Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x03 - "People of Earth"

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Discovery' started by Commander Richard, Oct 28, 2020.

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Rate the episode...

  1. 10 - Excellent!

    14.8%
  2. 9

    28.1%
  3. 8

    32.5%
  4. 7

    15.8%
  5. 6

    2.5%
  6. 5

    3.4%
  7. 4

    0.5%
  8. 3

    1.0%
  9. 2

    0.5%
  10. 1 - Terrible!

    1.0%
  1. DaveyNY

    DaveyNY Admiral Admiral

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    As I said, the Reliant's Star Charts were most likely inaccurate due to intervention by Kirk and Spock.
    Ceti ALpha V and its inhabitants were most likely removed from the official charts to avoid anybody going to look for it.
    The system was likely picked in the first place, to hold Khan and his followers due to the fact that it held nothing of significant value and was off the beaten path.
    Thus no one would have any reason to go there.

    The Reliant may have just happened to pick the system because long range scans showed planets that might fit Dr. Marcus' requirements of no life forms.
    It was just extremely bad luck and a massive coincidence that Khan was there.

    (which, I might add, is a Star Trek staple)
     
  2. eschaton

    eschaton Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I said literary science fiction for a reason. Trek didn't really get that many contributions from what passed as "hard science fiction" at the time. But it did have contributions from genuinely well-known writers like Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, and Fredric Brown. Only the first two are well-known today, but that is in large part because SF has switched from being focused on short stories to doorstoppers, meaning a lot of authors who worked more in the short form have been forgotten. Regardless, TOS was unique in that published authors were involved in the writing process. This is part of what gave the series such immediate "cred" within the already established SF community - it wasn't just aiming for "B movie" level scripts, but to actively engage with talented writers.

    Later Trek series exclusively relied on scriptwriters (with Chabon being the recent partial exception). I think this is actually to the series detriment. I would have loved to see what say Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, or David Brin could have come up with for TNG. Or see Stephen Baxter or Iain Banks put in a spec script for DS9.

    Still doesn't quite work. Even if you presume this is possible, the initial movement of a bomb toward the planetary surface would be quite gentle, because the pull of gravity is comparably low at high altitudes. This is the whole reason why if you are in a plane at high altitudes you experience microgravity.

    Lots of science fiction is as well. I mean, there's not much of anything involving science in The Left Hand of Darkness. It's using a SF setting to examine a social possibility (a world effectively without gender) that cannot exist in our reality.

    Well yeah, I agree. Again, when did I say "hard science fiction?"
     
  3. daedalus5

    daedalus5 Rear Admiral Moderator

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    Anyone else expecting to see Boothby under that tree? :D

    highlight was the Trek fanfare and some Roddenberryish writing about collaborating together. Nice. I also liked seeing The Swede from Hell on Wheels.

    disappointments were that 900 years worth of extra technology can’t blow up a ship. Kinda like using a Tomohawk missile vs Captain Cooks ship! Plus, we can’t scan as far as Titan.
     
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  4. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I guess I don't see that as a huge detriment because of the two different types of fiction in terms of presentation. I enjoy literary science fiction but that wasn't what I wanted in Star Trek. Maybe I'm too compartmentalized with my science fiction but Trek was always TV for me and I had other literary SF that I preferred to Trek's novels. I didn't feel the worlds needed to overlap, though they obviously did.

    Maybe I'm missing the point...I don't know. I just never had Star Trek in the same class as literary SF. :shrug:
     
  5. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    It doesn't have to be hard sci-fi for it the things they use to make sense within the context of the universe the story takes place in. Yes, I know, Trek has screwed up before on this count, it doesn't mean that people should be happy they continue to screw it up.
     
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  6. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't expect Trek fans to be happy. It seems kind of the ground state ;)

    That said, I think its more a matter of how much weight I'm going to put behind the screwup. Something like sensors not detecting something or the cause of a catastrophe don't even bump my disbelief meter because it's something has happened before.

    Mileage will vary because suspension of disbelief is such an interesting concept. Mine is much more flexible than a lot of others I've seen around.
     
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  7. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Oh those uber eats ads are fun
     
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  8. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    The Titan colony is a pretty big piece of the story. So, they should've put more thought into it.
     
  9. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, they probably should have. And it clearly impacts individuals ability to enjoy the story.

    I don't see it getting any better for people not currently enjoying it. That's just me.
     
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  10. NCC-73515

    NCC-73515 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Most of the heat is a result of compression, not friction.
     
  11. eschaton

    eschaton Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    My point is just there was a lot of cross-fertilization between TOS and "respectable" science fiction in the 1960s. It didn't have that vaguely disrespectable, slipstream "skiffy" reputation that sci-fi TV/film generally speaking has.

    Again, this is entirely separate from the point about whether Star Trek should "do their homework" when it comes to science. But I do feel like if there was someone in the room who wasn't just "a fan" and actually knew a little bit about SF tropes outside of visual media some of this stuff would be more thought out.
     
  12. Jackson_Roykirk

    Jackson_Roykirk Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Earth's gravitational pull on (for example) the space station at 250 miles up is not much less than the gravitational pull on us people on the ground. There's still 90%+ of the gravity acting on it. It and everything in it are still falling; but the way the fall is what we call an orbit.

    The reason things are in orbit is not a lack of gravity, but because of gravity. That is, gravity defines what an orbit is.

    Take the space station again for example. Gravity is still pulling on it, so the space station is still falling to Earth. However, it also has a sideways movement of about 17,000 mph ("sideways" relative Earth's surface). Therefore, because it is moving so fast sideways as it falls, it never actually hits the Earth's surface. That's because the Earth's surface curves away from the falling space station before it can hit that surface

    Things in orbit are still falling, but they also move sideways (parallel to the surface) at a rate that matches the curvature of the thing they are orbiting

    Check out "Newton's Cannonball" thought experiment in which Newton imagined a cannon shooting a ball across the surface of the Earth. The speed of the cannonball is what determines whether it falls to the ground, keeps going into space, or the in-between state of falling around the Earth in an orbital path.

    Here's a nice infographic that sums it up:
    http://sbt.blob.core.windows.net/storyboards/oliversmith/newton-s-canon.png

    Here is a Wikipedia article:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_cannonball
    :beer:

    Thanks for the correction.

    But the point still stands. I was just pointing out that it is the speed at which a spacecraft hits the atmosphere that causes it to heat up on entry, NOT just the actual act of hitting the atmosphere itself. If a spacecraft can slow down to only a few hundred mph (or less) relative to the atmosphere, then there would be little re-entry heat and no need for a heat shield.

    Of course, that's a huge "if" because we currently have no way of doing that.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020
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  13. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Honestly, I think it would be more thought out if there was the time to think it out like we do here. And some times the writers room works in that regard. But, at this point, Trek is no longer that "respectable" scifi and I don't any reason to change it. I think it stands as its own thing, for good or for ill.
     
  14. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Yeah in Star Wars isn't it possible for a ship to come to a stop over a planet and slowly descend to land at speeds where there is almost no friction as you said because they have crazy anti gravity tech that makes all that possible.
     
  15. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's actually just a Gonk Droid.
     
  16. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Our lord and saviour
     
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  17. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Episode 4 looks good. Seen some preview shots and it's looking good.. Love the dinner scene
     
  18. Sarcastic Vulcan Salute

    Sarcastic Vulcan Salute Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    You forget Lore, Sela, Duras, Lursa and Betor, possibly others.
     
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  19. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Fair enough. But TOS relied almost entirely on new adversaries from week to week and TNG largely did.
     
  20. Lord Garth

    Lord Garth Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think even for a second that DSC will start following the TOS Format, nor do I want it to (that's what SNW is for), and I prefer to give DSC Season 3 the space to develop the 32nd Century. They'll have recurring characters, recurring enemies, and things like that. It's been that way since the TOS Movies, TNG to an extent, and especially DS9. It's just a question of who those characters will be.

    We've never had a Star Trek series retool itself this radically before, completely jettisoning the series' previous surroundings and making Burnham feel like she's in such a different place in her life. So I treat this more like it's a spin-off of a previous version of Discovery.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020
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