Food Slots
- Thread starter uniderth
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I do remember reading in TMoST that the food was carried by conveyers/mini-turbo-lifts to the slots (as others have pointed out). It seems like this was an idea that seemed cool at the time, but seems a bit clunky a concept looking back now, especially viewed through today's technology. Inserting a disk/card into the device to choose the meal seems especially clunky, when ordering vocally by addressing the ship's computer would have worked better. Or typing or pressing a selection on the slot's keyboard/screen like we do now days at ATMs. Or put in your order using your hand-held device.
We hare living in quite a mind-boggling world today, even when compared to 1960s 'future tech'. Wonder what other tech we'll be enjoying 15 years from now as we sit around, traveling in our self-driving cars!
We hare living in quite a mind-boggling world today, even when compared to 1960s 'future tech'. Wonder what other tech we'll be enjoying 15 years from now as we sit around, traveling in our self-driving cars!
There's always a question of whether sophisticated tech is always the best solution even when it is possible. A future 3-D printer might be able to make an apple, but will it make better apples than trees do, and as economically? The only reason I can think of for using a synthesizer instead of packing food in the hold is if density is significant. Ready-made food, or even pantry ingredients of the kind today's cooks are familiar with, take up a lot of room in comparison with solid blocks of the basic chemicals. A synthesizer also replaces the labor of roughly ten persons needed as full-time chefs for the 430 crew.
But the U.S.S. Enterprise is essentially a naval vessel and we all know that in the military, food is a big part of morale. It's hard to replace that human touch in a chef. I imagine it will still be hard 300 years from now. I frankly couldn't see any reason why such a central ritual as mealtime is to humans as social creatures was mechanized on all but the most special occasions on the ship's travels. I think the fascination with that Apollo space food in tubes during the era when Star Trek was filmed played a role.
But the U.S.S. Enterprise is essentially a naval vessel and we all know that in the military, food is a big part of morale. It's hard to replace that human touch in a chef. I imagine it will still be hard 300 years from now. I frankly couldn't see any reason why such a central ritual as mealtime is to humans as social creatures was mechanized on all but the most special occasions on the ship's travels. I think the fascination with that Apollo space food in tubes during the era when Star Trek was filmed played a role.
I think part of the consideration has to be that we've talking about starships here. These ships maximize the living space of the individual crewmembers (spacious living quarters and work areas) which naturally limits the amount of space available for cargo, which is where the supplies would be kept.
Any space vessel in the TREK franchise has its design and capacity limited from the get-go by the amount of available space allocated within its hull. Even though these ships fly in the vastness of deep space, their internal capacities are finite. While it is doubtless true that engineering and clever design have come up with ingenious ways for starships to make their crew-spaces more livable, this doesn't stop Kirk's Enterprise (or Picard's) from having limitations.
If a starship contains a galley, it is no doubt thoughtfully designed to maximize the use of a minimum amount of space, as we saw in ENT's "These Are the Voyages". In the TOS era, the Federation (and presumably Earth's) conception of starship design and facilities had evolved to the point where crew size had quintupled. (~83 -> 400-500) This makes the notion of a single kitchen constantly preparing meals for crew and passengers extremely problematic at best, much less doing so and delivering them to remote parts for the ship in under ten seconds.
This doesn't rule out the existence of a galley for "a good non-reconstituted meal", but it would seem such meals would be the exception instead of the rule. ("Arena" seemed to establish the McCoy longed for such a meal, making it clear it would be a special occasion for him.) This tells us one very important thing about life aboard Captain Kirk's Enterprise: meals are often, if not always, reconstituted. In other words, you eat a meal, the food passes through your digestive tract, and excrete the remains of your meal, the excreted waste is recycled through the ship's systems, and the waste is eventually concerted back into raw material (food and water) that can be used to create future meals for the crew. This conserves on the amount of cargo space needed to store food material for the crew, and provides a closed-loop system whereby the starship will become self-sufficient (at least in matters regarding food and drink) while out in deep space.
There is also the matter of redundancy aboard a TOS-era starship. If an entire crew of 400 to 500 were to be reliant on one galley, what would happen if the part of the ship where the galley is housed were to be damaged or otherwise inaccessible? The crew would get hungry in a hurry. If, on the other hand, a galley were supplemented by 3D-printing "food processors", fed by a network of supply lines linked to organic "protein resequencers" that provided artificial foods, the crew could be kept happy and well-fed.
Any space vessel in the TREK franchise has its design and capacity limited from the get-go by the amount of available space allocated within its hull. Even though these ships fly in the vastness of deep space, their internal capacities are finite. While it is doubtless true that engineering and clever design have come up with ingenious ways for starships to make their crew-spaces more livable, this doesn't stop Kirk's Enterprise (or Picard's) from having limitations.
If a starship contains a galley, it is no doubt thoughtfully designed to maximize the use of a minimum amount of space, as we saw in ENT's "These Are the Voyages". In the TOS era, the Federation (and presumably Earth's) conception of starship design and facilities had evolved to the point where crew size had quintupled. (~83 -> 400-500) This makes the notion of a single kitchen constantly preparing meals for crew and passengers extremely problematic at best, much less doing so and delivering them to remote parts for the ship in under ten seconds.
This doesn't rule out the existence of a galley for "a good non-reconstituted meal", but it would seem such meals would be the exception instead of the rule. ("Arena" seemed to establish the McCoy longed for such a meal, making it clear it would be a special occasion for him.) This tells us one very important thing about life aboard Captain Kirk's Enterprise: meals are often, if not always, reconstituted. In other words, you eat a meal, the food passes through your digestive tract, and excrete the remains of your meal, the excreted waste is recycled through the ship's systems, and the waste is eventually concerted back into raw material (food and water) that can be used to create future meals for the crew. This conserves on the amount of cargo space needed to store food material for the crew, and provides a closed-loop system whereby the starship will become self-sufficient (at least in matters regarding food and drink) while out in deep space.
There is also the matter of redundancy aboard a TOS-era starship. If an entire crew of 400 to 500 were to be reliant on one galley, what would happen if the part of the ship where the galley is housed were to be damaged or otherwise inaccessible? The crew would get hungry in a hurry. If, on the other hand, a galley were supplemented by 3D-printing "food processors", fed by a network of supply lines linked to organic "protein resequencers" that provided artificial foods, the crew could be kept happy and well-fed.
I'm thinking about how surprised the Air Force sergeant in Yesterday Is Tomorrow is that his chicken soup actually tastes like chicken soup. I think the implication there, the message the writers are sending is that some kind of technology produced the soup and we are to be suitably impressed that it comes out as real chicken soup. I don't think that wonderment would be there if it was something as mundane as a high-tech dumbwaiter.
*ahem* The wonderment expressed by the sergeant for it being chicken soup is because he's on what to him is a UFO and they can instantly make whatever he randomly asks for. It's got nothing to do with what is or isn't happening on the other side of the bulkhead.
I always thought they were dumbwaiters and it was pre-made or outright made-then food.
Why? I mean, if you were a tribble, why would you be anywhere but the spot where food occasionally pops into being? Other than that you're being chased off by Space Raccoons.
If it isn't a system of dumbwaiter shafts and tunnels, and if the TOS era doesn't seem to have replicators, then maybe the food slots are simple transporter targets that receive dishes beamed from the galley. That would alleviate complications to the ship's deck plans and use only the technology we know they have.
Unless the food slot technology is like Genesis, and destroys whatever is in that spot "in favor of its new matrix"
Kor
^ Possible.
Also consider that the food slots could be 3D printers, using organic protein "ink" that is calibrated and formulated to simulate many dishes to the touch, smell and taste of the crewpeople who are placing the orders. This would require much less energy than beaming food around the ship from the galley, and if the printer is fast enough, it would explain how ready-made soup (or sandwich, or coffee, etc.) can appear in less than ten seconds.
Has anyone actually timed the food slots in TOS to see how long it takes, from the time a unit is activated (card is put in the machine) until the door slides open?
The sergeant smells the air after the food slot opens, he looks inside, gingerly putting a fingertip into the bowl that's still in the food slot. He tastes his freshly dipped fingertip and exclaims "It is!" So if it's good enough for Sarge, it must be Federation-issue, protein-resequenced, simulated Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup! Good enough to pass for the real thing!
I was assuming transporters from the galley of premade meals. The cards would tell the computer where to get the meal then it beam it up to the slot. If there happened to be tribbles in the spot were the computer is suppose to get a sandwich and coffee? Well? You get tribbles.
For orders that are not premade, an improved version of the protien resequencer takes over then beams the results to the slot almost like a replicator of a century later. This would fit in with the "Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise" being fitted with what are essentially replicators that use the transporter to convert basic elements, protiens and starches into meals that are seemingly like the real things.
For orders that are not premade, an improved version of the protien resequencer takes over then beams the results to the slot almost like a replicator of a century later. This would fit in with the "Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise" being fitted with what are essentially replicators that use the transporter to convert basic elements, protiens and starches into meals that are seemingly like the real things.
Ha, I almost never post here (love reading the threads, though), but saw this and had to. I convinced myself I was a genius about a year ago for realizing the food slots are closed-circuit transporter pads, getting food that's prepared and/or pre-made in a galley. It seems to be the easiest explanation.
I guess there's a power consumption issue, but they never seem to complain about transporter power in its other uses we see on screen (unless it's damaged or something). Anyway, glad to see I'm not a genius and others have already thought of this.
I guess there's a power consumption issue, but they never seem to complain about transporter power in its other uses we see on screen (unless it's damaged or something). Anyway, glad to see I'm not a genius and others have already thought of this.
That is a good idea, and is not adding any technology that TOS did not create. It is the best way of explaining how a user could receive his meal within seconds after using the food card.
I'm just wondering if the card is not telling the machine what to order but who is ordering and then the food for that person "preprogramed" as their dietary intake is produced. I realize that doesn't explain how it gets there, but I like the small "food transporter" that beams it from a central galley to any slot in the ship. It would be smaller and a bit less saftey intensive as if your sandwich doesn't survive it can't sue for transporter accident.
As for tribbles, I don't see any problem with them jumping on a recently transported sandwich, even considering some of them may have been on the pad and messed up from it, there would have been more to move in and clean up the mess.
Do tribbles ever become cannibals?
As for tribbles, I don't see any problem with them jumping on a recently transported sandwich, even considering some of them may have been on the pad and messed up from it, there would have been more to move in and clean up the mess.
Do tribbles ever become cannibals?
What we know for certain, or nearly so:
1) The system can in theory transport real turkeys from the galley to the users. Sure, this didn't really happen and Charlie Evans magicked it all. But Kirk still assumed the turkeys came from the galley, meaning they physically traveled from there to here without a bunch of crewmen visibly carrying them along the corridors. The slots may have the additional capability for in situ manufacturing of food, but some sort of transportation (be it dumbwaiter or closed-circuit transporter) of turkey-sized items is implied.
2) The cards can tell the machine what sort of food to provide. Chapel used this in order to play games with The Children Who Lead.
3) The process of introducing the food into the slot is not lethal to tribbles.
However,
1) perhaps Kirk was just congratulating the chef for introducing a particularly realistic program into the in situ food printers? The recipe would come from the galley (which consists of one PADD carried by the chef), but the turkeys would spring to existence at the terminals.
2) Chapel was playing a game. In normal operations, the cards might have little or nothing to do with selecting menu items. They might be credit cards, or dietary requirements cards, or simply a means for our heroes to tell the computer that they don't need Rand to deliver a tray to their cabin personally today.
3) Tribbles may well be lightning-fast when nobody is looking. I mean, they did conquer the ship in no time flat. Perhaps the food arrives via dumbwaiter or is printed on spot - but the tribbles beam in using their internal teleporters?
Timo Saloniemi
1) The system can in theory transport real turkeys from the galley to the users. Sure, this didn't really happen and Charlie Evans magicked it all. But Kirk still assumed the turkeys came from the galley, meaning they physically traveled from there to here without a bunch of crewmen visibly carrying them along the corridors. The slots may have the additional capability for in situ manufacturing of food, but some sort of transportation (be it dumbwaiter or closed-circuit transporter) of turkey-sized items is implied.
2) The cards can tell the machine what sort of food to provide. Chapel used this in order to play games with The Children Who Lead.
3) The process of introducing the food into the slot is not lethal to tribbles.
However,
1) perhaps Kirk was just congratulating the chef for introducing a particularly realistic program into the in situ food printers? The recipe would come from the galley (which consists of one PADD carried by the chef), but the turkeys would spring to existence at the terminals.
2) Chapel was playing a game. In normal operations, the cards might have little or nothing to do with selecting menu items. They might be credit cards, or dietary requirements cards, or simply a means for our heroes to tell the computer that they don't need Rand to deliver a tray to their cabin personally today.
3) Tribbles may well be lightning-fast when nobody is looking. I mean, they did conquer the ship in no time flat. Perhaps the food arrives via dumbwaiter or is printed on spot - but the tribbles beam in using their internal teleporters?
Timo Saloniemi
I, for one, see no evidence that food slots are available "all over the ship." I'm convinced that they are only in a small part of the central core of the saucer a possibly another section in the engineering hull. We don't see crewmen eating in their quarters without having carried their food in on a tray. Same is true of Sulu's dinner in the Botany Lab in "The Mantrap." Seems to me that the greatest objection people have to high-speed mini-turbolift style dumbwaiters is that you couldn't have the vast network of them criss-cross the whole volume of the ship. But that's nonsense as you would need no such thing. Have a central facility which services the rooms adjacent to it on it's own deck and the rooms adjacent to it one deck up and one deck down. Your dumbwaiter runs need be mere yards in length, not taking up much room in the volume at all. And we'd get what e see on screen: people going to a central area to get their food. Rec rooms, and one transporter room.
I used to think it silly to have one in a transporter room, however, I can see someone thinking that maybe there could be a scenario where there is need to beam foodstuffs down to landing parties who don't have time to come back to the ship for an extended break. Might as well have facilities to get that done.
--Alex
I used to think it silly to have one in a transporter room, however, I can see someone thinking that maybe there could be a scenario where there is need to beam foodstuffs down to landing parties who don't have time to come back to the ship for an extended break. Might as well have facilities to get that done.
--Alex
...For all we know, and despite the flimsiness and leakiness of the outer door, perhaps the entire transporter room can serve as a quarantine area if it is determined a tad too late that the landing party beamed up infected with mucous dreadspongitis. The quarantined team and the duty transporter operator would then have to be fed and cared for, possibly for an extensive period of time.
Even if disregarding certain camera passages, we could take the main set "literally" and place the transporter room(s) close to the innermost ring corridor of the saucer, sharing a deck with sickbay and a briefing room; this would not be too distant from where the crew dining rooms with the food dispensers (potentially on another deck but next to the same-radius ring corridor) are. This would greatly alleviate the physical trunkage problems.
Timo Saloniemi
Even if disregarding certain camera passages, we could take the main set "literally" and place the transporter room(s) close to the innermost ring corridor of the saucer, sharing a deck with sickbay and a briefing room; this would not be too distant from where the crew dining rooms with the food dispensers (potentially on another deck but next to the same-radius ring corridor) are. This would greatly alleviate the physical trunkage problems.
Timo Saloniemi
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