Fun Facts

[Brie]

We all love Star Trek and I'm sure we all also love knowing all the cool little "insider info" about the show and it's creation. I know I personally have spent an embarrassing amount of time reading and researching Trek to know all the secrets of the show. What this thread is for, is to provide a place for everyone to share their Star Trek related knowledge that is, fun, silly, interesting, cool, creepy and anything and everything in between. I'll start by telling you guys a few I have heard so far!

We all no the common ones like how Spock's hand gesture originates from his Jewish heritage or how actor James Doohan was shot 6 times in WWII. What I'm going to do is tell you all those little fact you never knew before (hopefully)

1.) Vulcans have no appendix.

2.) Motorola’s Martin Cooper, who led the development of the first handheld mobile phone, was inspired to try to develop the phone after watching Captain Kirk use a communicator on Star Trek.

3.)The Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle orbiter, was originally going to be called the Constitution, but NASA changed the name to “Enterprise” based on a write-in campaign asking them to name it after the Star Trek vessel.

4.) In the original series, the 'arrowhead' badge worn by the crew of the Enterprise was meant to be an insignia for the Enterprise only. The Arrowhead insignia was later adopted as the official Starfleet symbol.

5.) Both Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan, after death, had vials containing small amounts of their ashes launched into orbit via satellites.



Lets hear some of your interesting Trek facts. I know you guys have some so come on! Share them with the world!

 

[Maurice]

4.) In the original series, the 'arrowhead' badge worn by the crew of the Enterprise was meant to be an insignia for the Enterprise only...

Nope.

TO: Bill Theiss
FROM: Bob Justman
SUBJECT: STARSHIP EMBLEMS
DATE: December 18, 1967

Whilst sitting in Dailies today, it was noticed that a Starship Captain (from another Starship) was wearing an emblem unfamiliar to yours truly. I have checked the occurences out with Mr. Roddenberry, who has reassured me that all Starship personnel wear the Starship emblem that we have established for our Enterprise Crew Members to wear.

Doubtless this situation has arisen due to the fact that a different Starship emblem was used last season on “CHARLIE X”. However, the personnel of that other ship in that show were the equivalent of merchant marine or freighter personnel -- and therefore not entitled to bear this proud insignia on their individual and collective breasts.

Please do not do anything to correct this understandable mistake in the present episode. However, should we have Starfleet personnel in any other episodes, please make certain that they were the proper emblem.

Under penalty of death!

Signed this 18th day of December, in the year of our Lord, 1967, by

ROBERT H. JUSTMAN
Chief Inquisitor

CC: Gene Roddenberry
John M. Lucas
D.C. Fontana
Gregg Peters

RHJ:sts
P.S. A carven “I’m sorry!” will be sufficient.
R.H.J.

 

[Captain Rob]

Just peeking in.

Hmmm. Newbeis.

Fascinating.

 

[HIjol]

How about this? "Spock was originally conceived as a red-skinned alien with a plate in the middle of his stomach. He didn’t eat or drink but fed upon any form of energy that struck his stomach plate" from randomhistory.com

Source: Westmore, Michael, and et. al. 2000. Star Trek: Aliens and Artifacts. New York, NY: Pocket Books

 

[hux]

Andorians have a second anus

The Breen have no anus

Tellerites have no word for "anus"

If you say "hello" in English to a Bolian, in their language it actually translates as "big anus pump"

....

But seriously, I've got nothing. Other than Tiberius coming from the cartoon maybe but everyone knows that one. Oh and Roddenberry picked the name Khan because he served with a guy who had that name and hoped he'd see the episode and get in touch

 

[Green Shirt]

Spock's hand jester

Is that like some kind of sock puppet clown?


Unless you mean hand gesture.

 

[Orphalesion]

Andorians have a second anus

The Breen have no anus

Tellerites have no word for "anus"

If you say "hello" in English to a Bolian, in their language it actually translates as "big anus pump"

Before Lwaxana Troi the Klingons had no words for "nagging" and "obnoxious". In modern Klingon "Lwakshanar" can be a quick way of saying "Can you do something about this noise? It's giving me headache."

On a more serious note before Riva (a deaf/mute diplomat shown in TNG's second season) the Klingons had no word for "peace-maker".

Originally the three centre seats on the Enterprise's bridge were to be filled with Picard, Riker and Data (then still the science officer). Troi was moved from her office to the chair originally occupied by Data to heighten her visibility on the show. Data meanwhile was transferred to OPS and given the engineering uniform because the cyan of the science uniform was thought to clash with his golden skin.

Troi, despite the writers struggling with the character, was kept on TNG beyond the 1st season because Denise Crosby had left and it had already been decided to fire Gates McFadden and the producers were reluctant to drop/replace all their female cast members at once.

It is widely known that Michelle Forbes was supposed to play Ro Laren on DS9, occupying the role that would evolve into Kira. Perhaps lesser known is the fact that she was also approached about reprising her role as Ro on Voyager, occupying the role that became B'Elanna.

 

[HIjol]

Andorians have a second anus

I think that would be "anii" and it is not something to bring up at a cock(!)tail(!) party. They get a little "testie"(!)

The Breen have no anus

This is a common misconception. The Breen, in fact, do have an anus. It is located where we would attribute their "mouth" to be. The advantages are, of course, perfectly obvious, but two that stand out are, 1. Making a point in certain arguments, and, 2. Defense mechanism to surprise potential threats.

Tellerites have no word for "anus"

While this is linguistically correct, the current generation of Young Tellerites are being influenced by Social Media, much to the chagrin of the Elder Tellerites, or, "ElderTellers"' and these youngsters have settled on the somewhat vulgar "poop-hole", derived - it is believed - from a teasing chant geared towards the Young Breen in the neighborhoods.

If you say "hello" in English to a Bolian, in their language it actually translates as "big anus pump"

And it is considered very impolite if, after you say "hello", you the refuse the inevitable invitation to join in a Communal Enema, as is their custom.


Thank you, hux, for letting me maul your post, especially since I did not ask! Hope you enjoyed!

 

[martok2112]

The Romulan motto at one time was E Pluribus Anum

 

[Forbin]

3.)The Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle orbiter, was originally going to be called the Constitution, but NASA changed the name to “Enterprise” based on a write-in campaign asking them to name it after the Star Trek vessel.

And thus, in our righteous haste, applied the glorious name Enterprise to a test article that never flew in space, nor even ever lit its engines. Idiots!

 

[The Wormhole]

Andorians have a second anus

That must come in handy during the honeymoon when those complex groups of four get married.

 

[F. King Daniel]

4.) In the original series, the 'arrowhead' badge worn by the crew of the Enterprise was meant to be an insignia for the Enterprise only...

Nope.

TO: Bill Theiss
FROM: Bob Justman
SUBJECT: STARSHIP EMBLEMS
DATE: December 18, 1967

Whilst sitting in Dailies today, it was noticed that a Starship Captain (from another Starship) was wearing an emblem unfamiliar to yours truly. I have checked the occurences out with Mr. Roddenberry, who has reassured me that all Starship personnel wear the Starship emblem that we have established for our Enterprise Crew Members to wear.

Doubtless this situation has arisen due to the fact that a different Starship emblem was used last season on “CHARLIE X”. However, the personnel of that other ship in that show were the equivalent of merchant marine or freighter personnel -- and therefore not entitled to bear this proud insignia on their individual and collective breasts.

Please do not do anything to correct this understandable mistake in the present episode. However, should we have Starfleet personnel in any other episodes, please make certain that they were the proper emblem.

Under penalty of death!

Signed this 18th day of December, in the year of our Lord, 1967, by

ROBERT H. JUSTMAN
Chief Inquisitor

CC: Gene Roddenberry
John M. Lucas
D.C. Fontana
Gregg Peters

RHJ:sts
P.S. A carven “I’m sorry!” will be sufficient.
R.H.J.

So it's one of Trek's most oft-repeated mistakes - even in the Okuda Trek books and going so far as to alter the USS Defiant emblem in the ENT episode "In a Mirror, Darkly"

 

[Nerys Myk]

To be fair, I don't think most fans or pros were privy to those memos. Mostly they went with what was on screen or had read in the various behind the scenes books out at the time.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

That memo also fails to mention that insignia for other starships were actually used not just once but twice: in "The Omega Glory" and "The Doomsday Machine." Some of us on the board (not me), even argue that it was really thrice, that Commodore Wesley wore the badge of the Lexington in "The Ultimate Computer," as opposed to simply wearing the flower insignia shown to be worn on starbases in "The Menagerie" and "Court Martial," by Stocker in "The Deadly Years," and by flag officers phoning into the Enterprise via subspace in various other episodes.

Brie, this conversation about insignia is one that we've been having on the board for years. We've really come at it from a lot of different angles. And, we've been really fortunate to have access to behind-the-scenes memos such as that one, brought to us by dedicated posters such as Maurice, Harvey, and GSchnitzer. You can believe we've really parsed it, too.

Not everything in the show went as intended, and the insignia are one of those things, as that memo in conjunction with the counterexamples proves. Even the makers of "In a Mirror, Darkly" seemed not to be aware of the memo, or if they were then they deliberately countermanded it. Certainly, as Nerys Myk indicated, fan expectations were often extrapolations based solely on what was on screen, which itself was contradictory, and obviously not on behind-the-scenes memos when those were unknown. And, as he also indicated, certain high-profile publications, such as Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance pushed the every-starship-has-its-own-insignia view, which also clearly affected fan expectations.

 

[Nebusj]

3.)The Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle orbiter, was originally going to be called the Constitution, but NASA changed the name to “Enterprise” based on a write-in campaign asking them to name it after the Star Trek vessel.

Actually, I've gone looking and can find no primary sources to indicate that NASA had planned to name the first space shuttle orbiter Constitution --- or, for that matter, anything else. All the claims for the Constitution name seem to trace back to publicity from the unveiling of the Enterprise in 1976. Even the best space shuttle program or development histories don't provide any sources as to when Constitution was allegedly penciled in as a name, and there's a striking lack of talk about naming shuttles in contemporary NASA documents (e.g., Origins Of NASA Names).

In short, while Trekkies are certainly responsible for the orbiter being named Enterprise, the claim that OV-101 would have been named Constitution is unsupported and, to go by the earliest references (that it was named Constitution in honor of the US constitution's bicentennial --- in 1976? I didn't read Encyclopedia Brown for nothing) also suspiciously flawed.

 

[Maurice]

....

But seriously, I've got nothing. Other than Tiberius coming from the cartoon maybe but everyone knows that one. Oh and Roddenberry picked the name Khan because he served with a guy who had that name and hoped he'd see the episode and get in touch

I thought it was Noonien that was the name in question re the long lost fellow serviceman.

 

[hux]

I thought it was Noonien that was the name in question re the long lost fellow serviceman.

Yeah, I meant Khan's full name was based on the friend's name

Wikipedia

Khan's full name was based on that of Kim Noonien Singh, a pilot Gene Roddenbery served with during the Second World War. Roddenbery lost touch with his friend and had hoped that Khan's similar name might attract his attention and renew his old acquaintance.

By the way.......If I saw a character on TV with my name written by an old acquaintance and he made the character and evil bastard, I'd assume he never actually liked me very much and i would probably avoid making contact.....doh!!

Just a thought

 

[Vger23]

4.) In the original series, the 'arrowhead' badge worn by the crew of the Enterprise was meant to be an insignia for the Enterprise only...

Nope.

TO: Bill Theiss
FROM: Bob Justman
SUBJECT: STARSHIP EMBLEMS
DATE: December 18, 1967

Whilst sitting in Dailies today, it was noticed that a Starship Captain (from another Starship) was wearing an emblem unfamiliar to yours truly. I have checked the occurences out with Mr. Roddenberry, who has reassured me that all Starship personnel wear the Starship emblem that we have established for our Enterprise Crew Members to wear.

Doubtless this situation has arisen due to the fact that a different Starship emblem was used last season on “CHARLIE X”. However, the personnel of that other ship in that show were the equivalent of merchant marine or freighter personnel -- and therefore not entitled to bear this proud insignia on their individual and collective breasts.

Please do not do anything to correct this understandable mistake in the present episode. However, should we have Starfleet personnel in any other episodes, please make certain that they were the proper emblem.

Under penalty of death!

Signed this 18th day of December, in the year of our Lord, 1967, by

ROBERT H. JUSTMAN
Chief Inquisitor

CC: Gene Roddenberry
John M. Lucas
D.C. Fontana
Gregg Peters

RHJ:sts
P.S. A carven “I’m sorry!” will be sufficient.
R.H.J.

So it's one of Trek's most oft-repeated mistakes - even in the Okuda Trek books and going so far as to alter the USS Defiant emblem in the ENT episode "In a Mirror, Darkly"

Yeah. I've been a fan for 37 years, and I only discovered this "real story" according to the above memo this year.

I think it's a little harsh to jump on someone for "being wrong" on that one.

 

[B.J.]

3.)The Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle orbiter, was originally going to be called the Constitution, but NASA changed the name to “Enterprise” based on a write-in campaign asking them to name it after the Star Trek vessel.

Actually, I've gone looking and can find no primary sources to indicate that NASA had planned to name the first space shuttle orbiter Constitution --- or, for that matter, anything else. All the claims for the Constitution name seem to trace back to publicity from the unveiling of the Enterprise in 1976. Even the best space shuttle program or development histories don't provide any sources as to when Constitution was allegedly penciled in as a name, and there's a striking lack of talk about naming shuttles in contemporary NASA documents (e.g., Origins Of NASA Names).

In short, while Trekkies are certainly responsible for the orbiter being named Enterprise, the claim that OV-101 would have been named Constitution is unsupported and, to go by the earliest references (that it was named Constitution in honor of the US constitution's bicentennial --- in 1976? I didn't read Encyclopedia Brown for nothing) also suspiciously flawed.

Well, in response to that, I'll quote myself from another thread:

Some people over at CollectSpace were researching the question about the orbiter names several years ago. Here's a link to that thread: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum30/HTML/000317.html They had help from Valerie Neal at the National Air and Space Museum in researching all of this.

May 1977 — naming process not yet started, according to a letter from the Assoc. Admin. for External Affairs

Jan. 1978 — Office of Public Affairs internal memo suggested that Orbiter 102 be named Kitty Hawk

May 1978 — a naming committee that was formed at NASA HQ reported a list of recommended "names having a significant relationship to the heritage of the United States or to the shuttle's mission of exploration." Kitty Hawk was 11th in a prioritized list of 15 names headed by Constitution and Independence. (Columbia was not on that list.)

Apparently Young and Crippen (the crew of the first shuttle flight) preferred "Kitty Hawk" for the name, and that's why Robert McCall has that in his sketches for the patch design: http://www.mccallstudios.com/images/stories/interactive-gallery/0253-025.jpg

NASA announced the names of the four orbiter fleet on February 1, 1979, in press release no. 79-06, "Shuttle Orbiters Named after Sea Vessels". http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/83131main_1979.pdf


Here's the rest of the name recommendations:

With credit to Valerie Neal, here is the list per a May 26, 1978 memo from the Associate Administrator for Space Transportation Systems (John Yardley) to the Director, Public Affairs on the subject: Recommended Orbiter Names.

Recommendations by an ad hoc committee on names for Space Shuttle Orbiters; chose "names having significant relationship to the heritage of the United States or to the Shuttle's mission of exploration."Recommended List of Orbiter Names
(In descending order of preference)

1. Constitution
2. Independence
3. America
4. Constellation
5. Enterprise [reserved for possible 5th orbiter, to carry on OV-101's name]
6. Discoverer
7. Endeavour
8. Liberty
9. Freedom
10. Eagle
11. Kitty Hawk
12. Pathfinder
13. Adventurer
14. Prospector
15. Peace

​

Funny that Enterprise could have been an actual space-worthy shuttle if the Trekkies didn't get their way!

 

[Albertese]

Regarding the individual ship badges, It seems to me that the makers of "The Tholian Web" were trying to have it both ways, taking care to pose the dead crewmen of the Defiant in such a way that their badges wouldn't be seen. This was part of the justification for the producers of the Enterprise episode 'In a Mirror, Darkly" to make up a new Defiant badge, inspired by the "Starfleet boomerang" seen in several places in TOS.

In fact, the only time I can recall a bunch of personnel wearing the arrowhead badge who were not Enterprise crew was the bar at the starbase in "Court Martial" where those guys were being all smarmy towards Kirk. Am I missing something else?

My own speculative solution is that rather than each starship having it's own patch, there are several operational fleets within the overarching Starfleet which each has a badge. So the guys at the base messing with Kirk were in his same sub-fleet, while Decker, Tracey, and Wesley each represented different sub-fleets.

We actually still get this flavor in TMP, where the Epsilon Nine crew have a different badge as well. On the other hand, in Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual it seems that the arrowhead is indeed the one and only patch to be worn.

YMMV

--Alex