Could planets from Star Trek TNG really exist?

Space. The final frontier. Full of Californian planets. Watch Dr Wakeford and I discuss the physics of Kraofewd on Nebula (link updated March 2023): nebula.tv/vide...
In this video Dr Hannah and I go through every planet featured in Star Trek The Next Generation to establish which ones could really exist. Fortunately for us the vast, vast majority of the planets shown on screen are actually really dull, leaving just a handful that we can sink our teeth into.
Oh, and we show you our own episode of the show, featuring a planet you've never seen before....
-- Links to my talented friends --
Lizzie Fijalkowski / lizziefij
Hannah Wakeford stellarplanet....
-- Previous planets videos --
Star Wars • Could planets from Sta...
The MCU • Which MCU Planets Coul...
Warhammer 40k • Which planets in Warha...
REFERENCES
1. This is a rough estimate using exoplanet.eu/
2. For a fascinating resource, see neutrinos.fnal...
3. Tom Scott's video: • Why sci-fi alien plane...
4. arxiv.org/abs/...
5. For notes on this see www.e-educatio...
6. www.nasa.gov/p...
7. • Where does the atmosph...
8. See e.g. sci.esa.int/do...
9. www.nature.com...
10. www.newscienti...
11. www.nature.com...
12. science.scienc...
13. www.nature.com...
Scientists review planets! Hannah Wakeford and Simon Clark use their PhDs in exoplanetary science and atmospheric physics to review every planet shown in Star Trek The Next Generation. Star Trek TNG is one of my favourite TV series ever, and one of the great sci fi TV shows, but some of its planets are very boring. So boring that we created our own episode to show them how it's done!
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Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com
Huge thanks to my supporters on Patreon: Samuel Baumgartner, ST0RMW1NG 1, Jan Galkowski, Adrian Sand, Morten Engsvang, Josh Schiager, Farsight101, Liam Margetts, K.L, poundedjam, Alanah Mack, Daan Sneep, Felix Freiberger, Robert Connell, Jaime Stark, Kolbrandr, , Sebastain Graf, Dan Nelson, Shane O'Brien, Alex, Fujia Li, Harry Eakins, Andrew Young, Cody VanZandt, Jesper Koed, Jonathan Craske, Albrecht Striffler, hennersfl, Jon Sjöberg, Igor Francetic, Jack Troup, Austin Frazee, SexyCaveman , James Munro, Oskar Hellström, Sean Richards, Kedar , Omar Miranda, Alastair Fortune, bitreign33 , Mat Allen, Anne Smith, Colin J. Brown, Princess Andromeda, Aron Kári Ágústsson, Leighton Mackenzie, BenDent , Thusto , Andy Hartley, Lachlan Woods, Tim Boxall, Dan Hanvey, Simon Donkers, Kodzo , James Bridges, Liam , Andrea De Mezzo, Wendover Productions, Kendra Johnson.

[@MedlifeCrisis]

Man the artwork and creativity in this is phenomenal, love that you made a new 'episode' 🤩 but I'm still overwhelmed by none of the ice planets lending themselves to you being able to make a "make it snow" joke

[@lamarepository248]

Star Trek: our planets are either boring earth clones or completely scientifically inaccurate because we got a few stars wrong. 40k: heehoo what if a fat man was a planet.

[@Marc-jk2xo]

heehoo, man I miss Unus Annus

[@lamarepository248]

@@Marc-jk2xo did I accidentally reference it or are you just moping?

[@Marc-jk2xo]

@@lamarepository248 they had the whole section about Mark being Heehoo or however they wrote it. The outdoor camping stuff. And reading that just reminded me

[@roguepsykerhaaker4813]

Star trek: What strange new moral dillemas might present themselves in the vast unknown of the galaxy? Warhammer 40k: OK hear me out here, what if we made a sword that's also a chainsaw?

[@Wertsir]

@@roguepsykerhaaker4813 Star Trek: “What would the world look like if humans were fundamentally decent and enlightened?” 40k: “what if the Nazis were the good guys?”

[@PeterReidUK]

I like to think the reason Star Trek's planets are so mundane is because the show has never been about spectacle or even fantasy, it's always been rooted in the human experience. What unites us, what divides us, what makes us unique, what brings us great joy and what brings us great sadness - it's other people. Star Trek has always consciously chosen to focus on that in a fantasy setting, to give a medium to convey messages of hope and warnings about the positive and negative impacts our interactions can have on others, ourselves and society. To convey that, the writers never needed a new fancy planet every week, they needed an easy to achieve setting for their story about humanity.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

In other words, Star Trek was in large part a warning?

[@ThePrimevalVoid]

+

[@idraote]

And this is exactly why I find it so boring. It's more soap opera than SF.

[@SimonDonkers]

Given that Star Trek is around exploring the lives of humanoids, it makes a lot of sense that all planets are somewhat similar. We don’t live in uninhabitable places, mostly. Just like almost all species they meet are 1.8m tall and with 2 arms and 2 legs.

[@PeterReidUK]

Yep, exactly!

[@meewec2091]

they had an episode covering that in next gen

[@Wertsir]

@@meewec2091 Yeah, “The Chase” has them seeded by humanoid precursors Stargate Style. We see a couple of aliens from outside the galaxy in a different episode, and they look nothing like humans. Which also fits with that. As does the founders being disgusted by the abundance of solid humanoid life.

[@idraote]

Yeah, it makes sense. After all, filming an episode with jellyfish based life happening in the depths of the ocean would make for a very costly and probably utterly boring episode.

[@facecrash24]

"...the amount of energy that would be required is astronomical..." Well...I mean...well...

[@notheory14]

So true lmao

[@svchineeljunk-riggedschoon4038]

Well yes, but also yes. :P

[@PapaFlammy69]

Awesome work Simon

[@omnicron5993]

Simon don’t listen to the haters, I thought your Picard impression was perfectly serviceable

[@AntonoirJacques]

Loving the numbers at 1:42 A-113 is the Pixar number 301 is the KZbin number 1729 is the Ramanujan number

[@StainlessHelena]

The fanfic episode was fantastic! As many other commenters have pointed out the planets were mostly dull because they usually weren't the focus of the plot, though yes, budget constrains wouldn't allow frequent deviations from that.

[@NinjaWatermelon42]

Loving the Greatest Gen Kevin Uxbridge impression :)

[@KayAwoooo]

Right? Pretty bang-on.

[@BeamsyTrek]

Can't believe that Qo'nos isn't included in the interesting list - if only for the pollution allegories created by the Praxis disaster. Still a great episode Simon, absolutely love this series and how high the production values are!

[@nakenmil]

Yeah, it's weird how it wasn't featured considering how it has a lot of weird atmpospheric stuff, as well as the giant caves, apparently.

[@Janoha17]

@@nakenmil We never really saw any outside locations of Qo'nos in the series except for cityscape exposition shots, and the whole situation with Praxis was in the TOS films, not TNG.

[@eth_4]

Drema IV from the episode "Pen Pals" would have been fun to see. Trying to push through the technobabble, it was being put under stress by big crystals focusing heat. Realistic? No clue. Fun topic? Certainly. Enterprise also added a few interesting planets; Dakala was a rogue planet with some interesting life and both Vulcan and Andoria/Andor from season 4 had some interesting characteristics. Either way, love the work and that new episode was great! It even stuck to the classic "it keeps getting worse until it is all solved in a minute" formula.

[@guaposneeze]

I was surprised that the planet from Pen Pals wasn't mentioned. "All TNG planets are boring. Oh, also there was a planet with piezoelectric generator strata vaguely analogous to natural nuclear reactors, with many geological layers of crystals being in aligned lattice patterns, that was trying to rip itself apart because of planetary scale harmonic resonance. Literally no interesting planets in TNG."

[@cpasr8065]

As an avid star trek fan, the episode you made is what I believe star-trek episodes should be, barring all the existential and morality and relevant and..... stuff. That is, it's awesome.

[@ThomasRintoul]

I loved this video so much!! I'm not surprised most are fairly dull. But to be honest the best things about Stat Trek are the stories with the seemingly plausible science. And the memes. The memes are great. I hope this does well and you can do the rest of star trek. Yes, even Enterprise (it's not that bad)

[@johningham1880]

Came for the science, stayed for the fan fiction

[@constantinople999]

You've outdone yourself Simon! TNG and Simon Clark is definitely a dream team

[@cjbrown3773]

I really enjoyed this KZbin! Loved the graphics and the TNG story!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@SpaceDogLaika]

The editing is **chef kiss** on this episode!

[@wifflebatcandycorn]

Nice to find another Friend of DeSoto in the wild. Excellent content.

[@Gill1923]

I missed my piano lessons because of this video. Had me glued to my chair. Beautiful work guys!!!!

[@h2oaddict]

Stargate next? I think the only interesting ones are on "Universe" though.

[@SimonClark]

Yeah Hannah and I discussed this it turns out there's only so many ways you can dress up Toronto lol

[@HannahWakefordastro]

@@SimonClark Vancouver! Same with Battlestar Galactica

[@JupiterTheWizard]

A wonderful video, really should have more views.

[@Darth_Baggins]

This was wonderful to watch. Entertaining, educational... what's not to love? It should be getting way more views than it is.

[@lEGOBOT2565]

28:32 mistake here, there is a tiny decimal point that you missed, thus the planet is actually 7.2 billion years, not 72 billion

[@goodyking6732]

Also the mass of the planet is fine if it is in gigatons, as the unit is undefined in the same frame and seems to be assumed to be tons? May be odd to measure in gigatons when you have an exponential anyway, but also seems odd to be measuring a planets mass in individual tons. Or perhaps it is a typo where 12 should have been 21. Less than 0K, no argument. That's the average, lol! It goes lower?

[@Vroomi3]

You should explore if planets from Dr.Who could exist.

[@Njald]

I agree, but I fear for the sanity of our poor researchers Simon and Hannah.

[@Stephen-Fox]

...I can't wait to find out if quarries near London (and in Wales in more recent years) make more interesting planets than Callifornia. (OK, I'll be fair. There's been a far higher proportion of interesting planets since 2005...)

[@adminadmin8992]

Make it so.

[@Padeir0]

that was an amazing episode, thank you

[@dekai7992]

I love the fact that you've arranged everything in the LCARS design, you nerds. I love it so much. Edit: The art in this ist awesome!

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

I'd love to see a follow-up to this video, but analyzing planets shown in Voyager. It had some really interesting ones, like the Demon Planet and the Borg homeworlds.

[@titan-1802]

to be fair, while we only see planets Colonized by the Borg, their Homeworld isn't mentioned, all we know is that they came from the Delta Quadrant.

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

@@titan-1802 Hence why I said "homeworlds," as in plural, since I'd assume the Borg would geoengineer every planet they assimilate to be as similar as possible with regards to surface temperature, pressure and atmospheric gasses. Much like how their ships pretty much mostly all look the same with very little variation.

[@titan-1802]

@@AceSpadeThePikachu ah ok.

[@throrthegreat6482]

Great vid as always Simon! Loved the mini TNG episode!!!

[@xp7575]

Considering how 90% of the planets on the original Star Trek were literally earth clones right down to the cultures they encountered the fact that there is ANY diversity at ALL on TNG is progress 🤷🤷‍♂️🤷🤷‍♂️

[@phaeton5394]

After the past planet videos i clicked this immediately, love them!

[@LazarusRemains]

TNG's planets ARE interesting, just not over-the-top theme parks. They are cultures and nations that developed in isolation and now interact via their scientists, military vessels and diplomats. This is part of the appeal of space opera to many; parallel cultures building social infrastructure differently.

[@dtghanvey]

I'm more Wars than Trek, but this was great!

[@Azzameen99AZ]

"Riker squints into commercial" has got to be my favourite TNG summary so far!

[@bandittux7596]

Here's a suggestion next. How about planets in stargate? I know there are 3 movies and 3 series but MOAR planets!

[@titan-1802]

honestly, that doesn't sound like a bad idea i think some Planets from Stargate do appear interesting.

[@tadhgtwo]

Fantastic video to start a Sunday morning. Thanks Simon

[@DerFrange1]

This was an amazing video you two!

[@Sinebeast]

Ah, Westley, the self-insert we all could have lived without.

[@rebeccawinter472]

This is awesome! More people should see it. I love the original cartoon episode - would be a great show.

[@ThePeppermintBadger]

Absolutely loved this, Chef. Bravissimo.

[@matt123miller]

39 minutes! I was waiting for this video and Simon made it so.

[@johnhartshorne3084]

I know this video is a few years old by now, but it’d be cool if you took a look at Star Citizens planets and/or moons. They have both the planets in game within two star systems now, and planets on the online star map

[@Bayleaf6399]

Can you do an episode of the planets in the Mass Effect series? The Trilogy and Andromeda?

[@steve701a]

Another excellent video. From a Trekkies stand point, a bit "Blasphemous" but Trek got full of itself with the technobabble. It's good to see qualified scientists reviewing the "science" on the show and pointing out what they got right and wrong. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work.

[@gregcampwriter]

Since Star Fleet searches out new life, it makes sense that their crews focus on terrestrial planets--perhaps they could add in a few iceshell moons.

[@SimonClark]

Yes I was surprised there were no iceball planets, similar to Earth in global glaciations! There were at least two in the original series but none shown in TNG!

[@JustinSmith-ug9wm]

These videos are incredible! I would love to see you do this for planets from Star Wars the Clone Wars (the show which has many more interesting planets than the movies).

[@LordVoltrex]

Brilliant work, Simon!

[@project4061]

One more thing to add when criticizing the "atmospheric interface" is that atmospheres (to my knowledge, which is highschool education at best), that the closest thing we have to a barrier is something called the exosphere. This layer basically is where some of the upper atmosphere is stripped away due to a type (if there are any) of diffusion. To visualize this, think of dry ice fog, and how it's diffused close to the ground. Simon, if you're reading this, feel free to correct me since you have more knowledge about atmospheric physics than I.

[@timbojimboprandtlnumber1274]

Simon, you have to be one of the most creative KZbinrs out there

[@KayAwoooo]

There is no punishment to fit Kevin's crime. I'm gonna go party on the Hood.

[@Alexvandy35]

Very nice work, but i didn't even know you posted anything until you posted a community post

[@godminnette2]

I am on season three of my rewatch of TNG. Excellent timing!

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

Also, the planets depicted in the movies can be pretty bizarre and interesting too, like Sha Ka Ree, Ceti Alpha 5, Genesis, Nimbus III, Rura Penthe, Ba'ku, Romulus and Remus, and Vulcan (even though it debuted in TOS the movies showed a lot more of it).

[@titan-1802]

it kinda disappoints me that they skipped out Ni'Var (aka Vulcan), but hey i'm guessing that they are saving those for later, well.. i would hope so.

[@The_Conspiracy_Analyst]

The Planet Risa is based on Gene Roddenberry's salacious vacations in Thailand and the Philippines

[@SimonClark]

This explains so much about Riker

[@bryanquick3349]

riker: squints, into commercial

[@songyani3992]

Ceti Alpha 5 is actually one of the most interesting planets from Star Trek in my opinion. We saw it hosting flourishing eco system in 22nd century，and a barren windy wasteland in 2285. It would be interesting if there‘s a particular analysis on that one

[@titan-1802]

its basically Planet Arizona, or Utah, or Nevada, or New Mexico.

[@rebeccawinter472]

For The Inner Light, I thought the term “nova” referred to the event where a red supergiant sheds its atmosphere, leaving a planetary nebula and red dwarf behind. Isn’t this the ultimate ending for most G type stars like Sol?

[@stcsuntzucreed]

Hmm... would love to see a video of this type for Mass Effect series, considering most planets there have descriptions and properties written about them in game. Would love to see how accurate they would be.

[@kommandantgalileo]

Boraal II might have a cooled down iron core, so which will stop generating the magnetosphere that was protecting the atmosphere from getting stripped by solar winds like how Mars may have lost its atmosphere.

[@iskaka5031]

what is the music from 13:00 called?

[@singletona082]

As a fan of star trek and someone who grew up with TNG... Yes most of their planets are just so damned boring. Doesn't help in the thirty years since we ACTUALLY discovered planets and it's terrifying st how batshit they are.

[@fromnorway643]

The *_Trifid Nebula_* seen in the background at 0:16 is definitely real. BTW, that was the very last scene in the very last episode of TNG, "All Good Things".

[@ZelphTheWebmancer]

You could do on the worlds of Starfinder, although there is some crazy stuff, there is a lot of cool planets. Also 4546B from Subnautica seems pretty plausible

[@zaepheo]

Love your Videos another great Sci-fi universe you guys should look is the Mass effect Trilogy. They have alot of planets in game you could look at like Palaven, Thessia, Tuchanka, Illium and Feros.

[@adwerte]

Wow! The animations are so good! And my impresion of that scottish planet was that it had something to do with Vampiers, which makes it even weirder!

[@QueerChangling]

Wild love a Metroid episode!! Even if it’s just the prime series

[@jokuli989]

Hi. I would be interested to know what coding platform do you use, and what sources did you use to learn to code? I have been trying to learn to code, and I would interested in how did you learn it.

[@igorfrancetic3]

I love the storytelling Simon 👏

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

I appreciate that you said "civilization" is ruining our atmosphere, not "humanity".

[@fromnorway643]

It's worth noting that "humanity" ruined much of the megafauna long before there was any "civilization".

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

@@fromnorway643 Debatable. In any case the mass of "humanity" today is less responsible for global warming than a handful of corporations.

[@zrk03]

@@LisaBeergutHolst Yes, but we encourage the corporations with our dollars!

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

@@zrk03 I doubt they need much encouragement.

[@Ravenfox297]

3:27 L-dwarf and T-dwarf are switched, not a major problem, just wanted to let you know.

[@TheMajicHobo77]

Would love to see a Riddick universe planets episode! 🙂👍

[@SHDUStudios]

Finally! This was my suggestion

[@tusidas2158]

Can you make a Book list for newbies in physics and for them who want to know how number works

[@SHDUStudios]

You should do Mass Effect next, it’s normal similarly to Star Trek but there are some interesting worlds to look at.

[@KayAwoooo]

A FoD in the wild, huh? If you know the best boss you've ever had, pipe up

[@bunnybismuth]

Been one since near the beginning. Best boss I ever had.

[@mirkwoodlodge]

Hood crew in the house!

[@Clone683]

It'd be interesting to see your take on the 'Demon Class'/Class Y planet from Voyager. It makes Venus look like a pleasant place for a holiday

[@andyhartley]

Simon - never try doing a Picard impression ever again. Yours, the Internet.

[@andyhartley]

Wouldn't mind hearing your attempt at Kirk though.

[@MrWhiteVzla]

It's a bummer that I get a playback issues error whenever I try to watch this video on Nebula :(

[@ButzPunk]

This was great!

[@briannjoroge2344]

wow! this was fun and informative

[@gnesterif5783]

Man this video was good

[@quinnlee-newbury9003]

Not a star trek fan (nothing against it just not my thing) but I am a science and Simon Clark fan. Great vid 💜

[@stijnboeren3943]

Nice one Simon! Btw, do you have any plans to restart your 'PhD stories' series now that the pandemic seems to being in control in our part of the world?? I sure hope so :)

[@SPINCTDAILY]

Good content

[@alffbooks]

Fascinating! 😃

[@simonwoodcock5455]

Love to see one of these for Doctor Who, lots of meterial there.

[@raenfox]

Nice to know that a Star Trek episode could be just as abstruse if it's written by scientists, (somewhat) observing scientific accuracy. :)

[@tuvok5564]

Your Picard voice actually sounded accurate. I even thought to myself, "how did they get Patrick Stewart to narrate it?"

[@brandonrobinson8169]

If you want interesting planets I would suggest looking at Farscape.

[@hgbugalou]

How dare you say "Fistful of Datas" was awful. That episode seeded so many great senor data memes.

[@CaptainForsyth]

as a person who trying to create interesting planets for story Can one by a entirely tundra like and able to support life?

[@kfcroc18]

What about the rogue planet in Enterprise?

[@happybuddhabear1155]

Q had his junk blurred? LMAO 🤣🤣🤣 Really fun episode. Thanks for this.

[@authoritykindbeggardynamic]

Even though I'd love a video like the this on the Verse from Firefly, most of the planets there are actually kinda boring. The interesting parts lies in the close proximity of the 5 systems that make up the Verse and potentially the science behind the terraforming and helioforming that they use.

[@granville7]

8:37 any particular reason to pixelate John de Lancie as Q in his onesie? the station didn't do it 30yrs ago. why now?

[@ButWhyWasTaken]

28:20 you _really_ need glasses because there is a very, very obvious decimal point, meaning the planet is roughly twice as old as earth and formed over 6 billion years after the big bang.

[@Bogwedgle]

There is a decimal point, after the decimal point there are some letters and numbers that move that decimal point down ten places, which makes the number 72 billion

[@Armageddon2077]

Please do an episode of planets featured in Deep Space Nine

[@SimonClark]

I'm currently watching it all on Netflix, so I may have to do this!

[@hritikkumar1751]

Waiting for your new video Simon.

[@atashgallagher5139]

The giant fucking OSHA violation that a warp core you can WALK into and die is incredible.

[@DendrocnideMoroides]

8:53 was that guy without clothes over there because he has clothes everywhere else?

[@granville7]

no, that would have made sense. the reason for the pixellation is far worse. the character 'Q' played by John de Lancie has been [almost] nude in another TNG ep and the station was fine with it back then. would be nice to know why Simon feels the need to pixelate him here today. have we regressed in the past 30yrs somehow?