Essay on ‘Dune Chapterhouse’ & 'Dune Revenant’ fanfiction novel Face Dancers vs Changlings in 'Star Trek DS9’ (Megan Cyber)
(ignoring the techno version of my theory in the BORG collective)
Has anyone done a forum thread to
talk/chat to compare and discuss the marked similarities and if the
writers/producers of DS9 gleaned some of their Dominion/ShapeShifter
story arc from the ideas formed in later Dune with e Face dancers,
and then as DS9 developed full circle the author of Revenant taking
their Dune continuation story and cross breeding back of a storyline
of dominance and assimilation of monoserial individual lifeforms by
omni-multicommunal persona lifeforms.
I find the similarities and differences
fascinating and interesting as to the philosophy behind what and why
a multi form species would want to overtake and /or assimilate
corporal mono lifeforms.
Dune Revenant has taken Frank Herbert’s
theory that biologically engineered humans evolved from entertainment
beings (the first Face Dancers) to the Scattering returning beings
(Master Face Dancers), but extended it further by positing they then
developed a subgroup (One of Many Faces) who broke off to take an
evolutionary path to the point of trans space/time multiconsciousness
acquired from centuries of absorption of the minds and consciousness
of vast numbers of beings and lifeforms. With that level of
multibeings combined they could transverse the future and the past,
by ‘existing’ thru the consciousness of the lives within them.
This concept put forth in the fanfic
DUNE 7 novel, [del] seemingly
combines two species of Star Trek DS9 into one and makes it malevolent, but for the 'opposite’ reason than the DS9 Dominion had
for conquest and assimilation of Humanoids (monoforms). The two
species combined that would approximate the 'One with Many Faces’
beings of Dune Revenant, would be of course the Founders
(Shapeshifters) of the Dominion and the Bajoran Prophets, who existed
in a plane/dimension higher than the linear space-time continuum,
humanoids exist within.
Whereas Star Trek has the Founders
finding individual persona existence chaotic and the teeming numbers
of such individuals as needing a rigid enforced order to be
controlled, for self preservation of the Founders who are a wholly
separate species from humanoid evolution;
Dune Revenant has instead the 'One as
Many Faces’ shapeshifters as one of the many ultimate paths of human
evolutions and that their/it existence similarly abhors the confines
and rigidness of individualities/persona and but in OPPOSITE embraces
the flow chaos of the many and the universe, which would be a 'NON
ORDER’. And seeks to destroy the existing links to their
monoform/individual humanoid past by assimilating or destroying the
remaining human race.
In fact one could say that the two
groups have nearly exactly the same views but just a different
solution. Dune shapeshfters choose to assimilate ancestral humans
into the One or destroy, while the ST:DS9 Founders wish to control
through imposed order or destroy. I think the Dune Shifters feel the
level of existence they live on is such a HIGHER level of order that
social and mental structures monoform humanoids must be wiped out and
not an ounce of energy be expended on forcing and imposing stricter
efficient methods upon them. One of the key differences between the
two universes is the concept that in Dune the two species are
biologically related and at different
steps of evolution, where in ST:DS9 the species are completely
separate genetically. None the less, the more 'advanced’ multiform
species is concertedly on a path to cause the extinction and/or
absorption of the 'primitive’ one. Sort of like the way the various
Homo sapien ancestors were absorbed and/or wiped out and replaced by
modern humans.
In correlating the similarities though,
DuneRev takes the intermediate Master Face Dancers and has them still
fascinated and patronizing towards the remaining human populace in
that they try to help save monoformed humans from the attacking 'One
as Many Faces’ being(s) by infiltrating their social structures not
to cause dissension, like the ST:DS9 Founders, but to strengthen the
human culture to enhance it’s continued evolution to a higher
consciousness level that the Face Dancers had achieved through a
different means, but assumes all life is heading towards the same
end, of omniconsciousness through existing across future/past space
and time. The Master Face Dancers in still honoring and being
nostalgic for their past as monolifeforms/individuals and still
enjoying taking on a persona or individuality for
experience/enjoyment sake are quite similar to the respect and joy
the ST:DS9 Shapeshifting/Founder character, Constable Odo, had in
being a separate individual from the Founder’s Link and wanting to
help and save humanoids from the Dominion invasion.
Also, similarly little things like the
concept of engineered beings for use as weapons is similar across
Dune and DS9, though this would seem more of a idea pollination
gleaned from Frank Herbert, instead of the other way, with the Fanfic
novel taking some cues IMHO from ST:DS9 story arcs. In Dune:Heretics
we find out about the Futars savage beings designed to kill, in
ST:DS9 we have the Jemhadar.
But there’s a part of me that thinks
that when one goes and postulates a story idea and theorizes using
certain set parameters, you can’t help from ending up with similar
outcomes. So it is quite possible NONE of the writers/producers of
DS9 had ever read nor heard of the later storylines and characters
developed in the Dune universe. And viceversa, the fanfic author of
Dune Revenant, NEVER watched nor read of any of the story
developments going on in ST:DS9. But knowing a few of the ST writers,
I think not. :-)
leading to my next post -
https://zontarmedia.blogspot.com/2020/02/my-headcanon-theory-is-eons-in-founders.html ]
Star Trek DS9 wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine
DS9 ‘CHANGLINGS’ Memory Alpha - https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Changeling
DUNE REVENANT(2000) William Mitchell [Dune7 fan novel]- http://www.oocities.org/dune_revenant/