Perhaps the painsticks are part of the waxing ritual
The memo is interesting behind the scenes info, but not canonical and overwritten numerous times onscreen (heck, "Court Martial" itself disproves the universal emblem with the brass wearing their own badge). It's along the lines of arguing that Captain Kirk had a green uniform because the actual props were green; it was a filming mistake but is a factual piece of the lore that behind the scenes info has no bearing on.
Still it's a good example of what I'm saying; there's a discrepancy between how stuff was shown onscreen because of creative decisions behind the show that have never exactly been addressed, but people still engage in the stories.
In "Flashback" (VOY), it's commented that there was holographic imaging of some kind during the TOS era (Sulu had a holographic photo taken of him that was still around a century later). There was also the rec room from "The Practical Joker" (TAS).
So, holography had to exist. I think that them using them for communications was a bad idea when we saw the "first" such tech in "For the Uniform" (DS9) a century "later," but hey, it's not that much worse then explaining the TAS rec room when we factually know that holodeck technology didn't exist in the TOS era.
ENT also had holographic target practice in the 22nd Century.
Actually that isn't a contradiction of the memo, as the delta badge was only for Starship Crew, not all of Starfleet. The memo specifically calls it the 'Starship emblem'
There were meant to be different badges for different branches of Starfleet, but not between starships. I.E. The Merchant Marine has their own badge.
I am completely fine with the holographic technology as it is presented on DIS (most of the time).
This is simply an issue where the real world catched aup prety fast. We are going to see functioning holograms probably already in our lifetime, two hundred years in the future they should have this technology. For me it's more important to still register as "our" future than some canon nitpicks.
The head-canon explanation is also really simple: The TNG era holograms are solid. With force-fields. That's some batshit insane technology. On DIS, we saw Tyler open a door in his holographic battle simulation - but even that was just minimal interaction, and could very well just be his hand position being registered, and not actually "touching" a hologram. Craft in Calypso seemed to must have learned to move to dance with hologram Zora, he probably didn't really hold her, but just copied the position from the movie, and Zora was projected to match that.
Overall, non-solid holograms on DIS are completely fine, and TNG's force-field ones still work as 100 years more advanced.
My only complaints about the holograms are two-fold:
- That holographic communication was such a big deal for Sisko - but to be perfectly honest, that was stupid on DS9 part. In the world of Trek, holographic communication (at least in civilian environment) should have been well known. This was DS9 dropping the ball. Not DIS.
Holographic communication is less usefull than the face-time commication they did before. Also it looks very generic. Everyone has to always stand awkwardly around, you don't see the environment the other person is in, you can't just sit and have a talk, and there is a distracting 3D image in the middle of the room. A classic monitor would be a far superiour metod of communication - hell, they could even make the image truly 3D if they wanted to show off.
So yeah, I think the hologram communication is not really an issue with canon. I'm just not a big fan of it because it's highly impractical. But it's not bothering me enough to really care about it.
You tagged me as saying those last 3 quotes, not Rahul.Okay.
I think that went out the door when the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s were reaffirmed to be part of the world's history after the real life timeframe came and went; the Star Trek franchise chose to keep its own continuity over representing our future a long time time ago. Besides, as the Jurassic Park franchise has shown, being an alternate timeline doesn't make you any less relevant.
Some times Klingons have hair. Some times they don't.
Some times humans have hair. Some times they don't.
/thread
You tagged me as saying those last 3 quotes, not Rahul.
You mean when Voyager travelled back in time to the year 1996 - and it was our time, and not some Eugenic Wars happening?![]()
Yeah, Star Trek is supposed to be our future - at least a "possible" one. And everytime real-life developments overtake the fictional future history, reality overwrites canon. In this case, the date given for the Eugenic Wars was simply wrong - maybe Khan just created a new calendar in his delusions of grandeur.
In the same way, when the year 2063 comes arond, you can be sure that Zephrane Chochranse maiden voyage will be retconned back a reasonable amount of time.
Reality trumps canon. Always.
You did it againSorry.
It wasn't our 1996; Rain Robinson had a photo of a launch of a DY-100 space ship, something that only happened in the Star Trek version of the 1990s. (Also, as I recall, the official chronologies put the episode after the war ended.)
You mean when Voyager travelled back in time to the year 1996 - and it was our time, and not some Eugenic Wars happening?
Yeah, Star Trek is supposed to be our future - at least a "possible" one. And everytime real-life developments overtake the fictional future history, reality overwrites canon. In this case, the date given for the Eugenic Wars was simply wrong - maybe Khan just created a new calendar in his delusions of grandeur. In the same way, when the year 2063 comes arond, you can be sure that Zephrane Chochranse maiden voyage will be retconned back a reasonable amount of time.
Reality trumps canon. Always.
Things is we have never been living in Star Trek's timeline. Our present has never been James Kirk's past. In our reality Star Trek is just some television shows and moves, not the reality of the 22nd-24th centuries. No Edith Keeler in the 30's, no orbital nukes in the 60's, no "Omaha Air Force Base", no Eugenics Wars in the 1990's, no Voyager 6 space probe. They need to just stop trying to adjust the fiction to match our present and concentrate on the future.
The 1996 of Star Trek is as much "our" world as the world of "How I met your mother" and "Sherlock Holmes" is our world. Of course it's fictionalized. It's a fictional story for Christ's sake! But it's still supposed to be our world in which those fictions take place. That's how storytelling works at it's basic fundamental level. Star Trek is our world. At least it's supposed to be. Kirk in "Voyage Home" visited our 1989. VOY visited our 1996. Kelvin-Trek uses music from our 00's. And the year 2018 in the Trek history is exactly our 2018. In a story. Because it's a story. About our world.
Easy stuff.
^^^^
I get that. Really I do. I'm just saying I wish folks would stop trying to rationalize Star Trek to try and fit it into the real world. Or visa versa. Let Trek be Trek, and let Reality be Reality. We don't need lengthy explanations about how the Eugenics Warts happened when we weren't looking (for example) - all due respect to Greg Cox, we just need to accept it happened in Trek's past, not ours.
VOY may be "our reality" but TOS was not, we did not have a massive war in the 1990's. THe Soviet union is also gone in our reality . so what you are saying is TOS is an alt reality but TNG is our reality?
First of all: The "official" chronology is non-canon as fuck.
Second: Humanity in VOY's "Time's end" definitely had NOT the technology for space travel OR genetic engineering for that matter.
The DY-100 was a great inside gag, but in the continuity of the show nothing more than a concept.
The 1996 of Star Trek is as much "our" world as the world of "How I met your mother" and "Sherlock Holmes" is our world. Of course it's fictionalized. It's a fictional story for Christ's sake! But it's still supposed to be our world in which those fictions take place. That's how storytelling works at it's basic fundamental level. Star Trek is our world. At least it's supposed to be. Kirk in "Voyage Home" visited our 1989. VOY visited our 1996. Kelvin-Trek uses music from our 00's. And the year 2018 in the Trek history is exactly our 2018. In a story. Because it's a story. About our world.
Easy stuff.
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