why sentients? three eyes open Nietzschean Obviously, the magog can survive by eating animals, but they eat sentients too. But do they need only sentients to procreate their species, or could they use animals for that too? Just curious. BB, 3eeys ------------------ The Tesseracting Scourge might be anywhere.... Click to feed animals in shelters! Http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com Orpheus Nietzschean They can breed in nonsentients. The former resort planet of Dyhedra (which the TFTFL kids blew up), was believed to be permanent Magog outpost. They are known to have bred on a species of large ungulate found there [a hoofed mammal with an odd number of toes, e.g. horses, cattle, deer, elephants, pigs, tapirs, and the like) At least that's what ASU say -- though what the term "ungulate" means when we're talking about a species that is almost certainly not of Earth origin (hence not a mammal by our definitions) is beyond me. Christopher Nietzschean ^^^^^^^^^^ Well, it could be just an analogy. If you went to an alien planet and saw a creature that had feathers and a beak and flew through the air, technically it wouldn't be a bird, just something that looked like a bird. Technically speaking, you'd probably call it an ornithoid. But in casual conversation, you'd probably call it a bird. On the other hand -- humans have been colonizing the galaxy and using genetic engineering for 3000 years. Maybe Dyhedra was terraformed and populated with engineered variants of Earth animals, including ungulates. Delvo2 Nietzschean Either will do, but they prefer sentients when there's a choice. Ungulates include both the even-toed and the odd-toed, and your list includes some of both kinds. Your list also includes a bonus: elephants, which aren't ungulates, don't have any hooves, and don't even have a consistent number of toes from front feet to back or between the two remaining species. If dyhedra was formerly a colony with resorts, there's a good chance that it had animals from other planets (likely including Earth if many of Dyhedra's occupants were humans or human derivatives), brought in to serve the needs and wants of the people who were there but also not natively Dyhedran. Just look at your typical midwestern farms in the USA: pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, wheat, and oats from the Middle East, chickens from India, corn from Mexico, horses from central Asia, rice from China... Rangie Nietzschean I believe that the real reason why the Magog prefer 'em is simply because sentient beings are just tastier. ------------------ Triangulum Descendant: Bogus Hermitage Class Motto: "Oh yeah? Well, Slipstream this, buddy!" three eyes open Nietzschean quote: I believe that the real reason why the Magog prefer 'em is simply because sentient beings are just tastier. So true! And they scream better, much more entertaining. BB, 3eyes Mobius Nietzschean quote: Originally posted by Rangie: I believe that the real reason why the Magog prefer 'em is simply because sentient beings are just tastier. Not so much that there's probably lots more of them throughout the galaxy. Cows again... They're better organized than you might expect. Morrhigan Pyrian Remember, when Magog breed, the offspring retain some characteristics of the host. They probably prefer to produce intelligent offspring, rather than something that might not turn out to be sentient. Just a thought. Morrhigan three eyes open Nietzschean quote: Remember, when Magog breed, the offspring retain some characteristics of the host Now that I didn't know. I missed most of S1 because the lousy cable here doesn't carry any decent stations (ugh!). I've read all of the synopses(sp?) at the Andromedatv site, but they leave out so much. Thanks for the info. BB, 3eyes ------------------ The Tesseracting Scourge might be anywhere.... Click to feed animals in shelters! Http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com QueenTiye Artificial Intelligence quote: Originally posted by three eyes open: I've read all of the synopses(sp?) at the Andromedatv site, but they leave out so much. Thanks for the info. BB, 3eyes Check out the episode guide here at Slipstream! QT Bandit Jeath As I understand it the magog are a genetically engineered bioweapon. which would mean that whoever(or whatever) made them would have probably genetically programmed them to take out sentients, which would odviously be a much more serious threat then a bunch of animals, seeing as they are sentient. Akiana Pyrian While I did not know that the Magog were supposed to be a bioweapon, but, talk about a weapon getting WAY out of hand! OK, now what I rememeber from the episodes that I have caught refereing to their distressing tendancy to eat things with more rather than less braincells (does that mean that Homer Simpson & my first husband would be safe??? Shudder to think of THEM being left running around unsupervised) Is the fact that the Magog not only get some of the traits of the host of their larvae, but also apparently a certain amount of genetic memory, so sentients are not only on the prefered dining list, but talk about a way to gather info! No more messy torture, just messy laying of eggs, waiting for their gestation & then taming & voila' all the info you need, available for something you wanted to do anyway. OK, I admit to being a bit of a sick puppy, but that has GOT to be the weirdest breeding cycle I have heard of. No male/female requirement, just a french kiss (or the equivalent) with something with a pulse & shortly you will have the joys of parenthood. I think the manufacturer needs to be sued, big time! From their point of view, it has got to suck, all of the memories of the person that incubated them, including the loathing of what was growing in them. All of the memories of the culture/mores/personality that is so differant from theirs. All of the training, education (or lack of) everything that made them a person gentically passed on. OK - lets just talk about how STRONG the Magog genetic material must be to control a person with all of the gentic info from its host & yet looks like them, thinks like them, & has the same drives as all Magog! Scary! Probably a quad DNA-RNA sequence that bonds to the double helix in humans (unknown on # of strands in other species) giving all of the info & still being able to overpower it. (I think I'm going to have some very weird dreams tonight...) Delvo2 Nietzschean I'm stifling my rant here on how mindblowingly antilogical and impossible it is for Magog to inherit traits of the host at all... But, there is no general rule that they do inherit memories (another topic I'm rant-stifling here), because that's only happened once, in a unique circumstance; those hosts supposedly had the trait of inherited memory themselves, which somehow got snagged from host to parasite even though the hosts weren't reproducing. It wasn't the Magog that did it, it was the hosts. Mobius Nietzschean I'm having some sentients over for dinner. - a magog Akiana Pyrian Mobius - FOR dinner or AS dinner? Need steak-sause? Curufea Pyrian So what's eating you? ;-p