Random Star Trek discussion

Remember these people don't even have fuses.

Or surge protectors.

I think she just put him on edge, being a cute nervous fidgety girl and whatnot. Even if drinks couldn't damage the system, he was probably worried about her making a mess.

One thing people tend to forget about Geordi is that his VISOR leaves him in constant pain, which explains why he acts irritable or cranky at times.

My half-baked theory about the transporter and the things it sort of seems like it should be able to do, but can't:

The transporter itself isn't doing all of the work. Rather, it is tapping into natural forces that the Federation and other powers have figured out how to harness pretty well, but still don't fully understand.

Maybe the matter stream actually passes through a particular domain of subspace that people have figured out how to push matter through -- i.e. we know how to translate matter into that subspace domain at one point and pull it back out at another point, but the transporter isn't actually creating anything.

This would also explain why replicated food is sometimes said to not taste as good as the real thing. A replicator, which has to actually figure out how to arrange molecules on its own, can only do that at a relatively crude level. The reason an entire living being can come out of a transporter beam, but can't be replicated, is that the beam isn't actually creating that matter, it's just pushing it into subspace and pulling it back out again.

But not the director's cut as there's no commentary about Tiberian bats in the HBO version, though it is in the director's cut.

So, the audio seems to exist of Kirk congratulating Sulu on his new command, even if the video doesn't.

Whoa, there's video of Kirk basically approving of Saavik chewing on David. No shit. Hit the 1 minute mark and you'll see things that haven't been in any released version.

Oh, and guess what speed Lt. Saavik orders the Enterprise to leave spacedock?

Just watched the new HD Director's Edition of The Motion Picture this weekend.

I haven't seen the film in ages. It held up much better than I remembered (updated VFX aside), and originally I was never a big fan of it.

Y'know, we live in the age of touchscreens on phones, and touch sensor flat panel buttons on microwaves....and I'm not fucking impressed.

On post-TNG-era Trek, we need to see a lot more people dying in shuttles because they hit the imaginary button one pixel off center, and the click didn't go in, or swiping a bar, and it won't take because the spot on the screen is too greasy, and they blow up screaming "Come on! Come on!! Come on, you piece of shiiiiit!!!".

That, or I want anal retentive technobabble for how their screens work better than ours.

I imagine absolutely everything requiring a final confirmation button press/password entry before actually happening, and when Picard says "engage" the ensign presses "yes" on the "are you sure?" screen.

Come to think of it, greasy-screen is probably why Paris put hard buttons and a joystick in the Delta flyer.

One would hope that all of this is figured out in the next few hundred years.

Sure, touchscreens will work better. But I think human operators will still work better with haptic feedback.

Assuming that the panels feel flat just because they look flat is such 21st century thinking.

There have been a few references here and there to haptic feedback, including Tuvok being able to use controls while completely blind.

In watching this clip, you'll notice that if a TOS-era Constellation ship goes *boom* it could be expected to be the equivalent of just under 98 megatons. Now, those who've done the math will know that this is a firecracker when compared to what it'd actually take to get a ship up to warp speed.



It's also less than what the largest nuke detonated was capable of (the Tsar Bomb).

I mean, Doomsday Machine was made of friggin' neutronium, so that had to muffle it a bit.

But that was Spock's estimate of how large it would be before Kirk sent it into the giant space log.

do you really want to see a Trek version of Battlefield Earth?

no?

Didn't think so.

I read the book long before the movie was made and the book is vastly better than the movie. If the series is like the book, then it’ll be a fun romp. If it’s like the movie then it’ll be pond scum.

Which is because it wasn't a full *boom* - the earlier dialogue stated the antimatter in the Constellation's stocks had been "deactivated". She had impulse power only, so it's logical to assume only the fusion reactors were available for *boom*.

98 megatons is still low, however.

Speaking of The Doomsday Machine, TIL that this episode "Kevin Bacon's" Star Wars, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Planet of the Apes in some rather unexpected ways. Okay, we all know that Shatner and Nimoy both were in episodes of TZ, and so was the guy who played Commodore Decker, and various Trek actors had popped up in Star Wars stuff (or in things with Star Wars actors) over the years. But did you know that in 1972 Rod Serling wrote the screenplay for a movie called "The Man"? It stars James Earl Jones as the first Black President of the US, and his Secretary of State was played by William "Commodore Decker" Windom. Where's The Planet of the Apes come in, you ask? Rod Serling wrote the original screenplay for the movie and parts of his original script were recycled (without crediting him) into Escape From the Planet of the Apes, which Windom also starred in.

I can't find a trailer for the film on YouTube (though the whole movie is up there), but there is this clip of Serling talking about it on The Dick Cavett Show (bonus, Arthur C Clarke was also a guest).



There is a ~10-minute clip from the film for those who want to take a gander at it.

Oh, and the guy who played Hansen in "Balance of Terror" is the NYT reporter Pierce in that clip.

As is Barry Russo who played Commodore Bob Wesley and Giotto on TOS.

Hm ... I never realized that.

Wonder if they went by character names on set when somebody had to call out directions. Or last names.