On-Screen Documents

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by ZapBrannigan, Mar 6, 2014.

  1. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Samsung tried to use the flat news pads from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in their "prior art" arguments against Apple. So I'm afraid TNG has been scooped on the idea by a couple decades.

    TNG showed touch panel consoles all over the ship, but was that feature ever shown on the PADDs?
     
  2. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I forgot about these flat pads in 2001:

    http://community.digitalmediaacadem...tal-ball-how-a-1968-film-predicted-the-future

    This idea was so far out in the early '70s (when I was looking at a similar photo in the paperback novel of 2001) that I thought they must be built into the desk and just able to swivel slightly. And I thought that was the sci-fi intention, not just the film-set reality.
     
  3. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    TOS had the "electronic clipboard" prop. Not exactly as small scale as the PADD, but possibly a prediction of a Tablet computer in some form. Judging by what we see of it, it seemed to be a touch screen affair too, operated with a stylus.
     
  4. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    :guffaw: Thank you, Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake!

    1963 doesn't explain why Dr. Crusher is described has having a "strip queen" figure in the 1st season TNG writer's guide.

    Yeah, and the casualness with which some people make gay jokes of the worst stereotypical stripe here rather ticks me off, too.
     
  5. plynch

    plynch Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I thought the strip queen thing was about Colt. That phrase sounds like scotch on the rocks in naugahyde booths smoking Parliaments. I'll have to reread.
     
  6. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, that paints a picture. :techman:

    Did GR really repeat his seamy, tawdry "strip queen" bit in the TNG guide? It could pass for a rough-around-the-edges, insensitive compliment in 1966, but by 1987 I'm thinking no.
     
  7. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

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    AFAIK, the "strip-queen figure" reference appears only in the description of the Captain's Yeoman in the original series outline from 1964.

    Anyway, maybe GR liked strip queens. ;)
     
  8. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

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    I always thought it was a bit inconclusive and that the computer merely showed a file cover with the last Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk, correctly listed as "Constitution Class" (and confirmed by ST VI-TUC).

    Bob
     
  9. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Very plausible. But whatever the case, it's immaterial now, as like I said TNG-R has replaced it with with original TOS version anyway. :)
     
  10. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The way it was used it really struck me as an electronic clipboard, basically a pen and paper replacement and not much else. The way Kirk usually jotted something on it and handed it back it seemed to predict the electronic signature more than anything else like when you sign for a package or use a credit card at the store.
     
  11. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Regrettably this is one area where even TNG failed to predict the future. The PADDs are clearly more sophisticated than the old electronic clipboards from TOS, but we would still for example frequently see a member of Worf's team come up to the bridge, hand him the PADD to "sign off" on, and then leave again. When one would imagine there would be more efficient, technological ways of achieving that, rather than having the trudge all the way across the ship just to get an electronic thumbprint or whatever.
     
  12. Push The Button

    Push The Button Commodore Commodore

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    GR was a member of The Greatest Generation, he was a man of his time. His time was very different from ours, however, so just like I used to do with my father and the rest of the senior men in my family, I cut him some slack.
     
  13. Jonas Grumby

    Jonas Grumby Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I've known quite a few members of "The Greatest Generation," including my father and several of his friends, co-workers and business associates (and even a couple of his old army buddies). Comparing the way these men lived their lives with what I've read of Roddenberry, I'd say even by the standards of those older, "different" times, Roddenberry's behavior left a lot to be desired. ;)
     
  14. Stevil2001

    Stevil2001 Vice Admiral Admiral

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  15. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    It's probably safe to say that Gene went to a lot of strip clubs.
     
  16. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

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    I stand corrected.

    GR must have really liked striptease queens. :devil:
     
  17. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I read somewhere that the reason Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) left TNG for two years, 1988-89, was that she was being sexually harassed by an unnamed executive, and it got so bad she had to quit the show.

    Her return seems to coincide with GR's period of severely declining health and total lack of involvement with TNG (which was kept quiet, but known to insiders). That, plus GR's tragic history with Grace Lee Whitney and his general rep as a "sex fiend" (Alexander Courage's phrase), makes me wonder if he was McFadden's tormentor.
     
  18. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    I think you're conflating several stories there, Zap.
     
  19. Push The Button

    Push The Button Commodore Commodore

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    This is turning into a Mad Men episode.

    Which reminds me that TOS was part of a storyline in a Mad Men episode from a few seasons back.
     
  20. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Yep. Further research implicates early-TNG producer Maurice Hurley as McFadden's nemesis. My perfectly sensible suspicion of GR didn't pan out in this case.:shrug: