"Kim Cattrall posed naked on the bridge of the ENT-A", say who in the what now ?!?

Who's to say the wall console isn't just a point of access for a much larger device in Engineering?

Well nobody, of course, but I'm saying the replicated stuff might be materializing on a pad like the one in the transporter room.

The transporter room had a rack of replicator slots along the wall, maybe that was the central nexus.

Trouble with tribbles, chicken sandwich and a coffee.
And the children shall lead, ice cream complete with toppings.
Bam.

Bah. No sparkly replicator effect. For all you know, there was a wheel of death and a McDonald's ice cream dispensor behind that wall.

The sparkly replicator effect TM was hidden by the doors of the food dispenser by regulation of the Federation Safety Council. Do you know how many people could be injured by, for example, hot chicken soup materializing on your hand if you reach in there before materialization is complete?

In the time of The Next Generation, the replicators were protected by an invisible force field.

ugh, the replicator was an invention of TNG era writers.
How is this even a debate?

I thought the food dispensers in TOS only gave out colored jello cubes. :confused:

TOS has little planned continuity, they used the plot devices as necessary, so this really is a Special Olympics argument

Let me just throw out my own pet theory...


The food dispensers on TOS Enterprise *did* manufacture food on demand, but it was a much cruder process (a chemical/mechanical one) than on TNG where the items were actually recreated at the atomic level.

1. No mechanical appliance known to exist could churn out complexly prepared foodstuffs within an instant from a computer card pattern.

2. Don't be so quick to call mechanical preparing "crude", ever see the episode of "unwrapped", where they show how Funyuns are made?
By the time they get done grinding, mixing, drying, frying, etc, etc, they've essentially been re-atomized into another form.
Nothing remains of the original onion but it's base periodic elements.

Bearing in mind we are talking about a TV show and one set almost 300 years in the future, I don't see that as a limitation.

I could see a machine with, perhaps, 100 "magazines" filled with essential ingredients to make a decent replica of any programmed food. A process not unlike today's stereolithographic prototyping could mix any combination/density of the 100 materials to build a dish up slice-by-slice very quickly, cooling or heating the slices to the appropriate temperature as the head passed over it.

As elaborate as that sounds, it's within the realm of possibility; atomic replication probably isn't (or isn't practical).

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I only meant "crude" in comparison to replicating something at the atomic level.

Its not only possible, its here.

Much more at the link, including his plans for using a frickin' laser to cook tuna. (The story's about 4 years old, BTW, and I've read where he's now working with NASA to help design stuff for long duration space missions.)

Chicken soup for the Air Force guard in "Tomorrow is Yesterday"