this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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In Star Trek Enterprise, there’s an episode where the crew finds a planet being ravaged by disease. Bizarrely, the planet has two humanoid species: one dominant (intelligent, technologically advanced) and one less dominant (less evolved brains). The captain mentions that in every planet they’ve encountered, only one humanoid species survives the process of evolution.
Well, it turns out that the disease is genetic, it only affects the currently-dominant species, and they will go extinct in a few centuries because of it. The same evolutionary phenomenon that explorers encountered countless times before on other planets was happening right before their eyes.
Middle Earth has like at least 3 humanoid species (Man, Elf, Dwarf), more if you count Hobbits and Orcs. That’s totally incompatible with Star Trek lore!
Well when we see the story of LotR, the elves and dwarves are disappearing - maybe it's the Trek rule happening in front of us again! Orcs certainly don't seem to fare well during it either. Hobbit are disappearing too, if they're to be counted as separate to humans at all. It's very much becoming a world of humans when the plot of LotR happens
But you just explained it yourself. Currently there >1 humanoid species on planet "Middle Earth", but over time there will likely only be 1 for one reason or another (diseases, dominant races doing the good old genocide, etc.)
So either the Enterprise / Federation hasn't found the planet yet (and it will become the first planet with this many humanoid species on it) or LOTR and ENT simply don't play at the same time.
Yeah, LOTR and Star Trek being in the same universe doesn't mean they play out at the same time and in the same place. Maybe LOTR takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. . . .
What is this, a crossover episode?
What about the Xindi?
Maybe the other races don't count as "humanoid"? The dolphin people definitely wouldn't be considered humanoid at least, neither would the ents in middle earth I guess.