Spock describes the planet in The Alternative Factor as “very typical.” Is he

Spock describes the planet in The Alternative Factor as “very typical.” Is he right?First, note that when you see people walking around on the planet later in this episode, the gravity appears to be about the same as on Earth. This is relevant.Spock says the planet has an “iron-silicon base”, which is sort of fine. Iron is the most abundant element on Earth, although on a planet of Earth’s size you expect most of it to be buried down in the core (as we’ve discussed before). Still, maybe their magic sensors can read the total chemical composition of the planet right down to the core, because why not. Oxygen is the next most abundant element on Earth, mostly bound with silicon (the third most abundant element) in the form of silicates (rock). So I’m not sure why Spock doesn’t say “iron-silicate” rather than “silicon,” but still, not terrible.The part I’m surprised to hear described as “typical” is the “oxygen-hydrogen atmosphere.” There’s a good reason we don’t have much hydrogen in our atmosphere: it’s very light (the lightest element there is, in fact), which makes it very easy to escape the Earth’s gravitational field and float off into space. That would go for this planet with Earth-like gravity, too.However, it is thought that the Earth probably had a hydrogen-rich atmosphere early in its life (most of the stuff in the Universe being hydrogen), before it gradually escaped into space. So perhaps if this planet is very young? Or if it’s very cold: cold = low energy = slow-moving hydrogen, so it would take a lot longer to escape. Since we see Starfleet officers comfortably walking around without jackets, though, that seems unlikely.Speaking of the crew casually walking around, they’re also breathing this hydrogen-oxygen atmosphere. Which is plausible, but makes me kinda nervous because it’s really explosive and I’m not sure I’d be using my phaser down there without some sort of protection.So there’s nothing in this description that screams wrong per se, but at the same time I’m unconvinced by “typical.”And this is literally the most positive thing I could find to say about The Alternative Factor. I really, really tried. -- source link

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