we are better than you in any way"), or be much more complex than that : either trying to control their incredible abilities as they are reaching sentience, torn in civil wars between those who want to get as much DNA as possible and those who prefer to remain "pure"...
The Darwin could also be a genetic experiment, envisioned to be the perfect warrior (maybe a Jem'Hadar Mk2 ?) or on the contrary a sort of very strange living probe (designed to gather as much DNA as possible for further study) who would have ended up acquiring sentience after one too many contact.

I'll post some more if I have some more ideas.

It occurs to me that, perhaps, we're thinking too much in human terms in regards to the reproduction of the Darwins. The species may very well be asexual or capable of parthogenesis (capable of producing a genetically identical child without outside contact), in which case we'd experience a sudden proliferation of Darwin-esque species. And, if I may ask a question.. what about when the Darwin's intake a negative genetic trait? Our genes also control a number of negative conditions, such as sickle-cell syndrome (I think I got that name wrong) and albinism, and it may be just as likely that the Darwins intake some of these traits.

Just a few thoughts.

Had some thoughts while i slaved away at work last night:

On the point that Torltara brought up: What if the Dawin's absorbed something bad from a donor, like cancer or maybe something like the Ocampa's short lifespan) and with their radical metabolism, the condition spreads like wildfire: instead of years or months, they get weeks or days? Imagine a science team watching a new sapient species come into being, start to develop, and then die off rapidly. (also serves as a 'reset button', so you don't have Darwin's becoming the new Changelings)

Another thought, along the lines of C5's points, is maybe the one thing that never changes is their reproductive systems. Like a computer's protected memory, there are egg and spermazoa with only the Darwin traits. But, in the rearing process, many of the parents traits are passed to the offspring. If used as an Uberspecies, this could make for an interesting discovery: After running into the fully evolved Darwins, finding what looks like a petting zoo, but finding out it is actually a daycare center for younglings. (this would also be an interesting quirk if they were allies or FED members)

More to come...

Does anybody remember the two Voyager episodes with the "Demon Class" Planets?

The silver liquid they found on the first one had mimicking abilities, enough so that they copied the entire voyager crew, down to memories and personality traits, AND used more goo to build their ship. They then promptly forgot they were silver goo, tried to get to Earth, and later died en route.

Now, for those of us who read X-Men comics, there have been several characters who could copy other character's powers, such as Mimic (who maxed out at 5 at a time, IIRC). In DC, Amazo the Android could copy the powers of the entire JLA. Although of course comic books are even more unscientific than Star Trek.

There was another comic character, the... um... Hyper-adaptoid, I think, who went through accelerated evolutionary procceses. He adapted to whatever you threw at him as though he were living hundreds of generations in a few seconds. Freeze him, BAM he grows a fur coat and fatty laters. Sock him in the jaw, he grows jawline spikes or a armor plate. Etc.

And don't forget Peter Petrelli in the Heroes series.... ;)

Absorbing a negative trait can be indeed a good reset button, another moral dilemma twist ("well, Captain, there was this unique species, who became sentient because of us, and is now dying because of us again"), or a weakness in the case of Darwins being used as Ubervillains ("Mimick this!":p)

A variant of this would be to have a Darwin absorbing two contradicting traits - like for instance a carnivore's teeth and a grazer's stomach (or the contrary).

For this species to be viable, we would then have to assume either that their home planet other lifeforms don't happen to carry negative or contradictory DNA traites, or that they have a sort of defense mechanism, that allow them to purge any aquired DNA if their health deteriorates for instance (thus, a very sick Darwin would slowly revert to an original Darwin as its organism tries to purge it from whatever would cause this sickness - a consequence of that could be that a Darwin dying of old age would slowly revert to an original Darwin during its last days).

Another similar concept was the alien life form in the film 'evolution' Instead of developing traits by absorbing them, it just extremely rapidly diversified, and was a perfect example of Darwinism working in a hyper-accelerated way, with successful species thriving, and the one's who weren't coping died out...

In that film the life forms largely reproduced asexually, which solves the whole issue of how they breed: Such creatures would of course be EXTREMELY competitive, the strong (Darwinian speaking, I.e. best able to cope in their environment, not big muscles hehe) survive and everything else dies of or is eaten, they then bud new life forms. This does kind of make me think then that such a cataclysm that the crew introduce is.. sexual reproduction... that would both massively accelerate the planet's advancement, AND inhibit it. Interesting!

First of Two- I remember an old Avengers nemisis, the Super-Adaptoid: It was a robot that basicly like mimic...could copy multiple powers. More than one and it would turn green; more than three and it would short out. Guess how they beat it every time...."Ok, it's copied Cap, Vision and Hawkeye. Send in Thor!".

Evolution is one of my Fave movies, and was probably in the back of my mind while I came up with the idea.

I thought about the end product sentient, non-uber, Darwins; the type you would use as allies, shipmates, or just 'race of the episode' guys.

Perhaps, as time progressed, they develop a strict code that prevents them from swiping the gene-codes from unwilling donors, or maybe they take an oath to limit their adaptations. Sorta like the Deltan Celibacy oath or Vulcan's forgoing emotion.

Maybe, they are born as the basic Darwin, are granted humanoid traits by a parent, and upon reaching adulthood go on a quest to find a new trait/s to add to their mixture. After that, they pledge to never again take from the "life-code" of another (maybe there are exceptions to this, like if they get a trait that might kill them, and need one to counteract the first one).

Of course, just like the Vulcan's have Romulans, maybe there is a sect that belives that their creator, Watsoncrick, gave them this gift, and there for they must assimilate as many 'life-codes' as possible, in attempt to become a "Supreme Organism".

You are about 4 years too late.
"I thought of a creature, a non or semi sentient creature on some world. It has a unique ability: it can absorb DNA from other creatures, and then uses that DNA to replicate traits found in the donor."
Sounds like the Aratis Bug found in season 1 of Stargate: Atlantis. It absorbs DNA and mutates or causes mutation. The end result of feeding on Ancients (the Provider-like advanced humans who evolved away long ago in the Stargate universe) was a genetic cross-breed...humanoid, intelligent, strong regenerative powers, and life-sucking powers...called the Wraith. Yep, the main enemy and plot of an entire TV show. Sorry, your idea wasn't first.

Good call. Though it does seem the wraith themselves are now genetically 'stable', though they can of course drain 'life energy' from humanoids, a likely holdover from the bug: they have mutated beyond a simple genetic metamorph.

Hey, since when one of us not being the first to have an idea prevented us to devise plots and complications based on said idea ? ;)

It's quite hard now to come up with a truly original idea, but there are worse ways to spend one's time than to imagine new applications to an old (or similar to one) idea.

Very true, and to be honest it's not the specific idea which is important, nor it's originality, but how it is applied, and what it actually means to the story. all 3 together will make for 'originality' in that context. So long as they story presents unique challenges and gives a fresh look at an idea, it should mean the players have fun, and can't guess what's gonna happen next! :)

Then there's the "Matrix" (OR DC comic villian Prometheus) route...

Need kung-fu skills? Download a program containing all the moves of the 20 greatest kung-fu masters of all time directly into your brain.

Now, a being that didn't "evolve" per se, but could do the above by obtaining/performing a neural scan... especially if the neural scan is a natural species ability, like telepathy...

There was also an alien enemy in one Star Trek book, "Dreams of the Raven," which could gain a person's abilities, memories, and even voice, by breaking open their skull and swallowing their brain whole! The devoured brain would then act as a second brain to the creature, to which it had full access. Creepy.

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Originally Posted by First of Two

There was also an alien enemy in one Star Trek book, "Dreams of the Raven," which could gain a person's abilities, memories, and even voice, by breaking open their skull and swallowing their brain whole! The devoured brain would then act as a second brain to the creature, to which it had full access. Creepy.

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There is something quite similar in the Sluggy Freelance webcomic (a cyborg who had to swallow brains to access all their memories), the Heroes series (Sylar...) and even a bit of Doctor Who (the Absorbaloff in the dreadful Love and Monster episode). Apparently some ideas come to a lot of people at once ;)

And the downloading abilities thing is uncomfortably close to what our Collective friends like to do actually. Mmmh... there might be some ideas of evolution for the Borg here.

Which leads me by the way to another interesting idea to ponder : what would happen if the Darwins were to be assimilated by the Borg ? Would the Collective gain any benefit from them ?

I always thought the Aratis bug was accidently 'uplifted' by the Lantians when they were seeding the Pegasas Galaxay with humans, not that the bugs absorbed the DNA of the human-types. Although that would explain how they quickly became a threat to the Lantians.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's not a good idea or that it couldn't be used in Star Trek. Just that the idea has been out there a while in a high profile show. I think it's a nifty idea and would fit right into Star Trek (only not as evolving into Wraith, but already some advanced being that can gain new forms and powers through absorption). I get a lot of ideas from different SciFi shows and adapt them to other settings. I find Babylon 5 and Stargate SG1 to be the two best sources of ideas that are easily adapted to Star Trek.