Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is now out and has found general acclaim alongside a lot of praise for its faithfulness to the source material. While the film doesn’t directly adapt the novel page-for-page, it does get across many of the general points and themes present in Herbert’s work. Despite how accurate much of the film appears to be, there is one section that seems to be somewhat lacking. Spice is said to be important throughout the film, it’s what kickstarts the entire plot of House Atreides moving to Arrakis, but one thing has unfortunately not been made quite clear enough. Despite the importance of Spice when it comes to interstellar travel, this relation hasn't quite been shown the weight it deserves.
The Spice on Arrakis is one of the central elements of Dune. Said to taste and smell of cinnamon, this substance sparkles among the sand particles of the desert planet. Spice has long been recognized as a stand-in for oil in the middle-east, as many of Herbert’s parallels to the real world aren’t so subtle. This substance serves many purposes in the world of Dune, and Arrakis being the sole source of it has made the planet hotly contested. Spice is said to be able to triple a man’s lifespan as well as enhance many of the abilities that various groups already have, such as the Bene Gesserit’s visions.
Solving The Problem Of Interstellar Travel
When it comes to interstellar travel, Spice led to a major leap forward for the people of Dune. Interstellar travel has long been possible in the Dune universe, however it hasn’t always been the safest thing. Early Interstellar travel, wherein interstellar ships fold space and time to travel across vast distances in space, was essentially done via guesswork and commitment. The technology was capable, however, the people weren’t able to plot paths far enough out to make it ultimately useful.
Since travel took so much guesswork, it often took far longer than would be ideal for armies and the like to move through space. Surprise attacks were almost impossible and armies were often able to be tracked from lightyears away. This led to many early defeats before battles were even able to begin. In addition to this, the accidental casualty rate of interstellar travelers was incredibly high. Space debris, asteroids, or nearly anything at the speeds ships traveled could lead to entire fleets being destroyed from a single jump. After Arrakis was discovered, and the Spice began being farmed, interstellar travel was revolutionized.
Space Guild Navigators
The Space Guild Navigators were implemented to help with interstellar travel. These are beings are artificially enhanced to be hyper-intelligent and have the ability to see through time. They were mutated by the guild through consumption and exposure to large amounts of spice. These beings were often left floating in tanks of refined spice, leading to large amounts of atrophy and the lengthening of their limbs. These mutations have led to many avoiding looking at the Navigators and instead simply acknowledging their usefulness.
The inhalation of spice allows the Navigators to present prescient abilities. They are able to see through time, and more specifically the future. Navigators were then used to plot safe routes through space by looking at all of the routes that would likely lead to death. The new use of Navigators from the Space Guild cut down casualties from interstellar travel by a large amount, however, it has also led to the ability for armies to employ surprise attacks on their enemies. This has greatly increased deaths from interstellar travel, however, it now came from a different source.
The Spice must flow...
Due to the usefulness of Navigators, and thus the power held by the Space Guild, Spice became very valuable to the Space Guild. Throughout Herbert's stories, the Space Guild has employed deceitful and backhanded tactics to ensure their supply of Spice, which they need quite a lot of to create more Navigators. Like everything in Dune, Spice has found a way to creep into every sector and corrupt nearly every being.
Following the implementation of Navigators, and leading up to it as well, the Space Guild held a monopoly on space travel across the known universe. This power both stems from and leads to corruption, and the guild has consistently used back channels to ensure their own power. The Space Guild often presents as a more quiet organization that prefers to silently hold its power rather than loudly present it as many of the bigger houses do. While they don't often directly involve themselves in conflict, it's likely that the Space Guild does hold the power to do so were it needed. Their far-reaching abilities and the power they hold is said to be second to only the Bene Gesserit. Many of the houses have been shown to respect the Space Guild, with some even showing it some rightfully placed fear.