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Quote by David Gerrold

“Kirk: How close will we come to the nearest Klingon outpost if we continue on our present course? Chekov: Vun parsec, sir. Close enough to smell them. Spock: That is illogical, ensign. Odors cannot travel through the vacuum of space. Chekov: I vas making a little joke, sir. Spock: Extremely little, ensign.”

Quote by David Gerrold

Work

The Trouble with Tribbles

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Author

David Gerrold
David Gerrold

David Gerrold, born on January 24, 1944, is an American screenwriter known for his contributions to the science fiction genre. He is best recognized for his role 'Wick Kimball' in the television series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and for his novel 'When Harry Met Sally...'. more

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“I handed them a script and they turned it down. It was too controversial. It talked about concepts like, 'Who is God?' The Enterprise meets God in space; God is a life form, and I wanted to suggest that there may have been, at one time in the human beginning, an alien entity that early man believed was God, and kept those legends. But I also wanted to suggest that it might have been as much the Devil as it was God. After all, what kind of god would throw humans out of Paradise for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Vulcans on board, in a very logical way, says, 'If this is your God, he's not very impressive. He's got so many psychological problems; he's so insecure. He demands worship every seven days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being.”

“What moral to draw, then, of the nonexistence of an innermost planet and the universal triumph of general relativity? At least this: Science is unique among human ways of knowing because it is self-correcting. Every claim is provisional, which is to say each is incomplete in some small or, occasionally, truly consequential way. But in the midst of the fray, it is impossible to be sure what any gap between knowledge and nature might mean. We know now that Vulcan could never have existed; Einstein has shown us so. But no route to such certainty existed for Le Verrier, nor for any of his successors over the next half century. They lacked not facts, but a framework, some alternate way of seeing through which Vulcan's absence could be understood.”

“I grew up fascinated by such concepts as the Vulcan mind meld, and sometimes thinking about how a mere human could one day transition to the planetary consciousness by fusing his or her mind with other minds. It turned out that future is way more fully loaded with options than I have ever thought possible. Thanks to exponential techno-advances, science fiction turns into science fact, every single day.”

“Yes, yes. Everybody wants something. I’m glad my job’s gotten less demanding, in this modern age. Don’t have to tolerate as many prayers. Though, some gods see that as a negative. But I see prayers as giving man false power. If you want to empower a human—to give him real potential—you teach him the Arts. You give him power he can control. Like Alchemy. People’ve forgotten my hand in Alchemy. Now they always relate me to volcanos and blacksmiths. I’m more.” He took the towels from Dorian, to toss them. “Am I not an Arch-chemic, Dori?”