AI, deep learning computer or Pre-TOS basic ship's computer?

[Zonker]

Who cares? I just want interesting characters that I can be happy about when they succeed and sad about when they fail. The technology should work in service of the story and not the focus of the story.

It's not a real speculation thread until someone responds "Who cares? I just want a good story".


Personally I think the core idea of what th TOS computer did is fine. Obviously there would be need to be some prettying significant changes on the aesthetic level and possibly some changes to its capability but I think the ships computer from TOS holds up pretty well despite some idiosyncrasies.

 

[STR]

Depends? Prime, it needs to be in the ballpark of what came before. Reboot, then anything goes.

Baloney. There is no reason you can't soft reboot the prime timeline in order to update the aesthetics. They've done it multiple times before, starting with the first movie. You, as a viewer, are smart enough to realize that if TOS had the tech and budget they'd have done it different too.

Honestly, being utterly beholden to
60's fashion and design is un-Treklike. You gotta be looking forward. Always.

 

[BillJ]

Baloney. There is no reason you can't soft reboot the prime timeline in order to update the aesthetics. They've done it multiple times before, starting with the first movie. You, as a viewer, are smart enough to realize that if TOS had the tech and budget they'd have done it different too.

I'd agree with you if all the other shows hadn't visited the 23rd century and confirmed the look of it.

 

[STR]

So what? Those scenes are fan bait. You know that too. But its still the cheap old sets, which means they're gonna get the soft reboot too.

All of Trek will, if the franchise stays in production, will be superseded by newer fresher takes on the future. Because each series will become increasingly dated. Obsoleted not by some new series, but the fact that real life has passed it by.

TOS is *not* a believable rendition of the future anymore. It's some weird retrofuture althistory that has more in common with Flash Gordon than the serious SciFi it was intended to be (and succeeded as at the time of first airing). Any showrunner is shooting themselves in the foot if they do more than a respectful homage to the original design.

It's dead, Jim. You can't bring it back, even with Q, a genesis torpedo, and a time paradox put together.

 

[BillJ]

Saying that it takes place in the Prime timeline is also "fan bait".

It's dead, Jim. You can't bring it back, even with Q, a genesis torpedo, and a time paradox put together.

That's why you reboot. You toss the things that no longer work.

 

[BillJ]

It'll be interesting to see if the internet goes apeshit over changes, like they did with Enterprise and the Abrams films.

 

[STR]

Saying that it takes place in the Prime timeline is also "fan bait".

No, because that's the difference between a hard and soft reboot. Hard reboot wipes the slate clean. A soft reboot is piecemeal. If it hasn't been directly contradicted, it still happened as shown previously.

Soft reboot allows you to revisit past plots without having to reset the pieces entirely. TWOK was a soft reboot of Khan and his followers. You aren't supposed to dwell on how/why he and his whole crew are now blonde and using shelters completely unlike anything seen in TOS on Ceti Alpha. But the basic story structure of the episode still works.

The appearance was refreshed. The characters themselves aren't.

 

[BillJ]

You aren't supposed to dwell on how/why he and his whole crew are now blonde and using shelters completely unlike anything seen in TOS on Ceti Alpha.

Have you been on the internet before?

 

[STR]

Point taken, as I assume you've understood mine.

 

[BillJ]

Point taken, as I assume you've understood mine.

From my vantage point, it would make more sense just to do a full on reboot. Save the heartache and bad publicity. The Enterprise forum here was just, not nice. The Abramsverse forum continues to be a not nice place.

 

[STR]

That's two good examples of how either route is going to rile up the nerds. Soft (Enterprise) or hard (JJTrek) will cause grief among the neck beards. There is no winning with them. Haters gonna hate.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Any "soft reboots" that DSC engages in, will be easily explainable within the existing Prime continuity.

Uniforms, for example? Hell, most modern militaries have many different unis available for use - in the US Navy, for example, they have many to choose from, and whichever one the captain says is the uniform of the day, simply IS. No reason Starfleet can't work like that as well.

 

[BillJ]

Any "soft reboots" that DSC engages in, will be easily explainable within the existing Prime continuity.

Uniforms, for example? Hell, most modern militaries have many different unis available for use - in the US Navy, for example, they have many to choose from, and whichever one the captain says is the uniform of the day, simply IS. No reason Starfleet can't work like that as well.

The harder thing to explain will be if the shipboard tech is completely different, as well as the style of the ships.

It isn't an issue for me, I see much of Star Trek (TMP, TWoK, TNG, ENT) simply rebooting what came before under the guise of one continuity.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

They could always just say that the Discovery was a prototype ship. That gives it free rein to have whatever advanced tech the writers need, without needing to explain why other ships don't have it.

Then again, we never really saw more than a few other Starfleet ships of TOS' day, did we? There's room for a lot of diversity in how Starfleet tech looks and feels, even in that time period.

 

[Rahul]

Eh. Production values is always part of the equation, and has no effect on suspension of disbelief for me. Movies will always look more realistic than television, and new shows will always look more realistic than ones from 50 years ago.

Besides, even TOS already had thinking computers (M5) and a starship AI. There just weren't any details given. It's not unreasonable to think they spawned from neural networks or other contemporary technology. Besides, it's so far in the future that they probably laugh at the simplicity of our "neural networks" technologies.

So yeah. As long as it depicts a reasonable future, I'm fine. It only needs to follow continuity in very broad strokes, like Trek did before. Leave the details to be filled by us overly obsessed fans

 

[CaptainDonovin]

I think Star Trek should always be the future based on the day it's being produced. Not a future based on technology 50 years ago. Most of the computers we use to access this website are more impressive than the ones on the original Enterprise.

Agreed. I know many will disagree but a conn or science station with colorful buttons & spitting out paper ala The Cage would look ridiculous.

I would be fine with a mix of what was used in Enterprise & some of the Kelvin Timeline tech like the glass pillar looking computers. Not sure how widely used something like that is actually real, have seen similar on H50 & I think CSI Miami with the ability to use a flat surface as a keyboard or something & 'throw' pertinent information on a clear wall. Throw in some holo tech (hovering 3D) & NX type keys you physically push would be acceptable.

 

[Awesome Possum]

They could have consoles that look like something from TOS era, but the actual controls look far more advanced. TOS era looked fine at the time, no one had a computer in their home and had likely never even seen one. But most toddlers can use a tablet with ease. They're going to have to do something more advanced than the established canon because reality has outpaced the show. You can't just technobabble it away by saying the goofy and clunky looking box is the most advanced computer in human history.

 

[CaptainDonovin]

They could have consoles that look like something from TOS era, but the actual controls look far more advanced. TOS era looked fine at the time, no one had a computer in their home and had likely never even seen one. But most toddlers can use a tablet with ease. They're going to have to do something more advanced than the established canon because reality has outpaced the show. You can't just technobabble it away by saying the goofy and clunky looking box is the most advanced computer in human history.

Unless they use the idea 'we almost lost the Romulan War because our 22nd technology was too advanced so we built ships & shoved Commodore 64s into them there by saving our asses. Then we convinced our allies to do the same to their ships'.

Use google for anyone not old enough to remember the Commodore 64.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Unless they use the idea 'we almost lost the Romulan War because our 22nd technology was too advanced so we built ships & shoved Commodore 64s into them there by saving our asses. Then we convinced our allies to do the same to their ships'.

Use google for anyone not old enough to remember the Commodore 64.

Maybe the singularity occurred at some point in the 21st century and all the advanced computers became energy beings and left our dimension. So mankind had to start over from scratch.

This would officially make the movie Her a part of the canon.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

For me, anything would be fine except those glass monitor screens. Not only they reek of contemporary police procedural shows like Hawaii Five-0 and CSI/NCIS but they are actually hard to watch as well. Plus, I wouldn't want to be standing in front of one when the inertial dampeners have a failure.