General Trek Questions and Observations

I love Detmer's comment when attacking the S31 base that they were flying upside down when it was Control fowling up their sensors. That kind of bugged me too because what the hell is flying right side up in space?

 

Well yes but clearly she meant that her instruments were reversed, which would also put port on starboard. And screw up most attempts at jinking away from enemy fire.

 

That is true, but this whole notion of right side up in space really annoys me. I mean from your position in the flight deck yeah there has to be a right side up to navigate but surely not every ship has to orient itself to fly in the same profile as your ship.

 

IMHO, the Enterprise adjusts its orientation and approaches other ships straight on with a bow slightly up. The main deflector, sensors and weapon systems can be easier brought to bear. The underside of the saucer may be reinforced with extra shielding. It provides physical line-of-sight protection to the warp engines, the impulse engines, living quarters and the bridge. I assume the other ship does the same, so, both ships approach each other with the same profile.

 

Does Colm Meaney pronounce his name with the Irish accent that makes it sound more like column? If so, I've been pronouncing it wrong ALL this time!

Colm Wilkinson kind of pronounces his like "calm"

 

I'm fairly new to Star Trek, started with next gen because of a recommendation of a buddie. Really enjoying it so far. But I've started noticing the circle things like ranks and differnt color uniforms. Is there any links someone could send me to explain it all?

 

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_uniform
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_ranks

There's a ton of info there, but for the simple version all you need to know for the TNG era is:

Red = Command track
Gold = Engineering, Security or Operations
Blue = Science or Medical

One pip (circle) = Ensign
Two Pips = Lieutenant
Three pips = Commander
Four Pips = Captain
Admirals have special insignia that look different

If one of the pips is hollow/empty, that's an intermediary rank:
1 1/2 pips = Lieutenant Junior Grade
2 1/2 pips = Lieutenant Commander

 

Thanks for telling me mate

 

Imagine the offspring of a Klingon and Nausicaan

Woof!

 

Maybe something like this.

 

Hi there! Is there a roleplay section on this website?

 

Yes! Check here https://www.trekbbs.com/forums/trek-gaming.12/
Good luck and have fun!!

 

Thanks!

 

What does a federation officer do when it rains? None of them wear hats. I mean at some point they have to be working in the rain on some planet somewhere right?

 

Personal forcefield. (Joke, but also, it actually existed in TAS.)

 

Wouldn't a personal forcefield umbrella magically floating over each landing party's head be god-like (ala Thor) to primitives? Most likely, the beam down site would be picked because it wasn't raining.

By the way, everyone got wet in the last scene in STIV There Be Whales or what ever they called it.

 

Yeah, it definitely never existed outside of TAS, there are lots of scenes that prove that. But for the record, it wouldn't be anything floating over their head because it was shown as basically an almost skin tight energy field. You might not even be able to tell they weren't getting wet from far away.

And landing parties aren't supposed to be dealing with primitives unless they have no choice, anyway. The transporter would obviously be way more problematic than the magic umbrella. Not to mention phasers, communicators, etc.

 

Thinking about it, every away mission should involve those space suits because they don’t know what they’ll run into. But they don’t do that because it comes off as weird and hostile. Seems like there ought to be an away mission uniform that looks friendly but also has a helmet that can be activated on command.

 

Agreed. Standard equipment: Communicator, Environmental Force Field Belt, Phaser (either Phaser I or Phaser II), Tricorder (minimum one per group), Subcutaneous Transponder.

The Personal Force Field should be adjustable to provide high energy and impact resistance. It's amazing that the belt went out of fashion by the TOS Movies (Captain Terrell and Chekov could have use them on Ceti Alpha V), and never seen in TGN etc. Is this a clear example that TAS is not acceptable canon?

 

More that it was unacceptable canon in the 90s (the legal issues surrounding the show have since been cleared up and CBS considers it canon again). And also likely that live action tv wouldn't have been up to that kind of special fx back then, either. Maybe we might see something like this in one of the new series, though.