Just Realized Something - Minor Spoilers For Star Trek: Discovery

I'll start by saying that I'm a trekkie and that I do not particularly enjoy Star Trek: Discovery. I feel that it is a thinly veiled action show masquerading as trek by using the familiar trappings without any of the real content.

image source Memory Alpha

Star Trek used to be about humanity, about our struggles and achievements as people beyond race or species. each episode was a morality play that was meant to (hopefully) make you think. This show it feels like it is more about the 'cool factor' than about the human element or the character growth or struggle.

This season did extensive use of the Mycelial network, a mechanic that is not fully explained.

Memory Alpha says that the network is "a discrete subspace domain containing the mycelium, or roots, of the fungus Prototaxites stellaviatori. The network could be conceptualized as a vast microscopic web, an intergalactic ecosystem, or an infinite number of roads leading everywhere."

In the show they also mention that should the network fail, all life in the MULTIVERSE will die out as well. The network apparently interconnects all life in all possible universes. It is created by life, interconnects it, permeates it.

Sounds familiar?

Here's the famous quote from Master Yoda about the Force:

Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.

It sounds to me like this Mycelial network is pretty much 'The Force'. We definitely see people use it for strange things including getting glimpses of other universes, the past, the future, moving things supposedly with the mind and conversing with the dead.

In researching this little rant I also saw that Paul Stamets is a real guy. A mycologist, no less, who wrote a book named Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. Here's a quote from the book (and I swear when I read it I didn't know if it was a real quote or one from the show):

I believe that mycelium is the neurological network of nature. Interlacing mosaics of mycelium infuse habitats with information-sharing membranes. These membranes are aware, react to change, and collectively have the long-term health of the host environment in mind. The mycelium stays in constant molecular communication with its environment, devising diverse enzymatic and chemical responses to complex challenges.

It seems even this idea, one of the only original ideas of the season (or so I thought), was not as original as it seemed at first. I at least hope Mr. Stamets was well compensated for his contribution to this season storyline.

I don't know if I'll keep watching since it really annoys me how a franchise I loved has turned into this. I'll be happy to hear your opinions on any of this in the comments below.